The Resistance- The Complete Series

by Nathan Hystad

  Serina was proving to be a tough woman to deal with, but she got things done, and Flint could respect that. He’d only met Jish Karn once, but he’d gotten a similar vibe from her. Those two were cut from the same cloth.

  The carrier lights blinked on and off, flickering all the way down the corridor. Flint was so used to the luxury of the Eureka, he almost forgot what piles of junk the other Fleet vessels could be like at times. They never seemed to have enough power to supply all functions, and though later models had fixed that issue, it was clear the Fleet had lost a lot of their vessels in the war.

  Flint hoped to see an inventory of what they had, and where. He also wanted to see Earth with his own two eyes again. What was it like there now? Did the people live under the constant threat of destruction, or did they go about their days like always, while the Fleet tried to protect them?

  They walked to the edge of the carrier, to a slight observing window. These vessels were made for war, and for carrying fighters and drop ships, so there were only a few viewers scattered throughout. In the old days, they were used to get a visual on enemies, should the viewscreens fail.

  He stared out it, at the space where the Rift had opened and closed shortly thereafter. The Pilgrim and Eureka were side by side, a scattering of fighters outside both ships, standing guard.

  Serina had promised to get Captain Hawk and the Pilgrim to safety once the Watcher warship was dealt with, but now that had been delayed. From here, Flint couldn’t see the other ships the Grand Admiral had in her Fleet, but he was aware they had two corvettes, one of their own warships, and as many fighters as they could cram into the carrier he and Charles stood in now.

  “Let’s see if Wren and the others have made it over yet.” Flint had to ask directions to the “war room,” and was led there by a short man in a ruffled uniform.

  Serina Trone sat at the head of the table this time. The same two guards hovered behind her, meeting Flint’s gaze with hostility. He did his best to not seem intimidated as he found a seat beside Wren. She was scrolling through data on a tablet. From the looks of it, they were dissections of organs, with videos.

  Flint turned away before he lost his lunch. His hand covered his eyes. “What are you doing?”

  “They’ve been studying the Watchers closely, and I wanted to see what’s been discovered so far. I am a scientist, you know,” Wren said.

  “I know, but that stuff is… a little demented.”

  “If you were offered a pilot’s seat in an unknown spacecraft, would you want to fly it?” she asked him, keeping her voice low so only the two of them could hear their conversation.

  “I would. Oh, I see. Keep observing your stomachs, or whatever that blob is.” Flint was anxious to hear the rest of the story of the war.

  Serina tapped the table’s built-in console, and the lights in the large room dimmed. Screens lined the walls, each flashing information Flint didn’t recognize. He noticed Charles staring intensely at the images, probably recording them for analysis later.

  “In case you aren’t aware, we’ve tagged the escaped warship, and will be waiting for their destroyed life support system to kill them off before we go to claim the vessel. Thank you, Charles, for your bravery and quick thinking,” Serina said.

  Flint was glad she took the time to acknowledge the android. Wren shot an eyebrow up at Flint before turning back to the head of the table.

  Captain Barkley was in the room with them, sitting beside Captain Aldene Hawk of the Pilgrim. She looked upset about something, and Flint thought he knew why.

  “When are we going to bring my ship somewhere a little more secure than the one spot we know the Watchers will visit?” Captain Hawk asked, her voice as sharp as a real hawk’s beak.

  “Watchers. I forgot some people called them that. They’re the Invaders to us.” Serina laughed to herself, making the room uncomfortable.

  Flint noted no one else was laughing.

  “You didn’t answer me,” Captain Hawk stated, her tone laced with annoyance.

  “When we get the warship. I already told Captain Barkley that.” Serina’s voice had gone cold, her face impassive.

  Flint noticed Ace and Oliv weren’t invited this time, and he hoped the kid was getting some sleep.

  Hawk wasn’t letting down. “Since when does Earth Fleet leave its own hanging to die while orchestrating a pirate mission?”

