Ruins of the Galaxy Box Set: Books 1-6

by Chaney, J. N.

  Abimbola growled in reply as the rest of the squad sounded like they were stifling laughter.

  The sea skimmers converged in formation again, and Magnus breathed a sigh of relief. The Repub hadn’t sent any more Kestrels out, and according to sensors, it would be clear sailing back to Capriana.

  “Hey, LT,” Titus said over a private channel. “Can I ask you something?”

  “Shoot,” Magnus replied.

  “Back there, when you were in your mech, how did you let those Marines get the jump on you like that? Those Recon troopers too, right?”

  Magnus secretly hoped no one had seen the fight. Not only had Titus witnessed the whole thing, but he’d also taken note of the enemy’s specialty. Respect, Titus, Magnus thought. Respect.

  “I mean, you saw them coming,” Titus continued. “At least that’s the way I read it from where I stood. And you were in a BATRIG, for crying out loud.”

  “Yeah, yeah. You read it right.” Magnus looked down as the waves as the sea skimmer cut through the whitecaps. “Sometimes, love for your team makes you do stupid splick.”

  There was a moment’s silence as Titus seemed to consider the reply. “I hear that,” the gladia said, and then nothing more.

  Magnus was relieved that there weren’t any follow-up questions. Honestly, he didn’t know how else to reply, though he did feel endeared to Titus for accepting the answer to his question.

  Magnus opened the squad channel back to the Spire. It was better to keep everyone apprised of the conversation as it went. “You there, Colonel?”

  “Go ahead, Adonis,” Caldwell said.

  “What’s the play?”

  “First, glad you’re okay down there.”

  Magnus smiled for the helmet cam. “And here I thought you didn’t care.”

  “I was talking to Rohoar.”

  The Jujari’s face appeared as he spoke, grinning a toothy smile. “Rohoar appreciates this concern.”

  “Sure, you do,” Magnus said. “The play, Colonel?”

  “If I didn’t have such an affinity for the capital, son? I’d tell you to get the hell out of there. You’ve already risked enough, and you’ve overstayed your welcome—way past time on target.”

  “But you do care about the capital,” Magnus replied. “And you’re going to tell me there’s still time to save the planet.”

  “Something like that. As you heard Brass Balls mention earlier, the only remaining way to activate the PDS is from inside CENTCOM—do yourselves what you were hoping the general would do.”

  “Did he just say inside CENTCOM?” Titus asked.

  “Yes,” replied Rohoar. “Are you unable to hear well anymore?”

  “No. No, I just—forget it.”

  “You’re sure it’s the only way, Colonel?” Magnus asked.

  “It is, son. I’m sorry.”

  “There is some good news, at least,” TO-96 interjected. “Given the fact that the capital has incurred assaults at three different sites—your initial intrusion of CENTCOM, Petty Officer Zoll’s raid on the lab, and your latest attack on Elusian Base—their defenses are scrambling to respond.”

  “I’m not sure I see how that is good news, ’Six.”

  “Forgive me, sir. Sometimes I forget that my intuitive processes do not adequately articulate—”

  “’Six!”

  “The situation is good news because the Republic’s forces are spread thin. As a result, the last place they will expect an assault—”

  “Is at the first place we hit.”

  “That is correct, sir.”

  Magnus clucked his tongue. “Damn, you’re a smart bot.”

  “I agree,” Azelon said, appearing over TO-96’s shoulder.

  “Thank you, sir,” said TO-96, his eye sockets glowing a warm shade of amber.

  “So, you are proposing that we head back to the capital and take the elevator down again?” Abimbola asked.

  “Something like that, yeah,” Magnus replied.

  “Rohoar still does not understand why we did not do this the first time,” Rohoar said. “Your human logic is confusing.”

  Magnus didn’t blame the Jujari for asking. “Because we were trying to keep casualties down—ours specifically. Infiltrating the Elusian Base appeared to be the easier path.”

  “Easier than breaking into an underground basement?”

  Magnus nodded. “Yes. But, hopefully, they’re paying less attention this time.”

