“Oh, oh right.” Doctor Miller released Riot. She was crying. “I’m just … I just thought I lost you.”
Riot looked up at Doctor Miller. Her tears were so genuine, her sadness so real, it struck a chord somewhere deep within Riot. She felt her own eyes tingle and burn with the beginnings of tears.
“No. No way.” Riot shook her head. “I’m not crying with you. Help me up, Cupcake.”
Doctor Miller reached down to obey and hefted Riot into a sitting position.
For the first time since she had woken, Riot noticed that the sounds of war had vanished. Silence, maybe a few distant voices, were the only things that could be heard now.
“What happened?” Riot asked while she tried out her various limbs, a question she already knew the answer to as memories of the queen’s visit cascaded into her thoughts. “Did we win?”
“We won,” Doctor Miller said, pointing to Riot’s shoulder. “Is that … is that a knife sticking out of you? Want me to take it out?”
Riot looked down to see the handle of Alveric’s knife still in her body.
“That would probably be a good thing,” Riot said, gritting her teeth.
“Okay, here we go—one ... one and a half … two … two and a half…”
“For all that is holy, will you please—”
Doctor Miller tore the blade from Riot’s shoulder. The pain that came with the act was like ripping off a scab still in the process of healing.
Riot’s face must have betrayed her emotions, because Doctor Miller took a step back.
“Sorry, I read in an article that if your patient is—”
“Can it, Bubbles.” Riot lifted a hand to the doctor. “Help me get up and tell me what happened.”
Doctor Miller obeyed, lifting Riot to her feet. “We were holding the gate, but just barely. Queen Revna went down fighting the last Zenoth hive queen. She and Evonne were the ones who’d finally brought it down. It was hell at the gates, the Abomination horde slicing and the Karnayer army shooting like crazy, trying to get in. I thought we were going to be overrun, when the Abominations suddenly just dropped.”
“What?” Riot asked her. “How?”
“I don’t know.” Doctor Miller shrugged. One second we were all fighting for our lives; and the next, the Abominations dropped dead. The lights in their green eyes went out. It was like someone had killed their power supply or whoever it was controlling them. After that, the Karnayer soldiers still standing ran. Same with the Karnayer ships battling it out in the sky.”
Riot turned back to look at the city gates that lay broken. Portions of the wall were on fire. Other sections had been blasted to splinters. Rippa’s and Atlas’s mech lay on the ground around piles of enemy soldiers.
“Where are the others? How long has the fight been over?”
“Not more than twenty minutes,” Doctor Miller said, opening her hands in front of her. “And the others are all okay, too. Wang, Rizzo, and Vet all made it back after their explosions. Wang has a hearing problem now, but I think that’s just until the nanites repair the damage to his inner ear.”
Riot took a tentative step forward, back up the dirt road. When she found she wasn’t in danger of falling, she took another and another.
“Where’s Ketrick?” Riot asked, already thinking of the man she loved. “Does he know about his mother yet?”
“No, I don’t think so.” Doctor Miller walked beside Riot. “Are the communication nanites fried?”
“I think so,” Riot said, still unable to hear anything from the outside comms. Even her link to Evonne seemed to be down. “Evonne, are you reading me? Evonne?”
Nothing.
“Still down,” Riot said, walking back up the road to the burning city gates.
As they approached the city, the carnage they walked over made Riot shudder. She had no problem killing when killing was the only way, but the amount of bodies littering the ground was nauseating. Thousands of Abomination soldiers, either dead by their own hands or fallen inactive when Alveric was taken out, lined the road.
It soon became so bad, Riot and Doctor Miller couldn’t walk without stepping on the dead bodies. Here and there, a Karnayer soldier lay still, but the vast majority of the corpses belonged to the Abomination horde.
The two giant mech warriors Rippa and Atlas had used in the fight both lay on either side of the gates, like two fallen sentries having given up their final claim on the world.
