Sins of Angels (The Complete Collection)

by Larkin, Matt

  And so he waited.

  CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-FOUR

  I know I need to focus. I have to live out the day before I can celebrate, and that is anything but certain. Today we shape the future.

  The Sephirot led a fleet of over a hundred QI ships. Most were destroyers, well-suited for light support. And poorly suited to take on the three Sentinel battleships leading the opposing fleet. The Tabernacle waited beyond the Sentinel armada, and David was determined to get through to it.

  More and more QI ships poured out of the Conduit Gate. They didn’t have much time. The Sentinels would have already signaled for help, and their reinforcements could arrive any minute.

  And between him and the Tabernacle stood the Logos. A ship filled with officers who had served under him. Friends he cared about, like Mahlah Blaise and a hundred others.

  “Hail them,” he told Rachel. The signal beeped, but Waller refused his call.

  David shut his eyes. In his mind, he saw the faces of all the men and women on the Logos. People who had looked up to him. People he had taken his meals with, laughed with … celebrated the birth of children with.

  “Incoming missiles!” Phoebe said.

  David’s eyes jerked open and he yanked the joystick to carry the Sephirot out of range. Laser batteries cut missiles from the sky, and not a single one found purchase on the hull. Some of the QI ships were not as fortunate. A hull breach left a destroyer adrift, spinning out of control.

  “Signal the fleet. Tell them to spread out and make for the Tabernacle. Engage all Sentinel ships.”

  He dove amongst his own fleet. Waller might think him hiding behind his destroyers. Let him think it. Let him think David would run. But the time for fleeing had passed. He would grieve for his brethren on the Logos. He would grieve, because they were already dead.

  He weaved a complex pattern among the ships, an intricate dance that would ensure any attempt to lock onto the Sephirot was in vain, especially given its scanner-deflecting skin. The ship handled like a dream. And for his enemies … a nightmare.

  “Wide barrage of missiles, all tubes,” he said. “Target all ships. Launch drones.”

  The Sephirot pulsed as two hundred missile tubes launched a volley of antimatter warheads. Massive explosions rippled all around them, further blocking any attempt the Logos might make to track them. They’d be all but invisible.

  A ghost in the darkness, as Knight would say. A banshee heralding death.

  “Prep the antiproton cannons.”

  The cannons needed full weapons’ power, so he couldn’t use the ion canons or pulse cannons at the same time. The MAGs would still fire, though, and he directed continuous fire into the hulls of weakened Sentinel destroyers.

  Laser defense batteries sliced into the Sephirot’s hull as he dove past a Sentinel cruiser. Close enough they’d been spotted. His console displayed multiple breaches on the ship’s upper hull. It seemed the organic skin wasn’t impervious.

  But David ignored the cruisers. Waller was on the Logos. The Sentinel fleet would be under his command. And there was no reasoning with the fanatic. His only chance was to destroy it.

  “Cannons ready,” Phoebe said.

  David pulled hard on the joystick, sending the Sephirot screeching upward, out of the chaos and cloud of explosions, right beneath the Logos.

  “Fire.”

  Lights dimmed as streams of antiprotons erupted from the pair of cannons. The effect was instant. The Logos had no way of knowing, no way of evading. Antimatter explosions cascaded along its hull. Kinetic shields winked out and the ship went up in a blinding flash.

  David spun hard, banking away even as the Logos imploded, sucked into its own singularity.

  “Get power levels back up! Target the next battleship with ion cannons.”

  Waller was dead. Mahlah was dead. His whole former crew gone. He had slaughtered them … and it still wasn’t done. He was going to end this. Whatever it took, the universe could not afford for this war to rage on and on. They needed this to be over. David needed this to be over.

  “Sir,” Phoebe said. “The other battleship has locked—”

  An ion stream slammed into the Sephirot. David jerked the ship away, diving behind a Sentinel cruiser. The beam cut off, but not before thermonuclear explosions knocked out his lower shields. His console displayed a massive breach in the lower decks.

  He had to be faster. He had to end this faster.