  “Or more.” The Jujari licked his lips. “Rohoar is ready to mat his fur with the blood of his enemies.”

  “Is that a thing?” Titus asked. “You actually do that?”

  “Jujari expression,” Rohoar replied.

  “Gotcha,” Titus said with a hint of relief.

  “But also a thing. It is both an expression and a thing.”

  “Then it’s just a thing,” Titus said.

  “And expression.”

  Titus rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”

  “One more thing, Adonis,” Caldwell said, his voice low. “Ezo just let us know that they’re on the way—and so is Moldark.”

  Splick. “How long we got?”

  “With subspace transmission delay? The Wonder Twins tell me about an hour.”

  “Colonel, even if we activated the shield right now—”

  “It’s not a lot of margin, son. I know. Just do what you can and get the hell out of there.”

  Magnus nodded. “Roger that. Magnus, out.”

  “Spire, out.”

  Magnus took a deep breath and tried to focus. “Okay, gladias. We’ve got a job to do, and sunup isn’t going to wait for us.”

  As the sea skimmers continued east toward the sky glow of Capriana’s lights, Magnus tried to formulate some sort of infiltration plan. Attempting a failed op for the second time in a row wasn’t exactly textbook. In fact, he was reasonably sure it would end poorly. But they had to try—there were too many lives at stake not to. It was in moments like this that he appreciated the Jujari’s cut-throat tenacity, even if their logic was just as confusing.

  But this wasn’t a repeat operation, technically speaking. The first round’s objective had been to convince CENTCOM’s leadership to activate the PDS. Now, it was a deep infil op, and the demand for enabling the PDS was on Granther Company.

  “Magnus, do you read?” said a voice over VNET. Magnus glanced at the ident tag.

  “Zoll,” Magnus replied. “You good?”

  “Ha. We’re alive, but we smell like splick.”

  “Come again?”

  “Sewers. We have the assets, and half of us are heading westbound through the city sewers.”

  “You have my parents?” Awen asked, her voice filled with excitement. “Are they all right?”

  “They’re fine, Awen,” Zoll replied. “And they’re eager to see you.”

  “You said half,” Magnus interjected. “Where’s the rest of your team?”

  “We split up. Delta and Echo Teams stayed topside to defend our descent into the lab’s lower levels. But they’re on their way out now. We’re regrouping at a treatment facility Cyril found.”

  “Roger, copy,” Cyril said. “It’s just over a clickity-clack west, over.”

  Magnus smiled despite his growing concern. “So I take it the lab’s transports were a no-go.”

  “Roger,” Zoll said. “The facility’s AI made sure of that. So we’re improvising.”

  “Seems we’re all doing a little of that,” Magnus replied. “Find a way to the Simlia atoll, and we’ll meet you there. Oh, and a free piece of advice: see if you can locate a Jules Sea Skimmer Rentals franchise.”

  13

  “Jules Sea Skimmer Rentals?” Reimer said to Zoll. “That sounds fun.”

  “All part of your paid vacation, care of the Gladio Umbra,” Zoll said.

  Reimer laughed. “And how do these sewers figure into that?”

  “It was in the excursions brochure.”

  “Must’a missed that.”

&n
bsp; “Nah. It was clearly marked with the line that read This Option Is Full of Splick, You Dimwitted Derk Duffer.”

  “Guilty,” said Reimer with a self-deprecating tone, and then he laughed along with everyone else.

  Charlie Team continued west through the sewers while Delta and Echo Teams fought their way out of the lab’s upper stories. So far, neither element had suffered casualties since entering the lab, and Zoll hoped it would stay that way. It was just a little further until Charlie Team got out of this hellhole and topside again. They just had to keep Awen’s parents alive and find a new means of transport to the Simlia atoll.

  “I still don’t get it,” Zoll said to Balin and Giyel over external speakers. “You’re Elonians. So, how the hell did you two get roped into working for the Repub?”

  “We were abducted from our home,” Balin replied.

  “Lured away under pretenses, and then abducted,” Giyel said with a tone that suggested she was used to expounding on her husband’s definitions.

  “What kind of pretenses?” Zoll asked, stepping over a short collection dam that acted as a divider between the current tunnel and the next intersection.

