The Crucible- The Complete Series

by Odette C. Bell

  Somehow my luck held, and I took down one drone, then another, and another. It was nothing more than a dent in their numbers, but it was something.

  The cores were cascading into a critical malfunction. Every warning alarm blared, filling the air with a constant shrieking cacophony only matched by the pitching screams of the drones.

  Just as I shunted to the side and slashed the drone closest to me, collecting it over the side of the jaw with a powerful swipe, the soldier to my side fell, one of the drones ripping through him with the ease of a child tearing through a leaf. His metal armor crunched, blood spilling out over the floor and flicking over my feet.

  The horror shook through me, but I didn’t stop. Couldn’t.

  As the remnants of his body smashed into the floor, the electro blade he’d been using came spiraling out of his hand towards me.

  I shunted to the side, narrowly missing the charged blade and expertly punching my hand forward to grab the hilt. Just as I did, two drones slammed towards me, flashing in and out of existence, appearing right by my face.

  With a grunt that tore through the air like a clap of thunder, I shoved both blades up, and their spinning electrified tips rammed through the stomachs of the drones.

  For just a second both creatures lay slack, impaled on the blades. Then they blinked out of existence, only to reappear right in front of me.

  I didn’t allow them the opportunity to escape. I thrust forward, slicing towards their chests.

  Again, my luck held, and this time my blows were fatal.

  They crumpled, and quickly their corpses jittered as if shaking under the force of the most powerful earthquake. Their movements became quicker and quicker until they simply disintegrated, their bodies scattering into dust that swept across the floor and crunched under my boots.

  I didn’t pause.

  I continued the fight.

  The cores were almost at critical.

  We didn’t have much time. Minutes, seconds, the blink of an eye.

  “If anyone can make it to the primary redistribution grid, you have to shut it down and shunt all power to the secondary controls,” a terrified technician suddenly screamed over the audio, her voice echoing around the battleground that was main engineering.

  I didn’t wait. Though there were at least three body drones in my way, I ran at them, both electro blades spinning at full charge in my hands.

  My movements were snapped, arms a flash, my blue spinning blades slicing their way around me as I desperately fought off the drones.

  “Get to the controls now,” the terrified technician screamed even louder.

  Just as a drone appeared right by my side and sank a claw into my shoulder, I shoved into it, driving my blade up hard into the soft flesh under its jaw.

  I didn't wait to see if the blow was fatal. I tugged my electro blade back, fell to my knees, rolled as another drones sliced towards me, and finally flung myself at the primary controls.

  The remaining resistance fighters tried to distract the drones, some of them sacrificing themselves as I worked.

  “We have seconds,” the technician screamed over the audio feed.

  One.

  Two.

  Three.

  The light of the cores became brighter and brighter, like a star was about to go nova.

  My eyes widened so far the skin could have peeled back and fallen with a slap to the floor.

  ….

  “You've done it,” the technician bellowed. “The energy grid has been redistributed. Now fight off those drones. We’ve managed to detach most of the jumpers from the hull and current scans confirm every one of those body drones is in engineering with you. Don’t let a single one leave.”

  I didn’t need to be told twice.

  I pitched forward, just as two drones threw themselves at me. With both blades spinning in my hands, I sliced towards them as they sliced towards me with their claws.

  Bodies and dust littered the floor, the bloodied corpses of resistance fighters intermingling with the strange particle-like remains of the body drones.

  Hours from now, when this was over – if it was over – this sight would haunt me for the rest of my life.

  Somehow, we took down one drone, and another, and another.

  Until there were only two left.

  I rounded on them. As the remaining resistance fighters worked on disabling their energy barriers, I thrust forward, trusting my comrades were skilled enough not to shoot me, and I attacked with my blades.

  One fell, and then the other.

  Until silence descended.

  “… You’ve done it. We’ve done it! We fought off the jumpers. Tactical sensors confirm there are no longer any Forgotten on board and we have disabled all of their ships,” someone from the bridge screamed over the audio feed. In the background, I could hear the crew cheering.

  Around me the remaining resistance fighters joined in, let their guns fall slack on their straps, lifted their hands, and screamed in relief.

  Me, I couldn’t tear my eyes off the destruction. Main engineering was a mess. Most of the consoles had been obliterated by the drones and wayward shots.

  I didn’t let my blades drop, didn’t even bother to turn them off.

  I stood there, their constant spinning sending faint jittering vibrations up through my hands, into my arms, and hard into my jaw.

  Finally, I turned away.

  This battle may be over, but the war was just beginning.

  Chapter 5

  Lieutenant Commander Nathan Shepherd

  I walked the halls, both electro blades now disabled and locked onto the magnetic holsters around my hips. My helmet was off, cradled in one arm.

  Destruction. Everywhere. Complete and utter destruction. It was like I’d been transported from the clean clinical halls of the Ra’xon onto the broken puckered surface of an asteroid.

  The cleanup from a battle this devastating should take weeks. We didn’t have it. We had to leave non-essential systems and concentrate on the engines and shields.

  Because this wouldn’t be the last battle.

  I could guarantee more jumpers were on their way.

