Reclaim: Books 1-3

by J. A. Scorch

  "This item seemed important enough for you to protect with your life. What is it?"

  He shook his head. "I thought you people would know."

  "Where did you find it?"

  "On board the MDSE Verminus in the hands of CSO Aksyonov, like I said before to the other officer that asked me."

  "That's ok, Sergeant," Garcia said, raising a hand. "I have to ask. You know the drill by now."

  "Sorry, ma'am. I'm just tired. This is all happening so fast."

  "Take a minute to relax," Garcia said, "but after that, we must push forward. As I said, time is something we are short on."

  Pérez let out a long breath and motioned for her to continue.

  "As I was saying, Sergeant, you thought this item was worthy of your time and ours. What do you think it is?"

  "No idea. All I can say is that Aksyonov was willing to sacrifice a lot of lives to secure it. That thing is the reason we were sent to the middle of nowhere in the first place. That CSO dragged us out there to acquire that item from the MDSE. He got our teams all killed doing so. It has to mean something. Otherwise, they all died for nothing." He thought about his squad. They'd served together for years and had fought by each other's sides. When the Zeal cut them down in a matter of minutes, all Pérez managed to achieve was to escape. The guilt was so strong in his head that he could taste it in the back of his throat.

  "I believe you," Garcia said. "I only wanted to see with my own eyes whether you knew what this item was."

  A moment of silence passed between them until Pérez asked the only question on his mind. "What do you think it is, ma’am?"

  Garcia leaned back a little. She apparently didn't appreciate being asked a question by an NCO of all people. "We don't know yet. Our best people are studying it and have determined that it is not human technology. It's also not made up from anything that exists within our system."

  "So it must belong to these Zeal aliens, then. Maybe it's not as important as I thought it was. Maybe the CSO was wrong to take it. Besides, we got there too late to understand why he wanted it so badly."

  Garcia didn't say a word. She stared at Pérez for a moment longer than he felt comfortable ignoring before she refocused on the tablet.

  "That's all I can tell you, ma’am. If you want to learn more, ask Souza. She's the smart one. I'm simply a grunt that survived."

  The commodore cleared her throat. "Thank you for the suggestion, but JSO Souza has already given us everything possible. She had determined that the object was foreign to Earth and Mars and had to be alien. What she couldn't possibly have known under the circumstances was something our experts can't explain."

  Pérez lowered his head as a pain stabbed into his temples. He didn't have the energy to continue giving the commodore the respect and attention she demanded. With no other option, he continued to indulge her.

  "What are you talking about, ma’am?"

  Garcia pushed the box closer to him and spun her tablet around to show him a picture of the item covered in digital notes and data.

  "This object is indeed alien, but it does not belong to the Zeal."

  The pain in his temples got worse. "What? That's impossible. You must be wrong."

  Garcia shook her head. "Not impossible. Every single material found in this device doesn't come close to matching up with anything found on a Zeal carrier, body, or weapon. There's nothing remotely like it."

  "What are you saying? I don't understand." Pérez stood from the chair.

  Garcia's voice grew louder. "I'm saying, Sergeant, that you discovered an item that may belong to a whole other deadly form of Zeal."

  "No."

  "Yes. You also thought it would be a good idea to bring this highly sort after object along for the ride to Mars."

  "You don't understand. I thought—"

  "You didn't think," Garcia shouted as she too stood from her seat. "Now sit down and answer my questions."

  Pérez held the commodore's gaze, not wanting to give her the satisfaction. He eventually sat back down as the weight of the world fell on his shoulders.

  Garcia continued with a calmer voice. "Our best people have no idea what to make of this discovery. It's possible the Zeal possess other technology out there that we don't know about, but that's a long shot. There is nothing in this device that matches the material typically associated with the fighters they have on Earth."

  "I'm sorry. I didn't realize. What else can I say? I thought it was important. I should have destroyed it."

  Garcia shook her head as she closed the container. She let out a long breath and sat back down.

