Phoenix Odyssey Book 1 (Battle Beyond Earth)

by Thomas, Nick S.

  His eyes widened as he recognised the shape of several Krys vessels, but not their models. There were highly advanced ships that he had never seen before, and others seemingly from cultures he'd not encountered before. Most surprising of all was the fact that they were not fighting.

  "Where the hell am I?"

  He heard a grunt and turned around. A Krys warrior stood before him but not as he remembered them. It wore sleek armour closer to what he remembered the Human armies wearing than the Krys. He was too stunned to react as it struck him in the face, and he was knocked out cold.

  Chapter 2

  Charlie was coming to. He groaned a little as he felt his head throbbing, but he was sitting up this time and found himself across a table from an officer of some sort. He was Human. That much was certain.

  "Captain Charlie Jones, we have brought you back not to punish you, nor to hurt or malign you. We need your help."

  He looked down and was astonished to see that he wasn't restrained in any way. He leapt forward and slid over the table before the officer even realised what was going on. He kicked the man in the face. Blood shot out from his nose as his chair collapsed backwards, and he was sprawled out across the floor. Jones was standing over him before he could hope to recover and stamped down on his head to knock him out. Charlie would just have easily killed him. It meant nothing to him.

  He hit the door release and was immediately confronted by two guards in riot armour. Yet again they were equipped with non-lethal weaponry. Charlie didn't even hesitate to grab the first one and smashed his head in to the doorframe three times. His helmet was all that kept his skull from fracturing, but he was soon down on the floor, and the other one looked terrified. Charlie just strode on past and smiled as the man quaked in fear.

  "Amateurs," he declared with disdain.

  He ran onwards just as he had before. He couldn't believe how naive his captors could be.

  Are they stupid or just lazy? Whoever they are, they are not my friends, nor my allies. Come to think of it, I don't know who is, but I do know these people have kept me as a prisoner, and that’s reason enough to know they are the enemy.

  He looked back to see four guards were giving pursuit, but as he turned to the direction he had been going, he crashed into a woman and tumbled so that she landed on top of him. She wore an officer’s rank and appeared to be in her mid twenties. Her hair was tied back, and she looked most put out, but he couldn't get over how pretty he was. Then he noticed the sound of footsteps once more. He had to keep moving.

  "Sorry," he said as he threw her aside with a cheeky smile before leaping to his feet. He glanced back for just a moment to see that her eyes followed him as he ran.

  "There’s never enough time when you're working."

  He ran on and on until he spotted the signs to a docking bay once more.

  Second time lucky.

  He reached the opening to a vast hangar where a number of craft were lined up. They were of Human construction, and yet not like any he was familiar with. He rushed to the nearest one, but as he made it halfway across the open deck, a pulse hit his back. It knocked him aside a little, but he kept going. Another hit him, and five more followed it until finally he lost control of his limbs. He tumbled to the deck and rolled into the landing gear of the ship he'd intended to steal.

  "So close," he muttered to himself before passing out.

  * * *

  Another memory came to him like a dream. He was among the Krys, but they spoke to him in their own language, and he understood it as though it were English. They spoke to him as a friend.

  "Captain Jones...Captain Jones?"

  The voice sounded muffled as though it was far away, but it soon grew louder as his senses returned to him. He opened his eyes to find himself sitting in front of the same officer once more. He had a bandage over his wounded nose and looked unimpressed.

  "Try that again, shall we?"

  Jones saw that he was now shackled to the table at his wrists. He sighed as he crossed his hands and sat back, as if not interested in whatever the officer had to say. He sighed again loudly; so as to make it clear he had no respect for the man or what he stood for.

  "You have no idea why you are here, do you?" asked the man.

  "I'm here because you are keeping me here, but you can't keep me forever."

  He shook his head.

  "You misunderstand our intentions. We fully intend to release you, once you know what it is that we want from you."

