Rules of Redemption (The Firebird Chronicles Book 1)

by T. A. White

  Rules of Redemption

  T.A. White

  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  RULES OF REDEMPTION

  First edition. March 2, 2019.

  Copyright © 2019 T.A. White.

  Written by T.A. White.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  DISCOVER MORE BY T.A. WHITE

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CHAPTER ONE

  The burned-out wreckage of the alien spaceship drifted in a halo of its own debris. Its end had been violent, full of fire and carnage as it entered its death throes. The scars of the ship’s final battle were visible in the gaping wounds dotted throughout its carcass.

  At least half of its body was missing, bits of debris floating in a mass around it. What little remained intact was riddled with scorch marks as it tumbled slowly through space, the story of its end visible to all who neared.

  Kira's breath remained steady as she drifted closer to her target, the void of space a relentless presence all around her.

  The dead ship was one of many in a debris field spanning thousands of miles. A relic from a battle fought over a dozen years ago, it was the perfect monetary opportunity for the very few brave or foolish enough to attempt salvaging it.

  This particular ship was smack dab in the middle of the field. Kira hoped the increased risk of its location meant great reward since most salvagers were smart enough to keep to the outskirts to avoid puncturing the outer hull of their ships.

  "Stay alert, Kira. My calculations place the chances of a suit puncture at seventy-six point four three percent."

  "We've been over this, Jin. The upgrades to my suit mean I can withstand anything smaller than my fist," Kira responded. It wasn't quite combat grade but it was better than anything her fellow salvagers might have. "The new radar we picked up will detect anything within ten meters."

  Jin sniffed, the sound insulted. "That thing is at most ninety-seven percent accurate."

  Kira ignored the grumbling. Her friend had fought the radar's purchase and had been grumpy about its presence ever since. Kira didn't care. The new radar would be a valuable tool, especially if they continued going after ships other salvagers were too afraid to attempt.

  "The radar isn't going to replace you. It simply frees you up to concentrate on more important tasks," she told him in a soothing voice.

  She flicked on the propulsion unit, grinning as the thrusters kicked online. She loved this feeling—the abrupt jolt that took her from drifting aimlessly to becoming the guide and navigator.

  She easily dodged the bigger pieces of debris as she wound her way to the misshapen hulk waiting for her.

  "I still think we should have gone after the ship the Sweet sisters told us about. This one has disaster written all over it," Jin groused.

  "If we'd done that, we would have had to fight off those same sisters once we finished the salvage. You know they have a habit of stealing other people’s work," Kira explained again. "Besides, I'm pretty sure this ship is warrior class. An elite or superior at the least."

  "That makes me feel a lot better," Jin said sarcastically. "It's not like they don't have a high mortality rate for salvagers."

  "You’re doing a great job in boosting my confidence with this conversation." Kira's voice was dry.

  "It's my job to notify you of the potential risk in any salvage operation."

  Yes, and Jin was scrupulous about doing his job. Even when she preferred he didn't. Like now, while she was drifting through the void, a few thin layers between it and her.

  Kira maneuvered around another set of space junk. Looked like a bulkhead, probably one of the reasons the lower half of the ship was gone.

  "I'm approaching the main body," Kira said, the banter of earlier falling away as her focus turned to the job.

  "What do you see?"

  "The control room looks intact. A few of the weapon chutes are visible."

  The main bridge would have been in the upper middle part of the ship, behind several bulkheads. She'd been right. It was definitely a superior class.

  During the height of the war, it would have sent the human fleet scurrying. Nearly indestructible, its defensive and offensive capabilities were among the best their enemy, the Tsavitee, had. No doubt it had been responsible for sending more than one of the Consortium’s ships to an early grave along with any unfortunates among the crew.

  This one would have been considered midsize—not quite a dreadnought. Though next to Kira’s form, it seemed massive.

  She knew the specs for this ship, had studied them and others like it. It would have had a crew of about a hundred aboard when it was destroyed. A hundred of humanity's enemies eliminated in one of the bloodiest battles of a decade-long war.

  Built from a dark metal, it nearly blended in with the black of space. Ominous and foreboding, the ship’s lines were full of sharp edges. If it had been intact, it would have bristled with weapons capable of tearing her small ship apart. Kira didn't know if the feelings she got from it were based in her own perceptions and history or because the ship was a graveyard for those who never made it out.

  "Any of the cannons look salvageable?"

  Kira magnified the ship in her viewer. It was difficult to tell, since it continued to rotate along the same lines it would have when it died.

  "No, they're torn to bits. There are pieces here and there, the rest of the parts are likely floating around me," she said.

  "Do you think they're worth salvaging?" he asked.

  "Not on this trip. I'll focus on the main body for now. We can mark the location and return for the rest."

