Virtue of War

by L O Addison

  Virtue of War

  L.O. Addison

  Justin Sloan

  Elder Tree Press

  Copyrighted Material.

  VIRTUE OF WAR Copyright (c) 2019 by LO Addison and Justin Sloan. Book design and layout copyright (c) 2019 by LO Addison and Justin Sloan (of Elder Tree Presss). This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are product’s of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission.

  Contents

  I. Arrival

  1. Kaylin

  2. Beck

  3. Kaylin

  4. Lio

  5. Lio

  6. Beck

  7. Kaylin

  8. Lio

  9. Beck

  10. Beck

  II. Pursuit

  11. Kaylin

  12. Lio

  13. Beck

  14. Beck

  15. Kaylin

  16. Kaylin

  17. Lio

  18. Beck

  19. Kaylin

  20. Kaylin

  21. Beck

  22. Kaylin

  23. Lio

  24. Beck

  25. Lio

  III. Infiltration

  26. Kaylin

  27. Kaylin

  28. Kaylin

  29. Kaylin

  30. Lio

  31. Beck

  32. Lio

  33. Kaylin

  34. Beck

  35. Lio

  36. Kaylin

  37. Lio

  38. Kaylin

  39. Kaylin

  40. Beck

  41. Kaylin

  About The Authors

  I

  Arrival

  1

  Kaylin

  Kaylin never planned on having to break into her own home. Then again, she also never planned on getting tossed out of her home and threatened with death if she ever tried to come back. But fate was a bitch, and here she was, scouting out the perimeter of the military base where she’d lived for two long years.

  So much had changed since she’d left, but the base still looked exactly the same. A fifteen-foot wall marked the border of the compound, stretching around six square acres of wilderness smack-dab in the middle of the Florida Everglades. Inside was one of the most secure Resistance bases in the world, outfitted with a cutting-edge blend of human and alien technology that was supposed to keep any intruder at bay.

  “This was a bad idea,” she muttered under her breath.

  Her buyer had made it sound so simple: slip into the base, retrieve an alien medical device that was stored inside, and slip back out. With some special codes to disable the security system, it’d be a total cake-walk compared to some of the thieving jobs she’d taken on before.

  So far, it’d been just as easy as her buyer had claimed. One of the gates on the outside perimeter had been left unlocked, and the motion and heat sensors were dead. When she’d tested the video signal coming from the security cameras, she’d found the footage was on loop, showing an empty landscape with nothing but sawgrass and gnarled pines.

  But Kaylin still couldn’t shake the anxiety chewing at her gut. Something was off. It was just too damn easy. The Resistance could be overly cocky sometimes, but they weren’t sloppy, especially not when it came to security.

  She should turn back. It’d be easy enough—she could just leave the base the way she’d come, cut off contact with the buyer, and drop the assignment. Sure, it’d probably damage her reputation on the black market for a bit, but it was the best option.

  Or maybe that was just her guilt talking. No matter how much the Resistance had screwed her over, she still felt bad stealing from them. She’d spent two years working as their soldier, and it was hard to shake that kind of loyalty. Once a Resistance fighter, always a Resistance fighter.

  Something brushed against her waist, making her gasp in surprise. She instinctively reached for the tranquilizer pistol holstered at her waist, but her hand froze as she spotted Red. Her pet vater lizard had crept up from behind, his scales camouflaged a mottled green and brown color to match the grassland Kaylin was crouched in.

  The sight of him brought reality crashing back to her. If the Resistance had their way, Red would be dead. They wanted every single alien species killed off, even the harmless and innocent ones.

  The Resistance might have saved humankind, but they were hardly a bastion of morality. And they certainly weren't her masters. Not anymore.

  “You’re supposed to be on guard,” she muttered at Red.

  He snorted softly in response, swishing his tail back and forth in a signal of boredom.

  She shook her head. “I don’t care if you’re bored, you need to do as you’re told.”

  Red made a low grumble in the back of his throat, as if protesting her stern tone.

  Kaylin sighed and rubbed her temples. When she’d first adopted Red, she’d resisted the urge to talk to him. It made her feel like one of those crazy old cat ladies who lived alone and only talked to her pets.

  But at this point, Kaylin had embraced her life as a crazy lizard lady. She spoke to her clients and to Red, and she didn’t bother with anyone else. It just wasn’t safe to have friendly conversations with people. And besides, humans were totally overrated.

  Red reached his nose up and nudged at the treat bag clipped to Kaylin’s tactical belt, letting out a small, pitiful whimper. At only a year old, the vater lizard was already getting huge, his body the size of a large dog and his leathery wings stretching eight feet when they were unfolded. But he still made sounds that reminded her of a helpless little puppy.

  “Shush,” she muttered at him. But there was no way she could resist the pathetic whimper, and she drew a small piece of carrot out of her treat bag, tossing it to him.

