War Games_Valiant Knox

by Jess Anastasi

  Alpha settled in and closed the hatch. A few seconds later, they were in the air. In the distance, she picked out the village where Neve was hopefully sleeping peacefully, unaware of the major events unfolding. With any luck, in another few hours this would all be over, and she could begin working out what her new life was going to look like. The thought brought a tiny spark of excitement, telling her that she was definitely ready for a major change.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Bren had disappeared inside Alpha’s jet, and Cam was already kicking himself for not trying to talk to her. So much had happened in the past few hours, it was hard to process anything clearly. But the fog of anger and adrenaline was beginning to clear, and he was left with the realization that he’d let his emotions—or more specifically, his fear of those emotions—cloud his judgment.

  Yes, she’d defied his orders. But, like that moment inside the camp when she’d feared the CS soldier was going to shoot him and she’d been prepared to divulge information to save him, he’d likely have made the same choice.

  His own fear of being made vulnerable by Jordie’s sister had ended with him hurting her, instead. He should have at least apologized, even if it was too late for anything to come out of their time together.

  “Regretting something?”

  Seb’s blunt question brought his attention away from where the engines of Alpha’s jet were coming online.

  “You have no idea,” he muttered.

  Hell, any sane person would have had their life views rearranged after surviving a building dropping on top of them. But he still hadn’t been able to swallow his pride long enough to give Bren the apology she deserved.

  “FYI, she didn’t defy your orders. It wasn’t her fault you guys were captured.”

  His heart skipped a beat, because it was the truth he hadn’t wanted to face.

  “How do you know?”

  “When they first brought her into that room we were locked in, she explained what happened. She started making her way to the rendezvous point, but came across a couple more CS soldiers. They’d already captured the pilot you were meant to meet. The shuttle wasn’t coming and the CSS were closing in. She had no other choice but to go after you, so don’t think she let her emotions drive her decision.”

  He cursed under his breath, not just feeling like an idiot. He was an idiot.

  Seb started to turn away, but then paused. “And, if you can’t get your head out of your ass and realize she’s not her brother and never was, don’t bother trying to see her again. Otherwise, Alpha and I will have some strong thoughts on that, and we’ll be speaking with our fists.”

  Seb didn’t wait for him to reply, but jogged over to where the second jet was waiting to take him on board and follow Alpha and Bren back to the Valiant Knox.

  Yeah, he totally deserved that. And probably more. But he couldn’t do anything about it now. There were troops on the way, and he needed a clear head to lead them.

  The final battle for Ilari was imminent. Before he could fix the mess his personal life had become, there was an entire planet that needed saving.

  …

  Several hours later, Cam stood in a tent a few miles outside the Pontifex’s residence with Halden, along with a group of other high-ranking rebel soldiers and his UEF colleagues. Intelligence was filtering in that the Pontifex had definitely passed away, leaving his legacy crumbling.

  They were coordinating the final push to take several key targets including the Pontifex’s compound, where most of the CSS top echelon of leaders were entrenched, as well as the main airfield housing the majority of CSS shuttles and ships, an ammunitions and supply complex, and the base where the CSS coordinated their military movements.

  It was a big ask to successfully take it all, but so far, the momentum of the combined forces of the rebels and UEF, paired with the disarray of the CSS leadership, had seen them take more than half the Holy City with little resistance. Bren leading the UEF squadron of fighter jets was working like the icing on the cake, their mere presence often deterring the CSS or sending them scattering without shots being fired.

  As a final strategic show of power, Commander Yang had brought his massive battleship down into Ilari’s atmosphere. The Valiant Knox was easily twice the size of the Holy City, its looming presence blocked out the moons and stars, seeming to confirm UEF and rebel victory, even though they hadn’t taken the final, pivotal targets yet.

  A few last-minute adjustments on troop positions were being made before giving the final order to push ahead with the assault on many fronts at the same time. Part of Cam wished he could be on the ground alongside his men, personally leading the attack.

