A battle of brothers…
Iaido was gone.
Achilles was gone.
At this very moment, there was no conscious thought. The individual known as Iaido to his friends and Achilles to his enemies was nothing more than the living embodiment of his swords. He leaped and rolled, blocked and countered, attacked and defended all without thought.
Each of the three warriors had their own advantages and disadvantages in this battle. The point was to capitalize on their strengths while minimizing their weakness. In this aspect, Iaido had several advantages over his brothers since he was wielding two katanas which gave him plenty of flexibility in his attacks. Granted, Aeneas was also using two weapons but a gladius was best used up close. Hector was using a single katana but seemed to be able to manipulate the surrounding shadows into a shield.
Iaido’s foremost weakness had nothing to do with himself; it had to do with the General. That was their main target and that was something he had to protect at all cost. His one major advantage was that Aeneas and Hector were also enemies to each other. Yes, they were both against him but neither one could press their attack for fear of retribution.
Then, it happened…
Novels by A.E. McCullough
Available on Amazon in print or eBook format
The Tales of the Wolf Series
The Coming of the Wolf (Book 1)
Enter the Wolf (Book 2)
Darkness Falls (Book 3)
Coming the spring of 2013
The Last Spartan Series
The Last Spartan: Different Paths
The Last Spartan: DJ’s Mission
The Last Spartan: The Great Hunt
Coming in the fall of 2013
Lost Lands: the Game
A different kind of fantasy novel.
Coming mid 2013
The Last Spartan
Different Paths
A.E. McCullough
Copyright © 2012 by Andrew McCullough
This book is a work of fiction. Names, character, places and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author, except by reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
Cover Art by Phillip K. Aiken
First Edition: March 2012
Revised Edition: January 2013
www.aemccullough.com
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This novel is dedicated to the men and women of Louisville Metro Corrections.
We do an important but thankless job for society. Day in and day out, we walk our assigned beat surrounded by negativity and hatred but we strive to never let it get to us. I am proud to stand by each and every one of you. We are officers, not guards. We are truly…Law Enforcement Professionals.
A special thanks to Scott, Alex and Jody who were my early test readers and gave me some wonderful insights and suggestions.
Several others could be mentioned by name but I will abstain. When you read this, you will know who you are and thanks for your inspiration.
About the Cover ArtistPhillip K. Aiken is a freelance digital artist, illustrator, computer technician and writer. He has worked as a self-taught computer technician for over 7 years and has certifications in computer programming and computer technology. He currently lives in South Carolina and can be contacted at: [email protected]
AUTHOR’S NOTE: I met Phillip when I held a cover contest on the DAZ3D Art Studio forums. Phillip submitted several cover ideas and eventually won the contest. I am thrilled to have him as my cover artist. – A. E. McCullough
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Epilogue
Chapter 1
Heads.
Tails.
Heads.
The two men watched the silver coin flip through the air with undisguised interest. A few of the nearby passengers on the tram aimlessly watched the ancient coin on its short flight. While the coin was still in the air the smaller of the two men glanced at the mass of people around them and sneered. He mentally compared the masses to cattle being herded to the slaughter house; they were totally unaware of their impending doom. He caught the silver coin and slapped a hand over the outcome. He wanted to savor this fateful moment. Would they get to live or die? It all hung on the toss of a simple coin.
His larger companion nudged him. “Come on….let’s see it.”
With a feral grin, he lifted his hand and cussed. “Dammit! Its tails! They get to live.”
“Come on my friend, this is our stop and we have a job to do.”
“One last toss, heads it’s my choice who we kill first… the husband or the wife and tails, it’s your choice.”
The larger of the two men thought about it for a split second before answering, “You’re on!”
The coin flipped once more and the fate of some nameless couple was decided.
Silently they stood up and moved toward the door. The mass of people on the tram parted at their approach without a word from either man; young and old, punker or yuppie moved aside without comment. It wasn’t their style of dress. The flat black body armor was a common sight since the war ended. Many veterans still wore their old armor like a badge of honor. However, neither the weapons worn at their waist nor the aura of danger which they radiated was commonplace.
Either of these would’ve been enough to warrant easy passage through the crowd but it was the five-pointed star hanging at their necks which provoked the most fear. No one in their right mind messed with a Galactic Marshal.
Chapter 2
“Dammit! Pick up!”
“This is Spartan. I am currently unavailable. Leave a message and contact codes.” Beep…
“Shit! Achilles, this is the Sergeant Major. I need you! Contact me as soon as you get this message. You know it’s urgent or I wouldn’t have called. I have a bounty and I need your help. It could be a matter of life or death, old friend.”