  "All right, I'm ready for you to begin your approach. Remember, these ships tend to have nasty defenses. Try not to trip them this time."

  "I haven't forgotten."

  "You say that, and yet you always seem to find trouble." His voice was tart. "I'm not coming to get you this time."

  "Don't worry. I don't expect you to. Just make sure to keep the Wanderer out of danger," Kira said. Before he could respond, her voice turned businesslike. "Beginning my approach."

  "Your trajectory is good. You should reach the ship in four minutes and ten seconds."

  Kira maneuvered closer, her heart rate remaining steady despite the danger. She'd made it three meters when her proximity alert went off, the screen in her mask flashing red. She hit her thrusters, shooting left. A silver shape sailed by her.

  Guess that meant the ship's defenses were intact. A grin took over her face.

  When they finally cracked this nut, they were going to make a mint. Enough for a new food synthesizer capable of making food that tasted like food and not the chalky crap she was currently living off.

  "What was that?" Jin asked.

  "Nothing," she told him, her voice distracted.
>
  The weapon chasing her through the wreckage looked like a long silvery ribbon. It moved as if it were organic, darting around pieces of metal with a lithe, sinuous glide as it followed Kira. It reminded her of Earth's eels. She'd never seen one personally but she'd seen pictures in books and in video.

  This thing moved in much the same way, as if it was swimming through space. If it caught her, it would wrap around her before yanking her apart. That was if it didn't burn through her suit first.

  "Is that a strigmor eel?" Jin's outrage was clear even over the comms.

  Kira didn't bother denying it, too busy trying not to fly headfirst into any wreckage.

  "How did you set off the ship's defenses?" he cried.

  "Little busy here." Kira thrust down, the eel just missing her.

  "Did you not cloak? I told you how important it was to cloak," he wailed.

  "I cloaked," Kira said through gritted teeth. She veered to the ship. Maybe it wouldn't follow her inside.

  "Don't go inside the ship. That's a horrible idea."

  An instant later a second proximity alert went off, alerting Kira to another eel heading her way.

  "Told you." Jin's voice was smug.

  Kira ignored him, dipping down as she zigzagged recklessly through wreckage capable of cutting her to pieces if she ran into it.

  She rounded a piece of particularly large metal, the first eel right on her tail, the second peeling off to try to trap her from the other side. She flicked her eyes up and to the left, blinking twice to trigger her defensive flares. Hundreds of tiny lights, each one a metal ball bearing no larger than a marble, streaked out from her suit.

  The first eel flew into them, the balls attaching to its skin in a big clump. Seconds later they burst, splitting the eel in half.

  Kira shot away from the wreckage, just in time for the second eel to come up from underneath. She darted through the deadly obstacle course, the eel no more than a few lengths behind her.

  Her new suit with its upgrades was a blessing now. It was its own miniature spacecraft, capable of the flexible maneuvering a ship would never have been able to replicate. She'd designed it to her specifications, sourced every piece of it. Now it was making all that time, effort, and money worthwhile.

  The viewscreen expanded and contracted as she searched through the wreckage for the perfect spot to take out the other eel.

  There. Two long pieces of wreckage floated together, connected by a thin beam. That was perfect.

  Kira veered for it, hitting her turbos and increasing her speed. The eel fell back slightly. Enough for her purposes.

  She darted between the two sheets, brushing against one side and leaving several sticky charges on it before moving to the other side. The maneuver was performed in seconds.

  She hit a hard reverse on her thrusters, gritting her teeth as the suit shuddered to a stop. She turned on her back to face the opening she’d just flown through and waited.

  The eel didn't disappoint, sailing into the small space, its body slithering toward her as it spotted her.

  She smiled at it. "Hello, beautiful."

  She lifted her arm, lining up the shot as it prepared to dart after her. She fired, a blue light streaking toward the eel. It easily dodged, moving to the side as the light missed it.

  Her smile widened. She kicked her thrusters online, using them to send her rocketing away from the eel, her eyes locked on it.

  The light hit the sticky charges. A force punched Kira in the chest, then the metal around the eel imploded, warping around it and killing it.

  Kira continued her backward glide.

  "The eels have been neutralized," she said.

  "Good, now that you're done playing, maybe you can get to work. You have four hours of air left and it'll take you nearly that long to get close again," Jin said.

  "Roger that," Kira said.

  She flipped around so she was facing the ship again. This time she was more cautious in her approach, maneuvering so her path mirrored the space junk orbiting the wreck. It meant a less direct trajectory, but it was safer.

  An hour later she finally floated into the hull of the ship through one of the holes on its exterior without setting off any other defenses.

  "Jin, you there?" Kira asked once inside the ship.

