by Justin Sloan
No good.
She recovered, scrambling to get out of the way as the mech’s foot tore into the floor where she had been, and caught up with Valerie.
“We got a plan for this thing?” she wondered.
“Yes—fucking tear it up.”
Valerie charged as booming shots came from Kalan’s direction, and she fired as Robin shot from where she stood. Nothing worked, however, and the mech continued its rampage, tearing more walls apart.
“Try its back!” a Norrul shouted, and she turned to see that they were still there and still kneeling.
“Get up and fight!” she shouted. “What’re you doing?”
“You heard him, he—”
Valerie dove as a barrage of missiles went off nearby, then fired some more. Fine—if the Norruls weren’t going to help physically, she could at least try out their advice.
She ran for the mech and leaped, but didn’t quite make it. A moment later the Norrul knelt at her side and said, “Here.”
It took her a moment to process his offer, but then she leaped onto and off his back, and was on the mech. She grabbed a protrusion with one hand, pulling herself up the back and onto the top, and she jammed her sword into the point with the most wires.
Smoke bellowed, sparks flew, and a mech arm came toward her. She used it to her advantage, swinging off the limb and onto the front of the mech, where she commenced with slamming her elbow into the glass over and over.
It was too thick, but that didn’t mean she’d give up. As the mech reached for her again she held tight, grabbing the arm and using it to bash the glass. Its blade whirred, and the glass splintered. The mech was thrashing, weapons going off in every direction and exploding against walls, even hitting other tech that then exploded.
The glass hadn’t given completely, but now it was weak. Valerie slammed her armored hand through it, grabbed the Bandian by the throat, and yanked. She pulled out his throat and turned to get off, but froze. Out of the corner of her eye she had seen a change, and when she looked back she realized that this wasn’t the Bandian at all. It was one of those damn shapeshifters she had first encountered when they’d tried to hijack Kalan’s transport ship.
If this was a shifter, where was the Bandian? The mech fell and Valerie leaped for cover as a new barrage of explosives hit the building.
Robin appeared with Kalan at her side, both looking frantic.
“It wasn’t the Bandian,” Valerie explained. “He’s still out there, and means to take the whole place down on us.”
“RUN!” Robin and Kalan shouted in unison, and they all took off for the nearest hole, the Norruls following closely behind. The ceiling was caving in and flames licked the walls, and as the group burst out of the chamber they realized they were in trouble. A line of modified Skulla, a couple of mechs, and several large Norruls were lined up for the fight.
“Well, fuck.” Valerie turned to Robin and took her hand, giving it a squeeze. “Die trying, right?”
“Damn straight!”
They drew their weapons and charged, shouting their war cries at the top of their lungs as the enemy assault began.
Only the bullets didn’t hit, because the Norruls on the enemy side had rolled forward and now formed a barricade against the attackers. The Norruls behind her were joining in, and the one from earlier came up beside Valerie and Robin and gestured upward.
They got it, and both used his rock back to leap up and over the other Norruls. The women landed in a hurricane of swords and bullets, taking down the Skulla and shapeshifters, turning mech against mech, and kicking every ass they could find.
Kalan was working them from the other side, and many of the enemy had already turned tail and run.
A blast rocked Valerie and shoved her forward, and her back arched. She was certain her armor was now dented, which would make it hard to heal from whatever had hit her. When she turned she had to roll out of the way of incoming fire as the Bandian, standing atop one of the mechs, continued to shoot at her.
No more dodging, she told herself.
No more pain.
No more of this fuckhead Bandian.
With everything she had, she ran at him, but a line of shifters came at her as she did. She pushed her fear so they couldn’t mend their wounds with their liquid metal or whatever the hell allowed them to heal so fast and cut through them, and then kicked them aside and threw the last. The corpse slammed into the Bandian and knocked him from his mech perch.
A glance showed that Garcia and Flynn had joined the fight, and while two more fighters weren’t likely to make or break this battle, the thought of them in action together filled her with excitement.
She sent her sword slashing through the cables that gave power to the mech’s legs and after a giant leap she ran up it, shooting at the Bandian as he fled. Nearby shots hit the mech as they aimed for her—just like she’d planned.
The mech started to fall but she hung on, smiling widely.
“Timber!” she shouted, leaping free at the last moment. She recovered in time to see the mech slam into the warlord and crush his legs. In two quick strides she had her sword to his throat. “It’s over.”
Eyes wide, he stared back and nodded. “Over.”
“Tell them!” she shouted, pulling him out from under the mech and holding his crippled body as a shield and proof that they had won. “Say it!”
“It’s over!” the Bandian yelled, then hung his head in defeat. Most of the others broke for the tree line, but some knelt in submission.
Kalan remained at the ready as if he didn’t believe this was happening. When he finally relaxed he walked over to Valerie and nodded to Robin, who was keeping an eye on everyone in case they tried anything.
“This is a day for Tol’s history books,” he stated, nodding appreciatively. “And to think it was because of an outsider.”
“But not only because of an outsider,” she corrected him. “You helped. They all helped.”
“Actually, I’m a bit of an outsider too,” he corrected, “having been born and raised off-planet.”
