Ajax’s perceptions swam and he knew he was bleeding out, there was no stopping that now. He felt around upon the corpse he’d seized the rifle from and his hands found the sidearm holster with a pistol still in it. Ajax looked down to check the magazine and in doing so realized he’d fallen next to the mangled body of Jarl Mahora. The marine was shocked at the idea of such a larger than life individual dying, then his eyes found Hart’s body amidst the bloody tangle.
The marine blinked several times trying to clear the haze of his fading vision, only to find that focusing was all but impossible. He seemed to be the only thing moving in the fortress, and even he was slowing by the second. No Garm appeared to attack him, and no marine stirred among the dead. All that he could hear was the howling wind and the impact of void debris that still rained down from the burning sky. Soon even that dim awareness faded, and he sank beneath the waves of a cold darkness.
ONLY IN DEATH
Ajax dared not open his eyes as Rowan’s hands caressed his chest, her scent strong in his nose as he kissed the space just under her ear. That was always the sweet spot for her, a fact that he’d often used to his advantage. He pulled her close to him in the darkness behind his eyes and pressed one hand against the small of her back, running the other gently up her thigh. Her lips found his, and her hands guided him inside her.
Rowan had died on Andropolis along with billions of others. It hurt him to acknowledge that fact, a brutal truth he avoided in his waking life. At least in his dreams, she was here with him, and that made dying something less to be feared and more to be embraced. It would always end, and he would awaken to the fight once more, but for now all he wanted was this heat and this darkness and her.
But it did not end.
Even after they lay panting in each other’s arms Ajax did not awaken, and he began to suspect that he’d finally died his final death. Was this the release that he had secretly hoped for? No man was made to live and die in such an endless cycle as the Einherjar. The Blackouts were proof of that.
No Grendel stalking him. No terrible visions haunting him. Just Rowan. His wife. Did he dare open his eyes? What awaited him upon waking?
“Open your eyes, Ajax,” whispered Rowan, though her voice now sounded distorted, and the marine couldn’t tell whether that was because he was listening to her through something like water or if he’d just forgotten what her voice sounded like.
Initially, he refused, but she said it again, this time more changed and even further away. Finally, with a bitter acceptance, he forced himself to open his eyes.
The body forge.
Familiar faces met his gaze, and Idris welcomed Ajax back to consciousness.
Ajax was silent, it was all he could do not to weep, and yet he steeled himself as best he could. If he was alive and in the body forge with Idris that meant Bright Lance still flew.
“Welcome back, marine,” said Idris with a smile that seemed at once exhausted and relieved.
“Hope you enjoyed your nap, Einherjar, you earned it. Heorot is ours again, but there’s no rest for the weary,” growled Mahora as he stepped into the light, “Grab your gear and report to the launch deck in thirty minutes, we’ll debrief en route.”
“Heorot will be secured by another unit from fleet,” assured Idris in answer to the questioning look he got from Ajax as the marine moved his gaze from Mahora to the medicae. “We are being re-routed to the prime battlefront as part of a new initiative.”
“Did the Garm break through somewhere on the front?” asked Ajax as he let Idris help him out of the forge.
“No, we still hold firm. Given the nature of events here on Heorot, the marines of Hydra Company and the rest of the einherjar here have experience with Garm warfare that no other units does,” answered Idris.
“We have been assigned to something called Task Force Grendel,” said Mahora with a savage smile. “I imagine we are about to start hunting monsters.”
NO HERO YET
Ajax stood in the chamber alone, staring at the head of Grendel as it floated, suspended in thick preservatives. Even in death, he could still feel the psychic echoes of the beast, and in the distance of the cold void he knew that the hive mind was out there listening for him.
Bright Lance was en route to destinations unknown, and the marines aboard were preparing themselves to be deployed into some fresh hell.
Monster hunters, indeed, thought Ajax to himself as he and the dead Garm ravager stared at one another.
“If the skalds are right, and you really are Grendel,” whispered Ajax as his hand strayed to the torc at his throat. “Then what dragons await us among the stars?”
The End
Read on for a free sample of The Lost Empire
Chapter 1
Command Carrier Dominance
Affiliation: Feng Empire
Fleet Admiral Fengus Utang sat in his chair on the battle bridge of his command carrier, assimilating thousands of points of data as they were gathered, as filtered by Captain Paxo Klingu.
“Sir, our battle group is exiting spacefold in the Humana System.”
“How far out?”
“One point seven three nine kilaparsecs, sir.”
Admiral Utang was about to initiate the final stage of his intergalactic scourge against the United Intergalactic Coalition. One by one, in his march across the known galaxies, overlooking the Uncharted Sectors, he had led the Feng Empire in its conquest to reclaim the glory of the Old Empire. In a vicious campaign, he toppled world after world, nation after nation, whittling away the overstretched United Intergalactic Coalition. From the Vampiri to the Homunculi, each member of the UIC was outmatched by the superior armada of the Feng.
