Title: Revant Warriors The Complete Series (Books 1-6)

by Celeste Raye

  Talon leaped to his feet. He directed a laser blast at one of the surveillance nodules located further along the street. It went up in a puff of smoke and fire. He then blasted out the windows of one of the Federation’s pawnshops, just as one of the Federation pawn officers came walking through the door with a set of keys in his hand.

  The Federation officer’s body was neatly severed by the ferocity of the blast that Talon leveled. Jessica’s hands went to her mouth as she staggered to her feet. What was he doing? He was sabotaging the entire operation that had barely had a chance to begin! She screamed, “What are you doing?”

  Talon pointed his chin toward the pawnshop. Wide-eyed women and children, obvious pawns who had been standing nearby began to break and run as the pawnshop went up in a ball of flame. Talon said, “I imagine by the time they sort all this out, it will be too late for them to find the poor souls who were pawned, don’t you?”

  On the street, people ran toward the dead Capo. Quiet fell, and Talon stepped to the end of the roof with his weapons and his hands. His voice rang out strong and proud. “The Gorlites are coming in two days to take this planet. Those above already know this. They would have left you in ignorance until the very moment that those monsters descended upon you to murder you all or to sell you into whatever slavery they could.

  “We can fight them. We can. But we have to fight those above first. They will take every available ship off the surface of this planet if you do not stop them. They are already fleeing, and they intend to leave you here to die. Will you not stand up now? Will you continue to be forced to live below ground like mere slugs? Or will you fight?”

  Murmurs began and then swelled into angry shouts. Jessica said, “What have you done?”

  Talon’s silver eyes glinted as he replied. “I’ve made them aware of the situation. They needed to be aware. All this talk of patching in is stupid. I would not have said so to your friend because it’s clear that he runs the resistance from an ivory tower of sorts. He’s never been out here, and he doesn’t know how to raise an army. He thinks he can do it from some impersonal distance and you can’t.”

  Her mouth hung open. “You planned this the whole time! You didn’t care about getting the paperwork for the ship at all!”

  Talon shook his head. “I didn’t know what the below looks like or what it was about until I got here. And I do care about those stamps. I do care about breaking experienced fighters out of the prison. We need them. Now we have the perfect diversion to get back to the ship and get the ship to the prison.”

  Jessica knew he was right, but they didn’t lessen her anger. “Don’t you understand? Yori will die for this!”

  Talon said, “We have to move.”

  They did move. She moved far back from the edge of the roof and then took a running start, elongating her body and pumping her arms and legs fast as she sailed over the rooftop and onto the next one. Talon came in right behind her. Soon they were making their way across the below, rooftop to rooftop.

  Jessica could not help but look toward the streets below. Riots had broken out, and the Capo were charging in. Normally when the Capo came, and people scurried before them, they ran from them and did their best to protect their loved ones. Not now. They were meeting the armed capo with whatever weapons they could pick up find, and she paused for a moment, realizing that Talon had, with one simple gesture, managed to do the one thing that she and the rest of the resistance had never been able to do.

  He had encouraged the population to fight back.

  They came to the exit. Talon took aim at a surveillance nodule from the rooftop upon which they stood, and he blasted it into smithereens. They scrambled down the side of the building, using the old gutter pipes to make the descent.

  There didn’t seem to be much use in trying to hide as all of those people swarming the gates now were also trying to get out of the below. Jessica heard bloodlust in their voices. A shudder worked its way through her body. They had been denied the right to live above for so long, and now they had every reason to hate those who did live above even more. There was going to be war and destruction all around her, and while she had long wanted the awful caste system to be brought down to its knees, she had somehow never expected it to happen in such a way.

  They made their way out of the gate and into a hovercraft. Jessica plugged credits into the slot and typed in the coordinates. The hovercraft zoomed upward and away from the above, headed toward the docking stations. Her entire body shook with both anger and triumph as they flew their way back toward the ship.

  Chapter 13 - Talon

  Talon was angry with himself, but he was also angry with Jessica. She and her friend Yori talked a good game but neither of them seemed truly interested in doing the one thing that would start the revolution that they truly seemed to want and, what was more, neither of them seemed to take into account the fact that maybe those above ground did not deserve to be on those ships away from the planet.

  Of course, Yori would not have thought that. He was from above ground.

  Talon said, “Are you angry with me?”

  “Of course I’m mad at you. Innocent people are going to die now. The Capo are going to kill as many as they can. You’ve just incited them to violence. They’re going to go above, and there’s no telling what they may do to the people there.”

  He regarded her for a moment. “Does it really matter? Do you not think that the people below deserve some justice? Do you not think that they’ve had a long-simmering hatred for the people who live above? Do you think that they have spent an entire lifetime living below ground like a mole without longing to see the sun?”

  Her head jerked up and turned toward him. Her mouth held no color, and it was flat with her rage. “I come from below. I know exactly what it is like. Your brother's mate comes from below. She also knows what it is like. Yes, we hate those who live above. We know that we are nothing to them. We know that they get the best of everything while we get scraps. You are not telling me anything I do not know.”

