Star Angel
Rising
David G McDaniel
visit:
TeamStarAngel.com
Star Angel: Rising
Copyright © 2013 by David G McDaniel
Reprinted, Copyright © 2016
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
Jess is gone. Zac is alone. The Kel have arrived at Earth.
All is lost.
Or so it would seem. As with all things that have gone before, strength of will remains. Determination. Persistence, refusal to yield; the very things that have driven events to this epic turning point. There is a chance. On Anitra a treaty has been formed, that world closer to unity. A vast alliance awaits. Nani and Bianca have control of the powerful Reaver.
And Jess may not be as lost as she thinks.
For others wait who can help. If she can see her way through, if she can trust and believe, if the rest of her small band of adventurers hold fast to their own faith ...
There may yet be hope.
To my son, and the entirety of his generation.
You are the future.
Success is a choice.
Why, then, would one choose to fail? Perhaps to maintain interest. We would rather, it seems, suffer tragedy, endure pain or any manner of hardship, than experience nothing at all. We may never fully understand the “why” of this, but one thing is certain:
We are, each of us, responsible for the condition in which we find ourselves.
There is no other fault, no outside blame. No uncontrolled factor. No other challenger, no bad day or overwhelming force that thwarts us. We are the sole engineer of our fate. Succeed if you choose. Fail if you choose. But do not give credit for your failure to the rock that fell on your head. Why did you allow the rock to fall? Why did you decide to have your head cracked?
Why did you decide to fail?
The answer, always, lies with you.
Master this and your existence is your own.
— The Watcher of Hamonhept
CHAPTER 1: MARCH OF THE INVADERS
CHAPTER 2: IMPULSE TO RUN
CHAPTER 3: FLIGHT
CHAPTER 4: DETECTION
CHAPTER 5: THE BOARD IS RESET
CHAPTER 6: A BRAVE NEW WORLD
CHAPTER 7: THE WATCHER OF HAMONHEPT
CHAPTER 8: NEWS REACHES THE FIELD
CHAPTER 9: CODE RED
CHAPTER 10: SLIPPING
CHAPTER 11: THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
CHAPTER 12: AN AUDIENCE WITH ALIENS
CHAPTER 13: THINGS GET WORSE
CHAPTER 14: PLANS
CHAPTER 15: THE STAGE IS SET
CHAPTER 16: AWAKEN
CHAPTER 17: A LESSON IN HISTORY
CHAPTER 18: DECISION TO HELP
CHAPTER 19: ACCEPTING THE JOURNEY
CHAPTER 20: KANG RESPONDS
CHAPTER 21: THE BATTLE IS JOINED
CHAPTER 22: IMPOSSIBLE STRIKE
CHAPTER 23: ESCAPE
CHAPTER 24: THE TREMARCH ENGAGES
CHAPTER 25: RETURN TO ANITRA
CHAPTER 26: RISE OF THE DEMON
CHAPTER 27: SHOWDOWN
CHAPTER 28: DECISIONS ARE MADE
CHAPTER 29: TRAITORS
CHAPTER 30: OUT TO SEA
CHAPTER 31: THE DOMINION RESPONDS
CHAPTER 32: A LONG SHOT
CHAPTER 33: PLANS WITHIN PLANS
CHAPTER 34: THE NEW RULERS OF EARTH
CHAPTER 35: A GATHERING STORM
CHAPTER 36: VISITORS
CHAPTER 37: THE CASTLE
CHAPTER 38: LORD CHEOPS
CHAPTER 39: A CERTAIN TRUTH
CHAPTER 40: THE TEST
CHAPTER 41: NIGHT RIDE
CHAPTER 42: THE NECROPS
CHAPTER 43: ARCLYSS THE DESPOILER
CHAPTER 44: THE GATE
CHAPTER 45: DESTINY
CHAPTER 1: MARCH OF THE INVADERS
Bianca’s head snapped back and forth between the quickly resolving specks of light, twinkling like deadly little stars out there against the black of space, their schematics scrolling across screen after screen of information on the bridge of the Reaver. Nani just sat there, staring, not even digesting it anymore. Bianca could see the girl scientist was finally overwhelmed.
The Earth was being invaded.
“They’re fully armed,” Nani shook her head slowly, utterly lost, unable to respond to what she was seeing. No longer actively doing anything, it seemed; no longer her usual, smart self, tapping and pulling and putting together list after list of facts. Just … watching. “All their systems are charged,” she added weakly. “They were like that as soon as they arrived.
“It’s an invasion,” she swallowed. “They came for war.”
Despairingly she looked out the viewscreen in the direction of the invisible craft.
“They found us.” Her voice was barely a whisper.
Bianca watched over her shoulder, finding the various trajectories on the readouts, seeing that the ships had, in fact, begun moving. Forward toward the Earth.
She turned her gaze to her world, floating across the breadth of the room-spanning dome. The Kel fleet, on approach. She tried to count how many. Tried to see any evidence of the ships visually, far out there in space.
On the scrolling schematics they looked absolutely lethal.
