Star Angel: Awakening (Star Angel Book 1)

by David G. McDaniel

  Gone again.

  Jess swallowed down the powerful sadness rising in her throat.

  He would make it back. She believed that with all her heart. Nothing, after all, could hurt him.

  But she also had something to do.

  She took a deep breath. “I’ll be back,” she said to Darvon, who was only too happy to stay and rest. He went immediately to the ‘thopter bay, found a spot on the edge and sat. Exhausted. It would be a while before he had his full strength.

  Hesitantly Jess walked over to Satori.

  “Your friend’s about to prove himself,” the young commander said as she came up. “That will be a good place to start. Show us his allegiance.”

  Jess looked in the direction Zac went, then back to Satori.

  “I know where Willet is,” she said.

  “In a prison cell, I’m sure.” Satori was focused on what she was doing.

  “We can rescue him.”

  Satori responded to something at the control station, gave a quick order to one of the others and turned. “Believe me we will,” she agreed. “It will be my first objective. We’ll take this compound.” She spoke with a sudden intensity Jess could almost feel: “I will take this compound. And we’ll find Willet.”

  Jess had other ideas.

  “They might do something with him before that. There’s too many things happening. Too much going on. Right now I can find him. Right now I know where he is.”

  Satori’s expression shifted slowly.

  “What are you suggesting?”

  Jess swallowed. “That we go now.”

  A confused pause. “Now?”

  Jess nodded. Steeling her own resolve.

  Satori blinked, unable to casually dismiss the idea as she seemed to want to. It was a stupid idea. There was a battle to be fought, and won, and it was at its peak. She was a commander. Jess watched the struggle in her eyes; knew this would never be considered under other circumstances. But here she was, Jessica, the girl that actually went into the Crucible and made it back out. The girl that lived. The girl that killed the Shogun and got away with the Icon. The girl who tamed a Kazerai. And she was suggesting they go back in and rescue one of their own. Willet, who just happened to be Satori’s lover. And so it was impossible not to listen. What if they sent someone in, Satori seemed to be thinking …

  “We can suit up,” Jess pushed. “Skull Boys. Coordinate an escort to the wall and jump inside.”

  “You keep saying ‘we’.”

  “I know where he is. I was just at a high vantage inside the compound and I can tell you, at least as of a few minutes ago, there was no activity inside the walls. All their forces have mobilized out here. If we can get to the wall we should be able to make it inside with little resistance.” She found herself taken with the tactical perspective of what she herself was saying. Almost like listening to someone else speak. Am I really suggesting this?

  “You … wait. What?”

  “Willet and I almost did it when the compound was full. Just two Skull Boys, moving fast.”

  Satori was really staring now. “So you’re saying … ” Jess could see this was what she was trying hardest to wrap her wits around.

  Jess nodded. “You and me.”

  Satori’s head had begun shaking. Jess imagined she didn’t even realize it. The commander’s mind had seemingly detached itself, trying to evaluate the many impossibilities before her. Jessica, crazy Jessica, nothing but trouble so far, looking very serious right then—in complete contrast to her ridiculous garb, disheveled in nothing but a raggedy tunic—determined, nothing special about her except an uncanny sequence of good fortune and a growing—if not ludicrous—disregard for danger ...

  Satori’s thoughts were racing. Sanity, reason—all manner of common sense and years of training fought hard with the idea being presented.

  The idea that, just maybe, this was exactly what she should do.

  “You’re serious.”

  “I’m serious.”

  Slowly she turned to her juniors, as if not believing what she was about to say.

  She glanced once more at Jess, shook her head and looked back at her team.

  “We’re going in,” she informed them, almost surprised to hear herself say it. “I’ll coordinate by radio. Don’t deviate from the current tactics. I’m going to need a controlled escort to the compound. You’ll have units hand us off along the way until we reach the wall.” She looked back at Jess and, quite unexpectedly, grinned. The grin of the damned.

  “No time like now.”