  However, he was not only exhausted but also injured with the gunshot wound in his upper arm, courtesy of the CS soldier in the reeducation camp earlier. He wouldn’t be any good to anyone out in the field tonight. The smartest thing was to watch it all unfold from the war room, aiding Commander Emmanuel—who had turned up with the contingent of troops—in coordinating their people.

  When dawn touched the horizon, the order was given, and all Cam could do was hold his breath and watch the dozen screens set up on one wall of the tent, showing as multiple attacks were launched on the key targets. The first call for additional support came from the troops at the CSS airfield, closely followed by another call for a secondary attack point at the ammunitions factory where they encountered more resistance than expected.

  The next few hours became a blur of frenzied activity, relaying information to the Knox for the fighter pilots to do their thing, while reassessing tactics on multiple fronts with the changing conditions of the CSS forces.

  By midmorning, they’d taken the airfield and the ammunitions factory. The CSS forces were holding out at their military base and the compound holding the last of their leaders, but the Pontifex’s sprawling residence was about to fall, and several high-value CSS members had been caught trying to sneak out. It was clear they were going to claim victory.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Bren had every available fighter pilot in the air, the squadron split into three units—one being led by her, one by Alpha, and the last by Seb. They’d split their focus on the most valuable targets to back up the rebel and UEF soldiers on the ground.

  So far, they’d only lost two jets, but the pilots had ejected and landed safely. She’d just given the order for her unit to pull back, as it seemed the ground forces were poised to take the target, and any intervention from her fighter pilots now might only cause casualties to their own people.

  “Lieutenant Brenner, come in.”

  Bren tapped her comm to answer Commander Yang. Though what the heck he was doing on her squad line was anyone’s guess.

  “Receiving you, sir.”

  “I have an urgent intercept mission for you. What’s the status of your squad?”

  “I’ve just pulled alpha unit out. Seb pulled Charlie unit out about ten minutes ago, but Captain Alphin is still engaged with beta unit.”

  “Two units should be enough. A fleet of jets is about to break atmosphere on Ilari.”

  “What jets? From where?” The CSS forces hadn’t ever had access to jets, only old armed shuttles.

  “Jenna’s CI intelligence suggests this is that other faction, the one that wants to take the uprising into the wider galaxy. We hailed them but they didn’t respond. We’re treating them as enemy forces.”

  Holy heck. This was it. Though things seemed to be going in favor of the UEF, the day’s battle wasn’t won yet, and those jets could easily turn the tide back to a CSS advantage. If they didn’t stop that fleet now, it could mean the difference between Ilari having peace or the rest of the galaxy getting caught up in a devastating war.

  “Send me an intercept bearing and number of vessels.”

  Yang agreed before cutting the transmission, and she was already tapping her comm again to contact Seb.

  “Seb, bring your unit into formation and fall in with me to await further instru
ction.”

  “Copy that,” he replied through the radio.

  As her onboard computer showed Seb and his unit coming into formation behind her own group of jets, Yang’s information came through.

  Twenty V-27 multi-atmospheric fighter jets breaking the atmosphere a hundred clicks from her current position. They were a few years older than the deployed V-29 jets her squadron used. But they were still going to give the UEF forces a more closely matched battle than anything the CSS had ever thrown at them.

  Her heart skipped a single rushed beat before a practiced calm stole over her. Whatever happened, they had to make sure those jets didn’t make it to their target or achieve their ends.

  “Squad-wide communication, this is the CAFF speaking.” She took a short breath, gathering her thoughts. “An unknown fleet of V-27 fighter jets have just broken atmosphere. They’ll be showing up on your screens any second now. Commander Yang tasked us with intercepting these jets before they can engage our ground forces. This is going to be riskier than any other time we’ve come up against the CSS forces. The V-27s are more closely matched to our own ships. But we’ve run this scenario many times over the years. Now it’s time to put those exercises into use. We can do this. I have faith in every single one of you.”