How would the Earth respond?
How could it?
**
Kang ground his teeth, crooked fangs clicking loudly—the noise finally bringing it to his own attention. Voltan had been staring pointedly at him. Kang returned the Kel commander’s one-eyed glare, wanting to smash his face for refusing to obey his order. For not rushing to destroy the ship out there carrying Horus.
One of the Kel operators interrupted the steady flow of information driving the activity on the bridge.
“My lord,” he spoke directly to Voltan. Voltan peeled his gaze from Kang, fixing his attention on the man. “News,” the Kel said. “We’ve aggregated more info. This world is not Anitra.” He looked up. Voltan raised an eyebrow. The operator added: “This is not our expected target.”
Slowly Voltan turned to Kang.
“Is this true?”
Kang felt a wave of nerves pass over him, then shoved them away with disdain. He sneered. Owned it.
“This is not my world.”
The Kel operator continued. “By name the world is called Earth,” he checked more info. Others around the bridge were similarly engaged. “No reference to Anitra.”
Voltan stood with Kang near the front of the dreadnought’s massive command center, at the tall, wide, forward screen, digesting the unexpected series of events transpiring in the short time since their arrival. Already they’d encountered the more advanced alien ship, orbiting as if waiting for them. Kang’s burning wish to be done with it in a single blow, to destroy his nemesis, Horus—who he was convinced was aboard—had risen to such an intensity that he’d near forgotten all else.
And so now the Kel knew. This was not Anitra. Not the place they expected to have reached.
Kang’s emotions swung, and he relished the Kel’s confusion.
“Tell me what you know.”
**
Zac killed the first three Bok in a single, sweeping blow, cleaving through the tightly packed bodies as he swung into them with uncontained rage. Two more died in the second move, three others pulverized in the next instant before he had the presence of mind to grab one by the collar and hold him fast. The few remaining in that stone death trap fell over themselves in a screaming rush, the room empty a second later. Forcibly Zac held his rage, noticing the bloody carnage he’d let loose; broken bodies, gore and splattered viscera, the ancient stone walls violently stained with it; the frenzied sounds of panicked bootfalls receding to all points of the Bok castle; the mad scramble to escape, to get as far from that deadly force of nature as possible. Emptied machineguns lay here and there, discarded in the crush, hundreds upon hundreds of bullet casings from earlier, sign of the chaos, the brutally instantaneous destruction that had just transpired at his hands.
He turned his attention to the man in his grip. Held him high in one hand and looked up into his wild eyes. The man had been punching, flailing, kicking—anything the terrified Bok could do to get lose, to halt the abomination that held him. Zac noticed the blows hitting him in the face, fists in his eyes. Slowly he began to get control of himself. He realized the man was struggling mightily. Fighting for his life.
“Where did he take the girl?” Zac asked as steadily as he could. The man, the Bok, kept punching.
Maybe if Zac gave him hope.
“I can catch any of the others easily,” he informed him. “If you won’t answer then maybe one of them will.”
The man got his meaning. Finally seemed to realize there was nothing he could do. He was only hurting himself by even punching at all. He stopped, eyes wide in his skull. As the desperation of his assault faded he began to hyperventilate.
Zac set him to his feet but maintained a grip on his collar. To make his point he snapped him back and forth, just once, jerking the man’s head so much he cried out. A sharp shout of pain and his hands went for his own neck, wincing, checking for breaks.
“Where did he take the girl?” Zac repeated in the same, falsely calm voice. He glanced at the Icon in his other hand; he’d not released it in his brief rampage. Broken though it might be he would not release it. Would never release it. Until he had answers it was his only link to Jessica.
The man continued to rub his neck, looking as if he believed he was in the clear, or at least that Zac would give him time, or might otherwise draw this out.
Zac bunched up his collar and choked him, careful not to go too far as the man’s hands grappled frantically and his eyes bulged. “Where did he take her?” Zac asked yet again. The man gasped and Zac eased off just enough to let him breathe. Hurriedly the man spoke:
“To another world.”
“What world?”
The man breathed deeply.
“Our world,” he said with misplaced bravado.
“Another planet?” Zac yanked his attention to him. He held the Icon where the man could see. “This goes to another planet?”
The man nodded.
“Are there other devices that go there? Where are the rest?”
“That’s the only one,” the man informed him. “That and the ones the girl took.” At that he rolled his eyes to look over at the spot where Jess had disappeared.
Zac rapped the Icon against his forehead and the man yelped. Zac’s voice was a low growl. “Does this go to one of those planets? The same as the devices the girl took?” No response. “Does it?!” he snapped the man sharply, all patience lost, and for a second worried he’d killed him. The man’s eyes glazed over; Zac listened intently. He was still breathing and … his eyelids fluttered and he came back into focus.
Once he was recovered Zac lowered his voice and shoved the Icon in his face. “Does this go to the same place as the others?” If it did, then Nani would know how to get there.
“I don’t know.” Then: “The others were different.”
Zac held it high. “Then where does this one go?”