  Red leaped up and snapped the treat out of the air. His jaws easily crushed it to pieces, reminding her why vater lizards had gained such a notorious reputation as pit-fighting beasts. Abuse one for long enough, and it was a seven-foot-long killing machine.

  But they weren’t naturally aggressive. Far from it. A well-trained vater lizard was as smart and docile as a dog, and just as useful.

  “Guard,” Kaylin ordered, pointing to the thick grass behind her.

  Red swallowed his treat and rubbed his cheek affectionately against her thigh, smearing saliva and some stray carrot bits on her pants. Kaylin shoved his scaly head away, but not before scratching him lightly under the chin.

  “Go on,” she said.

  He gave a quiet, rumbling purr before slinking off into the tall grass, disappearing with only a slight rustle to mark his passage.

  Kaylin turned her attention to the steel door five yards ahead of her, knowing Red would alert her if anyone tried to approach from behind. The door should have had a guard with a rifle in front of it, but no one was there. Once again, it looked like her buyer had come through on his end of the deal. She had no idea how he’d managed to jack up the base’s security system so royally, but she suspected it was an inside job.

  Kaylin checked the small screen strapped to her wrist—it was one of her favorite pieces of alien tech, a hypersensitive heat sensor. She had it programmed to alert her if anything with the temperature of a human body came within twenty feet of her.

  The screen stayed blank, reassuring her that no one was nearby. The door’s guard was really gone. Kaylin darted to her feet and jogged to the door, keeping a careful watch on her surroundings.

  Thunder rumbled omi
nously overhead, as if reminding her to hurry the hell up. Just an hour ago the weather had been perfectly clear, but now dark clouds blocked out every trace of the blue sky. Kaylin hadn’t planned for a storm, but she’d make do. After all, that was why her buyer had hired her—she was known for getting a job done, no matter what got in her way.

  She reached the door and crouched in the shadows at its base, checking her surroundings one more time. The only thing around was the towering wall and the swamp grass waving wildly in the wind. She let out a low whistle, and a moment later Red crept up to her side, still perfectly camouflaged.

  A bolt of lightning streaked through the air, making Kaylin’s heart kick. She took a steadying breath and reached into her pocket, drawing out the data chip her buyer had sent.

  This was the real moment of truth. Her buyer had promised the chip contained a master key that could unlock any door on the base with only a simple four-digit code. If he was wrong, and she triggered some sort of alarm…

  Kaylin shook her head, tossing aside the worry. So far, her buyer had come through perfectly. She had no reason not to trust him.

  Before she could second-guess herself, she pressed the chip against the surface of the biometric scanner on the door’s lock. A blue light blinked at the center of the small, silver chip, telling her it was transferring information into the lock’s internal computer.

  Nothing happened. The lock didn’t budge.

  “Come on, come on,” Kaylin muttered under her breath. She was already starting to shift backward, ready to make an escape the moment a guard appeared.

  The biometric scanner suddenly blinked green. Then a number pad appeared on the digital screen, and Kaylin hurriedly keyed in the code her buyer had given her.

  3-6-6-5

  A muted thunk came from within the door. Kaylin tried the handle again, and this time, it opened.

  She was in.

  She slipped the chip back into her pocket, drew her tranquilizing pistol from its holster, and looked down at Red.

  “You ready?” she asked.

  He snorted in response and shifted closer to the door, preparing to follow her as soon as she slipped through.

  “All right then,” she said, cracking open the door. “Let’s do this.”

  2

  Beck

  Beck had met a lot of aliens, but this time around, it would be different. If all went well, there’d be way less killing and a lot more hellos and handshakes. That was, if the aliens even had hands. Beck hoped to God they did, because there was no way in hell he was shaking a tentacle.

  Somehow, the thought of politely greeting their intergalactic visitors made him more nervous than ever. Killing aliens was the natural order of things. They attacked, humans defended, some humans died, but more aliens did. And humanity lived on. He'd spent years living out that pattern as a soldier in the Resistance.

  Now things were changing. With an alien attack from the Ascendancy on the horizon, the killing was about to start again. But this time around, it wouldn’t just be humans versus aliens. Instead, it’d be the Ascendancy versus all intelligent creatures who weren't keen on being targeted for genocide.

  And that meant a new survival tactic—setting aside the past and becoming allies with aliens. Or at least attempting to.

  Beck glanced around at the three multi-story buildings bordering the tarmac. Snipers were stationed in every building, just waiting for any sign of trouble. He itched to be up there with them. Beck had trained half of the snipers on this base, and it seemed unfair that his former students were the ones who got to have the comfort of a rifle in their hands while he was stuck down here with the greeting committee.

  Not that it was much of a committee. Just him and Nathan, the base commander. Nathan stood beside him, squinting up at the clouds, his war-worn face pulled into a disapproving scowl. That scowl was enough to make anyone on base scramble to fix their mistakes, but it had no effect on the clouds thickening above them.