Riot looked up into the bright sky to see both the Dreadnaught and the U.S.S. Patton drifting back their way. They were too far away to see what general state of disrepair the ships were in, but the fact they were still flying was a good sign.
As Riot and Doctor Miller walked between the hulking fallen mechs, shouts came from the wall. Cheers erupted from all those still standing. Vet, Wang, and Rizzo all ran to see Riot. The three Marines were safe, but sections of their armor had been either blown off or torn off.
Vet approached with both hands on his helmet, placed over his groin.
“Man, am I glad to see you,” Vet said to Riot with a smile as she entered what was left of the gate. “I thought for a second you’d taken your final ride.”
I knew you were too stubborn to go out like that, Rizzo signed. He pointed to Vet’s helmet. The XO had a wardrobe malfunction.
“You’re alive!” Wang shouted so loud, everyone in the vicinity gave them their attention. He pushed a finger into his ear as if that would help his hearing. “Have you seen Vet!? He swears he’s still in one piece down there, but I don’t know! I don’t want to look!”
Riot rolled her eyes, yet couldn’t help smiling. To her left, she caught sight of Rippa and Atlas having their wounds patched up by a Grovothe medic.
Inside the walls and to the right of the gate, the remaining Trilords had lain Queen Revna’s body on a clean, white blanket. She wore the same peaceful smile on her lips Riot had remembered in her dream.
What am I going to say to him? Riot thought as she considered the words she would need when Ketrick arrived. How can I take away any of the pain he’s about to feel?
Riot wished she had come up with a plan before the rush of wings signaling Ketrick’s return sounded overhead.
102
Ketrick touched down on Vikta a few moments later. Whether he knew something was wrong because he had been warned, or just sensed it, Riot wasn’t sure.
The Trilord Prince jumped off Vikta’s back before the dragon had come to a complete stop. He ran to Riot and wrapped her in a hug. It didn’t matter to him who was watching at the moment.
Riot hesitated for a moment, but only for a moment. The universe was changing, and she could, too. She grabbed on to Ketrick tight, lost in his huge arms. The Trilord prince had sustained his own injuries. Black streaks of smoke covered his body, while dried blood told stories all their own.
“I’m so happy you’re safe,” Ketrick said, burying his head into her shoulder. “I heard confused messages over the comms and wasn’t sure what happened. I came as fast as I could.”
The same fear of not knowing what to say took hold of Riot’s gut. Ketrick didn’t know about his mother. He had flown back and seemed in such a hurry for her.
“Ketrick.” Riot pushed him gently back and told him how she would want to be told. No beating around the bush; just the truth, however harsh it may be. “Your mother, the queen … she didn’t make it. She died defending the city.”
Ketrick’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. He looked up, searching the smoking battlefield for his mother. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed hard.
Tears filled his eyes as he searched for someone he knew he would never see alive again. “Where … where is she?”
“Here, here.” Riot took his hand and led him to the spot where the other Trilords had gathered.
As soon as the other Trilord warriors saw who approached, they went down to one knee. Not a single eye was dry amongst the gathered group of ferocious warriors.
&nbs
p; Tears fell freely from Ketrick’s eyes as he looked down at his mother. He took one of her hands into his own and fell to his knees. Although tears washed down his cheeks, no whimpers or cries escaped his throat.
Riot felt hot tears gathering in her own eyes as she looked on. What was she supposed to say? What could she say?
Ketrick leaned over and kissed his mother’s forehead. He stood back, laying her hand gently by her side.
“She … she would have … she would have wanted to die like this,” Ketrick finally managed. “She was … a warrior before a queen.”
Riot gathered Ketrick into her arms as if he were shorter than she. In that moment, he fit into her embrace like a small child. Riot didn’t have to say anything. Ketrick cried into her shoulder for a moment. Brief deep tremors shook his shoulders.
Riot held him so hard that, had he been anyone else, she would have been afraid she might crush them.