  "It's hard to say if that would have been wise or not," Garcia said. "Destroying it could have activated any number of possibilities. We won't know until we've had years to study this object."

  A long moment of silence had passed before Pérez spoke again. "I don't know what else to tell you about it. I was trying to survive—"

  Garcia silenced him again with a raised palm. "It doesn't matter. Frankly, Sergeant, we may be in possession of an item that belongs to an entirely different form of the Zeal. One that could be more advanced than the deadly soldiers scattered all over Earth."

  Chapter Forty-Five

  The UEF lifter docked with the MBC Orion via the universal docking clamps fitted previously by the MAF. Up until a year ago, the two entities were separate from one another and were only allies at face value. It amazed Teve that even when confronted with complete destruction, humanity still found ways to make their lives worse.

  The Orion was currently orbiting Mars, fresh from the orbital shipping yards off the production line.

  Once the lifter had been shunted inside and was enveloped into the ship's artificial gravity, the passengers on board were given clearance to disembark from the cramped area of the aging transport.

  Teve stumbled on tired legs as he found his feet on the battle carrier. It was his first journey into space, and the entire thing felt rather anticlimactic seeing he was trapped inside a metal cage the whole time. He never got to view Earth from orbit the way he had imagined the trip would be in his head.

  "Welcome aboard the MBC Orion," yelled a captain from a causeway bridge stationed above the deck. "My name is Captain Blackman, and I will be directing you all to your appropriate stations on this ship. Special Forces soldiers will need to go with Captain Delarosa here while you MAF pilots are to come with me. Any questions?"

  Several hands went up.

  "Nobody? Okay then. Let's get started. Now, I only have one rule for you all to keep in mind while you're on board this beautiful war machine: don't think of yourselves as guests on this ship. You are now a part of its crew, and you won't do anything to hurt your ship or the people inside its hull. We know who the real enemy is. Let's not forget why we're here."

  Teve felt Bradley saddle up beside him and clear his throat. All around the deck soldiers and pilots starting clustering together to leave and follow their designated commander. "I suppose this is where we part ways for a while," he said before Bradley could get a word out.

  "Unfortunately. I'll try and catch up with you before the big push, but I don't think they're going to give us much in the way of downtime."

  Teve faced his brother with a smile. "Don't sweat it, man. You just focus on getting ready for everything and don't worry about me."

  Bradley gave him a nod and held out his hand for them to shake.

  "Screw that," Teve said as he pulled him in for a solid hug. The two soldiers slapped each other's backs and held on tight for a few moments. Once the hug was over, he could tell Bradley wanted to say something else.

  "I should have found you sooner, Teve. I wasted so much time up here—"

  "Hey. It wasn't wasted. You were training pilots. That's exactly what we need now."

  "I know, but ... " Bradley didn't finish his thought, so he cut in.

  "No regrets, okay? We got to see each other one last time before the big day. That's more than I ever imagined. Now hurry
up and go before they drag your ass out of here."

  Bradley patted him on the arm with a smile as he followed Lieutenant Clay away from the deck. Teve kept his eyes on them until they were clear of the room. He turned back to the group of SF soldiers and didn't spot any familiar faces. A sigh came out of him as he realized he wasn't in the mood to make new friends.

  "Okay, listen up," Delarosa yelled over the chatter. "I will be your CO for the next five days before we hit the new Zeal fleet head on. The ship you are currently standing on is a state of the art Martian battle carrier. She has just come off the line and is ready to kill some alien scum."

  Some of the soldiers hooted at the captain's words.

  "Shut the hell up," Delarosa said. "Don't for a second think that this mission will be a walk in the park. Every battle you've ever had with the Zeal up until this point was practice for this fight. I'm not going to lie to any of you. The defense of our system is going to be the hardest thing humanity has ever faced. We are running straight into a hurricane with nothing but an umbrella."

