Martian Quadrilogy Box Set

by Brandon Ellis

  He had killed the Ark.

  Shock went through his body, and his heart sank to his feet. His family was now in mortal danger. Jonas hired him to destroy the Dunrakee not melt the Ark.

  “The troops knew the Ark’s power,” informed Gragas. “They believed you saved their entire battalion by not activating the Ark to kill them. For that, they are thankful and are showing you one tris of honor. I have informed their battalion leader that not only did you save his battalions’ lives, but you also saved every man, woman, and child’s life on Earth. The men have given you two tris’s now.”

  “Tris’s?”

  “A tris is a Dunrakee code. You have saved them. They spare you. If they save you. You spare them. That’s a tris.”

  Great. A tris. That will go over well with Jonas. He shook his head. There was a lot more to worry about than Jonas caring about a tris. “Jonas is going to kill my daughter and her mother. He’s also going to kill my brother.”

  Ozzy wanted to rip his own face off. He was more than a dumbass. He was a shit-hole father. He was an absent parent almost Lily’s entire life and a crappy brother to boot. He didn’t just let them down like he always did, he had now placed them in grave danger.

  “I won’t let that happen. Trust me. When we get to Mars, we’ll get your daughter.” Gragas twisted around, his cape whipping in the air. “Let’s get you to safety. This battalion left in gratitude. But we don’t have much time until the governance sends another round of fighters our way who won’t take the same peaceful stance as this battalion did.” He paused, his back to Ozzy. “In fact, they’ll send more troops than you can imagine.”

  41

  Earth • Ancient Athapaskan Land, California

  Gragas walked through the forest and out of view. Ozzy sat next to the melted Ark. He rubbed his temples.

  Zeld was leaning against a tree, picking at a leaf. She tossed the leaf on the ground and scowled at Ozzy. “You realize you lost any chance we had at selling the Ark and the sphere, plus any chance at keeping the Dunrakee from coming to Mars and blowing a beautiful hole through humanity?” She cleared her throat, her tone growing colder. “You had a chance to end the Dunrakee threat once and for all, and you pissed away your chance. In turn, the Dunrakee will attack and invade Mars sooner rather than later. By saving the Dunrakee, you’ve killed your own race.”

  Ozzy nodded. He knew that was the case. He knew his daughter would be in imminent danger once Jonas Moon found out about Ozzy’s screw up. It didn’t take an ionic scientist to figure that out.

  But Gragas said he wouldn’t let that happen. In most cases, what Gragas said, Gragas did.

  Quad marched toward Ozzy. “We need to go. A large force is on their way. Word got through of what Gragas told the battalion leader before he left the battle.” He shook his head. He clearly didn’t approve of what Gragas had said. “They now know you were here to kill all the Dunrakee.”

  “Does the governance know I had the chance to kill them, but I didn’t?”

  Thrusters boomed the heavens.

  “I don’t think the governance cares. They won’t be notifying any of their troops of your good deed.” He tapped his helmet. “At least I haven’t heard anything, and I’m hacked into all their major communications.”

  Quad turned and trekked forward. Ozzy and Zeld followed.

  “You’re an idiot, Ozzy,” moaned Zeld. “Look at all that money you flushed down the drain for the both of us.”

  He couldn’t disagree.

  Quad picked up his pace. “The Galactic Knights are leaving any minute. Hurry, please.” He began to run. “The Dunrakee are closer than I thought.”

  The fleet engines of the Dunrakee carried into the forest, shaking the ground and the trees. The fleet had to be less than five minutes away.

  Ozzy went into a run. He rushed passed smoking trees and dead, scorched animals from the battle that took place a short time ago.

  Up ahead was a clearing and parked in the middle of it was Gragas’s ship. Near it was the Eagle. The Eagle wasn’t completely blown to shit as Ozzy had thought.

  It was on its side with holes burned through it. Its white exterior mostly turned black from fire.

  Ozzy followed Quad up the ramp into Gragas’s ship. The ramp closed after Zeld entered. They rushed down several corridors and to the bridge.