Clicking the vid-phone off, the old man let his gaze sweep across the pictures and awards that hung above his desk. His Honorable Discharge certificate from the UNCF - United Nations Coalition Forces - hung next to the plaque handed to him by the Coalition President on the day he was awarded the Medal of Honor. The coveted medal hung in a nearby shadow box along with the Silver Star, Purple Heart and a dozen other Coalition Awards of Merit he’d earned over his twenty-two years of service.
Reaching up, he carefully took down an old fashion photograph of his unit; the slightly discolored sides of the oak frame showed that he had performed this ritual many times in the past. As he moved to place it in the open briefcase on the desk, two small arms suddenly wrapped themselves around his legs.
“Daddy. Daddy. I’m all packed.”
Reaching down to remove his daughter’s arms, John squatted down to look her in the eyes. “That’s wonderful Eve. I’m almost finished here and Amy is getting the skimmer from the garage.”
Cocking her head slightly to the side, Eve’s platinum blonde locks fell in front of her blue eyes exposing her slightly pointed ears that marked her mixed heritage. Looking around the office while absentmindedly toying with a crystal pendant that hung on a silver chain around her neck, she asked the question he most feared.
“Daddy, why are we leaving tonight?”
John felt his heart twinge at his daughter’s question. She wasn’t scared, just confused. How does a father tell his only child that the sins of his past were coming back to haunt him?
Taking a deep breath he said, “Eve, it’s hard to explain.”
Gazing into his daughter’s eyes he saw the immeasurable trust that the young have in their parents. He knew this was a wonderful age…before the dreaded teenage years, before boys and shopping and the independent thinking that comes with growing up. This was an age where their children still thought their parents knew everything. It was a wonderful if not frightening time.
Pulling his mind back to her question John said, “Let’s just say that we have to play a game of hide-n-seek but a grown-up version. There are people trying to find us, so we have to hide.”
Eve clapped her hands together and just accepted his explanation. “Okay Daddy. I’m good at hide-n-seek.”
“I know you are princess. Now, let me finish in here so we can leave.”
Thump. A noise from the front of the apartment filled the room.
John quickly drew a pistol from his shoulder holster; a slight hum filled the study as the pistol powered up. “Quick Eve, hide! And don’t come out until me, Amy or your uncle Achilles comes for you. Now go!”
Moving to the door, he glanced back in time to glimpse her blonde hair disappearing into the panic room. Gripping the pistol in his right hand, finger on the trigger, his left hand cupping the right to provide counter-tension; the retired sergeant major stepped into the hallway.
Moving slowly, his eyes scanned the area before moving on. Though it had been nearly a decade since he served, it seemed that old habits die hard. Only subconsciously did his brain register the empty spaces where pictures had hung only hours before, the rest of his mind was absorbed in the environment, listening for unusual noises or watching for movement. Reaching the doorway that opened into the kitchen, John took a deep breath and burst through the opening ready to blast anything that moved.
Whatever he was expecting, finding his wife standing in the kitchen crying was not one of them. With a flick of his finger, he powered down his pistol and he replaced it in his shoulder holster.
“Honey? What is it? What’s wrong?”
Moving forward to embrace his wife, his instincts screamed at the wrongness of the situation but he ignored them. “Amy…us leaving is only temporary. We’ll be back.”
She shook her head as tears streamed down her face and moved in to embrace her husband. For a brief second she clung to him with all her might. Pulling out of his grasp, she plunged a butcher knife deep into her husband’s chest and screamed, “No, we won’t!”
Pulling out the knife, she stabbed him again and again; stopping only when his corpse lay on the floor in a growing pool of blood. Amy took one last glance around at her kitchen, pulled a hand towel off the rack and made a quick cut with the knife. Dropping the knife at her feet, she tied the two towel pieces together thereby doubling its length. Wrapping the makeshift cord around her legs right above the ankles, she sat down with her legs folded underneath her. Retrieving the knife, she placed the razor sharp edge on the side of her neck, smiled briefly and with a quick slash, sliced through her carotid artery.
Chapter 3
“One minute until re-entry. Please secure all loose cargo and fasten all seat-belts.” Pax’s monotone voice echoed over the speakers throughout the ship.
Iaido moved forward, seated himself into the captain’s chair and clicked the five-point restraint system into place. “All right Pax, arm all missiles, ready the cannons and power up the deflector shields.”
“Affirmative.”
Iaido could tell that Pax, his ship’s A.I. - Artificial Intelligence - was slightly offended at being told the obvious but then he didn’t like leaving anything to chance. He studied the star chart on the screen at his side before adding, “Prepare evasion programs Charlie and Delta.”
“Affirmative.”
Iaido glanced out the cockpit window. He could tell that re-entry was only seconds away by the way the lights danced around his ship.
