Star Angel
Dawn of War
David G McDaniel
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TeamStarAngel.com
Star Angel: Dawn of War
Copyright © 2012 by David G McDaniel
Reprinted, Copyright © 2015
Published by
Black Helm Entertainment
Cover design by
Ivan Zanchetta
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced
in any form, in whole or in part, without
written permission from the author.
The Star Angel Pentalogy is:
Book One: Awakening
Book Two: Return to Anitra
Book Three: Dawn of War
Book Four: Rising
Book Five: Prophecy
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TeamStarAngel.com
Anitra is saved but now the Earth may be in jeopardy. Worse, the fate of Zac is completely unknown. The only way to be sure is to go, and the only way to do that is to steal the one thing that can never be stolen.
Once again Jess is faced with the impossible.
And that’s not the end.
As a result of her last, desperate act, the very thing that saved a world, a sleeping giant has been awakened, the likes of which has not been seen for a thousand years. Lost for a millennium to space and time, it won’t be long before the deadly reality of that threat is felt. An inevitable destiny, and with an unstoppable demon at its helm, it can mean only one thing.
War.
Dedicated to those who do the right thing, even when it isn’t easy.
Thanks to you the world holds promise.
“First comes the Decision. From that all else flows. The Decision is senior to all things.”
— from the Codex Amkradus
CHAPTER 1: THE POWER OF FAITH
CHAPTER 2: A SECRET REVEALED
CHAPTER 3: ANATOMY OF A LONGSHOT
CHAPTER 4: RETURN OF THE HEROES
CHAPTER 5: DOING THE IMPOSSIBLE
CHAPTER 6: A NEW TOY
CHAPTER 7: FLIGHT
CHAPTER 8: RESCUE
CHAPTER 9: ESCAPE
CHAPTER 10: HOME
CHAPTER 11: A TERMINAL SITUATION
CHAPTER 12: INDECISION
CHAPTER 13: MOTIVATION
CHAPTER 14: AN AUDIENCE IS GRANTED
CHAPTER 15: THE TREMARCH
CHAPTER 16: A NEW WORLD
CHAPTER 17: A DISCUSSION OF POSSIBILITIES
CHAPTER 18: DECISIONS
CHAPTER 19: BALLER
CHAPTER 20: A LAST-SECOND BID
CHAPTER 21: CHANGE OF HEART
CHAPTER 22: NO ESCAPING THE PAST
CHAPTER 23: EARTH
CHAPTER 24: GEARING UP
CHAPTER 25: A DAY IN THE REAL WORLD
CHAPTER 26: EVENING’S DAWN
CHAPTER 27: DINNER PLANS
CHAPTER 28: IN THE CROSSHAIRS
CHAPTER 29: DAWN OF A NEW AGE
CHAPTER 30: DJ FUJITO
CHAPTER 31: THE SUMMIT
CHAPTER 32: HIGH IMPACT
CHAPTER 33: A SINKING FEELING
CHAPTER 34: THE SITUATION GETS WORSE
CHAPTER 35: DOWN ON THE FARM
CHAPTER 36: HEALING
CHAPTER 37: THE TICKING CLOCK
CHAPTER 38: DESPERATION
CHAPTER 39: THE BOK
CHAPTER 40: THE VAULT
CHAPTER 41: MOMENT OF CRISIS
CHAPTER 42: ALL SYSTEMS GO
CHAPTER 43: THE CASTLE
CHAPTER 44: DAWN OF WAR
EPILOGUE
CHAPTER 1: THE POWER OF FAITH
Jess sat up. Doing so brought on a disorienting moment of transition as her view shifted from the blue sky overhead to the surrounding violence. Willet remained crouched at her side, patient, waiting for her to gather her wits. Behind him, spanning the horizon, loomed fires and burning black columns of smoke, marking the battle that took place just out of sight. Shocking imagery, it was, paired with the sounds that had been there all along, sharply ending the tranquil view Jess had been staring up into; drifting clouds high above, floating in that tiny slice of pale-blue serenity, somehow having managed to put the horrific noises from her mind. Now the thunder of destruction slammed her back to reality. BOOM! A blast ripped the air, not far away, closer than the rest. Willet’s forced calm, as he tried to be there for her in the wake of her loss, contrasted the intensity of that backdrop.
“We need to get you out of here,” he said gently.
A terrible fear began working its way in from the corners of her mind. She fought to impose reason. To accept the consequences of her actions of the last, intense minutes. What she’d done, giving Zac the deep-space Icon and making him use it, making him take Kang to a place where he could do no harm, had been the only option. It was the only way. Filled with a hundred reasons why it was a bad idea, it was, in the end, the only idea, and so she’d compelled herself forward in order to make it happen. Now it was done. Zac used the Icon. He and Kang were gone. Anitra was safe.
And now the real terror began. As she’d known it would. Never, though, did she imagine the fear would be this great. Zac acted on her instructions exactly as she intended, exactly as she demanded, without question, trusting her completely …
Her stomach knotted. An awful sickness gripped her.