  "I don't care what you have to say. You let me go, and I am out of here."

  "And go where?"

  "Wherever my orders take me."

  "The war is over, Captain Jones."

  That name grated on him, and he was starting to get a feeling for why that was. He wasn't Charlie Jones at all. He just looked like him.

  "That's not me."

  "No, but it might as well be. You look like him. You know all that he knew, and you fight like him. Even better than him now, after the work we have done."

  He looked confused, but he knew something wasn't right. He was stronger and faster than he had ever been, and that can't have come from nowhere.

  "That's right. We have made some improvements, just like we did for Colonel Taylor. We need you to be the best you can be, just as he is."

  "Taylor?" he spat.

  "You were his closest friend once, or at least you look like him, and you have his memories."

  He flashed back to those dreams he had been having, and some of his history was coming back to him now. He wasn't born as Charlie Jones.

  "That's right. You are a clone, do you know that?"

  He nodded, although he was confused by the whole situation.

  "Jones?" asked the officer, as he seemed to be a million miles away.

  He soon snapped out of it. "I told you, that is not my name."

  "Okay, what would you prefer that I call you?"

  He thought back to the ink stamp that had been placed on his arm. His unique recognition number, his clone number, it was as good as anything.

  "CJ00026," he blurted out.

  "Well, we can't very well call you that, can we? How about...CJ?"

  He shrugged as if he didn't really care.

  "Very well. I am Major Wespe, and I am in charge of an experimental programme known as Resurrection. It isn't the most subtle of names, and I am sure we could have come up with better, but the point is, we are making progress. However, what makes you different is that, as you are clearly aware, you are not Captain Charlie Jones. The great war hero that the Alliance needs right now."

  "Alliance?" he asked out of curiosity.

  "Alliance of the free peoples and unified worlds. Humanity, the Krys, the Aranui, and the Cholans."

  CJ looked even more confused and taken aback. He was all too familiar with the Krys, as he served them against Humanity, and yet the Aranui he only knew in passing. The word Cholan meant nothing to him.

  "I am sure this is all very confusing," said Wespe.

  "Confusing? It's bullshit. What is this, some kind of mental torture?"

  Wespe shook his head.

  "Where am I?" demanded CJ.

  "It's not so much the where that is important, but the when."

  CJ looked at him with suspicion as though he were being lied to and manipulated.

  "This will all be a lot to take in, but..."

  The hairpin CJ had taken from the pretty woman he had knocked over finally slipped into the last pin of the lock on his wrists, and they snapped open. He was over the desk in a split second and struck Wespe on his already wounded nose. He hit the door release as if to run, but was frozen stiff as he found himself stood before a Krys Lord. He staggered back as the Lord ducked under the doorframe and stepped into the cell with him. He was as much surprised to meet one, as to see him alongside Humans. The very thought was messing with his mind.

  "I...I," he stuttered.

  The Lord's helmet drew back to reveal his identity, and CJ's face t
urned to stone. He was far older than he remembered, but his face was unmistakeable.

  "Jafar..."

  One of Colonel's Taylor's closest allies, and a turncoat, CJ instinctively threw a punch at him, but Jafar caught his fist and threw him back against the far wall of the cell. He landed hard but managed to stay on his feet.

  "Don't even bother," stated Jafar as CJ thought about trying again.

  Wespe got back to his feet. His nose was bleeding beneath the bandage once more.

  "You are wasting your time with this one. He is not the man you are looking for," Jafar said.

  "We have to try. If he can be half the man Taylor is, then we need him."

  "I won't ever fight for you," snarled CJ.

  Jafar glared at him. "But you will, if I tell you to."

  "You are no Lord of mine."

  "Yes, I am. I lead the Krys people, and your allegiance is now to me!"

  CJ was stunned, as that was a massive bombshell to have dropped.

  "I don't believe you," he finally said, "Where is Lord Erdogan?"

  "Erdogan is dead, at the hands of Colonel Taylor."