  “This is piss-poor weather for flying,” Nathan muttered.

  “We’ll make do,” Beck said, trying to sound more optimistic than he felt.

  He flinched as a large raindrop plopped on his cheek. An hour ago, the Florida sun had been shining down on the Resistance base, making the landing tarmac shimmer with heat. Now dark clouds grumbled overhead, leaking fat raindrops onto the dark pavement. If the wind kept picking up, pretty soon no aircraft would be able to take off safely from the base.

  Which meant they were officially screwed.

  Their assignment was supposed to have been simple: They’d greet an ambassador from the alien society of Rhuramentia, hand over the ancient alien relic the base had been guarding, guide the ambassador into a waiting transport craft, and shuttle him over to Washington, D.C. Easy-peasy. The alien would spend thirty minutes on their base, tops.

  But the ambassador hadn’t even landed yet, and everything was already going to hell. It’d all started the night before, when a thief had managed to shut off the security system, bypass all their Tier 4 security protocols, break into the base’s most secure safe, kill a guard, and make off with the relic. All within a matter of minutes.

  It shouldn’t have been possible—they had too many safeguards in place. But the ambassador wasn’t going to give a damn about that. All the ambassador would care about was that he’d traveled five weeks in hyperspace to pick up a precious relic that was now missing.

  As the chief commander of the base, Nathan had been scrambling to find the thief and the stolen relic, but it was no use. The thief had gotten off scot-free. Now all Nathan could do was apologize to the ambassador and ship him off to Washington, D.C, so all the top officials of Earth could also issue apologies.

  They were screwed. So screwed.

  And all because of one goddamn, murderous thief.

  Nathan wiped his hand over his face, brushing aside a raindrop clinging to his short salt-and-pepper beard. In the dark shadow of the clouds, he looked older than he usually did, his hair seeming grayer and his wrinkles deeper.

  “The bastard is late,” Nathan muttered, glancing down at his watch.

  “I’m sure he’ll be here soon,” Beck said, raising his voice to be heard over the wind. He glanced behind him at the covered hangar. If this storm got much worse, they were going to have to head inside and wait for the ambassador there.

  Nathan grunted. “He’s probably just sitting up there enjoying the sight of us getting rained on.”

  Beck struggled to swallow back his unease. He’d only worked with the commander for a year, since Nathan had moved to the base and taken charge, but it’d been plenty of time for Beck to learn that the man was no diplomat. Usually, Beck appreciated Nathan’s brutal honesty, but not now. Because there was something else Beck knew all too well about the commander:

  Nathan hated aliens. Period. He hadn’t wanted to store the alien relic at his base, hadn’t wanted the ambassador to land here, and sure as hell hadn’t wanted to play the part of a gracious host. The top leaders of the Resistance had insisted on it, since Nathan’s base was the only Tier 4 security center in the region. But Beck had a bad feeling it was about to bite them in the ass. They could force Nathan to host the ambassador, but they couldn’t force him to be civil about it.

  A black dot appeared in the sky. At first, Beck thought it might just be a bird, but then he realized the dot was growing larger every second as it descended toward the tarmac. The back of Beck’s neck tingled with alertness, and his hand automatically shifted closer to the pistol at his waist.

  The small spacecraft descended at a rapid pace, not seeming to be bothered by the wind. The ship was such a dark black it seemed to gleam blue. It was long and sleek like a bullet, with short black fins on the top and sides. Beck squinted closely at the craft, but couldn't see anything resembling panels or doors. It looked like it was crafted from a single piece of obsidian.

  “Well that's sure fancy,” Nathan muttered.

  The commander sounded more wa
ry than admiring, and Beck couldn't blame him one bit. Three years ago, when the Syndicate aliens had tried to invade, the Resistance had barely managed to fight back against their advanced technology. And this ship looked even more advanced than the Syndicate’s.

  The ship slowly descended to the bright yellow square painted on the hovercraft landing pad. The aircraft made no noise, but a deep, thrumming vibration radiated off it, making the humid air feel thick enough to choke on.

  Right when Beck was about to start gasping for breath, the ship settled on the tarmac, and the vibration cut out. Beck shifted back and forth on his feet, while Nathan leaned anxiously forward, ready to pounce at the first sign of trouble.

  Beck had no idea what was about to climb out of the ship. From what he'd been told, “aliens” could mean everything from human-like creatures, to robots, to intelligent plants. Nathan had said this species was “humanoid,” but that label seemed to get slapped on everything with arms and legs, regardless of how different they were to actual humans.

  A door appeared in the side of the ship, seeming to melt straight out of the pure black hull. It slid upwards, revealing a man and a woman standing in the doorway. Beck sighed in relief as he realized they looked almost totally human. Hopefully, that meant they also acted human. It would definitely make communicating with them a hell of a lot easier.