She tilted her head, considering this. “Wonderful! You can be the Norruls’ great hero or leader or whatever, whose coming was foretold.”
He looked at her skeptically, then chuckled. “What about him?” he asked, nodding at the Bandian. “He’s going to live?”
“We’ll hand him over to the locals for punishment,” Valerie declared, earning herself an approving grin from the Grayhewn.
They left the death and destruction behind and headed back to the ship. Garcia and Flynn joined them and matched their stride, ready to return to the city and start the long process of getting this place on the right track.
It hadn’t been easy so far, but the real challenge was about to begin.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
The Singlaxian Grandeur
Kalan stood up as Valerie entered. Bob, Wearl, and Robin were also seated around the table in the aft conference room.
“I just got off the comm with Minister Sslake,” Valerie said as she sat. “Poor guy’s up to his eyeballs in legal red tape.”
“Beats sitting in a prison cell,” Robin said dryly.
“Damn right about that,” Valerie agreed. “Still, he’s got a lot to figure out. Some people are pushing hard for the Damu Michezo to remain open. They’re going to be pissed when he shuts it down. Plus, there are still warlords running around out there saying Sslake’s not the legitimate leader. It’s going to take time for him to get things under control.”
“Better him than me,” Kalan said.
“On the positive side, he asked me to put him in touch with Colonel Walton.”
Robin let out a whistle. “Really? Why?”
“He said he’s going to have plenty of jobs that need our particular brand of skills. He wants to see about hiring us, so it looks like we might be sticking around the Vurugu System for a while.”
“Wearl likes that idea,” Bob reported.
“Yeah
, I can hear her, dumbass,” Valerie said. She gave the empty seat next to Bob a strange look. She was still getting use to the idea of having an invisible member on the team. She turned to Kalan. “You said there was something you wanted to discuss?”
“There is.” He hesitated, not sure where to begin. “When we were on SEDE, my mother gave me a chip. I wasn’t able to view what was on it until after we took care of the Bandian, but now I have and, well, it sort of changed my perspective on things.”
Valerie tilted her head questioningly. “What was on it?”
“A lot—mostly records, apparently compiled by my father. He was searching for information about my people. There was all sorts of stuff on there, like family trees and ancient journals, as well as my father’s personal log.”
“Wow,” Valerie said. “Pretty cool, but I’m not sure if you needed to call a meeting to discuss that.”
Kalan chuckled. “Hang on. There was one piece of information that was particularly interesting. I told you my people were called the Gah’har’zakanew. It turns out that was only what the Pallicons called us. We had a different name for ourselves: the Bandians.”
Bob’s eyes widened. “Wait, what?”
Kalan nodded. “It’s true. That ancient race of legendary warriors? The ones Warlord Nobir named himself after? It turns out I’m one of the last of them.”
“Whoa,” Robin exclaimed.
“There’s a reason so few of us are left. Centuries ago the Pallicons waged war on the Bandians, then hunted us into near extinction. According to my father’s records, there’s a sect of Pallicons who are still dedicated to hunting us. That’s why I called this meeting.”
Valerie raised an eyebrow. “You want to hire us to take out this sect? No offense, but I don’t think you could afford us.”
“I know I couldn’t,” Kalan said with a smile. “That’s not what I’m asking. Most of my father’s records were info on his investigation into where surviving Bandians might be living today. Much of it is rumors and hearsay, but there are a lot of leads he never got the chance to follow up on. He believed our people needed to come together so that we could better protect ourselves.”
“Hmm. And you want to carry on his work?”
“I think I have to.” He sat up a bit straighter. “Look, I love working with you and I want to keep doing so, but I also have to do this.”
Bob rolled his eyes. “Wearl says she’s going with you—like there was ever any doubt she’d let you out of her sight.”
Kalan waited silently while Valerie thought. He’d never wanted to be on a team as badly as he wanted to be on this one, but at the same time he had a responsibility to carry on his father’s work. And the thought of finding other Grayhewns, or rather Bandians? It was enticing.
“Here’s what we’ll do,” Valerie announced. “If we’re going to stay in this system a while, we need to learn more about it. Finding other Grayhewns is as good an excuse as any, so Kalan and Wearl will go off on their search, with the understanding that we’ll call them in when we need them. Sort of a reserve unit.”
Kalan nodded slowly. “Sounds fair. More than fair, actually.”
“One more thing. You’re taking Bob with you.”
Bob sat up straight as a rod. “Wait, what?”
“The poor guy can’t even understand his partner without you,” Valerie said to Bob. “We’ll see what we can do about that, but in the meantime, he’s going to need help. You have a problem going with him?”
Bob thought a moment. “We’d be searching for more Grayhewns, right?”
“Yeah,” Kalan confirmed.
“So if we found any females, they’d look like…your mom?”
Robin barked a laugh.
Kalan sighed. “If that’s what gets you out the door, sure. Every one of them looks like my mom.”
Bob grinned. “When do we leave?”
“It’s settled,” Valerie said. “You three search for Bandians, but when we call you come running.” She paused. “Oh, and one more thing.”
She took something off her belt and slid it across the table.