  CJ shook his head in disbelief. "Bullshit, I don't believe any of this."

  "I don't care what you believe," he said as he turned to leave.

  "I believe there is hope for him yet."

  Jafar shook his head.

  "He will cost you more than you can afford to lose. There is no saving that one."

  With that, he left. CJ didn't know what to think or believe.

  "You see," said Wespe, "We are not your enemy. Humans and Krys, we fight as one against a new enemy, and if you owe your allegiance to anyone, it is Lord Jafar."

  A look of disgust filled CJ's eyes.

  "How could all this have happened? When?"

  "A long time ago, longer than I am old enough to remember."

  "I don't understand."

  "Captain...CJ, I told you there was going to be a lot to take in, and I sure wasn't kidding."

  "What year is it?" he finally asked.

  "The year is 2512."

  Almost four hundred years?

  CJ couldn't remember anyone he really cared for, only his duty to Lord Erdogan and the Krys Empire.

  "I know why you were created, why you were cloned from Captain Charlie Jones, but your mission no longer exists."

  Jones hissed, thinking of the hatred he felt towards those he had been created to hunt down and kill.

  "CJ, your crimes against Humanity should have ensured that you were never allowed back into this world, but these are desperate times, and I have been given permission to give you a second chance, just like Colonel Taylor has gotten."

  "He lives?"

  "Like you, yes. You have been brought back because of his successes. At our greatest time of need, we looked to a hero of the last great war. He was not quite what we had expected, but he has proven vital to the war effort. And yet, some of Taylor's closest friends became almost as famous as he did in his day. They are names revered and shrouded in myth; names the Alliance can rally behind. You may not be Charlie Jones, but you might as well be. We want you to take up his name and his position at Colonel Taylor's side."

  "Never. I would kill him with my bare hands before I fought for him."

  Wespe sighed.

  "An unfortunate carry-over from your mental programming. You are a clone, and you have been trained and programmed to infiltrate and carry out espionage operations against Taylor and his unit. I am well aware of that hurdle which we must overcome."

  "Hurdle? He has destroyed everything I cared about, everything I fought for."

  "No, the Krys people live a better life today than they ever have."

  "Without strong leaders, the Krys are nothing. The Krys had a vision, to find the Paradise they always deserved and were destined to find. That paradise was Earth, and nothing and nobody should have stopped us from taking what was rightfully ours."

  "But you aren't one of them, are you? You were a disposable asset to Erdogan, and it's time you realised that."

  CJ didn't look at all convinced.

  "There is no place in this world for the man you used to be, but there is a place for the man you could become. We need Charlie Jones, and I am sure you'd rather be free."

  He nodded. The thought of freedom was entirely alien to him. He'd only ever acted on orders, and that's when it struck him. All he had to do was keep telling this man what he wanted to hear, and he'd be free to go and do as he pleased. He took a seat and smiled at the Major who found it most unsettling.

  "I understand we are asking a lot of you...CJ. But you have to accept that times have changed. You are loyal to the Krys people and their leader. That leader is now Lord Jafar, and that means that your interests, and Colonel Taylor's interests are the same."

  "Yes," he replied dryly.

  Wespe didn't understand his tone and couldn't tell if he was being cooperative or just playing along.

  "We are taking a chance on you, and I am honestly not convinced that setting you free in this world was the right idea, but it was not my decision. For the crimes you have committed, and the senseless violence you have exhibited since your awakening, I would be inclined to put you away for good."

  "Then why don't you?"

  "Because I follow orders."

  CJ laughed.

  "I don't think this is a laughing matter. In your first day of release you have already killed several of our own and wounded many more, but my bosses say that is understandable, seeing as you didn't know what new life you had found yourself in."

  "And now?"

  "Now you know. You fight for us, for the Alliance, or we are finished here, and I'll make sure you are put back in that box and never brought out again."

