Wraithkin (The Kin Wars Saga Book 1)

by Jason Cordova

  Gabriel spotted two women whispering urgently to one another, their faces filled with terror as they walked by. A man walked past, talking hurriedly into his datapad. His face was nearly identical to that of the women’s. Gabriel strained to hear his conversation through the bustling din of the station.

  “…never thought they could attack out there...”

  Gabriel looked around frantically, his heart thudding rapidly in his chest as he tried to find someone who could answer his questions. An attack meant only one thing, and Gabriel knew DIB agents would be paranoid after an attack. The Deebs were smart, he reminded himself. Smart and paranoid.

  “Excuse me?” he asked a short man speaking into his datapad in a quiet voice. The man turned and inspected Gabriel for a moment before he spoke.

  “Yes?” the man responded, his tone agitated. Gabriel made a motion at the chaos that surrounded them.

  “What’s going on?” Gabriel inquired nervously.

  “The Abassi hit a colony world,” the man answered rapidly, his gaze flitting back to his pad. Gabriel cringed at the thought of renewed hostilities.

  The alien Abassi were a growing threat to the galactic southeast, their sphere of influence almost matching that of the Dominion’s. They did not respond to the Dominion’s early overtures of peace and immediately conquered two distant worlds which had been claimed by King Josiah the Bold almost twenty years before.

  In retaliation, the Dominion nuked an Abassi colony world from orbit. The Abassi, unprepared for such a response, had lashed out with a massive raid on Anvil, one of the most heavily-defended Dominion worlds. The battle had been bloody for both sides with no clear victor. Soon after, the two sides agreed to a cessation of hostilities; that had been eight months previous. Other than the occasional border skirmish, Gabriel recalled as he struggled to keep the urge to panic under control, relative peace has reigned. Until now, apparently.

  “What world?” he asked quietly, his mind racing. The DIB would be at a heightened state if the Abassi were continuing their attack on the southeastern part of the Dominion. Hopefully, he thought as he rubbed his fingers against his temple, the lockdown will come long after I’m on my way to–

  “Ptolemy,” came the reply.

  “What?” Gabriel asked, his voice hollow in his ears. He heard it wrong. He had to have heard the man incorrectly.

  “Colony ship translated in at Ptolemy,” the man continued in annoyance. “And stumbled into a raiding party. The ship fired off a distress beacon just before the Abassi took over. They’ve never hit something so far to the galactic north before.”

  “Survivors?” Gabriel pressed, his heart hammering in his chest. His face felt flushed and heated as he leaned closer to the man. “Prisoners?”

  “I don’t know, kid,” the man said and moved away, turning his attention back to his datapad. He looked back at Gabriel. “Sorry.”

  Gabriel stumbled over to a narrow metal bench, his chest constricting as he struggled to get his breath. Ptolemy. The colony ship. The only colony ship due to be in the system for three weeks. Which meant...Sophie. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to make the world, the universe go back to normal, to wake himself from the horrible nightmare. No no no no no no!

  His mind numb, Gabriel slumped down into the bench and buried his head in his hands. He was unable to think, his body forgetting how to breathe. The pressure of his palms against his forehead was the only reminder he was not asleep, but was wide awake for this hellish nightmare. His heart pounded painfully in his chest as he sat there, his mind lost. The main reason he had kept going after his diagnosis was her, and now she was...

  He shook his head and looked up, unaware of the tears which slowly ran down his face. It’s not fair! He protested silently, bitter rage welling up in his heart. This was supposed to be our chance at normalcy, our chance for life! He pinched his nose between two fingers and willed himself to stop crying. I don’t know anything yet, he reasoned as he brought his emotions under control. Nobody knows what’s going on. She could have survived and is hiding somewhere! But...but how do I get there now? The Deebs are going to lock this place down.

  “...and then the Navy’s going to have to go in and root them out, damned aliens,” someone muttered as they hurried past Gabriel. His ears perked up at that.

  The Navy. The most powerful military force mankind had ever wielded. Of course they would be the first on the scene, using their vast technological and military might to take back the planet. Nobody would be able to translate in via a jump gate until the threat had been cleared. That meant the Navy, one of the bigger fleets. Gabriel suddenly knew what he had to do.