  “The Republic Ambassador paid us a visit,” Galin said, and then spit into the sewage.

  “Ambassador?”

  Giyel nodded. “Gerald Bosworth.”

  “The third,” Balin added with no attempt to hide his obvious disdain.

  Zoll looked over his shoulder at the couple. “Didn’t realize he made house calls.”

  Balin tilted his head. “You know of him?”

  Zoll chuckled. “A whole lotta people know about him. I helped detain him for my boss once, back on Oorajee. Then the Repub reacquired him. Most recently, he sent us evidence of your capture, which is what led us here. I just didn’t think he was the one who did the wet work.” Zoll held up a finger. “Correction: didn’t think he had the stamina to do the wet work.”

  “Wet work?” Giyel asked.

  “Murders, assassinations, and sometimes kidnappings,” Zoll explained.

  “Well, it didn’t feel like a kidnapping at first,” Giyel replied. “He was persuasive.”

  “How so?” Zoll held up a hand as he studied a barred gate ahead. “Rix, can you take care of this?”

  “On it, chief.” Rix skirted Zoll and the dau Lothliniums to start cutting through the barricade with a torch. The Elionion couple shielded their eyes from the bright sparks.

  “At first, he told us that Awen was in trouble and that the Order of the Luma and the Republic needed our help to secure her,” Giyel said. “That it was a matter of grave consequence.”

  “Naturally, we would do anything for our daughter,” Balin said.

  “So, you went with him,” Zoll said.

  The couple nodded.

  Rix finished cutting the bars and kicked out the hole he’d made in the gate. “After you,” he said.

  Zoll stepped through and helped Balin and Giyel, using his headlamp to illuminate their way.

  “At first, everything seemed legitimate,” Balin said. “Our daughter was taken hostage by the Jujari, and the Republic wanted to employ us to help negotiate for her life.”

  “Forgive my ignorance, but why would they think you could help?” Zoll asked. “He’s the ambassador.”

  “True, but we are also Elonians.”

  Zoll shrugged. Right, he thought. “The one species trusted with peace, diplomacy, and stability even more than the Luma.”

  “Something like that,” Balin said.

  “Plus, it was our daughter,” Giyel said. “And we had something they could use.”

  “And that was?”

  “Research,” Balin said. He helped his wife over a mid-tunnel dam. “Specifically, medical research on the Jujari.”

  “And the Ambassador was going to use that as leverage?” Zoll didn’t feel the logic was adding up. “But wouldn’t you have just given it to them anyway? You’re Elonians, after all.”

  “Of course we would have,” Giyel said. “But our work wasn’t ready yet.”

  “And, in our naiveté, that’s what made us so willing to help the ambassador,” Gailen said.

  “It wouldn’t be a stretch for you to give something to free your daughter when you were already going to give it anyway,” Zoll said.

  “Right.” Balin nodded. “Only, the whole thing was a ruse.”

  “As soon as we got on the ambassador’s ship, we were arrested and diverted here to Capriana.” Giyel rubbed her wrists as if remembering the restraints.

  “And that’s when Bosworth turned the tables on you,” Zoll said.

  “Precisely,” Balin replied. “As it turned out, he had Awen hostage and threatened to kill her unless we did his bidding.”

  “Which was to create a biotoxin?” Zoll asked. “Isn’t that a little extreme?”

  “Of course,” said Giyel. “And that’s why we refused.”

  Balin nodded. “At least at first. Up to that point, he hadn’t provided evidence that Awen was in his custody.”

  “But, he did eventually?”

  Giyel touched her forehead and steadied herself against her husband. “Yes. Images of…”

  “Of Awen being tortured,” Balin said. “Chained up and unconscious.”

  Zoll wondered how such a thing was possible and was about to ask when he remembered how the Marauders had first taken Awen captive. But if the footage was from her temporary imprisonment in the Dregs, how had the ambassador obtained it?

  “So, what was it he asked you to make for him?” Zoll asked.

  “A derivative of the Simikon blight,” Balin answered.

  “From the old Limbian invasion?”

