Starblood: A Military Space Opera Series (War Undying Book 1)

by N. D. Redding

  “That was no damn factory! Sir!”

  “Stavos, this is as classified as it gets, all right? That’s why I brought you here today so you can sign this paper confirming that you saw a secret Aloi weapons facility. All three of you. Of course, you won’t share this information with anyone, even higher-ups, or you will be subject to persecution by the Federation military.”

  His eyes were ice cold as he told this fantastic story. I knew Leo and Layla were buying it, but then again, why wouldn’t they? They hadn’t seen anything out there. I knew what I saw though, and it wasn’t a damned weapon’s facility!

  “Sir, with all due respect, I think the FIA has their data mixed up. What I saw down there—”

  “It’s not subject to discussion, soldier!” Captain Tailor snapped. “Not with me, your damn teammates, or anyone else for that matter! Sign your damn names and get back to duty!”

  Leo jumped out of his seat toward the paper. It wasn’t hard to frighten Leo into submission when it came to bureaucracy. He was part of the system his whole life and his whole life the system had told him to do as it said. They used to threaten people with jail back in the day, and boy, that was a scary thing when you compared it to jail nowadays. However, it was still far less than what the nowadays usual punishment was: Servion procedures.

  A special division of the military was renowned for performing sick and twisted acts. They would take away just enough self-control so the victims served all the needs asked of them without being able to comprehend their actions. The victim became a willing slave to some rich asshole to hold candles at interspecies orgies or even worse. Mere thoughts like those were horrifying enough to shut up and listen to him.

  Leo stopped himself for a second and looked at me. I nodded. Fuck it. Just go with the flow. This wasn’t the first thing the military hid from people and it wouldn’t be the last. I signed the paper next, and lastly, Layla did as well without any comment, though the expression on her face was far from content.

  “Leave us,” Tailor said to my squadmates. They got to their feet, snapped off a salute, and strode out the room, closing the door behind them. What now? Wasn’t this humiliation enough?

  “I know what you saw, Stavos.”

  “Captain?” I asked as my face set into a frown.

  “I know. That’s all you need to hear.” He took in a deep breath and let it out again. “For now, at least.”

  “Sir.” I nodded again, liking all of it even less than at the start. All the cryptic talk I was getting... let’s say that it wasn’t my cup of noodles. The captain leaned back into his chair and sighed.

  “Listen, get your teammates together and have some R&R. I would suggest visiting Instormia if you haven’t seen it. It’s the capital of the planet.”

  “I know, but isn’t it a bit far away? Besides, I don’t think Instormia is the best place to relax, if I’m honest.”

  “Is your body still hurting, Sergeant?”

  I nodded. “Sure is.”

  “And the doctors can’t find a cure?”

  I nodded again.

  “Go to this address and find Urgon Feyn. He will have something for you, but make sure you tell him that I sent you.”

  I took the offered piece of paper and folded it into my pocket. I also immediately knew this wasn’t something entirely legal because he would have sprung the address on me over the INAS if it were.

  “Be careful, Sergeant, as Instormia is nothing like Neo Carolina. It can eat you up and spit you out in a day.”

  “I know,” I said, already getting annoyed at the patronizing tone he was giving me.

  “No, you don’t know and shove that Technomancer nose up your ass, Sergeant. I’ve had enough of your sort looking down on everyone. Instormia isn’t just a city, it’s the capital of Detera. It’s all the shit of Detera condensed into a single place where everyone pretends that the rest of the Galaxy isn’t on fire. If I were you, I’d shed the military outfit and put my INAS on hold. Just a measure of precaution. Try not to get killed out there, Sergeant. You’re dismissed.”

  I saluted and exited the captain’s office. The two goons waited for me outside, all fidgety and anxious as hell. I took no satisfaction in their distress, but it was good to see them sweat, even if just a little.

  I walked over to them and stared the two down, almost as if it was their fault I disappeared into the bowels of the mountain.

  “What are you so jumpy about?” I asked as they didn’t meet my eyes. “Something happened that I should know about? Did someone pick on you while I was out of it?”