I will come for you! her own last words echoed in her mind.
Now, what she had to do in order to make good on that promise …
Desperately she looked to Willet, who tried to coax her with a mild, yet urgent, encouragement to move. To rise, to follow him so they could get out of there. One danger was past, others were in plentiful supply. Explosions intensified, rocking the air with ever-increasing force. He held out a hand.
But the fear she fought, the terrible intuition, was that Zac had not made it. And the panic of not knowing, the sheer emptiness of having no way to know, each moment a critical second in which he could be dying … now that this bitter moment was upon her, where exactly he was, how she would ever find him again—these things nearly overwhelmed her.
What if he was stuck in deep space?
She took Willet’s hand; an effort to distract herself, if only for a moment. To catch her breath and turn her mind from it. To the next thing.
And the next.
She swallowed.
And the next.
Told herself: Keep moving. That was all she could do; keep moving. Was what she had to do. I will come for you! For a strange, surreal moment, she tried to beam the thought to Zac. Wherever he was, in whatever condition, firming her own resolve even as she did. Reminding herself of that very vow:
I will come for you.
Willet tried to help her the rest of the way but she stood and he released her hand.
He studied her, peering into her eyes, gauging her condition. “We need to get you to Satori.”
After a second of that he started them down the small hill, back across the park in the direction of the battle—which was close, but still far enough away that they could walk in relative confidence. He led her toward the trees. One of Willet’s recon team stood in the near distance. The man raised a hand as they passed; Willet spoke to him briefly on the radio, telling him what they were doing as he took Jess onward to safety.
Zac is alive. She had to believe that much. Whether from her own desperate hope or some real, tenuous, ethereal connection, she made herself feel it. Believe it. Hold to it. Deep in her heart … made herself know it. All else was horrible uncertainty, but she clung to the notion of his survival and, reasonable or not, allowed it to buoy her. Made it the foundatio
n for her gathering determination.
She glanced at Willet as they headed for the cover of the trees. From his expression she could see he was still amazed. No doubt he still wondered at the sudden arrival of she and Satori, in the midst of the battle, at her possession of the legendary Icon, her decision to take it directly into the fray, to Zac as he warred with Kang. Willet had done his part, of course, making him as much a player in the heroics, but his understanding of recent events was limited. He’d gone along in order to help Jess pull off what she insisted had to be done, but so far he knew little more than that.
She looked to him as they walked.
They were a team, she and Willet. Satori. Already they’d overcome life-changing obstacles. Jess knew she could count on them. But how far? How would she convince them of what she suddenly had in mind? How would she get them to do what, without question, had to come next?
How would she convince anyone?
* *
Kang watched the spaceship hanging in the void before him. A giant, black thing, shaped like some massive, metallic predator. Sleek angles, crisp curves, no windows he could see but he knew there were people inside. There must be. Beings of some kind. Surely they watched him.
The ship had moved in slowly from out of nowhere. Out of the starry black of space, after he popped into existence there in that infernal system of planet and stars.
AAAARGH! He screamed into the void. Silent. No air. No sound. He could feel the tension in his neck, the tear at the corners of his mouth as he raged into the nothingness.
That first instant took him by surprise. One moment he’d been locking in yet another neck-breaking hold on the weakened Horus—why would he not die?!—the next … he was snapping into existence in some other place altogether.
He’d seen the girl give Horus the Icon, knew what it was, knew vaguely what it was capable of, but had no idea what the Kazerai intended. The result had been chaos. A disorienting transformation to this other place, during which he and Horus jerked apart, sending the two of them in opposite directions, the Icon in an entirely different one. In that first instant the shift to the biting cold and the vacuum of space slammed into his senses, gripping him in shock, such that it was several disorienting moments before he gathered his wits enough to determine what went wrong:
Horus had used the Icon to transport them to the void.
Kang could only assume the plan was for Horus to use it a second time and send himself back, to the safety of the girl, leaving Kang there to float harmlessly in deep space. That, of course, had not happened. The limp body of his adversary floated further and further away, not moving. Kang could not tell whether Horus yet lived, but likely as not he did. I had him! The Kazerai was nearly broken when the girl showed up. Bitch! The same one from before, the one who inspired Horus to such great feats, leading him, ultimately, to the showdown that ended with Kang in this disfigured state. Then, in those final instants, when his greatest nemesis was near gone, she came again, as if from nowhere, inspired Horus once more to action and …
There he floated.
For several long minutes Kang’s seething rage burned with a heat that nearly repelled the intense cold of the void; a roaring desire to finish the fight, to grab Horus and break his neck. Coupled with a hatred of the Kazerai and the girl and what they’d done … it felt as if he could simply will himself across the gap. Horus is right there! Helpless. Ripe for destruction.
But Kang was a slave to physics. Nothing more than a slowly twisting object, moving further and further away from the two things he wanted most: Horus, whom he wanted to finish and, now, even more important than revenge, the Icon itself. The only thing that could get him back.
He watched in impotent fury as both flew slowly from his grasp. Oh so slowly. So close, slipping effortlessly away. Further and further away. Horus one way, the Icon the other. Presumably never to be gained again.