“I told you! Our world!”
“That tells me nothing!”
“I don’t know!” Then: “Only Lorenzo ever went.” Frustratingly, the Bok was maintaining his cocky demeanor. Like it was so ingrained, even imminent death couldn’t drive it out. Zac began losing hope. How much more could he threaten him? What else could he do to compel him?
But the man went on. “Lorenzo was preparing the way for our return,” he said a little more candidly. “Learning the ways of our ancient right. Preparing us to rule. To rule all worlds. There are others, you know. Other worlds, amazing worlds. This one is pathetic.”
Zac held him close. “Then tell me what Lorenzo told you. What was this other world called? Where this goes. Describe it! How many moons?” If he could learn anything, any clue as to where it connected, he could rush to Satori, get Nani, fly after Jessica and rescue her.
But the man lapsed into a sort of reverie, imagining the things Lorenzo must’ve said. “It has one moon. A giant moon. A blue Saturn.” He looked toward the ceiling, gaze far away. “Hamonhept. Where we lived a thousand years ago. Our legacy is there.
“Lorenzo was bringing it to us.”
He fell silent, mind drifting to that other place. Zac prodded: “What’s a blue Saturn?”
“The moon of our home.”
A planet that had a giant blue Saturn for a moon. None of that connected with anything Zac knew.
He pressed: “Is there a purple planet? A purple gas giant? Is there also a purple planet there?”
The man just looked at him. “It’s blue,” he said. “Erius, it’s called, and its majesty will be ours. Along with all things. All glory will be ours.”
Zac studied him. If that were true—and Zac believed the man was telling the truth—not only did his manner suggest it, but there was no reason, in this case, to lie—if that were true then the broken Icon in his hand went somewhere he’d never been. Somewhere none of them had been.
Which meant there was no way to follow.
Slowly he lowered the hand holding it, staring at its shiny, dinged, bullet-scarred surface. At the same time he felt his grip relaxing on his captive’s collar.
All was lost.
Suddenly the Bok’s eyes went wide, and with a loud hiss the man declared: “We are the future!”
Zac grabbed a fresh handful of collar and lifted him from his feet.
“I’m the future,” he said and, without hesitation, flung him hard against the far stone wall. A sharp scream and a sickening thunk marked the end of that conversation.
And the end of one more life.
**
Kang glared at Voltan. Trying to find ways not to explode, to not throttle the Kel commander and insist he put the rest of this nonsense on pause and attack the ship out there carrying Horus. To hell with invasions. Move! Attack! His arch-nemesis was right there, floating in a ready-made coffin waiting to be killed. If they didn’t act soon he would likely shoot off to God knew where. Could do so, literally, at any moment.
Kang looked out the giant screen at the world ahead. No, this is not my world! he wanted to shout. What of it! Now do as I say! Destroy that ship!
But Voltan persisted with his questions, his effort to understand where they had, in fact, ended up. The short delays of the translations, the computer turning Kang’s words into Kel, giving him back the words of Voltan and the others in English—Voltan’s damningly slow evaluation of everything, his frustrating consideration—all these things only added to the rage Kang fought desperately not to give rein.
Voltan either missed the tension in him or chose to ignore it.
“How do you know?”
“I know it.”
“Your people have been to this world? You have been to Earth?”
Kang scoffed. “My people have never left their world. My world and this are ripe for conquest. That device must also have had co
ordinates for here. I assumed it would point only to where I came from. One end goes to Kel, the other must come here. Beyond that I know little.”
“Then how do you know of Earth? What do you know of it?”
“We know of it in legends. From our past.” He said no more.
But the idea of legendary worlds, past worlds, rang true for Voltan. The Kel had plenty of those sorts of legends in their own history.
One of the crew suggested: “Perhaps this is one of the lost worlds of the Combine.”
Voltan nodded. Clearly considering this a very real possibility. “And our assessment holds?” he queried.
“Capabilities are as indicated,” came the answer.
“Well within band,” added another. “Though not what we came expecting, this world presents no more challenge than Kang’s briefing of Anitra.”
The chief operator confirmed. “No challenge, Lord. This world is complex, but there is nothing they can bring to bear against us.
“We can proceed as planned.”
Voltan nodded. “Very well.” He seemed to contemplate something deeper. “We may indeed be witnessing a world from the Revolution. Fallout from our past. If we have found such a world,” he glanced briefly at Kang, then back out the tall forward screen to the blue/white world ahead, “if we next find the true Anitra …”
Kang leaned toward Voltan, menacing. “All that can wait. There is a very real threat before you now.” He gave the ambiguity of that a moment to float, even after the translator was done. “This world, fallout from your legendary past or not, will go nowhere in the next minutes. That ship out there will. And on it is a danger not far less than me.” He gave that another moment of silence to impinge. “We have a chance to do something about it. Engage and destroy that ship.” He pointed, to his left, out the tall forward screen toward the location of the other craft. “Then we will talk of worlds and of conquest.”
Star Angel: Rising (Star Angel Book 4) Page 1