  Gabriel rushed past a few Perfects staring out of the orbital station’s viewing windows, his focus on the overhead signs directing him onwards. The vast, maze-like interior of the station was designed to make life difficult for raiding parties and enemy attack. It also made life difficult for Gabriel, whose unfamiliarity with the layout of the station hampered his progress. Twice he turned down a passageway only to realize he had misread the directional signs.

  Ten minutes later he found himself staring at the solid door to the Dominion Navy’s Recruiting Office. Prominently featured was the Navy logo: two crossed sabers of gold guarded a wild cyclamen, its pink petals stretching skyward in front of a dark blue background. Above the pink flower, arrayed in the pattern of the constellation Methuselah, were the fourteen planets governed within the Dominion of Man. A simple gold-link chain surrounding the logo, tied off to an anchor at the very top, completed the design.

  Taking a deep breath, Gabriel gave the door a solid shove and stepped into the office. He stopped and stared, his mouth agape as he absorbed the details of the plush main room. He had never anticipated a recruiting office of any branch of the military to have such an expensive decor, especially one on an orbital station on the fringes of the Dominion. The chaos of the station outside stopped at the door to the office.

  Three men and a woman were all seated at mahogany desks directly in front of him, heads bowed as they peered at their datapads. The soft hum of the air recyclers could be faintly heard in the background, though the thick carpeting did much to absorb the sound. Pictures, glamorized shots of Navy ships, flashed through digital frames as a new image replaced the old every few seconds. To Gabriel’s right the Navy ensign stood, the proud red-, silver- and black-colored flag adorned with the Navy logo. To his left, a private office with a shut door. He glanced back at the recruiters, one of whom seemed to have noticed him for the first time.

  “Can I help you?” the woman asked, her bright smile contrasting sharply with her dark skin. She motioned for Gabriel to come further into the office with her free hand, the other tightly clutching her datapad. “Are you looking for a quality service where you can help be the Emperor’s light?”

  “I’m looking to join the Navy,” Gabriel said, his tone rushed. He took a deep breath to calm himself and offered the woman a smile. “My name is Gabriel Espinoza.”

  “That’s great!” she said and extended her hand. “I’m Lieutenant Commander Razia Gowd. Are you joining because of the Abassi raid on Ptolemy?”

  “Yes ma’am,” Gabriel answered, his tone respectful. His father had not raised a fool and Gabriel, ever observant, knew that he would go further with respect than without.

  “Terrible business, that was. We’ll teach them a lesson,” she smiled again. “We’re going to go in and clean that little rat nest out, reclaim the Emperor’s planet. Glorious battle awaits us, Gabriel, and we would love to have you along for the fight.”

  “I can get on a ship going to Ptolemy?” Gabriel asked, surprised. Seeing her nod, he pressed on. “That’s good, really good. I want to get there as fast as I can, to help save the colonists and kill all the aliens.”

  “That’s what we want to hear,” she nodded. “Any idea about what you’d like to do?”

  “I have an ICE degree,” Gabriel informed her, referring to his Interstellar Commerce and E
conomics degree. He thought for a moment about some of his other experience outside the classroom. “Some experience with mechanics, though nothing formal. Interned with the IPIU during my second and third years at university and have managed my dad’s farm for him on occasion.”

  “Those are some excellent credentials,” she agreed, her tone still enthusiastic. “I think Logistics would be your calling, but we’d have to run some tests to determine everything beforehand. With your degree, you might even be eligible for Officer Candidate Training on Juno.”

  “Good,” Gabriel said. “When can we start?”

  “Well, let me get your last name again and your records number,” the recruiter said as she pulled out a second datapad. She punched his name into the device and looked back up at him. Gabriel told her his record numbers. She typed those in, as well as the date, and waited for his information to come up. A few seconds later she looked up, her face pinched, eyes narrowed. “I’m sorry, we don’t accept your kind.”

  “I’m sorry? My kind?” Gabriel was confused. “I have a degree from the best economics university outside of Earth, experience managing a farm and I interned for one of the largest conglomerates in the universe.”

