by Tim Marquitz
Vengeance
Enemy Of My Enemy™ Book Four
Tim Marquitz
Michael Anderle
Craig Martelle
Vengeance (this book) is a work of fiction.
All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.
Copyright © 2019 Tim Marquitz, Michael Anderle and Craig Martelle
Cover by Tom Edwards tomedwardsdesign.com/
Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing
A Michael Anderle Production
LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
LMBPN Publishing
PMB 196, 2540 South Maryland Pkwy
Las Vegas, NV 89109
First US edition, January 2019
The Kurtherian Gambit (and what happens within / characters / situations / worlds) are copyright © 2015-2019 by Michael T. Anderle and LMBPN Publishing.
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
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Author Notes - Tim Marquitz
Author Notes - Michael Anderle
Books By Tim Marquitz
Books By Michael Anderle
Books By Craig Martelle
Connect with The Authors
Vengeance Team
Thanks to the JIT Readers
Diane L. Smith
Jeff Eaton
James Caplan
Micky Cocker
Kelly O’Donnell
Peter Manis
If I’ve missed anyone, please let me know!
Editor
Skyhunter Editing Team
Chapter One
Planning a war is hard.
Taj stared at the myriad waves of information filling the view screen for about the millionth time today, not even counting all the other times she’d gone over it recently.
There was no putting it off any longer. The time had come.
“I think we’re ready,” she announced.
“Finally. It’s only taken about three months,” Torbon complained.
“Everything has to be perfect. Well, as perfect as we can make it with what we’ve got available to us.” she countered, sneering at Torbon and waggling a fist his direction.
His whiskers flared and he raised his hands in surrender, his tail thumping against the chair leg. “Yeah, definitely looks like you’re ready for a fight, but how about you save it for the enemy, huh?”
Lina slapped Torbon on the arm to shut him up, but Taj could tell the engineer agreed with Torbon. Her expression said it all.
Everyone was impatient, but they were doing this largely on their own—which was the way Taj and her people had wanted it.
When Lance Reynolds had offered them the full support of the Federation’s military but warned it could take another year before that could be put in place because of ongoing operations and longer if more pressing matters came up, Taj had thanked him and passed.
Politely, of course.
They wanted their home back now.
Reynolds had argued against them going off on their own, joking that it was like herding cats to get Taj to see reason, but there was more to this for the Furlorians than simply reclaiming their planet.
As a point of pride, they needed to do it themselves.
They didn’t want anyone else fighting their war for them. This was on them; their mission, and Taj had assured Reynolds she understood when he said they would be entirely on their own if they chose to go at it this way.
Reynolds had provided what he could in the limited time available.
“So, when do we go?” Lina asked, interrupting Taj’s thoughts.
Taj drew in a long, deep breath and let it out slowly. “Now is as good a time as any, I guess,” she answered. “The longer we wait, the more time the Wyyvans have to settle in, do damage to the planet, and make it harder to get back.”
Her thoughts drifted to Krawlas, the Furlorian home world that she and the crew had abandoned almost exactly one year before.
It seemed like much longer than that.
They’d lost so many people. Gran Beaux and Mama Merr most notably, but that only scratched the surface of the harm that had been wrought upon the Furlorians since the lizard-like Wyyvans had crash-landed on the planet out of nowhere and uprooted their existence.
It was strange looking back on it now. Things were so different.
It’d been traumatic early on. Their lives thrown into chaos, the fight against the Wyyvan troops, then the fleet’s assault on the planet, followed by their flight into space with no clear direction or idea as to what they were going to do.
Finding Dent had been the start of their orientation, she realized, remembering rescuing him from his wrecked science ship in the old android body the AI had inhabited. He’d been the one to turn the Furlorians around since he’d helped them connect with the Etheric Federation.
Taj and the crew had grown up a lot since then that it seemed unreal to her, but there was still so much more to accomplish.
Like now. Here she was, in charge of a ramshackle armada of spacecraft, hobbled together out of old, decommissioned ships that could be rounded up quickly, readying to return to Krawlas and take it back from the Wyyvans.
Cabe ran a warm hand over the back of her neck, clasping her shoulder. “You okay?” he asked. “You seem a bit…pensive.”
She offered him a weak smile. “This is a big decision to commit us to,” she explained. “I’m worried, that’s all.”
