The Crucible- The Complete Series

by Odette C. Bell

  I’d never felt my heart thumping so hard in my chest. Though I’d faced danger before, this was different. Back then, back when I’d been nothing more than a lieutenant commander in the Alliance, I’d been under the false assumption that there was little in this galaxy our technology could not overcome. Give me a gun and a great set of armor, and I’d be able to fight almost anything.

  Now I realized how wrong I’d been. It didn’t matter how expensive my armor was or how far my gun could shoot, if I was up against more of those telekinetic warriors, I was mincemeat.

  Still, I pushed myself forward. If only because of what Williams had said. I may not have been the most powerful of men, nor the most able, but if I waited for an opportunity and took it, then there was every chance I could win.

  Or at least live long enough to fight another day.

  Chapter 3

  Alyssa Nightingale

  Something was happening. The red alert was blaring. It was hell lying here on this bed, slipping in and out of consciousness. I would realize there was something wrong, only for my addled mind to slip back into confusion.

  I could see the flickering red lights though, hear the klaxon as it shook up from the very floor.

  I couldn’t really feel my fear though. My sensations, if they were there, were weak, as if someone had stretched them thin.

  Still, I was vaguely aware of the other people in the med bay rushing to and fro. If I’d had the ability to speak, I would have demanded to know what was going on. Instead I just lay there, imagining the worst in fitful bursts before my mind sank back into an uneasy fog.

  The Star Forces had to be attacking, I realized in my haze.

  They were here to drag me back to hell.

  …

  Lieutenant Commander Nathan Shepherd

  This would be impossible, but I was still willing to try.

  We had no other option.

  I stood there at the mouth of the primary ice cave, head tilting up as I took in the cavernous ceiling above. It was a massive room, and looked sturdy enough, but by my estimation the crystalline ceiling could cave with enough pressure. And I expected more than enough pressure.

  The resistance weren’t built for ground defense. They were a secretive and furtive organization that relied on surprise attacks usually orchestrated by spies within the Star Forces. So they weren’t equipped for something like this. Not physically and not mentally. I quickly realized that the majority of the resistance while made up of ex-Star Forces personnel, didn’t include many combat specialists.

  I was virtually on my own, forced to cobble together a ground force with what I had.

  There wasn’t much equipment either. I’d selected a set of Phage armor. Over 50 years old, it wasn’t a match for most of the new sets coming out at the Star Forces research division, but it was reliable. Unlike a lot of the new prototype armor, it had been field tested for centuries. With a few quick upgrades, it would have to do. Plus, there was something to be said for its old, battered texture. Unlike new armor, it wasn’t sleek and reflective like a case of black diamond. Rather, it looked like it had seen a war or two. Which, to my mind, meant it had survived a war, too.

  While the Ra’xon had the facilities to synthesize better armor, we couldn’t afford the resources. Plus, said armor would have to be adapted to the conditions of this planet.

  Everything would take time, and we simply didn’t have it.

  I grabbed what guns I could – two steady-hold roundabout handguns, a tri-phasic pulse rifle, and an electrified gauntlet for close combat.

  The trained, organized part of my mind kept telling me it wouldn’t be enough. I tried to suppress those thoughts, but they kept bubbling up. Before I’d been thrust into this impossible adventure, I’d made a name for myself in the Star Forces as being an astute strategist. I had a natural talent for knowing how many resources it would take to win a skirmish.

  And I knew we were now on the losing side.

  “Shore up the duri shields,” I suddenly snapped at a scurrying ensign.

  Beside them was an ex-pirate. The guy shot me a challenging look, and I angled my helmet to the side, repaying his stare in-kind.

  This – this was why we had no chance of defending this base. The subpar armor and weapons were one thing, the lack of training was far more important. I just knew that as soon as the first weapons’ fire sliced across this cavernous ice hall, my cobbled together forces would fall apart.

  My heart was hammering in my chest, but I was only half aware of it. Instead my mind sank into the sinking feeling shifting through my gut. It felt like someone was trying to push me through the very floor.

  “No, don’t put that there,” I suddenly bellowed at an ex-pirate. Though we’d offered the guy a full set of armor, he’d refused. He had a breastplate, but had forgone a helmet for goddamn warpaint. “The class III shields have to go in the hangar bay.”

  The guy didn’t do anything. He just stood there and glowered at me, crinkled face just visible under the swathes of white and red warpaint that covered his cheeks and forehead.

  “Since when do you get to order my men around?” a low warning tone punched out from behind me.

  I knew who it was long before I turned sharply on my heel. I swore, the bitter word twisting through my throat. “This again?” I asked through clenched teeth as a tide of anger swept over me. “You know I’ve received orders from the Captain. You know I’m the best equipped to lead this mission. Stop questioning my authority,” I practically bellowed, my snapped words echoing through the room.

  Most people stopped to stare at us, though the Star Forces personnel at least continued to work at the same time. The pirates, however, stood there, barrel chests pushed out as they watched their leader. To them, this would be an all-important showdown. If J’lax won the argument, they wouldn’t follow me. And when the time came and the Star Forces invaded, we’d crumble instantly.