  Both looked up and their tortured expressions turned to grins.

  “No, Sergeant! I’d never let them pick on this kid!” Layla snapped to attention, then slapped Leo’s back.

  “Hey! That hurt, you brute! Not everyone is a damn Brawler!” he protested.

  It felt good hearing their bickering again. At one moment, I’m sure they must have crossed my mind when I thought I was going to die. Life had a way of doing things, especially when you least expected it to.

  “We’re on leave for several days. The captain ordered us to Instormia, but once we get there, I need to meet up with someone. Other than that, we’ll have some well-deserved R&R.”

  “Hell, yes!” Layla laughed. “Boss!”

  I grinned and walked in on the two, then put my arm around them.

  “It’s good to see you two safe and sound.”

  I didn’t think anyone deserved or needed it more than the three of us, at least from all the rookie specialist teams. Still, sending us off during such a crucial time told me this wasn’t going to be R&R only, no, something was going on that I didn’t know. Everything about Tailor’s debriefing, if you could even call it that, was troublesome. I knew I wasn’t paranoid, but there was a motto I lived by: don’t question shit and you’ll get ahead in life. Maybe I was just pissed off because of the pain.

  I let out a sigh and thought of the name he said earlier. Urgon Feyn. Sure sounded sketchy if anyone asked me. I compartmented the whole ordeal into the back of my mind so I could focus on getting rid of my headache.

  We packed our bags and changed into civilian clothing. Leo was dressed like the next-door neighbor in his jeans and t-shirt while Layla looked like a proper Neo Carolina woman. With a tight black top and a white overall, she looked elegant despite her size and muscles, like an Amazonian warrior dressed for church.

  I only saw pictures of Instormia a couple of times. I never read up about it until the moment we had to set off, as there was never a need for me to. It was a colossal city with over 40 million inhabitants of all races, which included the Aloi Hegemony races and subraces.

  As we approached, I could make out the towering buildings toward the center of the city. They looked like thin white spikes that grew from a white brush. They were interconnected with a web of giant walkways that housed people and offices. The whole landscape had an organic but boney feel to it. That was because the Aloi had their hands in building all of the structures as much as the Federation had. Aloi architectural knowledge and materials were the envy of the galaxy. We just used the umbrella term “silk” for all that white stuff they used, be it for weapons, armors, or buildings, but in truth, it was much more complex than that.

  The Federation taught us that the Aloi Hegemony had entire planets dedicated solely to the production of silk, but they didn’t produce it in factories. No, they bio-engineered an artificial evolutionary tree from their own DNA which gave birth to gargantuan Aloi individuals whose silk-producing capabilities exceeded that of an ordinary Aloi by a thousandfold. Those beings lived out their lives usually in one spot, just sitting there being milked for hundreds of years. It was a cruel existence, but not even the cruelest among the forms of life in the galaxy.

  We landed on the outskirts of the central area where our dropship left us without even saying goodbye. Not that it mattered, though. We were immediately lost in the difference between Instormia and all the other cities which
we’d come across in our short lives. The differences became very clear very quickly: six Shia flew by us almost grazing my shoulder with their wings. They were laughing loudly, as Shia almost always did while a Lapren rock-mind was tumbling slowly after them.

  The Lapren looked like a heap of rocks and mud falling over itself as it moved forward. It had no discernible mouth or eyes, just pieces of tech stuck into it so it could communicate with other races. The Shia were Federation, the Lapren was a subrace of the Hegemony, and the two couldn’t have been more different.

  The Shia lived to be twenty and their whole mind and body worked extremely quickly. They were small, like a human five-year-old but they were vicious and easily agitated, though their constant laughter may hide that fact. The Lapren on the other hand lived as long as there was dirt to absorb. Some said they were as old as the Aloi themselves, but who knew what the truth was nowadays?

  The Shia buzzed away and the Lapren stood there watching them go. The rock-mud creature sort of turned whatever its head was supposed to be and scanned us.

  “Are you working with the Koora?” the translator module said with a human voice.

  “No,” I answered calmly.