  The bridge’s vid screen was split, displaying a fleet of starcruisers on one and several battleships, starfighters, and destroyers on the other.

  From the looks of things, the Dunrakee were sending everything they had. How the hell was he and the Galactic Knights going to get out of this alive?

  Gragas was in his captain’s chair. “Send us in the air, Dizzy.” There was little hope in his voice, something Ozzy hadn’t experienced before with Gragas.

  Dizzy sat at the helm. He made some snapping and popping sounds and pressed a few holographic buttons on a vid screen in front of his chair. The engines revved.

  Ozzy sat at a station and buckled his restraints. Zeld did the same.

  Quad remained standing, his arms folded across his chest. “Do we need me to man a weapon’s array in one of the weapons rooms?”

  Gragas nodded. “Yes. Take Ozzy.”

  Ozzy flopped his head in his hands. No matter how many Dunrakee ships he blew up, it would be too few. They were shit out of luck, and they needed Jozi to fire weapons, not him.

  “Jozi should…” he paused, stopping himself. His trusted friend was gone.

  Screw it. He’d do it for her.

  He unbuckled and gasped, remembering something vitally important. “Wait.”

  They all turned.

  Ozzy stood and walked to the bridge’s exit. “We need Indigo and the Enki device. Open the ramp, and I’ll look in the Eagle.”

  “I’m sorry, Ozzy,” Gragas said. “We have to leave now.”

  Ozzy cocked his head to the side. “I’m not being clear. The teleportation device can teleport us straight to the moon.”

  “How could it do that?”

  “That’s how we got from the moon to this location we’re parked at right now. The device is still on the Eagle. We activate it, and we thrust ourselves through some type of teleportation to a location on the moon. We’d have no problem getting away.”

  The device was metallic, and Indigo was a rock, so he figured they might not have burned to a crisp when the Eagle was on fire.

  Gragas twisted around and eyed the vid screen. The fleet was a few minutes away if that. “Well, hurry up then. We’ll take as much firepower as we can. This device of yours may be the only chance we have for us to survive.” He folded his arms over his chest, looking at Dizzy. “Open the ramp. We’ll fly around and dodge missiles and photon blasts as best we can. We’ll keep an eye on you, Ozzy, and come get you when you emerge.”

  Ozzy nodded and ran out of the bridge. He sped down the hallway and curled around a corner, entering the holding bay.

  The ramp was open, and he rushed down it and onto the grassy meadow.

  He pumped his arms and legs, moving swiftly toward the charred Eagle.

  He glanced at the sky. The fleet was almost on top of them. A few lights flashed from the lead cruiser. He furrowed his brow and heard thunderous cannons a few seconds later.

  Incoming.

  He eyed a burned-out hole in the Eagle’s bridge. The screams from cannon slugs filled his ears.

  “Oh shit.”

  He leaped.

  Waboom!

  A rush of heat threw him into the ship at a faster clip. He tumbled head over heels and slammed into a wall.

  The booms and thrust of Gragas’s ship’s boosters sailed through the air. The craft shot into the sky, flying away from the incoming weapon’s fire.

  Ozzy gathered himself and studied his surroundings. The Eagle was tipped to the side, and because so, so was the bridge. He crawled along the wall, making his way to the bridge’s doorway that led to the corridor.

  He was heading to the lobby—
the last place he saw the teleportation device.

  He stood and hurried down the corridor’s wall and found himself in the lobby.

  The underbelly was blown to shit, and scorch marks were on the walls and the floor. The couches and chairs were torn to shreds, and the ramp was blown off and lying on the ground.

  The Eagle trembled from the rumble of ships overhead. He paused and listened.

  He let out a breath of relief. The ships were passing over him. They didn’t know he was here. Instead, they were chasing Gragas.

  His eyes darted left and right. The silver baseball-sized device wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

  He drooped his shoulders. “Where the hell could it be?”

  He walked to a couch and threw a half-burnt cushion to the floor. Again, the device wasn’t there.