  “With all due respect, Aldene,” Serina said, planting her palms down on the table, “this is my ship, my Fleet, and while you were off hiding underwater on a faraway planet, I was here, watching half of our people die at the hands of these Watchers. If you don’t mind, I’ll do the talking for the rest of this meeting.”

  Flint leaned back, as if this would help save him from the imminent crossfire. To his surprise, Captain Hawk folded her arms under her chest and let out a huff, remaining silent for the rest of the meeting.

  “Very good. You wanted to know where we are with this war, and I’ll show you.” Serina tapped the console again, and the 3D image of the solar system appeared at the end of the table. The planets spun slowly, the sun a realistic impression of the real thing, hung in the center of it all, burning hotly. Flint could almost feel the heat emanating from the fake depiction.

  “Uranus is theirs. They killed everyone on Caliban and took over the mine. From there, they create materials to produce and repair their ships. It was a big blow to us, and one of the first things the Invaders did upon arrival.” Grand Admiral Serina Trone stood now, crossing the room, her boots echoing on the hard floor in the otherwise silent room.

  Flint noticed Wren’s face scrunch up in pain at the news. Charles shifted in his seat.

  “Once they had that locked down, they spread out past the Oort cloud, and when they didn’t find much of use, they moved in, hitting Saturn. We were lucky enough to evacuate what we could.” The 3D image changed to a video: scenes of ships lifting from Titan’s docks played as people screamed. Bombs set off all around the ground; some ships were destroyed, while others made it off the colony moon safely. “We lost millions of lives that day and were forced to retreat our defense. This was a year after they invaded.”

  Flint thought about that. The Watchers really were patient. This surprised him, with what he’d seen so far. But the resistance they’d met as they’d hit from outpost to moon to planet only a few months ago had seemed a little uncoordinated and lackadaisical. The Watchers were warriors, but Flint noticed they didn’t seem to have the best minds for war games. Humanity had to be able to use that to their advantage. Maybe with the arrival of him and the others, they’d finally be able to turn the tides and take back their system.

  Serina would have only been around twenty years old then. She’d been through a lot. Flint was going to cut the Grand Admiral some slack and show her support to get everyone on the same side.

  “That must have been hard. Your mother was in charge at that time?” Flint asked.

  Serina’s eyes softened for a moment. “She was. We regrouped, and from what we could tell, they used everything they found to improve their fleet in the next year. We took the time to expand our Shift capabilities, and Mercury’s prison became a production facility, as did Earth’s moon. The battles were each of us Shifting squadrons to one another, attempting to catch the other off-guard. It really only ended in even losses most times, so both parties stopped doing them after that year.

  “They moved for the Moons next. Jupiter was a huge win for them. The losses were so high. There were so many people there not willing to leave, even when we forced evacuation. Most of those remaining had never lived anywhere else, and somehow they didn’t believe an alien force was coming to destroy them. Europa became their next foothold.”

  Flint pictured the enemy flying around in his freighter, the Perdita. Benson had left it at the docking station above Europa, and Flint silently hoped it was blown up, rather than being taken by the Watchers.

  “How far into the war was this?” Barkley asked.r />
  “Five years,” Serina said, and Flint saw her age in her weary face.

  “What happened in the last twenty-five?” Captain Hawk asked. They all wanted to know.

  “So much, and yet so little. We played cat and mouse. We still have Mars, though it’s empty of civilians, and none of our people live within the dome any longer. They have everything past Mars. It’s taken a lot of work to keep it that way. They’ve attacked Earth four times in total. To date, we’ve managed to hold them off, though they did take out half of Canada in the process,” Serina said.

  Flint hated hearing that, and the looks on everyone else’s faces mirrored his own feelings. “Show us the battles,” he urged. He wanted to learn everything he could about their tactics.

  3

  Serina

  Serina undid the buttons, letting her uniform hang loose around her chest. She slid the top off, letting it fall to the floor of her quarters. She wanted nothing more than to hit the shower and dive face-first onto her bed, but she had one last thing to do before that happened.