  * *

  Zac walked across the field of madness, shoulders squared, gaze up, avoiding the action taking place all around him, focus on his sole objective.

  Kang.

  Far ahead his arch-rival continued a random, disruptive onslaught across the battle front, running in on units without warning, doing damage and being blasted or knocked away, only to continue. So far he hadn’t spotted Zac, thoroughly engaged as he was, but Zac knew that moment was coming. Part of him was surprised Kang hadn’t chased him when he ran off earlier, back to the Crucible to save Jessica. Maybe Kang thought Zac had seen another target of opportunity.

  Satori assured him she’d see to it none of the Venatres units shot at him. So far that was panning out. But her promise was really more a word of caution. That if he followed through, if he was who he claimed—friend, not foe—she would support his effort to bring down Kang. Otherwise, as she put it, the gloves were off.

  Now it was time to live up to his part of the deal.

  “KANG!” he bellowed, thunderously loud. Inhumanly loud. But then, he wasn’t really human, was he? Not anymore. Not since his “ascension”. The sound of his voice reverberated across the field, getting the attention of many. Including his intended audience.

  Kang looked up and over as he followed through on an uppercut to a suit of Skull Boy armor, sending that unit tumbling back, torso shattered. The operator inside probably dead.

  But the other units surrounding Kang held. They identified Zac, must’ve had their orders already and, instead of continuing their attack, or launching one at the arriving Kazerai, backed away. Leaving Kang alone.

  Zac scanned the immediate area. The closest Dominion units were several hundred yards away. Kang was isolated, wreaking his own havoc away from the core defense. Typical of his arrogance. Now, as the Skull Boys backed away, as the other nearby Venatres units held their attack in check, Kang straightened and looked directly at Zac. Two Kazerai, facing off, an audience of Venatres units watching. Expectant, smoke drifting across the field.

  “Where have you been?”

  Zac didn’t answer.

  Kang sneered. “I don’t like the look of this, brother.” Zac wondered if he ever had any other expression. Let’s see if we can find out what face you make when you’re in pain.

  “You shouldn’t,” he replied, flexing his fists at his side. Kang stood rigid. Two bare-chested fighters, men by all appearances, small out there in the open, separated by fifty yards, surrounded by massive, dark machines of war. All eyes on them. “Today is your last day in this world.” And Zac put as much mocking disdain into this next word as he could muster: “Brother.” He countered Kang’s sneer with one of his own. Kang’s faded at once.

  And it began.

  Kang wasted no time, nearly taking Zac off guard with his lightning fast movement—and choice of attack. He ripped to the side, not toward Zac, grabbed a soldier from the deck of one of the tanks and in that same instant hurled the body. A human missile, no hope of causing Zac harm but certainly capable of shocking him. Zac reacted by catching the man and allowing himself to be knocked back rather than resist, hoping to absorb the blow for the frail human form. He tumbled and eventually came to a stop—knowing Kang would be right behind.

  Quickly he checked the man to see if he was okay but he wasn’t. Hemorrhaged all over from the acceleration of the throw. Dead before he even hit.

  So many had died this day.<
br />
  Zac set the body aside and rolled for the imminent attack, catching Kang as he came barreling in at full speed.

  Only this time he made no effort to redirect the impact. Instead he met Kang full force, hammering a fist directly into his head, full power of the punch meeting the energy of Kang’s charge in a blow that reverberated across the field. It would’ve split the skull of anything, man or machine, but Kang was simply knocked aside.

  Zac came after him, striking with a flurry of punches that rocked his nemesis as he tried to gain his footing. Winding up one tremendous roundhouse Zac followed the barrage with a strike that knocked Kang bodily into the side of one of the Venatres armored personnel carriers. He lunged behind him, hammering Kang in the face; driving his head into the APC’s thick armor and making a dent. Clang! the metallic sound whumped the air with terrific volume.