  Most of the QI fleet was engaged with the Sentinels, but some had pressed on to the Tabernacle.

  “Open a channel to those ships!” David said. They couldn’t take the station alone.

  Before he could even warn them, a veritable wall of missiles swarmed in. The QI laser batteries cut away some, but others found purchase. QI ships vanished from his screen in an instant.

  Bloody shite. He dove back around. “Do we have ion cannons?”

  “Yup.” Phoebe opened fire on the last remaining Sentinel battleship, returning the favor.

  David sent drones in, pounding the distracted warship with MAG rounds. A heartbeat later the ship exploded.

  “Rach, fleet-wide broadcast. This is Captain McGregor. All ships, take out the Sentinel fleet before engaging the Tabernacle. Repeat, do not leave threats behind us.”

  Dozens of Sentinel destroyers remained, and a pair of cruisers. More of his brethren. More of the fallen for whom he must soon grieve.

  “Pulse cannons, target cruisers. Leave the destroyers to the QI fleet.”

  David glanced at his console. Some of the hull breaches on the Sephirot had already sealed. The self-repairing skin was a godsend. It might not be able to close up the massive damage to the underbelly, but it would save lives. And get them back in the action that much more quickly.

  He pulled around, drawing a bead on the cruisers.

  CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-FIVE

  For good or ill, history will remember our actions. It will judge us all, as I have long known it would judge me. In another three thousand years, maybe my descendants will look back on this day as the death of an empire. Or maybe we will fail, and no one will be left to remember us at all.

  Rachel’s scanners were filled with so many ships she could barely keep track of them all. Dozens of micro singularities dotted the system. The way David weaved around them was breathtaking. He was … divine.

  More ships began popping up on her holo display, emerging from the Conduit. Five, ten … fifty or more.

  “Mac! Sentinel reinforcements are here.”

  “What? Already? Bloody, bloody void and arse bubbles!”

  He was getting overwhelmed, she could feel it. They’d all thought they’d have more time. But the new ships would close in less than a minute. There was no time.

  “You must do it,” Raziel said.

  “What?” she turned, then realized he had been talking to Knight.

  “Use your gifts, Nephilim. Go there and finish this. Take my ship.”

  “I … I’m not sure I can fly under these conditions. I’m not an expert pilot.”

  God, Raziel was right. The QI fleet might distract the Tabernacle, but with the emergence of Sentinel reinforcements, even the Sephirot wouldn’t be able to focus enough fire on the station to destroy it. Not from the outside.

  “I am,” she said. She waved for an ensign to come take her place on scanners.

  “Rach,” David said. “What the void are you doing?”

  “A bomb from inside the station could destroy the Singularity Drive. It would start a chain reaction. We’d bring down the whole Tabernacle.”

  “It’s too dangerous,” David said.

  She rushed to his side. “This whole mission is dangerous. How many people have already died? How many more still will? We have one shot at this, Mac. And Knight can do this. But he needs a pilot to evade all those missiles and singularities and drones. The ship’s cloak won’t help if a stray weapon crashes into it.”

  “Then it should be me. I’m the be
st pilot on this ship.”

  Rachel kissed his forehead. “You’re the captain. You know you can’t do that. I’m the only one who can. You have to let us go.”

  Phoebe shoved her lightly. “Don’t think you’re going on a date with my boyfriend without me.”

  For a second, David looked into Rachel’s eyes, and she felt the depth of his love. And his fear for her.

  “God be with you, lass.”

  She nodded, then noticed Raziel had taken Phoebe’s place at weapons. She supposed he would know better than any how to operate a ship he’d designed.

  “Make sure we have a ship to come back to, Angel,” she shouted at him.

  Raziel nodded.

  And Rachel ran for the lift. Knight and Phoebe entered right beside her.

  “Hangar,” she said. The lift whirred.

  Knight shifted his weight around, stretching. “You’re placing a lot of confidence in me.”

  Rachel patted his arm. “We have confidence in you.”

  “Yup, yup. And, by the way, hands off, Rachy.”