  She walked to the mirror and regarded herself. She tried to imagine the girl she used to be when she looked into her red-rimmed eyes, and couldn’t even find a glimpse of her. Ace’s coming had affected her more than she could have guessed. Seeing him almost the same age as he’d been had set emotions off inside her she hadn’t known were still there. Ace was taller now, hair longer, and obviously stronger than he’d been, but he was still the same sassy kid with raw talent he hadn’t seen until he’d been pushed at Fleet training.

  Serina ran her eyes down to her left side, where her metallic arm reflected the dim light from her vanity. She used her right hand to touch it, feeling the cold surface where her own arm used to be. She undid her pants, their weight drifting to the floor as well. She stepped out of them, seeing the artificial leg she usually avoided. She felt better not acknowledging her replaced limbs, but today, she couldn’t help herself.

  Ace would have noticed, and Serina suddenly felt like she couldn’t hide from her past. She bent her knee, hearing the whirring of the tiny mechanics inside it. She stood there in her underwear, trying to be okay with what she saw in the mirror before heading into the shower, where she scrubbed the stress of the day off with a fervor she wasn’t used to. She let the heat of the shower release the tension that had formed in her shoulders, and for a moment felt like the young vibrant woman she’d once been.

  A light flashed, indicating someone was at her door. She put on a t-shirt and a pair of tights, folding her wet hair into a towel, and crossed her quarters to answer it.

  Ace stood outside her room, and Serina caught him glancing at her as if he was seeing an alien instead.

  “Come in,” she offered softly, pressing the towel against her damp hair.

  “Is it a bad time?” he asked, hesitating before stepping inside.

  She turned to the boy and laughed. “Ace, we don’t often have a good time for much anymore. Things have changed.”

  He laughed with her now, setting her nerves at ease. She didn’t know why being around him made her feel so off. “If you recall, I’ve never had a good time in my life. Homeless, starving, all of that,” Ace replied, making light of his past.

  “That’s right.” She’d almost forgotten what rough shape he was in when she first saw his skeletal body in line at the Fleet recruiting office outside Old Chicago. To her, it was a lifetime ago.

  Ace was wearing a hoodie and uniform pants, and she was glad he wasn’t in an official Fleet uniform for the moment. She wanted to talk to him not as the Grand Admiral, but as a human who’d once been friends with him.

  She saw his gaze linger on her arm. “I suppose you want the story?”

  “Only if you want to tell it,” Ace said.

  “Would you like a drink?” she asked, crossing the living space to a well-equipped wet bar.

  Ace shook his head. “Just a water, please.”

  “Suit yourself,” she said, pouring a stiff drink before setting it down. Serina knew she shouldn’t tonight. She was in a fragile state after the last couple of days. She picked it up and passed Ace his water with her flesh hand.

  Ace sat down across from her on a leather chair. She took the compact sofa, stretching her legs in front of her. “It was about twelve years ago. We’d already lost so much, and they were making a play for Mars. At the time, it was empty already, but it was my first year as Grand Admiral. My mother had died ten years prior, and Councilman Lock took over, resuming his Fleet status after a vote. I hadn’t wanted the job, but when Lock was killed during an attack on Earth, I was named the heir in a flash.

  “I wanted to prove myself, but unlike Lock, I set out to captain my own ship as they pressed closer in-system. They sent five warships, and somewhere around two hundred fighters. We held them off, but lost a quarter of our Fleet in the process. As they were retreating with their last remaining warship, my carrier was hit.” Serina stopped her story and took a sip of the whiskey. It burned as it trailed down her throat.

  “What happened?” Ace asked, creeping to the edge of his seat.

  “That’s it. Half my ship was torn apart before we could Shift, and I lost these as a wall blew open. I was tugged so hard, my arm literally ripped off, and my leg was crushed. Almost everyone aboard was killed, but somehow, they evacuated me before the carrier exploded into a million pieces. Adams was the man who saved me, and I’ll never forget the look in his eyes when I came to back on Earth. I instantly felt something was wrong.” Serina cleared her throat and took another drink.

  “I’m sorry,” Ace said meekly.