  No response came. It wasn't a surprise really. They'd been prepared for it, and given this ship's defense measures were still online, it was nearly a given. The Tsavitee ships had some type of mechanism that disrupted communications. Even after all these years, Consortium scientists couldn't figure out how it worked.

  Either way, it meant Kira was on her own.

  The inside of the ship was as dark and oppressive as the outside, a tomb that hadn't been disturbed since the day it was destroyed. Twelve years of silence and solitude, everything in the exact same state as the day it had stopped.

  Kira's forehead wrinkled in disgust at the thought of what could be floating unseen next to her. It could be stray metal, the bodies of the crew, or one of the nasty little surprises the aliens liked to leave behind. One never knew, and Kira had encountered all of the above at one point or another.

  Kira wasted no time, flicking on her suit's headlamps. She’d turned them off during her approach. The beams from her helmet and shoulders pierced the black. Despite being high-powered, they did little but create thin slices of light in the oppressive blackness. Helpful but not nearly enough.

  She unhooked one of the industrial glow lamps from its slot along her side, breaking it against the cold metal and giving it a shake before letting it go. It bobbed to the end of its string, the soft light illuminating the space in a way her suit lights could not.

  She grimaced in distaste at the sight of the ship around her. It didn't matter how long she'd been doing this—a Tsavitee ship always gave her the creeps and left her feeling like she was walking through maggots. Still, they helped keep her in business, so she'd table her dislike until she was in her own bunk.

  She fired her thrusters in a small burst, propelling herself slowly along the long corridor. In a human vessel, she would be in what was referred to as the lower aft section. It was a term originating from humanity's seafaring history and one they'd adapted once they began to move into space.

  Kira couldn't be sure, but if she had to guess she'd say this part of the ship would have been used as quarters for the infantry landing parties. It'd probably also been home to the nasty little monsters and toys they created for the specific purpose of doing as much mayhem and destruction as possible.

  For that reason, Kira moved carefully as she headed for the engine room, judging it as the best place to find something worth salvaging.

  The government paid top dollar for intact engine parts. They’d been working on reverse engineering the Tsavitee technology, which had given their enemy the advantage.

  Even nine years after the end of the war, the government was still having trouble getting their hands on working engine parts.

  For all that they were the scourge of humanity, the Tsavitee had been smart. They'd had crew members ready to sabotage the engine and prevent anybody from recovering their technology once the rest of the ship members were dead.

  This ship's destruction had been swift and unexpected. Kira's hope was its demise had taken the crew off guard.

  She jerked as a shape floated out of the dark, distracting her from her thoughts. The body of a Tsavitee rotated toward her, its face blank and locked in a look of horror, knowledge of its imminent death written there.

  The Tsavitee had many forms, depending on its position in their ranks. This one would have been infantry, humanoid in appearance with two legs and two arms, a head with eyes, nose, and mouth. That's where the similarities ended.

  This one was larger than any human by at least a foot, its form hulking and muscular with skin the color of graphite. She judged him as in the lower ranks given the visible tusks and the stunted horns curling up from its head.

  The horns and fearsome
appearance were how they came to be called demons by the human fleet. In a way, they did resemble the creatures of nightmares from old religious texts.

  In their own language, Tsavitee meant scourge. That's what they had been to humanity. A devouring horde appearing out of nowhere and decimating humanity with the most bloody and savage war in history.

  Like some plague born from the void, they had swept over more than one human colony leaving nothing in their wake but charred remains.

  The death toll had been in the millions. Any progress humanity had made in the centuries since they’d started space flight was wiped away in a few years.

  Earth was among those hit with humanity's homeworld reduced to a shadow of its former self. Since then, humans had reclaimed Earth but the cost had been great.

  This debris field with its hundreds of dead ships had been the turning point. It should have been humanity's end, but instead, by some miracle, they'd salvaged a victory, stopping the Tsavitee and destroying the backbone of their fleet.

  There might have been battles after this one, but this was where historians would point to as the beginning of the end.

  Many believed the Tsavitee were gone now, never to return to this region of space, but Kira had her doubts. While the Tsavitee had been beaten, they had not been eliminated.

  They were a deadly force, almost single-minded in their purpose. Beings like that weren’t going to give up. No, they would withdraw, analyze the data, and then return stronger than ever.

  It was one of the reasons the scientists needed to understand as much as they could about Tsavitee technology; Kira securing a decent payday as a result, was a bonus.

  Half an hour ticked by as she twisted her way through the corridors, many of which had collapsed into a floating obstacle course. Luckily, she was small, and her suit was among the best, giving her an advantage other salvagers lacked.

  She passed several more corpses on her way, careful not to disturb them. They might have been the enemy, but this was their tomb. It was best to leave the dead to their restful peace.

  Large tears in the wall gave her glimpses of the wreckage floating outside.