  CJ didn't respond as he went on.

  "There is a threat to the peace of the Alliance that we fought so hard to achieve. A threat larger than the universe has ever known. Queen Bolormaa, and her seemingly unstoppable armies. If you want someone to fight, then there will be no shortage of enemies. So what will it be, will you fight for us or not?"

  He rubbed his brow as he thought about the proposal. He still wasn't sure he believed anything he had heard, but as he mulled it over, he decided to agree to anything if it meant getting free. Finally, he smiled with a sadistic looking smirk.

  "I'll fight."

  Chapter 3

  Two men and a woman sat across a table from CJ. They seemed to talk endlessly as they showed him image after image, video, and maps. None of it meant anything to him, and he was growing tired of it.

  "Are we boring you?" a voice asked, and he looked up. Wespe had entered the room, and he hadn't even noticed. The others fell silent as they all turned their attention to him.

  "Yeah," he replied, unapologetically.

  "I don't think you're taking this very seriously."

  "No, I am taking this as seriously as I can. You keep telling me about this enemy that I have never heard of or seen, and other names of places and creatures I never knew existed. It all sounds like bullshit to me. Give me a gun, and give me a target, and I will give you results."

  "We took a chance with Taylor, and I believe we are taking an even bigger chance with you. Pray you don't make us all regret this decision."

  CJ just smiled.

  "This truth is, we don't need a homicidal maniac set free in this world. We need the famous Captain Charlie Jones. You know that. I think I have made myself clear."

  CJ didn't look at all concerned or interested.

  "What? You think we were wrong to release you?"

  "No, I think you're wrong to think you don't need me just the way I am. I still don't know what the hell is going on around here. You tell me a few hundred years have passed, and some new big bad threatens both Human and Krys life. Well, okay, I'll believe you when I see it for myself. But assuming you are bullshitting me; then I am just what you need. You must have known the risks of setting me free in this new utopian world you think you hav
e created. It would be a last resort because everything you have done so far had failed. That's why you brought Taylor back, and that's why I am here as well, isn't it?"

  Wespe looked flushed and uncomfortable, as though he knew it was true but couldn't bring himself to admit it.

  "Yes, I am a murderer, and I am just what you need, someone with the balls to get the job done. So stop all this crap. We both know you need me, so stop talking to me like a child, and let's get down to business."

  Wespe looked across the room to what appeared as nothing more than a bare wall, but he seemed to be waiting for some kind of confirmation. Slowly, that same wall faded into a translucent window and slid open to reveal a much higher-ranking officer and five of her staff that had been watching them the whole time.

  "Well, what do you know, the big guns have arrived. So did I pass or fail?"

  "The woman in the centre stood up. She was young for her position, perhaps forty-years-old at the most. Her hair was neatly tied back, and her dark brown, almost black eyes just glared at him as though she could intimidate him.

  Maybe that works for these other losers, but not for me.

  "I am General Lysenko," she declared.

  She was well educated and spoke as though she had attended one of the finest British schools, and yet the eastern European twang in her voice gave away her heritage. She was as tall as he was, and confident and commanding in her presence as she continued.

  "CJ, you can be a benefit or a burden to this Alliance of ours. I don't care what your reasons are for doing, or not doing what it is we want from you. All I care about is that we know where we stand with you. Work for us, and you will have you freedom, don't, and you will be put back into the hole you were left in, never to see the light of day again. I need only make the call, and you'll be buried for good. What is it going to be?"

  "Not much of a choice, is it?"

  "Life isn't fair. Our whole situation isn't fair, but we are making you as good an offer as you are ever going to get. We could have left you on ice, and you'd either have gone down like the rest of us, or stayed put until long forgotten about. You've been given the second chance that so few ever get, a chance you do not rightly deserve. But we live in turbulent times, and tough decisions must be made. You are a monster, and not one I would ever have wished upon the Alliance, but you are less of a monster than those that are at our door."