  But as Zac was aiming the next blow Kang pulled his head from the dent and rolled deftly to the side. Zac’s fist slammed the armor where he’d just been, leaving another dent and another deep, gonging impact that reverberated across the field. In that instant Kang hooked a strike into Zac’s gut, doubling him over, following with an uppercut that launched Zac flying back from the APC. Kang pursued.

  Zac twisted in the air, landed on his feet, turned and met Kang’s charge, throwing his shoulder into the smaller man. That stopped Kang cold, Zac’s feet driving back into the battlefield dirt. He twisted and hurled Kang away. Kang landed awkward, back to Zac—who was already leaping the distance between them, driving both fists into Kang’s spine. Kang went down hard under the impact, rolling to defend. Zac mounted him as he rolled, flipped him face up and began a furious ground-and-pound, raining down thunderous blows on Kang’s head.

  But the attack was short-lived. Neither man was much heavier than an average human, though equipped with more physical strength than a small army. Kang lifted and threw Zac easily. And as he flew through the air Zac made a note not to try that tactic again.

  He flipped and landed. Ready as Kang charged. At the last he side-stepped Kang’s rush, bent and grabbed a leg on his way by. That snatched Kang back; Zac had him by the leg and swung, round and round, faster, the two Kazerai becoming a spinning blur, centrifugal force incredible. Then Zac released him, aimed straight for one of the APCs.

  BANG! the sound of impact echoed above the other noises of battle—actually pitching the APC to the side on its shocks. Kang bounced back to the ground beside it, momentarily stunned.

  Zac was on him at once. Diving to him, gripping his side and rolling through the sand, squeezing his rib cage with a mighty surge of strength. Zac was bigger; if they’d been normal men he likely could’ve crushed Kang’s chest. The move only made Kang grimace. Still, Zac thought, looking at Kang’s profile through his straining vision, at least now I know what he looks like when he’s in pain.

  Kang fought mightily to be free, unable to do so, jabbing elbows into Zac’s arms, kicking and trying to head-butt. All to no avail. Zac had him, but he also realized it was a stalemate. In order to win he’d have to do more.

  He turned Kang in his grip, grabbed both arms before he could adjust, snapped him out to arm’s length, spun again and … hurled him mightily. This time up, sending him into the air, far, far afield, arcing high and away.

  He turned to the Venatres units nearby as Kang flew toward a landing in the distance. I’ll win this, he assured them with the confidence of his gaze.

  And he was off, sprinting to intercept his enemy.

  CHAPTER 42: THE FIRES OF HELL

  “Ready?” Satori asked, now a faceless fighting machine as she stood across from Jess in a suit of battle-scarred Skull Boy armor. Jess wore a suit of her own. They’d just completed their checks and all systems were go.

  “Ready.” She couldn’t believe she was suited up once more, ready to leap into the fray. For a few tense moments she wrestled with the impulse to take it all back. Forget she ever suggested this absurd idea.

  But she held. Focused and breathed. This was the right thing to do. She owed Willet, big time, and even if she didn’t, knowing there was a friend in there, captured and in grave danger and not doing something about it …

  That just wasn’t an option.

  A question came to mind. “How do you use the PA?”

  “The what?”

  “How do you talk? Through the external speaker?”

  Satori shrugged, and the gesture made the Skull Boy incredibly human in that instant. “Say, ‘External comm’,” she said, “and listen for the beep. Everything you say after that comes from the external speaker. When you stop talking it resets. You have to say it each time before you speak.”

  If only she’d been able to do that back in the compound, when Zac attacked. How different would things be now? Truth was, maybe they’d be worse. No sense dwelling on it. The past was gone, the present was now, and the future was hers to make.

  The rest of the powered armor’s systems were familiar, of course. After hours in the one the day before, plus the intensity of combat—combined with the intuitive action of the suit itself—the Skull Boy armor was already becoming like a second skin.

  Satori conferred one last time with her commanders, towering above them in the Skull Boy armor as she talked. Then she and Jess were on their way.