  A sense of defeat descended through my gut despite the fact we’d just pulled off a miraculous win.

  We’d lost too many people.

  Instinctively my head tugged to the left and my gaze drifted down to the electro blade at my hip. It was the one I’d picked up from the dead soldier. His last moments played on repeat in my mind.

  As sweat trickled down my brow intermingling with the blood, I stared with a dead gaze at the survivors picking their way through the halls. The Ra’xon was still standing, but barely. The deck I was on was warped, contorted like a scrap of paper somebody had twisted into a knot. Plating jutted out from the walls, a twisted charred mess. Gel packs and circuits lay exposed within, broken and crackling, weeping their contents into puddles over the singed floor.

  I brought a hand up and wiped my wrist over my brow, cleaning away what sweat and blood I could.

  I stood there for a few dead-eyed seconds watching as the survivors picked themselves up and started seeing to repairs then and there. A first-class engineer swung around, managed to push down to one knee even though his leg was clearly broken, and began fumbling in an open panel. Blood was trickling down his right knee, but he didn’t seem to care.

  He knew his duty, and he was following it.

  A few seconds later, he swung his head towards me, probably feeling my gaze on the back of his neck. “You okay, Lieutenant Commander? You’ve got a nasty gash in your head there, I can call a med team—”

  I shook my head. “I’m fine. But you should get medical assistance yourself.”

  “All in good time,” he said gravely as he turned back to his work, hunching over the panel, shifting his broken leg forward with a muffled groan.

  I watched him for a few more seconds until I forced myself to turn.

  I wouldn’t say I felt dead inside, but t
he feeling was close. I was empty. Drained. Not just of energy – this wasn’t simple fatigue clawing up my back and sinking like acid into my muscles. It was something much deeper.

  A regretful sense of surrender. We’d opened Pandora’s Box by breaching that wall, and we couldn’t close it.

  We couldn’t close it.

  I curled one hand into a fist, pressing the fingers so hard into my palm my armor started to groan under the impact.

  With my other hand I pressed it over my brow, pushing against the skin and bone until a diffuse pain shot down into my neck.

  I couldn’t count how many times I’d told people over the years never to lose hope. Back then I’d been naive. Back then I’d never been able to imagine a situation as dire and impossible as this.

  As I walked through the broken corridors of the Ra’xon that dead defeated feeling continued to grow.

  It seemed as if nothing could shift it.

  Then I came across a couple embracing and I stopped dead in my tracks.

  Aboard a Star Forces ship it was technically considered misconduct for members of the crew to fraternize.

  We weren’t aboard a Star Forces ship anymore.

  The woman, a lieutenant, saw me, and pulled back from an ensign who shook his head and quickly coughed. “Sorry sir, we—”

  “There’s no need to apologize. Do what you have to,” I managed as I turned, gave them some privacy, and walked away.

  My words echoed in my mind – do what you have to.

  Do what you have to do to survive.

  Because that’s what I was missing, right? My head was caught up with winning. With doing everything to destroy the Forgotten. Back there that couple – they were doing what they had to to survive. To keep one another alive. That was different, right?

  Instantly I thought of Alyssa. Whether she knew it or not, she was the catalyst for almost everything I’d done over the past several months. She’d kept me pushing forward.

  She kept me alive.

  As that realization struck, I stopped, legs grounding to a halt, boots pressing hard into a broken section of floor.

  Above me several lights flickered and some cabling swung gently back and forth, back and forth.

  I’d struggled with my feelings for her before. Now, they came to the fore. They struck my mind like a blow to the center of my forehead.

  Did I really want to die like this? Alone, bitter, surviving battle after battle, just waiting for the end?

  ….

  No. I didn’t want to live like that, and I sure as hell didn’t want to die that way either.

  Then and there I made a decision. Hang the consequences, I would tell Alyssa how I felt.

  As that thought shot through my mind, a new sense of energy came with it. I walked forward, now capable of ignoring the pain and fatigue.

  There was a reason behind this. And that reason was her.

  …

  Alyssa Nightingale

  I crammed a hand into my mouth, tears rushing down my cheeks.

  It was over. Christ, it was over.

  We’d won.

  Throughout the entire battle on the Ra’xon, I’d listened in to the audio feed of the fight.

  I’d been there every step of the way, even if I couldn’t physically be by his side.

  He was alive. Thank God, he was alive.

  For now. But the Forgotten would continue to attack.

  As that thought sank heavily through my mind, another rose to take its place.

  Despite the frantic desperation of the Ra’xon’s battle and the awful experience of listening to the audio feed, throughout a certain thought had kept popping into my mind.

  Admiral Shepherd.

  He was here on the Miracle with me. Knowing that gave rise to the strangest compulsion.

  I wanted to see him. Face him, like you would your deadliest fear.

  I couldn’t get the thought out of my head. I wanted to face off against Admiral Shepherd and question him. Maybe he wouldn’t know anything, but maybe that didn’t matter. Maybe all I wanted to do was gather the courage to face that man.

  I paced back and forth in my quarters, hands sweaty.

  Now the fight on the Ra’xon was over, I could relax. Shepherd was fine. We’d received casualties, but we’d survived.