  None of the soldiers made a sound as they stood there and absorbed the captain's words. Teve could discern the desperation in the MAF CO's face. His left eye was twitching with his every word, and his right hand had a slight jitter to it. The man was either nervous as hell, or he'd spent the last few years drinking the war away.

  "For the next six days, you are all going to train until your genetically-altered bodies collapse. I wanna see exactly what is so special about you SF troops."

  The man's curiosity reminded Teve in an instant about the one difficulty he had no solution to. The nanites within his body were slowly turning against him after a year of enhancements. He wondered how many other soldiers on board the ship knew about the problem. They were either all in the dark or well and truly in the know. Ultimately, it didn't matter.

  "Your training starts now. Join up with the rest of the SF soldiers on board this shiny new tub on Deck K. I will meet you there in four minutes. If any of you takes a second longer, there will be hell to pay."

  Captain Delarosa stormed off without another word as the SF soldiers all looked at each other with confused faces. None of them would have known where Deck K would be situated, so Teve quickly set a timer for three minutes and fifty seconds before he stepped forward to a map attached to the far wall and called out to the rest of the group.

  "Over here, guys," he said as his eyes picked up the details of the map when he was only a few steps away. He ran a finger over the plan and found Deck K. "Oh, shit," he let out.

  "What is it?" asked a scrawny soldier from behind.

  Teve glanced back to the girl and the three other SF troopers who had huddled around her. "We better run if we're going to make it down there in less than four minutes."

  They all glimpsed at one another for a stunned moment before Teve took charge. "Let's go. Follow me." He jogged off while prompting the group to come along. A few kept up with him, forcing the others to chase or be left behind. Soon he was at the head of a fast-moving train of SF soldiers all charging down the halls of the MBC Orion faster than any person on board had ever moved.

  Teve didn't hold back as he bolted as quickly as his legs would allow. If he weren't enhanced by the nanites, the trip would have taken at least seven minutes by his count, even with a proper start, unlike the one they just had.

  Once the group all arrived on Deck K, Teve instantly slowed up when he saw three familiar faces greet him.

  "Tower?" Romeo asked as she stopped sparring with Red. The two SF soldiers came charging over to him as the rest of his group entered the area.

  "What the hell are you doing here? We thought you were dead," Red said. Pocket came over from her sparring partner a moment later as Red and Romeo slapped him on the shoulder.

  "Long story," Teve said as Pocket arrived and gave him a hug. He had to lean down to reach her short frame. She squeezed him tight for a second and let him stand back up straight. "Where's Mish?"

  Teve's smile faded. "She's ... " His eyes danced around for a minute. "She's still on Earth. They needed her for a special mission. They wanted the best of the best, so they took her." He could see Pocket's eyes questioning his lie.

  "Lucky her," Romeo said. Teve couldn't tell if any of them were buying the story, but none of the three would say another word about it.

  "So how is all this training going?" he asked.

  "It's boring," Red said. "Not like the training we had at Pendle. Too easy. MAF think they can push us. Not a clue."

  Teve chuckled at the Russian's words. "Well, that's good, I suppose. Don't want to be too tired before the big fight, do we?"

  "Don't remind me," Romeo said. "It's bad enough they dragged us all the way up here in the first place. Command just couldn't let us all die back on Earth. I mean, we're dead, either way."

  "Romeo," Pocket said through gritted teeth. "Shut up."

  "What?" she let out. "He might as well know, too."

  "It's okay," Teve said, raising both arms to calm the situation down. "I already heard about the nanites."

  "It sucks a big one, right?" Romeo blurted. "Of course the UEF kept it a secret for as long as they could. Assholes."

  Teve scratched the back of his head. "So, does everyone here know?"

  All three of them nodded. Red stepped closer to him and placed an arm on his shoulder. "We all do. That is why every one of us is here to fight. We all go down with glory when Zeal arrive."

  "Well," Teve said. "Good to hear I'm not the only one who knows this damning piece of news then."