  The Eagle rocked back and forth, and a thunderous growl echoed across the walls. Ozzy’s eyes widened, and every muscle in his body tightened. “Oh no.”

  Through a hole in the ship, he could see a small transport craft lowering onto the meadow. Flames expelled from its belly thrusters, and its wide wings rotated and moved inward like a hawk folding its wings when landing.

  He pulled out his gun. “For once give me a Mars damned break.” He curled his fingers into a fist.

  He gritted his teeth and jogged to a chair. He nodded, remembering that’s where Zeld was sitting when she had turned on the teleportation device and sent them from the moon to this meadow.

  He threw the cushion on the floor, and his eyes brightened. For a moment, he almost smiled. The device was under the cushion.

  He grabbed it and opened his satchel, throwing it inside. After zipping the satchel, he moved around the hole, eyeing a small group of rifle-wearing, ready-to-kill soldiers heading his way.

  If Ozzy’s observation was correct, from their posture and loose walk, they had no clue Ozzy or anyone else was inside the Eagle.

  He cautiously walked forward, making sure to keep low. He stepped around a corner and tiptoed down the wall in the corridor, heading toward the auxiliary engines room.

  His most trusted buddy, Indigo, was in that room.

  He rounded another corner and stopped dead in his tracks.

  “Mother Mars,” he whispered.

  The auxiliary room was closed. Opening the door would be impossible. The Eagle was dead, and without power, the door wouldn’t budge.

  Footsteps pounded against the walls.

  “Shit,” he whispered to himself.

  The Dunrakee had entered the ship.

  42

  Earth • Ancient Athapaskan Land, California

  He holstered his gun, and with both hands, palmed the door leading to the auxiliary room. There was something that rang true for all human ships. He couldn’t say the same about the Dunrakee or other races in the deep galaxy, but when the power failed, the locking and sealing mechanisms failed as well.

  It turned out he wasn’t entirely out of luck.

  He pushed upward, and the door opened. The good news, everything was well greased and relatively silent. The bad news, the Dunrakee were chatting it up, laughing, and heading his way.

  He slowly moved the door open more. He went on his hands and knees and pushed himself through the small opening he created.

  It was a tight fit, and the rifle strapped around his shoulder pinched against his back, and the baseball-sized device in his satchel pressed uncomfortably against his stomach.

  Dunrakee boots clanked louder in the corridor. Another turn in the hall and they’d see him.

  He cringed and squirmed through the opening completely. He turned and cautiously pushed on the door, closing it.

  He tiptoed like a kid trying to steal a cookie, moving around a large engine drive and bent down under a counter where Indigo should be located.

  Wires went in and out of the glowing rock—a technology he figured he’d never understand. The rock would automatically suck the wires into itself and meld around it, activating a ghost signature to the ship.

  He went on his back and grabbed the wires with his hand and pulled them out as easily as he had slipped them in.

  The rock glowed brighter, then a second later diminished in intensity.

  “Hello to you too.” He patted the rock like it was his dog and unzipped his satchel. It wouldn’t fit because of the healing gift the Dunrakee woman gave him. It didn’t take him long to weigh his options. The healing device was not going home with him. He set it on top of a table and placed Indigo inside the satchel and slowly zipped the satchel back up so as not to make too much noise.

  Sounds came from outside the auxiliary room’s door. The Dunrakee were walking past it, talking and hooting it up. They most likely thought they were on a routine mission with nothing to see, nothing to report.

  He hoped it stayed that way.

  Ozzy wiggled out from under the counter and stood. He took a step around a power station and twisted his torso to look for another passage out of here. Maybe the air ducts?

  His satchel clanged against the corner of the station, and a loud bang bounced off the walls.

  The talking outside the room stopped, and the bootsteps halted.

  They knew someone was inside.

  43

  Earth • Ancient Athapaskan Land, California

  Ozzy backed away from the power station, his eyes like saucers.

  Not good.

  He wanted to slap himself, but right now wouldn’t be the best time.