  Balin nodded. “Like all Elonian scientists, my parents kept detailed records of their work.”

  “But I thought you Elonians cured that plague?” Zoll asked.

  “We did,” Giyel said. “But it’s so fast-acting that if anyone got their hands on the generic composition and released it far enough away from the antitoxin, you’re looking at—”

  “Planet-level extinction,” Zoll said, restating their description from back in the lab. “But you have that antitoxin, right?”

  “Of course,” Giyel said. “Which is why we were willing to recreate the virus if it meant buying our daughter more time.”

  “That’s when Bosworth started asking for other things,” Balin said.

  “There’s more?”

  “But we don’t have to worry about that now,” Giyel said hurriedly. “Thanks to you. How soon before we can see Awen?”

  “It’s more like, how soon before those explosives go off,” Rix stated. “And we don’t got much time, chief.”

  “How long?” Zoll asked.

  “One minute.”

  Zoll looked at Cyril. “We close?”

  “Uh-huh,” said the code slicer. “Just up ahead, copy vector bravo.”

  Rix shook his head. “I’ll never understand you, kid.”

  Zoll pushed forward until he saw a ladder that led to an access hatch. “This it, kid?”

  “Roger niner niner, sir,” Cyril replied. “Let’s scoot the coop.”

  “Wish,” Zoll said. “We clear up top?”

  The mystic paused and tilted her head slightly. “All clear, chief.”

  Zoll pointed at the Jujari. “Redmarrow, you first. Clear us a way out of the building as fast as you can.”

  “Right away, human leader.” Redmarrow stepped around the dau Lothliniums then bounded up the ladder, spun open the hatch, and disappeared. Then Rix went up to guard the dau Lothliniums as they climbed, while Zoll, Wish, and Reimer brought up the rear.

  Reimer resealed the hatch. “Not my worst sewer excursion, but not my best either.”

  “Time,” Cyril yelled. A deep boom shook the small utility room and everyone reached for something to hold onto. Chunks began falling from the ceiling. “Let’s get a pronto on our giddy up!”

  “Never mind,” Reimer said, looking at Zoll. “I’m
taking this up with the ship’s captain over dinner.”

  * * *

  Dust shot out the front door as Charlie Team ran out of the treatment sub-station and onto the street. Without the benefit of helmets, Balin and Giyel coughed and doubled over on their knees.

  “You okay?” Zoll asked Giyel with a hand on her back. She nodded and then waved him off.

  “Zoll,” Bliss yelled over comms.

  Zoll looked up to see Delta and Echo Teams jogging toward him. “You in one piece?”

  “Affirmative. But that’s more than we can say for the enemy.”

  “Dominate,” Zoll said.

  “Liberate, baby.”

  “And you guys?” Robillard asked. “I see you found the assets.”

  “We’re fine,” Zoll replied.

  “Just make sure you read the fine print on the excursion brochure,” Reimer said.

  Zoll smiled, then turned to face everyone. “It won’t be long before the Repub connects the lab and this sewer plant, so we’ve gotta get the assets off the street and then find a way to the exfil point.”

  “Any recommendations now that the lab’s shuttles aren’t an option?” Robillard asked.

  “We’re headed west, to…” Zoll studied the mission map in his HUD. “Liquid Gold Marina and Sea Park.”

  “Sounds enchanting,” Bliss said.

  “We’re looking for sea skimmers.” Zoll could practically hear people’s excitement level rise. “And, no, you don’t get to keep them. It’s just a day trip.”

  * * *

  Zoll led his squad west toward the city limits. Boardwalk lights glimmered at the end of the block, signaling that the teams had reached the shore—and all without discovery. At least so far. The gladias kept the dau Lothlinium’s concealed as best they could, but Zoll knew the efforts weren’t perfect. Had this been broad daylight and the streets full of pedestrians, they would have been discovered long ago. But the early morning hours were working to their advantage. Just one more leg south, across the ocean, and they were home free.

  “Is that what you were talking about, chief?” Rix asked, pointing toward a thatched hut beside the marina’s entrance. The sign read Jules Sea Skimmer Rentals.