  Multiple responses of to the black and beyond came through her comm, the squad’s unofficial motto.

  “Bren, come in,” Alpha hailed her, voice strained.

  “Go ahead.”

  “Do you need beta unit? I can break off and be on your six in a few minutes.”

  “How’s the target looking?”

  “Still too hard to call. Ground forces are making headway, but the CSS are holding out.”

  She was tempted to call him in, to increase their chances of an easy victory. But if they won the fight against the unknown enemy, only to lose a key target to take down the CSS forces, it wouldn’t be worth the extra jets.

  “Hold position. Charlie and alpha units should be enough.”

  “Understood.” Alpha sounded far from happy with her order, but he was an excellent fighter pilot and would never argue or question her decisions.

  She checked the screen where the enemy ships had appeared on the outer edges of her jet’s short-range sensors.

  “Ready to engage in under three minutes,” she alerted the two units behind her.

  She checked the ground they were covering, not wanting this skirmish to happen over populated areas that might result in civilian casualties. They were going to skim over the command post the UEF forces had set up—where Cam was overseeing troop movements—but otherwise, it was forest and open fields in the immediate vicinity.

  Since she’d walked away from him on the ground, she’d been forcing herself not to think about him. She was still pissed that he’d apparently thought so little of her the entire time they’d spent together, that he’d assumed she’d let her emotions get in the way of her competency as a soldier.

  She’d finally been able to see through the past, see beyond the assumptions she’d wrongly made about him. And underneath she’d found a man who was everything she’d never let herself dream about.

  And she’d believed Cam had as well. That all of their baggage could be put behind them. That maybe they could find some kind of future together.

  But she’d been wrong.

  She’d let her emotions get in the way of logic, and if the ache in her chest was anything to go by, she’d paid the price for it.

  However, she had to shove all that down. Compartmentalize. Deal with it later. Those unknown enemy jets were a minute out, and she owed her squad 100 percent commitment and concentration. They were relying on her to lead them through this safely.

  “Alpha unit and Charlie unit, ready to engage.” She tabbed her weapons hot, pulse skipping as the jets came into her visual field. “Split the pack and then run them down.”

  Just as the enemy jets opened fire, she banked her jet hard left, alpha unit on her tail shadowing her as Seb took Charlie unit hard right. They rounded out around the enemy ships, and the V-27s’ formation quickly started breaking up. Obviously, these pilots weren’t as well trained as her squadron. Breaking formation made this fight messier, but it would also give them the advantage if the enemy were already panicking.

  Opening fire on the scattering ships, she aimed for engines and wings, wanting to disable the enemy, not kill them. Unfortunately, shots went astray, and clearly the enemy didn’t have the same scruples, attempting to hit her squad’s cockpits and body of their jets.

  “Bastards,” she muttered, spinning her jet off to the right and upward as a streak of fire came too close for comfort. That one would have left singe marks on her hull. She evened out and dropped back down just as two of her squads V-29s got blown out of the sky. One exploded, taking a nearby enemy ship with it, but the other went spiraling in a plume of black smoke to the ground.

  Seb was swearing into the comm. “They took out Taylor. Diaz is in uncontrolled decent.”

  “Diaz eject!” she yelled into her comm, concentration split between a ship that’d attached itself to her tail and where Diaz’s jet was plunging to the ground. But the cockpit hatch popped, and the tiny figure of Diaz shot outward, falling steady before his parachute deployed.

  “Thank God,” she breathed.

  Now, to lose her admirer.

  In a few deft maneuvers, and with the help of one of her squad members, she shook her tail and took out one of the other enemy ships in the process. Several of the V-27s were in retreat with damage, and a few had crash landed. They’d almost cut the unknown force in half.

  “We’ve got them on the run, people,” she said, broadcasting to both units of jets. “Regroup for final assault.”