It wasn’t that she was unsure. No, quite the opposite, in fact.
She was surer than ever that this was the right thing to do: to take the fight to the alien scum who had stolen their home world. Taj couldn’t imagine anything that felt more justified than swooping in over Krawlas and kicking the asses of each and every Wyyvan there who had dared to spoil their home.
Her only real concern was the danger she was putting her crew in. It was one thing to make a decision that affected only her and dive into a battle alone, but it was something entirely different to drag people along with her; people who might die because of her leadership.
“Of course it is,” he replied as if reading her mind. It was something he’d started to do more often as the couple became closer. “But this isn’t just on you. We all decided this was the right thing to do, remember?”
Sure they had, she thought, but was it because she had pushed for it? Because she had wanted it
so badly?
She’d argued with herself for a long time after asking General Reynolds for a force to take back Krawlas. She hadn’t consulted them beforehand and had simply acted on a whim, believing it was what needed to be done. But had she made the right choice by dragging everyone into the fight with her?
Cabe squeezed her shoulder again, reassuring her that she had and that this what they had all wanted.
“We’re all a part of this, and nothing is going to stop us from taking our home back from those gacking aliens,” Cabe exclaimed. “Nothing.”
Lina grinned her agreement, nodding.
“Except dying,” Torbon added, “or capture. Or maybe scurvy or some other nasty disease I haven’t thought of.” He shrugged.
Everyone glared at him, and he shriveled into his chair under the pressure.
“But yeah, nothing’s gonna stop us,” he amended. “Rowl be damned.”
Taj groaned and clambered to her feet.
“You just had to go and invoke Rowl, didn’t you?” Cabe flicked Torbon’s ear, causing him to hiss and duck away.
Lina flicked the other one as he leaned her way. Torbon growled and covered his head, trying to protect himself from each side.
“You deserved both of those,” the engineer informed him, shaking her head as she stood.
“Let’s go get Dent and the others and get this war on the road,” Taj stated, taking one last look at the planning room they’d commandeered on the Corzant space station.
It was hard for her to imagine that they would likely never see this room, or possibly even the station, again.
That was a sobering thought Taj didn’t appreciate, so she swept it from her mind and promised herself that, no matter what happened, she and the crew would come back and visit once everything was settled.
Since they were leaving the vast majority of their people behind for safekeeping rather than dragging them into battle, they had a good reason to come back, even if it was only to collect the Furlorians and escort them home.
She grinned at that thought and marched toward the shuttle that would take them to the Furlorian command ship.
Today was a monumental day, and Taj would be gacked if she let her uncertainty get in the way.
Her crew didn’t even bother to ask if she was sure, which they always did regardless of how much she hated that gacking question. They could see the determination in her eyes.
At long last, they were going home.
The Gate eased open before the Furlorian armada, and a rush of excitement set the blood afire in Taj’s veins.
The time was now. They were truly doing this.
She glanced at the view screen and examined the fleet of ships stacked up behind the lead craft. It was a sight to behold.
Born and raised on the scrubland planet of Krawlas, she’d grown up imagining a day where she would lead an army into battle. Gran Beaux had trained her to lead and put his faith in her, but she’d never imagined she’d get the opportunity to do so. Life on Krawlas had always been peaceful, its remoteness the main reason the Furlorians had settled there after being driven from their ancestral home world, Felinus 4.
All that had changed when the Wyyvans arrived, though, and here she was at the helm of a destroyer, ready to charge through an intergalactic Gate and engage the enemy just a short distance away on the other side.
“The Gate’s fully open,” Dent called from beside her. “Waiting on your order,” he added, offering her a respectful nod.
Taj stood still, taking the moment in and savoring the calm before the storm that would engulf them once they passed through the shimmering Gate. The minute she ordered them forward, there was no retreat. They were committed.
Fortunately, she’d decided early on that she wouldn’t put any more of her people at risk than she absolutely had to. With barely more than thirty Furlorians aboard the Decimator, Taj’s name for the destroyer she and her people would ride into the fight, she knew her people would live on, regardless of the outcome.
The remainder of the ships were manned by a large contingent of bots for damage repair and various menial tasks, but it was Dent who controlled the entire fleet.
He had linked himself to all the crafts to minimize the number of lives put at risk, as Taj had requested once their plans began to come together.