  “Then why the fuck didn’t you stop those flying little bastards! They stole my retoyer sprain for my hornigg jaller. Now I have to get a whole new set of queben furrs for the trialoong!”

  “Sorry,” I said, not understanding most of what he said. “We just arrived here so I have no idea what the hell you’re on about.”

  “Eh?” the Lapren replied, and I swear it looked like it shook its head or maybe it waved us away. The idea behind the notion was obvious, but the notion itself was absent. Curious thing.

  “Holy shit,” Layla hissed as the Lapren tumbled away. “What the hell was that? Was that a thing? Did a rock just talk to us?”

  I couldn’t help but laugh myself.

  “No, it’s not a rock. They’re a race called the Lapren. The Aloi are their masters.”

  “The Aloi? Damn, and we can’t kill it. What a shame. That was some weird-ass thing. I’ll remember the scars it left on me for life!” She mock-cried.

  “Just wait until you see the other 40 million citizens of Instormia,” I whispered. “Welcome to a world inside a world.”

  11

  “Did it tell you that I have a big and juicy cock?” said the Orros leaning into Leo’s face.

  Leo watched the brown giant with infuriating calm. Leo hadn’t turned off his INAS, and neither did we. It was a lapse of judgment Tailor cautioned me against, so that one was on me.

  The whole room was ripe with tension as all eyes stared right at us. Layla finally reacted. She grabbed the Orros by the throat and now she shoved her face into his.

  “It told me you’re an overgrown pile of shit.”

  The Orros’ eyes and face filled up with rage.

  “I will eat your face, human!”

  “Enough!” Urgon Feyn yelled out.

  I pulled Layla away and tried to disarm the situation. It took us four hours of circling the block and searching for the address from Tailor’s paper. There were no numbers on Urgon’s street, no markings, no signs, and no nothing. Instormia was a masterpiece of interspecies technology, but the parts of the city where most races lived, where individuals like Urgon Feyn lived, looked just like, or even worse, than the slums and ghettoes of Neo Carolina.

  Urgon Feyn scanned us with his reptilian eyes. He wasn’t a Cantari; he was a Federation Takkari and it wasn’t easy to tell the difference. The two races were eerily similar in looks, but that’s the only thing they had in common. Cantari were loyal, religious fanatics while the Takkari were godless businessmen who would sell out their race for the right price. Try and suggest a common ancestor and you’d piss both races off equally. Urgon Feyn was no different. His little emporium was hidden from the eyes of local police enforcements and thrived in the underbelly of Instormia.

  “How can I help you, soldiers?” Urgon asked with no love lost.

  His tone told me all I needed to know about his standing with the military.

  “I need your services, Urgon. I was told you could help me with my… pain,” I said, thinking of how to describe it best.

  It almost felt like a doctor’s appointment, but the only difference was of course that Urgon was Takkari, that two Orros stood to both of his sides, and that a Shia buzzed around Urgon Feyn constantly while whispering in his ear. He was probably an advisor of sorts. The Shia were quick thinkers, and they were very skilled with their appendages. Some of the best Federation doctors were Shia, though the idea of a dog-sized fly operating on me was discomforting.

  “Pain? You must have mistaken my fine emporium for a pharmacy.”

  “No, it’s not that kind of pain. My head and my body… I had an incident and since then no doctor could help me. I was told you could do something about it.”

  I had my doubts about this whole thing even before visiting Urgon. I knew whatever treatment he had to offer would probably either be a scam or so ridiculously overpriced that it wasn’t even worth it. Still, I haven’t had a moment’s respite since that damned mountain. The longer the pain continued, the more I was up for drastic measures.

  “And what services do you ask of me, human?” Urgon said with a sigh.

  “Whatever you can do to stop it,” I answered, not breaking eye contact.

  The Takkari looked around, listened to some whispers by his Shia advisor, and then nodded.

  “No. Go away. I don’t do business with the military.”

  Was the old lizard piece of shit shooing me away without providing any services? I tried to handle this without bringing in Tailor, but it wasn’t to be.