  Their approach started quietly enough. Satori picked up the pace, steering them wide of engagements, running across the field, external sounds dulled or eliminated within the cocoon of the armored helmet, field of vision sharpened and expanded through panoramic video systems. Tactical data scrolled across the HUD as hydraulics kicked them along at a fast, easy pace, Jessica’s own exertion no more than a slow jog. Within the strength of that mighty shell she felt the comfortable operator suit, snug against her, its soft, cashmere hold, mind wandering, working to remain calm … drifting to the other spelling of “Kashmir”, the region in Asia, and in turn the song of the same name by Led Zeppelin, Kashmir … then another Zeppelin classic, Immigrant Song, and that one stuck—and suddenly she found the opening riffs running in her head, fierce drumbeat looping as she ran; a perfect tempo for their approach, shouts of triumph goading the ancient Norsemen to war. Ready for the fight.

  Battle loomed.

  “Shirei One, you’re in our grid,” came the call. Jess found the connecting source, Unit Twelve, a group of Venatres heavy tanks several hundred yards to the left. Shirei One was Satori’s call sign on the field. Jess had, for this mission, earned the title Shirei Two.

  “Copy, Twelve,” Satori’s voice cracked on and off. “We’re steady on this bearing.” Jess watched the information Satori sent illuminate on her floating display, marking their path toward the outer wall.

  Unit Twelve fed new information. “Targets inbound,” he advised and Jess checked readings. A dozen fresh Dominion armored units were racing toward them. Venatres guns opened up in defense in the near distance; Whoom! Whoom! flashes spit from the barrels of the friendly tanks, rocking the giant black vehicles back on their tracks with the force of their shots. Jessica’s Skull Boy throbbed with the proximity of the pulses.

  “We’re set, Twelve. Passing off to Nine.”

  “Copy,” and the engagement heated up as they ran past. Jess followed Satori, picking up the pace.

  BOOM! a tank round hit the ground directly ahead in a streak of fire, sending up a geyser of dirt. She leapt the crater in one fluid movement, continuing on at pace, heart-rate kicking higher. Behind them the Venatres tanks unloaded with a withering volley, blowing through a ton of ammo. All in an effort to buy time.

  “We can’t dodge those,” Satori advised above the din. They were getting into the thick of it, the whole scene magnified, continuing to feel like something out of a futuristic war movie or a sci-fi video game, and it was real and they were all of a sudden surrounded by a whole lot of action.

  “Stay on this path,” Satori added. Then, on a broad channel; “Unit Nine. This is Shirei One.”

  “We have you. Gri
d secure.”

  And they passed into the next zone of protection. The Venatres units were handing them off like a volleyball, one group to the next, shielding their run to the Crucible.

  It wasn’t long before they were drawing up on the wall.

  “Get inside and down!” Satori’s commands had become curt as the intensity continued to ramp. Now the cannons atop the walls were seeking them out, becoming a threat. Jess remembered them from last night, vividly, weaving among the tracer fire, she and Willet making a beeline for the same wall. This time it was daylight and the guns had other targets on the field, which helped, but as the lone Skull Boys drew near, separating from the rest—intentions becoming clear—they began focusing more of their firepower below.

  “Go!” Satori yelled. “Go!”

  Jess went. Brought her feet together on the next step and punched off, leaping into space.

  “Jets!” she yelled and they hit her in the back, kicking her up like before, heading toward the wall.

  Whump! she hit just at the edge this time. Bad aim. But she managed to scrabble with her arms and pull herself to the top. No need for a second try.

  Orange tracer fire tracked along the wall, following her.

  “Down!” Satori landed clean atop the wall a few yards away, skipped once and headed immediately to ground inside. “Get inside! Move!”

  Following that urgency Jess simply threw herself over, taking no time to gain her footing, twisting in mid-air like a cat, flashes of tricking moves and gymnastic dismounts popping to mind. Now she was in a ton of armor, but the body mechanics were the same. She got her feet under her as she fell on the other side—suit gyros whirring to assist—and the jets cushioned the impact at the last second.