  A knock on the door. “Click-clack wohma wan?” Another knock. “Click-clack wohma wan?”

  They wanted to know who was there. It was basic Dunrakee language, and Ozzy knew it well.

  Maybe they thought a Dunrakee kid or an animal found their way inside.

  The door opened a few centimeters.

  Ozzy grabbed the back of his neck, poking his fingernails into his skin. He paced for a moment, thinking.

  The door opened a few more centimeters.

  He saw the signature block-toed Dunrakee combat boots. He had to hide.

  He backpedaled as quietly as possible, moving behind a workstation. Crouching, he crawled under a desk, slipped his fingers around his gun’s grip, and slowly slid it out of his holster.

  He checked the cartridge photon charge. It was plenty full. He kissed the barrel. “It’s just you and me,” he whispered.

  The door slid open more, and the Dunrakee entered the engine room. They weren’t talking or yapping it up as they had been.

  They stepped cautiously.

  Ozzy leaned his head against the inside of the desk. He squeezed his hand around the photon pistol’s grip. His heart picked up, and his breaths were shallow and erratic.

  A bootstep stopped centimeters away from the other side of Ozzy’s hiding place. He could hear the Dunrakee soldier’s hyper breathing. The guy was as nervous as Ozzy.

  The Dunrakee stepped around the desk, his boots clanking on the floor next to where Ozzy was hiding.

  One more step and the Dunrakee would be in full view.

  Ozzy pointed the gun, his hands shaking.

  The soldier rounded the desk, his almond-shaped eyes searching around, except under the desk. Ozzy held his breath, hoping he was somehow invisible for the first time in his life.

  The Dunrakee’s eyes crept down, and his black lips curled into a frown.

  44

  Earth • Ancient Athapaskan Land, California

  He spotted Ozzy and went for his gun.

  Ozzy pulled the trigger, and the grunt jumped out of the way in time and dropped his weapon and slipped on the floor, his head next to Ozzy’s foot. Ozzy quickly twisted his rifle around, smacking the butt of his rifle against the Dunrakee soldier’s temple.

  The guy went out like a light, blood oozing down the side of his face.

  Shots blared in the engine room and banged against the walls. Their shots were so wild; it was evident the soldiers hadn’t any idea where Ozzy was.

  Ozzy crept out from under the d
esk, keeping low so the Dunrakee couldn’t see him.

  He bear-crawled behind an ionic generator and aimed his weapon.

  A Dunrakee moved around one of the massive oxygen tanks and into view. The grunt’s back was to Ozzy.

  Ozzy went into an offensive crouch and leaped. He wrapped his arm around the Dunrakee’s neck and shoulder. He pressed his gun against the soldier’s forehead.

  The Dunrakee stiffened.

  “Wombak click-clack,” said Ozzy, tightening his grip around the guy. If memory served him, it meant “drop.” He didn’t know weapon, but he hoped the guy knew that he meant “drop your weapon.”

  The guy didn’t drop his weapon. Ozzy eyed two Dunrakee soldiers near the door with their weapons drawn.

  “Wombak click-clack,” repeated Ozzy.

  The Dunrakee’s large lungs expanded, and a puff of air blew out of his mouth. He dropped his weapon.

  “Good boy,” said Ozzy. He pulled him around the drive stabilizers and pushed him toward the open door and the other Dunrakee.

  “Don’t move a muscle,” Ozzy told them. “I’ll put a few holes in your friend’s head if you do.”

  He knew they didn’t understand, but the less they understood, the better. Confusion might work in his favor.

  A soldier backed away from the door and went to talk into his shoulder communicator.

  Ozzy stopped and pressed harder into the grunt’s skull. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Remember your friend here?”

  The guy moved his mouth away from his shoulder. His eyebrows v’d.

  “Yeah, be pissed at me, prick. Take a man’s planet and expect him to fall over and die? I don’t think so. Drop your weapons.”

  The two Dunrakee didn’t know what he said and kept their weapons drawn.

  “Wombak click-clack,” said Ozzy.

  They stiffened and looked at each other.