Now this.
A spaceship.
Moments before, as his gaze flicked between the receding Horus and the tumbling, glinting Icon, the bizarre purple planet and this star system’s three orange suns—three suns!—another object began to move against the curtain of stars.
A speck at first, but soon it began to resolve and, in no time, he could see it was mechanical, moving under its own power, moving slowly and, at length, he’d nearly forgotten Horus and the Icon as the ship came closer and …
Stopped.
Right there before him, as if on display.
He studied it, wondering what it would do next.
Dying to get his hands on it.
* *
“You have to come with us.” Jess held Willet briefly at the edge of the woods. She needed to freeze this moment; to get his agreement before going further. Get him, in truth, in her corner before facing Satori. The ornithopter could be heard idling just beyond the trees, whine of the steam turbine strong above the sounds of battle. If Jess peered closely she could see it out there in the clearing, Satori’s red hair visible through the windows. She wondered if Satori, in turn, could see them standing in the trees.
Willet was, as expected, confused. His plan had been to get her to the ‘thopter and on her way back to the safety of the mountain complex. He himself would return to his recon unit and continue operations behind enemy lines. Now that Kang was gone there was much yet to do to win this battle.
Only, Jess had pulled him up short. And now she was changing the plan.
“I need you,” she said.
His confusion only grew. Though she could see it was tinged with the beginnings of concern. He knew what she was capable of. Was well aware of everything she’d already done. Jess was a wild variable, and she saw Willet could tell she was working up the nerve for something even greater. “I’m needed here,” he said simply. No doubt hoping that would be enough.
She gathered resolve. It was clear this was going to push him. And for a shuddering instant she had such a crushing feeling, such an absolute fear that there was no time to lose … she actually staggered. Willet reached a hand to steady her. Every second was killing her. Killing Zac. But she could not afford to rush this and risk losing it all.
Did she really need Willet? Could she just do it with Satori? Maybe. But what she now had in mind was so huge, there was so much involved, so many ways for it to fail, she wanted Willet. Wanted anyone she could get, and the only two people even remotely familiar with her plight were right there with her.
Willet and Satori.
Her friends.
She glanced furtively across the clearing. If Willet were in agreement it might make it easier convincing Satori.
I need them both.
A series of explosions ripped through a nearby neighborhood and she jumped. Far closer than anything so far. Portions of the battle had drawn uncomfortably near. She looked out toward the conflict. The sun shone brightly on destruction as far as the eye could see; sounds, flashes; crystal clear, hi-def chaos just beyond the buildings. Like a scene on TV from an embedded news broadcast.
Only she wasn’t watching TV.
“Zac has no way back,” her voice came too urgent, too desperate.
Willet’s patience was wearing thin. “You’ve got to get out of here.”
But Jess was emphatic. “When I came here with the Icon I knew this was only the beginning. The first step was getting rid of Kang. We did that.
“Now we have to rescue Zac.”
Willet was incredulous. “Rescue Zac?” Then, a genuine question amid rising frustration: “Where did he even go?” Willet had no real understanding of the Icon, but it was clear he’d heard things. “Can’t he find his own way back? I thought that thing went to Osaka.”
“It doesn’t.”
He continued to look at her blankly, desperate to just get her out of there and be on his way.
“We really got rid of Kang,” she said. “That was a different Icon, set to pop out in deep space. I told Zac to use it a second time, which would send him back to Ear
th.”
Willet’s head was shaking, trying to understand, too impatient for real effort.
“My world,” said Jess.
Willet liked Zac, and he wanted to help, but Jess could tell this chunk of information was more than he could process under the circumstances.
“There’s a way to get to Earth,” she pressed. “I have to go. I have to find him. I can’t just let him die.”
For a moment Willet seemed to forget everything else. Focusing, at last, on the absurdity of what she was suggesting. “He’s a Kazerai,” he said. “I don’t think they die that easily.”
“He’s with Kang and Kang can kill him. Where they went, they went together.”
The pause stretched; the sounds of battle weighed heavy on the air and Willet said: “You realize I’m just getting more confused, not less.”
“I need your help.” She glanced to the ornithopter, wings outspread and waiting, turbine whining and ready. Fixed Willet’s gaze.
“I can’t do this alone.”
“Do what alone?”
“There’s a way.”
Willet just looked at her.
Then closed his eyes and inhaled, turning his face up to the canopy of trees. As if getting it all at once. Maybe not the details, but he knew he was not done.
Jess still needed him.
Reluctantly she let him have his moment, clenching and unclenching her fists until he opened his eyes, at which point she implored:
“I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t really need you.”
His blank expression became aggravated.
Then annoyed.
“Dammit.”
Then, finally, resigned.
“What do we have to do?”
She tried not to let her relief show. “I’ll explain on the way.”
As if to put emphasis on the moment another explosion, closer even than the last, sent rubble pluming skyward, causing them both to cringe.
Star Angel: Dawn of War (Star Angel Book 3) Page 1