  If I was smart and sensible I’d sit there on the edge of my bed and wait.

  But if this war had taught me anything it was that I was neither smart nor sensible. I was reactive. A ball of emotion pushed from one frantic action to another. Hate, fear, shame.

  And right now I was burning curiosity. I wanted to face that man and ask him why he’d done it. I wanted to look into his eyes and see if I could glimpse even a glimmer of humanity left in his cold dark gaze.

  My palms were sweaty, and I tried but failed to wipe them clean on the legs of my uniform.

  Soon enough, I couldn’t take the mental torture anymore. I thrust towards the door, turning so hard on my heel my boot left a permanent indent in the soft plush of the carpet.

  Technically, I wouldn’t be violating any rules by going to see Admiral Shepherd. Technically. If Nathan found out, however, God knows how he would react.

  To him, his father was a monster. Some kind of terrible shadow that haunted his existence like a ghost. He’d definitely feel betrayed if I went to see his father, but I couldn’t stop myself.

  My doors swished open before me and I strode quickly into the corridor, boots pounding against the metal floor. I didn’t stop until I reached the cell block.

  There I stood in front of the right door, hands clasped behind my back, fingers shivering as tight shudders crossed up and down my shoulders and arms.

  Closing my eyes briefly, I pressed my lips together, forced a deep breath through my nostrils, and pushed forward.

  The doors opened. Now I was a lieutenant, I had the correct security clearance to access the cells.

  As I walked through the doors into the brightly illuminated cell, my heart sank. Reason stabbed in my mind like an ice pick plucking at a wall of snow. But it was too late. I was here now.

  My gaze jerked towards the back of the room.

  There he was.

  Admiral Shepherd sat behind a flickering shield, hands clasped neatly in his lap, expression calm.

  Nothing would shake that calm. Nothing. The ship had just been attacked, his son had almost died, and he was calm.

  I clenched my hands into fists, digging my fingers as far as they would go before they drew blood.

  He flicked his gaze towards me, his lips pulling into an easy smile. “Can I help you, Subject Omega?”

  “Don't call me that,” I hissed through bared teeth.

  “Why not? It's your relevant designation.”

  “I have a name,” I spat viciously.

  “And you have a destiny too.” He stood. It wasn't a sudden or violent move. It was slow, like a snake uncoiling itself to slither through the grass.

  Despite the fact a powerful containment shield separated us, and despite the fact I was the galaxy's strongest telekinetic warrior, I took a step back.

  He acknowledged the move with a slight curling smile. “Why have you come to see me?”

  “I... to find out what you know.”

  “About what?”

  Nothing shook his calm. Nothing. Me – I was a mess. Maybe it was the fact he was so calm; in comparison I felt like nothing more than a child.

  I dug my fingers even harder into my palms, spikes of pain radiating up my arms.

  His eyes flicked down to them then up to my face. “Why do you hold yourself back, Subject Omega?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You contain something that need not be contained. Your power. Use it.” He stood just beyond the shields, expression impassive.

  My blood boiled as the bile rose higher and higher in my throat. “What? Now? On you?” I hissed.

  One corner of his mouth twitched into a smile. “If you'd like. But, Sub
ject Omega, you need no practice. You're ready to take on the enemy.”

  “You are the enemy. You took away everything I had.”

  “And gave you something better.”

  I felt like I'd been slapped. I reeled backwards, shoulders slamming into the wall behind me with a soft thud.

  He took a step closer to the shields, more light shining along his face and exposed hands, playing through the dark shadows under his neck. “You joined the Academy to make a difference. You joined the Academy to help people. We gave you the means to do that.”

  “You turned me into a monster.”

  “Not all power is monstrous. It is judged by how you use it. You can choose to kill indiscriminately, you can choose to steal. Or you can choose to save. Or,” he took a sharp step towards the shields, “or you can choose to do nothing at all.”

  “You... you didn't give me any choice. I never asked to be turned into this.”

  “You asked to help, Subject Omega. You joined the Star Forces because you wanted to make a difference. So make a difference. Use the power we've given you. Drive back the Forgotten.”

  I couldn't back off any further. I couldn't get away – not from him, and not from what he was saying.

  “Y-you awoke the Forgotten. W-we might have accidentally opened that wall, but you would have used me to do the same. You're the reason the galaxy's at war. If you hadn't meddled—”

  “The Forgotten were always going to wake, Omega. We've known for over 100 years what was coming. We rushed to develop weapons and militarize our assets so we could be prepared. The Farsight Program was at the forefront of this push. And you, Subject Omega, are our greatest success, our greatest hope.”

  I shook my head violently, hair spilling across my collar and down my front.

  Again, he looked impassive. It seemed a bomb could go off behind him and he wouldn’t even blink.

  He was serene in his calm certainty.

  “Answer me this – is it more barbarous and monstrous for the Star Forces to take away your freedom and craft you into a weapon without your permission, or is it worse to now hold the power to save the galaxy, and yet not use it?”

  “You're wrong,” I said so fast my words slurred into a hiss.

  “Am I? You were always smart, always diligent. And unless much has changed, Subject Omega, you are just. You know the right thing to do. So why aren't you doing it?”