  I took a snapped step towards J’lax, enjoying the echoing sound of my armor-cased boot as it slammed against the ice floor. “You will fall into line,” I snapped. I was still wearing my helmet, but as I brought a hand up and stabbed a finger into the release button, it swished back to reveal my face.

  J’lax did not step back. He stood there, his sleek smooth body armor glimmering in the cold light of the cavern. “She’s not my captain,” he said simply.

  I let my lips pare back across my teeth, pushing wide until they showed my full set of clenched molars. “She’s a leader in the resistance. You will follow her orders. If not because it’s required of you, then because you’re smart enough to know that she is the only one who can get us out of here. We have to buy the Ra’xon enough time to initiate its takeoff maneuvers.”

  “I don’t need a summary from you, fly boy – I know what the stakes are. But those are my men,” J’lax nodded stiffly towards the pirates, “and they follow only my orders.”

  “Then get the hell out of the resistance,” I spat as I sliced a hand towards the door. “You’re a liability if you think like that. Go on the Ra’xon and cower in the corner – we can’t use you here.”

  All the color drained from J’lax’s face, but it wasn’t through shock or fear. Just the rising tide of confrontation.

  He finally took a snapped step towards me, the move so quick my stomach lurched in anticipation of an attack.

  It didn’t come.

  “What’s going on here?” somebody asked.

  It was the Lady Argoza.

  Both J’lax and I twisted our heads around to watch her as she came marching into the cave.

  J’lax’s expression softened, but only by a micron. “My Lady, I regret to inform you that I can’t work with him. He’s going to get us all killed.”

  My hand twitched into a fist. It took all of my training – all of my willpower – not to slice forward and punch him on the jaw.

  The Lady Argoza approached us. She was no longer wearing the flowing purple and white silk robes of her House �
�� she’d changed into a blue and black jumpsuit. There was even a gun at her side.

  She considered the both of us in silence, then her gaze slipped towards me. “We’re relying on you, Lieutenant Commander,” she said bluntly. “We have five minutes before those ships reach the atmosphere. Our security satellites should be able to hold them back for 10 minutes or so, but we can’t guarantee anything.”

  I stared at Argoza, I mean really stared at her. Possibly for the first time. I looked past the startling eyes, the pretty complexion, the stunning bone structure. I’d always thought she was one of the kindest people I’d ever met. But there was more to her, wasn’t there? A determination I was only now starting to appreciate.

  “I can’t work with him,” J’lax said once more. “I refuse to kowtow to fly boy, especially the son of Admiral Shepherd,” his voice dropped so low it sounded like a menacing growl.

  It would have been easy to tear my gaze from Lady Argoza and snap towards J’lax.

  I didn’t. I kept looking right at her. “I need to warn you, there is every chance we will not be able to fight off their attack. We don’t have the resources. We need to start setting explosives.”

  “Explosives?”

  “It’s our only chance. The Ra’xon’s shields should be able to protect her. But if we face a full incursion before she’s taken off, I guarantee you that with the security forces we’ve currently got, we will not be able to hold the Star Forces back. Our only hope will be to rig most rooms to explode. That way we can drive the incursion forces back.”

  Her expression stiffened with a twitch, but her gaze dropped to the ground. “I had hoped that we wouldn’t have to destroy this base, that one day we could come back to it and fight the Star Forces off. You wouldn’t believe how many lives we lost to set this base up.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” I said quickly, words running together, “none of that matters now. Surviving is our only priority.”

  “Stop dismissing everything we’ve fought for,” J’lax snapped.

  “You want to honor everybody who sacrificed for you? Live another day,” I said through clenched teeth as I finally turned to him. “And if you won’t accept my authority, fine. Escort the Lady Argoza back to the Ra’xon. This is the last time I’m going to offer you that option. If you ignore me, and choose to stay, you will follow my command.”

  J’lax didn’t make a movement. He looked like a tiger ready to pounce.

  “Gentlemen,” the Lady said in a subdued tone that nevertheless still rang with authority, “you will work together. J’lax,” she finally turned, staring at him for a few seconds until she caught his attention in full, “work with Nathan. I know it’s hard for you, I know what the Star Forces did to your people, but he’s right – if we want to make sense of this loss and tragedy, we must live another day.” She turned back to me, and her authoritative gaze became pleading and vulnerable, as if she were looking to me for affirmation.

  Me.

  Right now I couldn’t affirm anyone, even myself. I was lost, cast off into the depths of space away from everything I’d once known and relied on.

  Still, I managed a nod. Then I turned to J’lax. I held his gaze. “So, what is it? What will you do?”

  It felt like several minutes passed, but it could’ve only been a few seconds until he nodded his head. With clenched teeth, he parted his lips and said, “fine. This time I’ll follow your orders. This time,” he warned.

  “You’d better keep your word. I will not have you fight side-by-side with us if you’re a loose cannon. Do you understand that?”

  “Fine,” J’lax said, lips twitching over his clenched teeth.

  The Lady Argoza let out a tense breath. As I swiveled my gaze back to her, I realized she looked far more frazzled than I’d ever seen her. The beauty and elegance were still there, but so was the pure unadulterated fear. I kept telling myself that she and the other non-Star Forces members of the resistance didn’t understand the stakes. I was wrong, wasn’t I?