  “If you weren’t an Imperfect, you’d be a wonderful fit,” she pointed out. Her tone sharpened. “However, you’re...” she wrestled for a moment, struggling to find the right word before spitting out “tainted.”

  “Tainted?” Gabriel was horrified. The rest of his life would be nothing more than a series of rejections, living on the edge of the precipice, outside the definitive lines of society. He would never work, never earn an income to sustain his life, to be nothing more than a dreg of society. It was soul-crushing for him to realize that there would never be anything better without Sophie. He needed her, more than he ever thought anyone would need anything. Not just for his soul, but for his very life.

  “Yes, tainted.” The woman looked him over. “You look like a fine young man, but the rules are the rules. We don’t take your kind. Sorry.” She swiveled in her chair and started talking to another recruiter, effectively dismissing him.

  Gabriel was silent, stunned. He had known on an intellectual level things would be different, and had even seen some of the effects his newly-found genetic condition created, but he had never before felt the full magnitude of just what he now was, the monster the public knew him to be.

  He turned and walked to the door. He stopped as his hand touched the handle, and he cast one final look over his shoulder at the recruiter, who had her attention elsewhere. He was out of mind, already forgotten. He wouldn’t be able to run and find Sophie. He was lost. He opened the office door and left his hopes and dreams behind, crushed on the plush carpet of the recruiting office’s floor.

  “I overheard you talking to the Navy,” a voice said as soon as Gabriel closed the door behind him. He jerked in surprise and turned around to find himself staring at a tall, dark man with a scar running the length of his face. The man’s eyes were yellow, rheumy and staring intently into Gabriel’s. He was not a handsome man, yet carried himself with a bearing that told Gabriel more than any formal introduction could ever have. The man leaned casually against the doorframe to the Navy recruiter’s office and looked down at his fingernails. “Waste of time, if you ask me. Navy, well, they just ship the important people to where they need to go. No shore leave, their tech schools are long and they don’t let Imperfects like us in. Might be disruptive, y’know? Threaten the way they do things. Besides, it could be years before you get to see action against the Abassi if you managed, somehow, to get in.”

  “What do you mean?” Gabriel asked, confused. He took a step away from the imposing man and looked around. Everything seemed surreal, nothing the same as it was before. His life was in shambles, the pieces scattered about haphazardly. It was disturbing, tiring. Once more the feeling of abject failure washed over him. He rubbed the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. His mind was still reeling from shock, trying to process all the information he had been forced to endure over the past hour. “Navy said they’re going to go clean up the system, kill the aliens.”

  “Yeah, after the Wraiths get done with it. Wraiths’ll go in and cleanse the planet while the Navy sit in their new, shiny ships and wait for us to finish,” the man interjected. He stuck out his hand. “Name’s Jonas Bright. I used to wear a Wraith suit until I got rotated out to recruiting duty. So why you looking to join the military during a war? That’s what this is, don’t let no snake-tongued politician tell you otherwise. ‘Cessation of hostilities’ simply means we ain’t trying to kill one another out in the open. Course, that’s gonna change. You a patriot? Or do you want to be a hero?”

  “Uh, no,” Gabriel shook his head. “My girlfriend–”

  “Ah, say no more,” Jonas said as he held up his hand. “She was at Ptolemy. Next to heroism, there’s nothing the Navy hates more than someone with a hard-on for vengeance. They never tell you that. Promise you one thing, then don’t even use lube when they’re– well, never you mind that. What’s your name, kid?”

  “Gabriel Espinoza. She was on a ship headed there,” Gabriel corrected, his voice soft. “They were just translating in through the jump gate when the Abassi hit. Her ship fired off the distress signal.”

  “Colony ship captains are braver than we give them credit for,” Jonas acknowledged. “Wraiths will be the first there to reclaim the system, and the Abassi have been known to take prisoners on occasion. If you want to rescue your girlfriend and kill some Abassi while you’re at it, come with me.”

  “You’re in the army?” Gabriel asked, surprised. He looked at Jonas’ nondescript clothing and lack of any identifying insignia skeptically. “What’s your rank?”