In the end, Taj was glad it had worked out that way, but that hadn’t been what she’d envisioned when she’d first asked the General for an army.
She’d originally pictured a storm of trained and experienced Federation soldiers in powered armor riding down on the Wyyvans and crushing them like gralflies under a swatter.
But where was the satisfaction in that?
In the end, to feel good about what they’d accomplished and to honor those who’d come before, the victory had to be on their terms.
She and her crew would reach out to Reynolds as soon as they reclaimed Krawlas, and they would make the Federation proud.
General Reynolds had grinned and graciously said, “Damn right, you will. Now go kick lizard tail, and bring me back a pair of boots when you’re done.”
With Reynolds’ words ringing in her head, Taj grinned and waved the armada toward the yawning Gate.
“Let’s do this,” she ordered, taking one last look at the crew gathered around her.
Cabe stood at her side next to Dent, and Lina and Torbon were right there, too. Jadie, Torbon’s aunt, grinned, ready to go, and Kal stood proudly in his armor, happy for the chance to wreak vengeance on the Wyyvans.
Krawg sat at a console in the background watching over everything, as he often did. Taj had given him a chance to return home, but he’d refused. For all his grumpiness, it was clear he liked the Furlorians. Even more, he enjoyed the excitement that came with being around them.
He’d deny it if he were asked, of course, but Taj knew better.
Plus, he liked arguing with Torbon. Some days, it seemed as if that was all they did.
The fleet shot forward at her command, and Taj’s heart thundered in her chest with anticipation.
She’d long dreamed of this moment, studied and planned, and here it was at last.
The Furlorian fleet shot through the Gate, shields and weapons powered up and at the ready—a tip provided her by General Reynolds, ensuring that she and her people were ready for whatever they met on the other side of the Gate.
As the Gate closed behind them, Taj caught her breath and oriented herself.
Krawlas sat in space nearby, filling the view screen with its presence. Her crew gasped behind her, amazed by the sight.
None of them had seen the planet since they’d fled it, and their return filled each of them with a joy they hadn’t realized they were capable of.
Unfortunately, the realization that an enemy fleet sat in orbit above the planet twisted that feeling and turned it to righteous anger. The bridge lights dimmed and became red, an ominous gleam washing over the crew as if it had sensed their moods.
“Enemy fleet dead ahead,” Lina announced, her voice hard and cold. “Looks like they have twenty-five destroyers out here now, not to mention the command dreadnought that bombarded us when Vort’s cohorts showed up the first time around.”
Taj nodded, her eyes drawn to the looming dreadnought that had plagued her dreams more times in the last year than she would ever admit aloud.
Today, however, it didn’t scare her.
Seeing the massive ship floating in orbit above her home world brought a rage to her belly that threatened to consume her. Her cheeks flared warmly, and she let out a low, rumbling growl. She knew what she needed to do.
Now wasn’t the time to stare in awe and hesitate.
Now was the time to act.
“Blow that gacking piece of shit out of the sky,” she ordered, jabbing her finger at the dreadnought on the screen.
The Furlorian armada spread out at her command, Dent grinning all the while, and the ships opened fire without mercy or warning.
Jus
t like they did to us, Taj thought, remembering the day the crew had gone to examine the wrecked ship that had crashed on Krawlas.
The Wyyvan fleet, caught unprepared, lost two ships in the initial volley before they reacted.
As those two destroyers flared out and listed, falling toward the planet below, the Wyyvans returned fire. The blackness of space was then illuminated by blasts from Wyyvan weapons, but the reinforced shields of the Furlorian armada held.
Taj whooped and urged the fleet forward. “Take the fight to them,” she ordered, determined to make the most of their surprise arrival.
“They’re hailing us,” Lina announced. “Asking who we are and why we’re attacking. Response?”
“Gack them!” Taj shot back, waving a hand to dismiss the communication. “Ignore it and keep blasting, focusing as much fire on that dreadnought as possible. I want to punch a hole in it.”
With no living beings aboard any of the ships except the Decimator, Taj could act with confidence that she wasn’t condemning anyone to a horrible death. That knowledge emboldened her.
It’s easier to fight a war when people won’t die for your mistakes, Taj thought, her hands clenching the edge of the console before her.
The Decimator hung back slightly, using the unmanned vessels for cover while the armada advanced as they’d planned, the fleet blasting at the enemy ships.