  Everyone here knew they would likely die.

  I nodded my head, took a step back, and nodded once more. “Get back to the Ra’xon,” I said through a quick breath, “we’ll do what we can; I promise you that.”

  She nodded low, even placing her hands on her knees as she bent her back virtually in half. “Thank you,” she said in a soft voice, as her gaze darted up to hold mine.

  I nodded. I couldn’t speak. There were no more words left to say. Instead I turned sharply on my foot, grabbed one of my roundabout guns, and shifted forward.

  I’d already commanded my team to start readying every room to explode.

  My plan, as suicidal as it sounded, was to lure the Star Forces incursion team into each room in turn, and blow them up, trapping whatever enemy combatants I could in the explosion.

  My plan would work, at least until we reached the long tunnels cut between the ice side of the world and the desert half. While the superfast lift could take you to one side of the planet in a few minutes, there were still transport tunnels that ran alongside it. If I knew anything of the Star Forces, I knew that’s where they would mount their attack. With their own blister crafts – incredibly fast land cruisers – they would stream through the tunnels, shooting as they went.

  While the Lady Argoza had estimated we had at least 10 minutes grace while the Star Forces fought off our security satellites in orbit, I guaranteed we had less.

  They wanted Alyssa back, and they wouldn’t wait to snatch her from us.

  I paused in the middle of the ice cave, slowly angling my head back until I stared at the cavernous ceiling above. Most of our lights couldn’t penetrate that far up, and the ceiling was covered in scattered shadows, here and there broken by glimmering swathes of ice crystal.

  If you tilted your head to the side and narrowed your eyes, you could almost confuse the sight for space, studded as it was with distant stars.

  It reminded me how expansive this conflict would become. If somehow we survived, if we struck upon an impossible vein of luck and managed to fend off the Star Forces attack, then the battle would only begin.

  The battle for the galaxy.

  Chapter 4

  Alyssa Nightingale

  We were under attack. I realized that now.

  The Star Forces were here.

  No one told me anything, but I picked up snippets of conversation as people sprinted through the med bay.

  They were talking of a ground incursion. The Star Forces were going to try to take this ship by force.

  Some of them didn’t understand. Some of them questioned why the Star Forces weren’t going to simply bombard the base and the Ra’xon from space.

  The answer was me.

  They would try anything and everything to get me back.

  And I would try anything and everything to stop them.

  Even now, in my half drugged state, with only slips of consciousness threading through my mind, I told myself I wouldn’t give up.

  No matter what it took.

  …

  Lieutenant Commander Nathan Shepherd

  This was it.

  They were here.

  The fight had begun.

  Our first line of defense was the primary ice cave.

  At one end of the cave was the entrance to the tunnel system where I was sure the main battle would be waged.

  I wasn’t aware of my body, not really. Not my fear as it punched through every vein, not my heart as it rattled in my chest, not the sweat as it slicked my brow and drenched my shoulders.

  I focused on the gun in my hand and the targets before me.

  The hangar bay had been shielded, every single generator in the facility rigged up to ensure no incursion team could drive their way directly into that room.

  That left the rest of the base weak.

  The first team literally punched their way through the ceiling. With a directed charge blast that slammed right through the ice roof and gouged a 10 meter hole into the floor, th
ey opened up their first avenue of attack.

  Immediately 10 black armored bodies dropped into the room.

  Behind them 10 jet black crates dropped too, sailing down to the ice floor and slamming into it, crystals scattering up in a cloud.

  I sent the command through my armor to begin the attack.

  I was currently pressed up against a two-meter dome-shield designed to protect soldiers out in the field. It flickered a deep blood red, casting its hot light over the cold walls and floor of the cavern.

  The dome shield was precisely calibrated to let gunfire out but not in.

  “Aim for the boxes,” I screamed across my comm line, my voice echoing in my helmet until it felt as if it would drive through my ears and slice my brain in two.

  The boxes weren’t just supply crates. They were blister crafts. Sure enough, with a whirr and a click, they started to build themselves.

  All 10 of the crates opened, the metal flattening out and slamming into the floor, sending more clouds of fine ice crystals into the air.

  With a guttural groan, the boxes started to build themselves into crafts, metal struts forming in a blaze of activity and connecting to one another until a recognizable form started to take shape.

  “Shoot the crates!” I screamed once more.

  I thrust forward, firing at them myself, two roundabout guns in my hands.

  The roundabouts had targeting sensors attached, and with a quick command I could select my target and the bullets would zip around every obstruction to get to their prey.

  While they weren’t as powerful as ordinary pulse rifles, they were just what I needed now.

  The blister crafts were already shielded, and to my dismay, several of the Star Forces soldiers erected dome shields of their own – ones far more powerful than those we had.

  I swore, letting the word punch through my helmet once more, feeling it reverberate through my ears.

  I tried to push away every thought as I concentrated on tearing down at least one of those dome shields, but the thoughts were there, albeit right at the back of my mind.

  It wasn’t a question of if we would lose, but when.