The invasion of Humana, the seat of the United Intergalactic Coalition, was the end game in this great Intergalactic War 4.0.
“The Humani have detected our arrival, sir.”
This was to be suspected as the deep cold of space made it impossible to mask the heat signatures of large vessels and battle groups.
“Captain, release the hunter-killers.” These hunter-killers were the first ships in the history of armada vessels to utilize the dark matter of space to conceal themselves from detection. Admiral Utang watched as they entered the Humani battle group’s outer screen, circumventing detection. In turn, they gathered data on enemy positions and relayed them back.
“Have them take out the passive Humani scouts,” ordered Admiral Utang.
The on-screen display showed the frail Humani scout satellites take fire and explode, as they were designed for detection rather than engagement. Within thirty micros, the outer screen of the Humani defense forces had been eliminated.
“Sir, the hunter-killers are breaching the Humani’s inner screen.”
“Mobilize the battleships and dreadnaughts just outside the outer screen, and dispatch Warmonger squadrons.” Every squadron in the invasion fleet launched and approached the now non-existent Humani outer screen, outnumbering the Humani Vortex fighters in the inner screen two-to-one.
As the Feng hunter-killers breached the inner screen, the Humani Vortex defenders buzzed around blindly, groping out into the cold darkness with their sensors, desperate to detect the smallest heat signature.
The stealth vessels, rather than engaging, reached out with their own sensors, reporting back on the Humani Vortex positions and formations. The quantum computers of the Dominance extrapolated data from prior Humani encounters, assessing the threat axis of the Humani defense forces.
One of the stealth vessels took a fatal hit, the explosion ripping through its cloak of dark matter. It quickly became a lifeless husk, its crew drifting out of its gaping wounds into the vacuum of space.
“Sir, the Humani have dispatched hunter-killers.”
Admiral Utang was stoic, entirely expecting this.
“Mobilize countermeasures.”
He and the captain watched as the wave of battleships and dreadnaughts breached the outer screen. Cloaked ships traded fire, desper
ately trying to get a fix on the others’ positions. More Feng stealth vessels were neutralized by the cloaked Humani hunter-killers. Those few remaining switched from reconnaissance to engagement out of self-preservation, taking a dozen or so Vortex fighters with them as they rejoined the Aether.
“Sir, we have lost all hunter-killers,” said Captain Klingu.
However, Admiral Utang was unfazed. This was war and was to be expected.
The Vortex fighters pulled up in battle formations to the edge of the inner screen, waiting to greet the Feng battleships and dreadnaughts. Their sensors scanned the cold depths of the battlespace, targeting systems and weapons running hot.
“Release the chaff,” Admiral Utang ordered.
The battleships released a cloud of radioactive nanites, lighting up the targeting systems of the Vortex formations and the cloaked Humani hunter-killers. Their targeting systems confused, registering vast clouds of bogeys, the Vortex formations retreated back into the inner screen.
The nanites swept over the battlespace, latching onto the cloaked hunter-killers, causing the Humani stealth vessels to register as silhouettes on the Feng scanners. Although the cloaked ships remained below the thermo-gradient, the effect was like throwing a sheet over an invisible man.
“Send in the fighter squadrons,” ordered Admiral Utang.
The Feng armada targeted the revealed Humani hunter-killers and engaged, neutralizing them in short order. The Humani and Feng fighter squadrons charged the battlespace.
Tactical maneuvers broke down into chaos as the squadrons of fighters swarmed each other, pitching and rolling, engaging in zero-gravity dogfighting.
The Humani fighter pilots were superior in matters of reaction time and tactics, and it showed as they made quick work of the Feng squadrons. Captain Klingu viewed the battle on screen with great apprehension. However, Admiral Utang knew that the Feng only needed to whittle down the Vortex screen enough, and that was exactly what they accomplished.
“Sir, the Humani are transmitting for reinforcements. Forces from Earth are entering spacefold.”
Admiral Utang sneered. “The Humani must be desperate if they are enlisting the help of the Humans.”
The Humans were the last race to enter the United Intergalactic Coalition. Their abilities were limited, and their training was cursory and inadequate due to the demands of war and the urgency to bolster UIC forces with numbers.
The Humans were an embarrassment, losing every skirmish in the war to the Feng, even to the lesser races of the Feng Empire. Therefore, they were largely relegated to supply chains, piloting transport vessels carrying munitions and parts as well as food.
Utang’s sneer morphed into a smug grin. “More target practice for our ships.”
The arrival of Human transports would serve as nothing more than a nuisance, putting off the inevitable Feng victory.