Technically, any starship equipped with a hyperdrive could enter or exit hyperspace at any point in space. For ease of trans-galactic travel, the Galactic Marshals had set specific marker buoys throughout the region and those routes were logged into every astronavigation computer. However, re-entry from hyperspace was always tricky. Certain natural phenomenon such as comets, solar storms and meteors tended to affect ships traveling in hyperspace. A few unnatural objects could do the same thing, most notably a gravitational generator.
Grav-gens were a piece of hardware designed to create artificial gravity for use on orbiting space platforms. It was a wonderful peaceful invention that the military perverted for its own wartime uses. It had been known to be used as a method to pull ships out of hyperspace early or at wrong locations, such as near a planet where the gravitational forces would pull it to its doom or into an ambush. With the war officially over, several mercenary companies had gone rogue and had been raiding known shipping lanes. At least one of these pirate bands had a working grav-gen and was using it to good effect.
The Galactic Marshals hadn’t been able to capture these pirates yet and had placed an ample bounty on them. Iaido wasn’t even tempted by the sum…at least not until it was double the current amount.
Pax triggered an alarm notifying him of re-entry. A sudden lurch forward and the stars settled into normal patterns was all that marked their emergence from hyperspace. Iaido quickly pulled up and back on the yoke with a quick turn to starboard, thereby taking his starship into a ninety degree vector from his initial re-entry. A quick glance at one of the monitors showed that his prisoner was secure and in relative good health.
“We have company. Two bogies at three o’clock. Twenty-five kilometers out and closing fast. Preliminary scans show both vessels to be Raptor Class, Mark 4s.”
Iaido’s HUDs, heads-up-display system, began showing him all pertinent data on the enemy ships. The Raptor M4 was a one-man starfighter with no hyperspace drive but large sub-light engines capable of pushing the ship to speeds of zero point eight the speed of light. Standard armament consists of ten anti-matter missiles, one .75 caliber projectile cannon, two turbo-lasers and minimal deflector shields. The Raptor was a military grade starfighter primarily meant for interplanetary defense. Built by Titan Avionics, they were originally designed and built for a Coalition contract in 2120 but lost the final contest to the Avionics Strategic International Dragon which has become the standard UNCF Fleet starfighter for the last quarter century. Titan Avionics was left to peddle their starfighter to the colonists. However during the war, the Confederacy had used the Raptor to deadly effect. Iaido wasn’t overly concerned over the turbo lasers or the Raptor’s cannons. Neither were powerful enough to penetrate his shields on any single hit, a constant barrage would most defiantly hurt but nothing short of that would harm his ship. On the other hand, the anti-matter missiles the Raptor carried could easily disable or destroy his starship. Since these bogies were the latest version of the R
aptor; Iaido knew that these pilots took care of their ships.
“Incoming transmission from the lead Raptor,” Pax said. “They are maneuvering for missile lock, target jammers at max but estimate missile lock in twenty-five seconds, plus or minus five seconds.”
“Roger. Evasion pattern Charlie. Prepare countermeasures and plot an escape vector back to hyperspace.” Nodding in satisfaction at Pax’s efficiency Iaido said, “Now put this idiot through.”
“Starship Nemesis, power down all systems and prepare to be boarded.”
Iaido toggled his mic. “On whose authority?”
“This is Captain Dixon of the Jupiter Defense League.”
“My apologies captain but I have checked my nav-system and I am in inter-galactic space. So, I will have to respectfully decline.”
“Starship Nemesis that was not a request! You will power down all systems and prepare to be boarded. You are harboring a known fugitive and we plan to take custody of him.”
“Now we are getting somewhere, Captain Dixon,” said Iaido. “You want Jagger Jax? That’s a simple matter; pay the bounty on him and he’s yours.”
While his wingman broke to port, the JDL captain slid his ship onto Iaido’s tail tighter than a bra on a ten-dollar whore. “We don’t pay bounties!”
“I didn’t think so.” Iaido tapped several commands into his nav-system. “If you aren’t willing to pay, then no deal.”
“This is your last warning Nemesis...power down or die.”
“Not today, Captain.”
Although the Raptors were newer, smaller and more agile than his aging warship, Iaido was a veteran of many battles and had numerous tricks in his arsenal. Cutting the power to the engines, he pulled hard up on the ship’s controls while firing the maneuvering jets causing his warship to flip on its axis. It was now facing the complete opposite direction; right toward the JDL Captain’s Raptor but was still moving forward on its previous vector. Having never encountered that particular trick before, Captain Dixon panicked and pulled his ship hard up which exposed his engines to Iaido. A quick burst from the Nemesis’ 50mm railguns and the JDL Raptor was floating helplessly in space.
The Last Spartan 1: Different Paths Page 1