A moment later, Ketrick pulled away. If he was ashamed for everyone to see the tears spilling down his face, he didn’t show it.
Every Trilord warrior present remained on their knees to pay respect to their new king.
“So you ripped out his throat, huh?” General Armon looked over to Riot with a twitch of his lips. “That sounds like something you would do.”
Riot stood beside the general on their spot next to the capitol building. From this vantage, they could look out over the city, or what was left of it. The fires that had once run unopposed in the city had been put out. The dead belonging to them were being prepared for burial, while the enemy corpses were being burned.
Riot looked over to her left where, just down the hill, Ketrick, her War Wolves, and Rippa were all taking a brief moment to express their gratefulness for each other having lived through the engagement. Ketrick even went so far as to pat Rippa on the shoulder. Rippa nearly stumbled back from the act.
“It’s not over, is it?” Riot asked herself more than the general standing beside her. “It’ll never be over.”
“Planets, people, aliens will always need to be protected,” General Armon said, catching Riot’s eye. “The universe is a sandbox with bullies in it, just like anywhere else.”
“General, I think I may need a br—”
“It’s come to my attention that you and your crew more than deserve a much-needed rest,” General Armon said, interrupting Riot before she could continue. “You know our position, though, so I can’t give you a break, can I?”
“I understand,” Riot said, licking her dry lips. Was she really going to ask for a leave of absence now? Could she, when there was still so much to do? “General, maybe—”
“But what I can do,” the general interrupted again. His eyes told her he knew exactly what she was going to request. “I can assign you to remain here on Hoydren. I’m calling Colonel Harlan and his team back to Earth. They’ll soon leave to be the emissaries between the Grovothe and SPEAR. I couldn’t think of a better person to leave here to help the Trilords rebuild than you and your team.”
“Thank you,” Riot said to the general. He had given her exactly what she wanted without her even having to ask for a break. She was a Marine, and Marines didn’t need breaks. But this time of rest wouldn’t be for her, it would be to keep a promise she had made to a queen. Although, if she was being truly honest with herself, it was a little bit for her.
Laughter, despite the hour, rose up from the group of warriors to her left. Vet or Wang had said something funny, and Rippa, as well as Ketrick, was bent over laughing. Rizzo was shaking his head, while Doctor Miller tried to explain to Evonne what was so funny.
“Use this time to rest and help the Trilords build.” General Armon’s voice was stern. “The fight is far from over.”
“Oohrah, sir,” Riot said, saluting her superior officer.
“Oohrah, Marine.” The general saluted her back.
Riot reminded herself to walk, not run, back to her team, her family. As she got closer, she picked up on Vet’s voice and the story he was telling.
“And I see Doctor Miller, there, all wide-eyed and sweating, and she’s hitting this Abomination over and over and over again. I mean, this thing isn’t moving, and its guts are just plastered all over the ground. I think Rippa’s mech had stomped it already,” Vet said, pausing to laugh. “And I come up, and I’m like: Doc, I think it’s dead.”
“In my defense, I’m not a warrior, like you guys are.” Doctor Miller shook her head with a good-natured smile of her own. “I didn’t know if it was going to get up and try to shank me or something.”
“Shank you?” Wang doubled over, laughing. “What are we, in prison or something? An Abomination would have stabbed you or blown you away.”
“What does the word ‘shank’ mean?” Ketrick asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Here, let me show you,” Rippa said, pulling a knife from a holster in her boot.
“You should really not be shanking one another,” Evonne said as Rizzo plucked the knife out of Rippa’s hand.
“What?” Rippa said and looked around with a shrug. “I wasn’t going to shank him hard.”
“All right, you misfits,” Riot said, joining her family. “If anyone should be showing anyone how to shank someone, it should be me. Who wants to go first?”