  “Can we talk in private?” I asked, gesturing toward his bodyguards. Urgon raised an eyebrow. He looked to his right, then to his left, and then back at me. Then Urgon, the two Orros, and the Shia broke into laughter. Urgon wasn’t the type to talk eye to eye I learned that day. Not with me and not with anyone. His bodyguards didn’t leave him alone in the toilet, let alone with a Federation soldier.

  “Tailor sent me,” I said cutting through the laughter.

  I wanted to get it over with, but watching his expression suddenly change amused me lightly. However, the smirk on his face never left.

  “Tailor? That old Federation dog? I don’t give a shit what Tailor wants or who he sends!”

  “Captain Tailor told me you would help. Help me, a Federation Technomancer who needs a favor. Do you understand that, Takkari?”

  Urgon’s face changed yet again and soon the smirk disappeared. His upper lip reclined a bit and his white, sharp teeth showed.

  “A Federation Technomancer, you say? From the Federation? Well, that’s impressive. Here let me show you what I think of your authority.”

  He spat into his open palm and pretended to hand it to me, then slammed his palm against the counter and wiped it away. It was the Takkari way of showing maximum disrespect. It meant here, have my water, and then no, I’d rather spill it than share. He wasn’t the first Takkari I’ve seen do it, so the message was clear.

  It took a lot of self-control not to wrap my nanite chains around his neck and pull his face into the same spot on the counter where the spit was drying. I scanned his Orros, and my INAS recognized them as potential threats but without any markings or rank, while the Shia and Urgon didn’t even register on the INAS. I could have wiped the floor with the four of them and not broken a sweat; however, there was no point in doing it. It was my throbbing head that was doing the thinking, and it wanted pain relief at any cost.

  “Fine,” I said and turned around. “Let’s go.”

  There was no point in pushing it as the man didn’t want to do business with me. After all, it was his right. One thing the Instormian government did very well was to protect its citizens. The Instormian came first, no matter the race.

  Just as we were about to leave, the Takkari spoke again.

  “Human,” he called out. �
�Perhaps I could reach out a hand after all. We’re all Federation citizens, aren’t we?” he said with a broad smile. I turned around. “The procedure you need will be costly.”

  “I have money.”

  “Yes, a soldier’s pocket. Not really a gold pot. No, but perhaps you could do me a little favor and I’d see what I could do to lower the price.”

  “I have money,” I said again. There was no way in hell I would run errands for this guy.

  “Fine, how much money?” He was pushing it.

  “Enough.”

  “Do you have 6,000 credits?”

  “What?” What the hell was he talking about? No soldier had 6,000 credits on hand. I had amassed a grand and a half and that’s since Knez’Un and the simulators. I even had some 400 credits I saved at my old job. He was just trying to make it as unreasonable as possible, that was all.

  “I have a little problem a strong Federation Technomancer as yourself could tackle with ease, you see. With your set of skills, it would be over in an afternoon and then I’d lower the price to a grand. What do you say?”

  That yellow-spotted son of a lizard really knew how to pull my strings.

  “Fuck you, Takkari,” I said to both Leo’s and Layla’s surprise.

  Damned Instormians and their arrogance. It may have been the cultural hub of the galaxy, but it was mostly filled with assholes.

  “See me if you change your mind.”

  I slammed the door behind me without saying a word. A bunch of Urgon’s lackeys in the room outside his office stared at us the same way they did when we entered. Their eyes promised murder if we even so much as said the wrong thing. Street gangs, criminals, murderers, and who knew what else filled the streets. Our dear Captain Tailor surely had some interesting friends. Too interesting for a Federation captain.

  The pain in my head told me to spike them all. I didn’t, of course. I had that much sense left in me. But for how long? Well, that remained to be seen.

  We still had several days of R&R so there was no reason to return to Base Zero. We rented two rooms in a shabby hotel and I called it a night. Leo and Layla went out to explore the reaches of Instormia, but I wasn’t in the mood. It still felt like I was dragging a truck of logs behind me when I moved and my head... I bought some painkillers, but they barely helped at all, so I drank. I drank through much of the night until I collapsed on the bed. It was the only way I could find sleep.