  "Afraid not, Tower. You're as screwed as the rest of us," Romeo said. "We better get back to training. The CO's here."

  Teve let the thought of every SF soldier knowing their fate sink in before he bunched up with the rest of his people to listen to the CO ramble on about their training and the coming days. Teve didn't hear a word of it as he felt himself leave his body behind as the blood drained from his skin.

  It was at that moment that he realized he had made a mistake in coming here.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Porter arrived on Deck A to find a row of thirty-six X90 Stalkers all lined up to perfection with slingshot tubes. He stared at the glorious sight for so long he almost didn't notice an arm slapping him on the back. As he turned around to face the disruption, he got the surprise of his life when he saw his wingman, Lieutenant Andre Briggs standing there with a smile.

  "Briggs?"

  "Yes, sir," the lieutenant said. "Reporting for duty." He didn't wait for another second to enclose Porter in a hug.

  "How the hell are you even here?" Porter asked him as they let go of each other.

  "Transferred from the Andromeda. I tracked down where they'd be assigning you and told the MAF I needed my wingman. They didn't care what ship I served on just as long as I was flying for the fight."

  Porter shook his head with a smile. "You crazy bastard. What? You didn't want to go down without seeing the Zeal blow me up first?"

  "Something like that. We can finally settle who is the best pilot. I mean, clearly it's me, but you're a close second."

  Porter slapped him on the side of his arm with a chuckle. "Good to see you, Briggs. I was beginning to think I'd be kicking it out there with a bunch of strangers."

  "Couldn't let you do that, sir. We started this war together. I figured we end it flying each other's wing."

  Porter nodded as he stared at the ground. He only had one question on his mind dying for an answer. "I don't suppose you know where Nicole is, do you?"

  Briggs let out a short breath. "Still on the Andromeda. I can't imagine them letting her loose anytime soon, either. Garcia is going nuts over there with some discovery."

  "Discovery?"

  "Yeah, a freighter picked up a life pod a few weeks ago with two MAF soldiers on board who had been drifting across the system in stasis for the last four years. They claim they were the first ones to encounter the Zeal out beyond Pluto. Bastards tried to warn us
all, but they couldn't beam a signal around the Zeal."

  Porter let out a long whistle. "Four years. Damn. They missed all the fun."

  "Tell me about it, but apparently, they found something when the Zeal hit their ship."

  "What do you mean?"

  Briggs glanced left and right at the forming pilots on the deck. He faced Porter again. "Rumor has it that the MAF hold in their possession some alien tech that couldn't possibly belong to the current Zeal army."

  "You're shitting me. That can't be right. If that's the case, then we might be facing something more advanced when that new fleet arrives."

  Briggs threw up his hands in defense as he stepped closer to Porter. "Not saying it's true, but I've heard this from multiple sources now. The info is supposed to be hush-hush, but you understand how these things go."

  Porter felt himself drift back a step. "If that is even half true, we are beyond screwed."

  A nod came from Briggs. "I'll say, but don't tell anyone else. We don't want to spook the ship."

  "They'll all find out soon enough," Porter said. He pulled Briggs to the side so they could be away from the rest of the group. "Why is Nicole involved in this? She should be fighting with us. Especially now. We need all the help we can get."

  Briggs shook his head. "I don't why, but Garcia's got her locked down. I couldn't even say goodbye to her. It's like everyone over there was freaking out about this thing. Frankly, I don't think it will matter in the end. We're outgunned at every step. All we can hope for is that this second fleet is weaker than the first."

  "I doubt it," Porter said as he thought about Nicole. He needed to see her before the big push, but she was now stuck on the Andromeda. Even if he managed to sneak a few hours away with her, he'd die happy.

  "You got over here. Do you think you could get me to the Andromeda for a quick visit?"

  Briggs glanced around again as if there were spies in the room waiting for the perfect time to record their conversation. "I might have a few contacts over here that would grant us a shuttle. We better hurry, though. We're all leaving for the front soon."