The End
About the Authors
Jonathan Yanez
Jonathan Yanez is the author of over a dozen fantasy and science fiction novels. His works include; The Elite Series, The Nephilim Chronicles, Thrive, Bad Land and The DeCadia Code. He has been both traditionally and independently published with his works being adapted into; ebook, print, audiobook and even optioned for film.
Although writing has been and will always be his main love, physical exercise comes in at a close second. When he's not writing his next novel that more than likely includes some kind of zombie, superhero, angel or alternative steampunk universe he enjoys running with his dogs and working out at the gym.
His hobbies include archery, mud runs, collecting the skulls of his enemies and baking cupcakes. He lives in Southern California with his wife and three pets where he stays highly caffeinated 24/7
http://www.jonathan-yanez.com
https://twitter.com/JonathanAYanez
http://www.facebook.com/JonathanYanezAuthor
Justin Sloan
After serving five years in Marine Corps Signals Intelligence, Justin studied fiction at the Johns Hopkins MA in writing program and screenwriting at UCLA. He went on to work in games and screenwriting, where he has optioned several screenplays and written on such games as Game of Thrones and Tales from the Borderlands.
Justin has presented on writing at the Austin Film Festival, San Francisco Writers Conference, the San Diego State Writers Conference, Gen Con, and more. You can hear his interviews with authors on the Creative Writing Career podcast.
His books are available in audio and print editions, and he has sold Turkish and French rights to several of his series, with the Blade of the Sea series being published under Hachette Publishing Group (under the shared penname with PT Hylton of Jesse Nethermind).
Justin loves to hear from you, so please feel free to visit http://www.justinsloanauthor.com/seppukarian to join the email list, receive a free book, receive free giveaways, get the latest exclusive news, connect on Facebook and Twitter, and stay in touch!
www.JustinSloanAuthor.com
Facebook: http://facebook.com/JustinSloanAuthor
Twitter: http://twitter.com/justinmsloan
Audible: http://adbl.co/1G4tbIy
Author Notes Book 1
Jonathan Yanez
I can’t believe you not only read to the end of the book but you’re taking the time to read the author note! Thank you for supporting this crazy guy who enjoys writing about dragons, spaceships and crews of broken, awesome, crazy, fun characters.
When I signed on to write in the Seppukarian universe I didn’t realize how much fun I would have and how fast it would go. As I’m sitting
down at my kitchen table keeping an ear out for my little space Marine to wake up from her nap, I’m in shock. Book two is already finished and I’m working on the third and final book now.
Coffee drained and a new energy drink to my right, I’m feeling emotional. It could be because my daughter kept me up all night or the unnatural amount of caffeine pumping through my system, either way this has been a blast.
When Justin Sloan first begged me to write in his universe… or was it the other way around? Okay maybe I begged him to take a chance on me and write a book together. The details are hazy but I digress.
As I signed on to the series I knew I wanted to take my crew off planet and explore. My favorite stories are those of the unknown, where anything can happen -- yes, even space dragons.
Here’s a little behind the scenes look at what I was thinking when I created these characters.
I wanted to do a female version of Deadpool and that’s where Riot came from. She’s the best, right? Just says what we’re all thinking or at least what I’m thinking.
I love writing characters with eye patches, don’t ask me why. If you read any of my other books you’ll notice a trend. They just look cool in my opinion. Vet’s character came from a story I heard of someone who actually wears diapers on road trips. I won’t say more. It’s either genius or disturbing, maybe a bit of both.
Rizzo was cool to write. I read an article that twenty percent of the population is handicapped in some way and so I wanted to bring that into our story. I took sign language in junior college and found it really interesting.
Wang started as my typical smart doctor but I wanted to add different dimensions to his character. When I think doctor I think clean cut, definitely not tattoos or Mohawk haircut. Then I really ran with the idea and added in his throwing knives, love for science fiction books, and the shady drug issue. As much as we’d all like to look away from the idea, we all have issues and do or have struggled with something. Wang’s no different.
War Wolves: Boxset 1-3 Page 53