The Feng dreadnaughts entered the inner screen, pummeling the Vortex fighters and initiating offensive ECM, jamming the planet’s communications, cutting off the Humani from what was left of their crumbling forces.
This was a glorious day for the Feng Empire, and total victory was imminent. The Feng believed in ‘eating what you killed,’ and they were about to feast upon the remains of a decadent and obsolete political-economic union.
Once the dreadnaughts and the Feng second and third waves neutralized the Humani HVU’s, Admiral Utang would release battalions of the dreaded cyborg Cybion warriors onto the planet. While the Humani pilots may have been superior, their marines were woefully inferior to the ruthless Cybions. Flesh would always yield to metal, and the Cybions were killing machines, designed to instill fear and end lives with brutal efficiency.
Captain Klingu’s eyes went wide. “Sir, the Humans are exiting spacefold.”
“Prepare to engage,” said Admiral Utang.
“Sir, they are opening a wormhole exactly onto our coordinates.”
“What?”
“They are going to unfold in the dead center of our battle group.”
“Idiots!” was all Admiral Utang could utter before an opening in Spacetime breached the center of his command carrier…
The lights went on in the Aether chamber, and Captain Mongo Utang watched as the display of the Dominance battle bridge evaporated before his very eyes. He had been immersed in a ghost memory of the key battle in the last Intergalactic War as told through his father’s experience.
He fought his body’s urge to choke up, his face contorting with rage, as hot tears welled up in his eyes. ‘Frakking Humans!’
This was not the first time that Captain Utang had reviewed his father’s final hours in battle during the Intergalactic War. He had only been a child on his home planet when he received news of his father’s demise.
The Feng were raised as warriors, and the prospect of a ‘beautiful death’ in battle was welcomed rather than feared. However, to die at the bungling hands of Human cargo pilots, from an unwitting suicide mission that inadvertently wiped out the High Valued Units of the Feng invasion force, not to mention their key fleet commander, signaling a turning point in the war, was shameful and embarrassing.
With their most talented tactician gone, the Feng forces began to lose their tactical advantages. Additionally, emboldened by successfully defending their planet, the Humani began to regroup and rally the rest of the UIC forces in the Charted Galaxies. They even rallied a few from the Uncharted Sectors who wished to remain free from Feng oversight. All this was due to the serendipitous folly of the Humans.
With the sudden reprieve and extra breathing room, the UIC were able to train the Humans more properly, and they became more of an asset in the war than any of the other races had anticipated, despite their first impression.
Just as he slipped back into his officer’s uniform, Captain Utang’s com lit up. “Captain, Admiral Teng wishes to speak to you.”
Utang wiped his eyes and composed himself. “Very well.”
A holographic representation of Admiral Teng materialized. Utang stood and saluted him properly, crossing his arms and banging his large fists on his chestplate and then extending them in front of him. “Admiral.”
Teng returned the salute. “Captain, I have new orders.”
“Yes, sir.”
“The emperor is initiating talks with the United Intergalactic Coalition.” This displeased Utang, but he did his best to conceal it. “I know this upsets you,” said Admiral Teng, seeing through Utang’s veneer.
“My feelings on the matter are irrelevant, Admiral.”
Teng grinned, unconvinced. “The emperor is hoping to have the sanctions relaxed. However, you would be happy to know that while he is engaged in farcical negotiations with the Barberoi, he has ordered that Operation: Catalyst continue moving into the next phase.”
“Yes, sir. Consider it done.”
“Very well, Captain,” said the Admiral, saluting. “To the glory of the Old Feng Empire.”
Utang returned the salute, and the transmission terminated. He turned to return to the bridge of his command carrier when his com toned another incoming call.
He acknowledged the call, and a holographic image of General Yoshi Utang appeared before him. “How are you, little brother?”
“This is an inopportune time,” said Mongo.
Yoshi frowned, his eyes reproachful. “You have been in the Aether again. Why do you torture yourself with the past?”
Mongo narrowed his eyes, his glare intense. “What you call torture, I call motivation. There will come a time when we will have our vengeance.”
“Which is more important, your revenge or the glory of the empire?”
Mongo left the Aether cell and began his walk to the bridge, Yoshi’s image following him. “Fortunately for me, Yoshi, the two are not mutually exclusive.”
“Always remember, Mongo, the empire comes first.”
Mongo smiled. “I must go now. I have the business of the empire to attend to.”
Yoshi nodded and term
inated the link, his image flickering and then disappearing.
Captain Utang’s blood was on fire. He would live out his destiny to avenge his father’s defeat. The bureaucratic socialists of the UIC were going to pay, and the Feng Empire would bring freedom and peace to the galaxies once more.
The Lost Empire is available from Amazon here.
Extinction Fleet 1: Space Marine Ajax Page 14