  She pulled back, taking a long sweep away from the enemy jets to give her squad a chance to fall in.

  The enemy ships started to pull together as well, but weren’t as fast as her highly-trained pilots.

  “Go for splinter. Let’s finish this fast.”

  Because the sooner they got this skirmish over with, the less likely she’d lose any more pilots. Hard and fast, just the way Seb liked to do things. He’d be loving this.

  She took the lead as they settled into a trajectory to intercept and fragment the remaining enemy jets, creating confusion and making them easier targets to pick off.

  The strategy worked as she’d planned, the unknown ships scattering as she and her squad cut through the middle. All except for one V-27 bringing up the very rear of the enemy forces. Bren didn’t know if they hadn’t seen her or had decided to play chicken, but it didn’t detour from her line of fire, even though she was peppering it with ammo. At the last second she banked down, but the enemy jet clipped her tail. She felt it in the jolt and heard it in the screaming shear of metal.

  “Dammit!” Warning lights and alarms started up, telling her only one of the rear stabilizers was working, making her jet list. She only just managed to pull it out of falling into a spin.

  “Bren!” Seb’s voice cut through the chatter on the comm. “You’ve taken damage.”

  “Tell me something I don’t know,” she muttered, fighting to get some altitude and even out. The sweat that’d long since broken out on her brow started dripping down the side of her face.

  “Your tail is on fire.”

  Even as Seb said the words, another warning started flashing on her screen—telling her fire had taken hold in the stabilizer that hadn’t been responding.

  “Hell! I’m bailing out, Seb.”

  “You’re clear. Stay safe. I’ll send someone—”

  The rest of Seb’s transmission cut out, possibly because the fire was spreading fast and had affected her ship’s wiring.

  Forcing her mind to blank and not think too closely about what she had to do, she double-checked that her harness with the built in micro-chute was secure on her chest and then reached down and yanked the emergency eject lever.

  The hatch ripped free and a blast of cuttin
g wind slapped her in the face, above her oxygen mask, stealing her breath and making her eyes water. Next thing she knew, she was launched clear of the falling jet, tumbling over a few times before spreading her arms and steadying herself.

  She checked her position to make sure she really was clear of her jet, and wreckage or any other anomalies, then pulled the tab to free her chute.

  It caught her with a gentle jerk, slowing her decent from a plunge to a fast sail.

  The ground was still coming up quickly, and below her was nothing but trees. She needed an open field to minimize the risk of injury. Unfortunately, she’d already lost too much altitude to maneuver far. There was a field way off to her left, but she would have needed to aim for it even before she’d ejected from her jet.

  Her best option was a small clearing, like trying to thread a needle at a hundred miles an hour.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  “Colonel.” A soldier stepping up to his side pulled Cam’s attention away from the screen where he’d been watching the ongoing action at the Pontifex’s compound. The soldier held out a comm. “Sir, I have Lieutenant Sebastian Rayne. He needs to speak with you.”

  He thanked the soldier as he took the device and then stepped outside the tent, away from most of the noise.

  “Go ahead, Seb.”

  “Cam, I need your help.” Seb’s voice sounded strained, putting him on edge.

  “Anything. You name it.”

  “Bren’s jet just went down, about ten clicks east of your position. Send some medics—”

  The rest of Seb’s words got lost in a rushing roar of white sound through his head. He braced a hand on a nearby tree trunk to steady himself.

  Christ. What the hell would he do if something had happened to her?

  Belatedly, he realized Seb had finished talking and was waiting for an answer.

  “I’ll take care of it,” he got out, voice raw. He disconnected the comm before Seb could do something totally unhelpful like ask him if he was okay.

  Bren was probably fine. The fighter jets had all kinds of safety features to protect pilots. Plus, she was experienced and would have known when to eject. He refused to entertain the notion that anything bad had happened to her. Not after surviving everything they had in the last few days. Not after a damned building had come down on top of them, and they’d walked out of it.