  “For what? We held them off, and I lived to fight another day. I say I got off easy,” she said.

  “I’m still sorry. I left you. I could have stayed to help,” Ace said, and Serina thought it was the kindest thing she’d ever heard.

  “Ace, listen to me. You’d probably be dead right now if you’d stayed. They all died.”

  “Buck and the others?” Ace asked, hope glimmering in his eyes.

  “Dead. Almost every new recruit brought up with us is gone. Sure, there are a handful left here and there, but none that I personally knew,” Serina said.

  Ace took a long drink of his water. He nodded at her tumbler. “I think I’d like one of those after all.”

  “Help yourself,” she told him.

  Ace got up and did just that. “Can we win this?” he asked, his gaze away from her.

  Serina considered the question. “If I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t be the Grand Admiral, would I?”

  “Spoken like someone avoiding the real answer,” Ace said, coming to sit beside her on the couch. She adjusted to make enough room.

  “Truthfully, I don’t know. It’s been so long, Ace, and I’m so tired.” Serina leaned her head against his shoulder, feeling weird about it at first but comforted at the same time. Here was a boy from her own childhood. She was hardly an adult when they’d met so long ago, but she’d been a kid in so many ways.

  She’d looked at the Earth Fleet like it was going to be an amazing adventure, full of politics and placating mayors more than fighting anyone. Her mother had complained about that side, but Serina had welcomed it with open arms. If only she’d known then what she knew now.

  Peering over at Ace, she was sure it wouldn’t have changed anything. She still would have stuck with it, because fighting the Invaders was in her blood.

  “What do we need to do to win?” Ace asked.

  Serina had many different thoughts about this question, but with the new arrivals, maybe they could finally do this right. “We need to take the fight to them. We won the battle at the Rift two days ago as you entered. That was a huge win. The Fleet showed something to the Invaders we hadn’t shown in a long time: unity and aggression. We’ve been holding back too long, waiting for something to change, but it never does. The longer we wait, the stronger they get.”

  “We strike fast and hard!” Ace said excitedly.

  “Not
quite. First we take this warship down, extract anything of use, and return to Earth. Captain Hawk has extensive experience, and with the rest of the training, which I hear you helped create, we can rebuild a team.” For the first time since they’d arrived, Serina began seeing things clearly.

  “I’m happy to be in this with you, Serina. Or should I call you Grand Admiral?” Ace asked with a grin.

  Serina’s voice caught in her throat. Being around Ace seemed to bring her out of the funk she’d been stuck in for far too long. She was once again that youthful girl, with dreams and aspirations.

  “Maybe we can do this,” she said softly. “So Jarden Fairbanks’ daughter, hey?”

  Ace shrugged. “I wouldn’t have wanted to be there when he found out she left with the Pilgrim. His head probably exploded. But he’s not a bad guy once you get to know him.”

  “I’m sure. I’m just pleased we have his ship here. Whatever bombs you were utilizing, we need to duplicate them. I think your Chief Engineer Tomas is on board now with the plans. We can start production as soon as we’re back. Mercury has a facility that will accommodate the manufacturing.” Serina internally listed how much of her job entailed overseeing a supply chain of weapons and ships, along with people, food, and water.

  Serina let Ace refill her tumbler with the comforting liquid, and even though her eyes were droopy and ready for sleep, they talked late into the night. She felt younger and more energetic than she had in a long time.

  Flint

  “Banks, what are you doing here?” Flint asked the burly commander of the Pilgrim.

  He scowled at Flint before speaking. “I volunteered. When I heard there was a life-risking mission to board a ship full of the enemy, I was the first to raise my hand. What do you think?”

  Flint held in a smile. “Hawk got tired of your constant naysaying and is making you do this?”

  “Something like that,” Commander Kep Banks growled.

  “I guess we’re going to be partners,” Flint said, wishing he was paired with a Marine like Bull. He pushed the thoughts of his dead friend away. It wasn’t a good way to kick off a mission like this. “Positive thoughts,” he whispered to himself.