  Rachel snickered. “A little possessive, aren’t you?”

  “If the Shekhinah ordered David to breed with as many women as possible …”

  “Point taken.”

  “I still wish I had a kyoketsu,” Knight said, obviously eager to change the subject.

  The lift arrived, and they ran to Galizur’s ship. The hatch popped as if it knew they were coming. Telepathic command from Raziel? Rachel hopped into the pilot’s seat and strapped in.

  “Actually,” Phoebe said when she sat in the co-pilot’s seat, “I spoke to Raziel about that. QI was able to whip one up for you. I was going to surprise you.”

  From the corner of her eye, Rachel saw Phoebe giving Knight a package. She couldn’t see him clearly, but she felt him beaming. His excitement radiated through the ship as Rachel launched from the hangar.

  “You know a pulse pistol’s a way better weapon, right?” Phoebe said.

  “Whatever.”

  “Correct. Better in whatever way you could imagine.”

  Rachel kept her focus on the Tabernacle. Its scanners might not be able to pick up the ship, but it was launching a barrage of missiles at the QI fleet. And this thing didn’t seem to have laser batteries. Figured. If she used them it would reveal their position. So instead she swerved, trying to give as much berth as she could to the missiles.

  It had been a long time since flight school. Maybe too long. Maybe she should have let David do this. Except … the captain needed to stay with his ship. The crew needed him more than she did right now.

  Scanners indicated a danger area to port, and she jerked away from it. Singularity from a collapsing ship. Damn things were invisible.

  An ion stream passed directly over the ship and Rachel reflexively ducked in her seat.

  Right. As if that would do any good.

  “So how are we going to get inside?” Knight asked.

  Actually, she hadn’t thought that far ahead. Which was definitely not what Knight needed to hear right now.

  “I’ll blow through an airlock,” she said.

  “That one,” Phoebe said, pointing to a residential docking port.

  “Hundreds of people could die if I blow that.”

  “True, but they’re going to die anyway when we blow up the station. And this will put us in a straight line for the Drive. Plus, it’ll make lots of chaos. Knight likes chaos.”

  So now she was going to kill more people. God forgive her.

  She drew the ship up as close as she could, evading more missile fire and drones. As she approached the airlock, her console flashed: ‘Override Airlock?’

  What the … ? His ship could do that? That explained how Raziel was always sneaking about. She tapped ‘accept.’ For a second, a whirring sounded from outside the ship, then the airlock opened, allowing her to guide the ship inside to the landing bay.

  “Most boring explosion ever,” Phoebe said.

  “Don’t worry,” Knight said. “The next one will be bigger.”

  Rachel blew out a long breath. Then she popped the hatch.

  CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-SIX

  I cannot allow myself to doubt. If I do, if I doubt myself or my companions, we will falter.

  Knight rushed from the ship down the hall, pulse pistol in hand. Seconds later, Sentinels in full suits charged around the corner, pulse rifles leveled at him. Knight dove into a roll and came up firing. Pulses crashed over his head. His own caught a Sentinel in the chest.

  A pulse surged at him and he twisted, allowing it to fly past. Everyone moved in slow motion. He leapt among the Sentinels and slammed his elbow into one’s chest, then caught another’s wrist and flipped the man vertically.

  Phoebe shot the last and scurried over to his side. “Uh, huh. All this whining about your mono whip, and look who’s using a gun.”

  Knight ignored her and ran on, out onto the platform. A long bridge led forward toward the central sphere. The path was maybe five meters wide, and to either side, a low rail was all that separated them from a drop of a hundred meters or more.

  On the far side, Sentinels began forming up, setting up a firing line. An impossible charge.

  Knight leapt onto a rail, holstered his gun, and swung down to get a look beneath the bridge. A lattice of buttresses supported the underside and gave a crawlspace for maintenance. Perfect.

  “Stay here and cover me!” he shouted at Phoebe and Rachel.