  He rocked back in the seat. “But you were a Capo.”

  Her tone was venomous. “Yes, and I told you that my father pawned me into service when it couldn’t pay a debt. Did you believe that people who live above pawn their daughters and wives?”

  Talon said, “It would not shock me.”

  To his relief, her body relaxed. Her fingers plucked in her lap. “It shouldn’t. They do. But only in the direst of circumstances.”

  Talon said, “I would be willing to bet that dire circumstances above are not nearly as dire as normal circumstances are below.”

  She leaned forward, her elbows meeting her knees. Her head rested in her hand. Her voice was muffled. “You’d win that bet.”

  He was torn all over again. She had said that she cared for him, but now after the way she had defended Yori, who was clearly one of the leaders of the resistance and worried over him, he found himself wondering again if the two of them were lovers and allies. Again, that spike of jealousy drove itself into his heart.

  The hovercraft stopped at the docking station several ships below theirs. Jessica had probably deliberately misled the hovercraft, and he had to admit that was a smart move on her part.

  They dashed onto the ship. Jessica tossed the package to Caleb saying, “You better use those well or we are all going to die.”

  Talon went to the controls. His fast hands targeted an opening in the air traffic and the ship lifted and then shot away from the docking station, heading straight toward the prison.

  The prison was a forbidding structure of stone and metal that soared nearly ten stories high. It was surrounded by a high-energy beam fence as well as a gravitational pull. Caleb did use the documents that Yori had procured for them very well indeed because they had no trouble at all getting into the prison.

  Talon had to admit that he was worried less about getting in than he was about getting out, however.

  As soon as they docked, Talon, Jessica, and Caleb,
as well as the rest of the crew, gathered their arms and gave each other grim looks.

  Talon said, “Jessica, you are with me. You might know who it is that we need to release first.”

  Caleb asked, “What about the rest of us, boss?”

  Talon gave them all a steady look. “My suggestion would be that you lay down as much cover for us as you can, but if things go bad, get back to the ship and get gone. The rest of you, protect Caleb with your lives because without him, you’re stuck here. He’s the only one who can fly besides me.”

  Jessica’s warm body leaned into his for just a moment as she reached for a weapon that someone had extended to her. Talon’s heart made a little leap in his chest as it always did when she was near. When all of this was over, they were going to have to decide what they were to each other. If they lived through this.

  Well then. It would be a damn shame to die without knowing whether or not the woman that he loved truly loved him back, now wouldn’t it?

  They headed into the prison, not even bothering to keep up the ruse that they were there on Federation business. Weapons blasted, and guards either ran or stood and fought only to die. It did not shock Talon at all that most of the guards ran. It had long been his experience that those who enslaved others were bullies who, once the violence turned toward them, always ran from it.

  These cells were miserable, cramped things made of ionized bars. The prisoners had no choice but to stay in one spot or risk losing a limb to those bars. Talon grabbed one guard who was attempting to flee and shook him like a ragdoll.

  Talon shouted, “Where are the controls for the bars?”

  The guard, obviously terrified, and shook his head and blubbered out, “I can’t tell you that. I can’t! I will be executed by the Federation!”

  Jessica stuck a blaster to the guard’s temple. Her face held no expression. “If you do not tell us, you face being executed by me. Right here. Right now. Where are the controls?”

  The guard whimpered, “On the third floor. In the large room to the right after you leave the up tube.”

  Talon released the guard. The guard fumbled for his weapon. Jessica said, “I do not want to kill you. My fight is not with you. Go and go now if you want to live.”

  The guard forgot all about his weapon. He dropped all pretense of trying to stay and fight. He ran like a waddling duck, which would’ve been funny under any other circumstances.

  The prisoners had realized that they were in the middle of a takeover. They shouted and screamed from inside their cages. Some he even risked throwing objects into the ionized bars. Talon had to duck when one object flew between the bars, shattered, and left a shower of dust and debris flying around the hallway.

  Jessica said, “I don’t trust the up tube.”

  Talon said, “We have no choice. There are no stairs. Look.”

  She did look around in her face registered dismay. “If they catch us in the up tube, they can trap us.”

  Talon said, “I know. I think I have an idea.”

  He hastened toward the end of the hall and stood looking upward. The bottom of the second tier of cells jutted out slightly, forming a small walkway. He said, “I think I can just make it.”

  Jessica gave him a look that mingled both amusement and disbelief. “What are you going to do? Jump for it?”

  Talon said, “Yes.”

  Then he backed up and took off running back toward the wall fast as he could: his legs pumping in his arms moving rapidly at his sides. His feet left the floor, and his fingertips brushed the underside of the walkway. For a moment, he was sure that he had made it. For another second he was sure he hadn’t. Then his abnormally long fingers closed around a small metal bar just enough for him to catch a grip on it.