  “I’m a Wraith, boy,” Jonas corrected mildly as he led Gabriel towards a door very similar to the Navy recruiter’s office door. Jonas pushed it open and stepped inside. Gabriel hesitated and looked around. Jonas chuckled. “Don’t insult me so. Here in the Wraiths, we don’t have ranks so much as positions. Mine was ‘bent over’ before they decided I was too good at my job. Made it to platoon commander before they came to me and said ‘Jonas, you silver-tongued snake, we’re going to make a recruiter out of you.’ So here I am, curse my horrible luck.”

  “Uh...” Gabriel hesitated, suddenly nervous. He had heard of the Wraiths, but nobody spoke about them. His knowledge of the Emperor’s personal guard was slim, but what he did know was enough to give him pause.

  “I ain’t going to kill you, boy. I’m trying to give you a job.” Jonas looked at Gabriel for a second before he started nodding slowly. “Espinoza...Joel Espinoza’s kid?”

  “Yes,” Gabriel nodded, surprise evident on his face. Jonas smiled slyly.

  “You were just diagnosed, weren’t you?”

  “What?” Gabriel’s eyes widened. “I...I mean, how...?”

  “I know Joel’s reputation, and his family’s,” Jonas stated, ignoring Gabriel’s confusion. “So far as I know, he didn’t have any gene issues. Which means you were just tested. That girlfriend...she was going to be your wife, right? Test killed that dream, didn’t it?”

  “Er...why does my dad have a reputation?” Gabriel asked, still confused.

  “No worries about the failed tests here,” Jonas dodged Gabriel’s question easily as he closed the door behind them. He walked past the confused young man and slid behind a desk. He motioned for Gabriel to sit in one of the two chairs across from him. Reluctantly, Gabriel took a seat as Jonas began to deliver his pitch.

  “We only accept Imperfects. The tainted, the corrupted, the leftovers. They are what we want. Look here son, the Wraith suits are the most technologically-advanced armor infantry can wear,” Jonas began as he turned on a small display behind him with the push of a button. “They are twice as fast as a non-suited human, forty times as strong and a single suit can carry more ammunition than a battalion of non-suited infantry. We, the Wraiths, are an elite unit who serve at the pure mercy and behes
t of the Emperor Himself. We are outside the normal chain of command. We don’t have a lot of Wraiths, though, because, well, war is a bloody business. That being said...we can ignore an order from a naval ship captain, under certain circumstances. That’s just one of the many benefits of signing with us.”

  “So you’re telling me a Wraith can take over a Navy ship and tell it where to go?” Gabriel asked, his interest piqued as hope flared through him. Jonas shrugged.

  “If it’s worth the court martial and hanging afterwards, yeah,” Jonas said. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on the glass desktop. “I’m not going to lie, though. The Wraiths have a higher mortality rate than the average infantryman.”

  “Why?” Gabriel looked at the walls. There were no awards or decorations, unlike the Navy recruiter’s office. The Wraith’s office was more spartan than any room Gabriel had ever seen before, even more so than his father’s. “The suits are supposed to be invulnerable.”

  “Because sometimes good things happen to bad people.”

  “I’m not sure that’s how it goes–” Gabriel began but was cut off.

  “Give me an hour of your time,” Jonas said as he began to stand up, avoiding Gabriel’s earlier question. “One hour. You take this brain test, and I’ll tell you if you’d be perfect as a Wraith. Then you can get your vengeance on.”

  “One hour?” Gabriel cocked his head slightly to the right. “And if I decide to walk?”

  “You walk,” Jonas shrugged. “Makes no difference to me, kid. But...” his voice trailed off.

  “But what?” Gabriel asked, leaning forward, his interest kindled in spite of himself.

  “If your girlfriend didn’t survive the attack, there’s only one thing in this universe that will be able to offer some sort of retribution,” Jonas’ voice dropped to an intense whisper. “And it sure as hell isn’t the Navy. You will go into battle with the full force of the Wraiths at your side and strike fear and destruction into those who harmed your love. Think about that while you decide.”