  He pushed backward and swung down, snagging the scaffolding. Then he leapt and swung from one buttress to the next, covering ground rapidly. Like he was flying. He ran along a rail, kicked off to the next buttress, and swung around it to opposite side.

  From there he jumped, grabbing the outer rail, and flung himself upward. He flipped back to the upper side of the bridge and yanked free his new kyoketsu in midair. Sentinels gaped at him, trying to draw a bead as he landed among them. Even before he hit the ground he whipped the kyoketsu down, carving through a man’s helmet and skull. A twist of his wrist brought the whip-knife back around. He bent backward, avoiding incoming fire, while flinging his weapon around in an arc that severed two limbs.

  Knight caught a man’s arm, jerked him forward, then shoved him back, sending the poor bastard stumbling over the rail. The Sentinels gave up shooting him while he was in their midst and engaged him in melee. Even better.

  They were good. Masters.

  But he knew their arts now, and he was faster. Faster and stronger than any human could ever be. His heart beat so quickly his blood screamed in rivers through his head. A fist caught his side, but with his adrenaline up, he barely noticed the blow. He broke arms and necks, kicked out knees, and flung Sentinels into each other. A low hook brought down a woman and Knight spun, reversing his momentum to jerk his elbow up into another man’s head.

  His helmet took the blow, but he stumbled back. Knight arced his kyoketsu, decapitating the stumbling Sentinel. He kicked a fallen pulse rifle up into his hand and shot the last standing foe.

  “Come on!” he shouted down the bridge.

  “Knight!” Rachel cried.

  He turned then. Something was wrong.

  Rachel knelt on the ground beside Phoebe. And Knight ran. He saw nothing else. He felt nothing else, until, in an instant, he was beside the girls.

  A pulse blast had scorched Phoebe’s suit and punctured it. Blood pooled from the seared, pale flesh beneath.

  “Hey! Phoebe!” He grabbed her, forcing her head to look at him. “Come on. You can’t … This is not going to happen. Hey!” He tapped her keypad to retract her helmet.

  Phoebe was … She was invincible. She couldn’t … He wouldn’t let her … go. He had lost Shirin like this, a lifetime ago. He was another person, back then. And part of who he’d become now was because of this girl. And she was … His chest seized up and he couldn’t get a breath in.

  “Phoebe …”

  Rachel pushed him aside, then injected nanobot regen
erators into her. “She’ll be okay, Knight. We’ll get her back to Leah and she’ll be fine.”

  Phoebe’s eyes fluttered open, and she flashed a weak grin at him. “Come on … ninja boy. How about finishing this shit up so we can go home? I … I’d like a drink.”

  He tried to push it down. He tried to tell himself fear and pain and loss were in the mind. Mind over matter. But with her bleeding there … He cradled her in his arms and held her to his chest. All his life he’d had nothing. Nothing. And now he had something he could no longer live without. And she was bleeding out.

  “Rachel …” Phoebe said. “Get him to finish it.”

  “I’m not leaving you,” he said. There was no way he would leave her out here like this. Not her. She had come for him on Gadara. She had been his light to draw him through the darkness. And for the first time in his whole existence, he was more than a ghost in that darkness. He was part of something. And he …

  Rachel grabbed him and spun his face to hers. “I know what you’re feeling. You know I do. But listen to me, Knight. She’s going to be fine. If you pull through and get me to the Drive. The regenerators are already doing their work. Knight, please.”

  She was right. He was letting his emotions rule him. There was a time for that, maybe. But this was fear. And he knew how to block it. He shut his eyes and breathed deeply. Two, three heartbeats.

  He opened his eyes and pressed a pulse pistol into Phoebe’s hands. “Can you make it back to the ship on your own?”

  “Yup, yup … Just give the regenerators a second … I’ll … just go, big guy. Go steal all the glory. Again.”

  He stood and turned back to the central sphere. “Stay behind me until I’ve cleared out any remaining guards,” he told Rachel. He wasn’t about to let her get hurt too.

  Everyone had trusted him to do this. They had believed in him. They needed him.

  He would not fail them.

  CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-SEVEN