Kalan picked it up, his eyes wide. “A Tralen-14!”
“I got it off one of the Bandian’s guards. I heard you liked them.”
“Best boss ever!” Kalan exclaimed.
“Yeah, well, let’s hope you don’t have to use it much,” she replied. “But I’m fairly certain you will. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us.”
Robin pointed to the comm screen. “Better get this over with,” she suggested.
Valerie opened a comm channel to the War Axe.
Colonel Terry Henry Walton leaned back in his chair. Valerie watched him from the screen as she did her best to explain everything that had happened, and would be happening next.
When it was over, he rubbed his chin in thought, then laughed. “You think I’m going to chew your ass because you went off mission, I get that. Maybe I should, but… I had an idea this would happen.”
“You had an idea I’d go overboard and incite a coup?”
“It’s you, Valerie. From what I hear, it’s your thing.”
She blushed, not sure whether she should be annoyed or nodding in agreement. Damn, was that really becoming her thing? She let out a laugh, earning her a confused stare from the colonel.
After a moment, he leaned forward as if deciding something. “Thank you for the report. You did what was right by the people of Tol, aliens and natives alike. It’s what any decent human being would have done, if they had your abilities. But here’s the thing, you need to do what you need to do, and I’ve spoken with people on our side here… and am thinking you should report directly to Nathan Lowell. I’m going to recommend that next time I talk with him.”
Valerie raised one eyebrow. Sergeant Garcia wedged his face into the picture.
“What about me, Colonel? I like being a sergeant, formerly of the FDG, currently of the Bad Company and the Federation’s covert missions’ team.”
“Exactly that, Garcia. The Federation’s covert missions’ team. Valerie’s Elites.” His gaze turned back to Valerie. “No one needs to know who you work for, because you don’t really work for anyone, do you, Justice Enforcer?”
“I work for those who can’t defend themselves,” Valerie offered.
“The moral compass guides you. Your gut. Your heart. Whatever you choose. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to call. Walton out.”
Sergeant Garcia furled his brow. “I feel like I’ve just been fired.”
Valerie smiled, turned, and slapped him on the shoulder hard enough to knock down a normal human. “No, sergeant, you’ve had the strings cut.”
“Strings that didn’t do much to control you,” he replied with a laugh.
She leaned back, stretching her arms behind her head, and smiled. “A weight has been lifted from my shoulders, a weight I didn’t know I was carrying. I feel like I could take on another world, maybe two or three.”
Robin groaned behind her. “Just when I thought we might have a chance at reigning you in.”
“Ha! As if that will ever be possible.”
“So… it’s business as usual?” Garcia asked. “I mean, just to be clear… what next?”
“We keep on, keeping on with Terry and his people as allies as we continue to export justice to all the jackoffs out here who need it. Let’s get to it, people. This was just the beginning.”
FINIS
Author Notes - Justin Sloan
Written December 3rd, 2017
Many of you reading this have read my Reclaiming Honor series with Michael Anderle, and are therefore familiar with Valerie and Robin. Thank you so very much for sticking with me all this time--eight books in that series, and now we have this series starting! Can you believe it has already come about? It was less than a year ago that Michael and I started this little adventure.
And now we've wrapped PT into it. If you didn't know, PT and I have worked together before. That time, it was a childr
en's series and therefore very different (under a penance). I think what happened was he mentioned me in one of his Youtube videos, I checked out his books and loved them, and then we started chatting and decided to try and work on something. If you haven't read his fantasy books (the Zane Halloway series) you are missing out. Working with him on our children's books was a dream, so when I started working with Michael I promptly told him we needed PT as a collaborator. He agreed, and PT and I both wrote (separate) books in the Age of Magic Kurtherian Gambit spinoff. Those were fun, and our books had some crossover, so we decided to give this Age of Expansion writing a try--and I'm so glad we did! Hopefully you agree that the outcome was better than either of us would have produced on our own.
Coming at it from reading any of our previous works must be an interesting experience, and we would love to hear your thoughts. Join us on Facebook, where we're often discussing our works with fans (and sometimes haters, lol).
There are others of you who have never read anything by us before this book. I find it fascinating that the reading experience will be so completely different from the rest. Do the characters feel fleshed out to the same degree? Does their backstory feel like it makes you curious to go off and read those other books? What do you think about the slightly different styles of writing between us? Again, we'd love to discuss all of this and more.
What's next? Well, we have more books in this series, naturally, and they should be coming at you fairly fast. You should also, of course, read all of our other books and the other books in the Age of Expansion. Oh man, you have a lot of reading ahead of you! Good thing you love books, right?
On the non-KGU side, I have my Seppukarian Universe that I've been building up with several co-writers. Within this, Jonathan Yanez and I did a series called War Wolves, which has been high on the charts since it launched. I have my Shadow Corps books, which are basically science fantasy (science fiction with magic). And Podium is producing audiobooks for both of those series, as well as the one that started off the Seppukarian Universe, the Syndicate Wars books. Podium was the group behind The Martian, to give you an idea of how cool this is. We are excited, and have such narrators as Allyson Johnson reading the books--she did the Honor Harrington series by David Weber, so we're standing among giants.