  His body swung there back and forth like a pendulum, and it took several tries before he could settle his hand into a position that would allow him better leverage and balance. Eventually, he got it, and he managed to pull himself up. Once on the second floor, he found himself faced with a new conundrum, however. There was no way to back up and run from the edge of the walkway to the other. He climbed to the top of the railing and managed to grip a railing on the third floor, suddenly finding himself incredibly grateful for his elongated height.

  He was now on the third floor. Jessica still stood below. He called her, “You take the tubes. I’ll be right here holding off anyone who attempts to hijack it.”

  He raced towards the tube station, not bothering to look down or to wait for an answer from those who were still below. The truth was if whoever was in the control room could control the up tube, they could take that tube all the way to whatever floor they wanted to, and that was nothing he could do about it.

  The tube was swift however, and Jessica and the others were on the floor and with him in a matter of seconds. They stormed down the hallway, ignoring the screams from the prisoners as they searched for the control room. The sound of weapon fire continued as more and more of the crew did away with what few guards were willing to try to fight it out with them.

  The control room was locked. Talon blasted the door open with the last bit of fire from his weapon. He dropped the weapon on the floor, knowing that carrying it would be useless and it would just slow him down now.

  The men inside the control room were pale and very shaken. One of them immediately threw his hands up and screamed, “We are prisoners here too! We are not trying to stop you! The Federation bred us to run this control, and we have no quarrel with you.”

  Talon’s jaw sagged open. “What do you mean they bred you for this job?”

  One of the men spoke in a slow and tremulous voice. “We’ve never been outside this prison. We were born here. The women’s side is opposite this one, and they breed them whenever control room operators and guards start getting low.”

  An absolute rage started within Talon. He had to kill the guards that were standing in their way, and it was as wrong as anything else. These guards had never been out of the prison? They had been born there and basically enslaved into its walls? No wonder they had put in such a fight! They were probably not fleeing for their lives simply because an armed group of people had stormed in, but because they had never known a life outside that prison and now they had the opportunity to see something besides those walls.

  Jessica pointed her weapon at one of the control room operators. “Open the cells for those who fought in the resistance.”

  Talon said, “Open all the cells.”

  Jessica gaped at him. “Talon! Some of the people within this prison are killers!”

  Talon said, “I wouldn’t mind having a few killers on my team.”

  One of the men who operated the control spoke in a squeaky voice. “There are several that you don’t want, if you don’t mind my saying so. They kill only for pleasure. They wouldn’t fall under your order, or anyone else’s either. They live to eat flesh, human flesh some of them, and some of them are just child killers or women killers. I know which cells are which. I can show you which cells we’re opening.”

  Jessica and Talon stood behind them as the men sat at their long thinks of controls. Files came up, showing what each person was in the prison for. Jessica easily picked out members of the resistance party and Talon quickly scanned records for those who were in for petty theft and so forth and demanded that those bars be opened as well.

  He could hear noise, screaming, and fighting from below, and he knew that those whose bars had been released were now fleeing. There was only one place for them to go, which was onto the ship. He looked over to see Jessica staring at him with a question in her eyes. Talon looked down at the men and asked them, “Would you want to see what lies beyond these walls?”

  Jessica hissed in a breath. “We can’t trust them. We should kill them!”

  Two of the men bowed their heads and said that they did not want to leave. The man who spoke in a squeaky voice exhorted them to do so, saying that the Federation would kill them anyway now that they had betray
ed their owners so seriously. Talon could tell from Jessica’s face that she wanted, badly, to either shoot them or incapacitate them to a point where they could make their getaway, but he couldn’t see that happening to them.

  He said, “If you want to come with me, then come with me.”

  He started backing up toward the door. Jessica walked face forward with her gun up, guarding his back as he was guarding hers. There was something so amazing about the fact that she was a woman who was capable and willing to always have his back in battle.

  They made the ship. Talon race to the controls and jerked the ship away from the prisons docking station, angling it upward and toward space. Jessica shouted, “What are you doing? We can’t leave Old Earth right now! We have to go back and fight for and with them!”

  Talon said, “We are. But first, we need a better ship.”

  Her mouth hung open. “What are you talking about?”

  Talon said, “I’m talking about the fact that there is a Federation warship not far from here. And I intend to take it.”

  Jessica looked from him to the resistance prisoners and the men who had left the control room to join up with this raggedy band of misfits and miscreants. The crew stared at him as if he had grown two heads and he gave them all his most charming smile.

  “We need a warship.”

  Jessica sputtered, “How in the name of all that is holy do you expect us to be able to take a Federation warship?”

  One of the men from the control room spoke up. “If you could disable its flight controls momentarily, that would buy you time to get on the ship and to take it over as well.”

  Talon gave the man a measuring glance. “Interesting idea.”

  Jessica said, “No! It is not an interesting idea, dammit! It’s crazy! We have a ship, and we have to get down there right now! You caused the populace to rise up, and they’re down there in the streets fighting and dying while we’re floating around in space! That’s not fair! We can’t just leave them to die because of the consequences of your actions!”