Rebellion (Rebel Wars Book 1) Read online

  “What? That makes no sense.” Alice said

  “You’re right, but the data…it’s interesting. I don’t have time to explain it now. Your body is losing all function and your brain will shut down.” Andreya said

  “So what are you asking me?”

  “Will you give up your heart in order to finish this?” Andreya said.

  Alice couldn’t help but feel frozen, like her heart had given up on her so long ago. She wanted to be able to feel things like happiness and love, but they had left her already. Was there anything left for her to really give up? Maybe life as an artificial drone could be more enjoyable, she’d be able to get more done and she wouldn’t have to fear the despair that crept up on her in the middle of the night. She wouldn’t have to worry about the grip of fear on her spine or the existential sadness that laid her down to sleep. She thought about the Demon, and remembered her sparing him the killing blow. Why had she done that? Because of the ceremony, she thought. Of course. She had to complete it, she had to get revenge for Alex, but would she still want to after being thrust into her new body?

  “Alice…”

  “Do it. Do it Andreya. I have to finish this.”

  “Okay Alice. Remember. We all love you.”

  “I know. And I love you too.”

  Alice took her last digital and physical breath, and embraced the coldness of unreality as she drifted away into the dark.

  Chapter 19

  The Demon stood before his own inquisitors, their plasma arms aimed straight for him. A swift kick from a blue-suited knight dropped him to his knees. He hung his head with disgrace, his castle ruined and his Dungeon compromised. He’d lost the Corporation one of their most decorated warships and had gained nothing for it. In fact, his mission had seemed silly in retrospect although most things did. One of the enlightened heads of the HQ stood before him, if not in physical flesh but in color and light.

  “You arrogant shit!” It screamed down at him. The indignation in her voice showed the Demon that HQ had taken his failures rather personal. The woman was one of the tallest Corporation females, standing over seven-feet tall. Unlike males, females had sunken features and moved in a slower fashion. They lived longer, though not by much and still possessed the inhuman strength and speed of their race. She motioned to one of the knights, who backhanded the Demon leaving a welt of discipline and shame.

  “You not only gave up the Library and its secrets to the rebellion, you also allowed a traitorous rebel to live. You had her insights and dead to rights, and you lost! You lost!” She screamed, reiterating the last part.

  “M’lady…please.” The Demon whimpered.

  “Do not call me that. You have lost the right.” She said.

  “Your highness. Please. Reinstate me, give me a bigger war-band! I’ll take this fight to the Tower, I’ll rip it from the stars and deliver you the forge! We can make this right.” He said.

  “No. You will no longer be in command, you will surrender your inquisitors over immediately and the plans you used to build them. I want them mass-produced immediately, you no longer have the honor of being a unique member of our society. You will attend the ceremony and hand your reins over to another officer. You will not like it, but you will give him your mantle as well. You will adopt the name The Disgraced, and he will now be known as the Demon. Is that understood?” She could see the fear and sadness threatening to burst from him. She delighted in his suffering.

  “Yes m’…your highness.” He said falling face first into the scorched but luscious carpet of his ruined dwelling. The fibers were sharp and gave no comfort to his flesh. The knights turned and left as the hologram shut off and left him alone with his two inquisitors. In all of the conquests he’d been a part of, this was the first time he’d felt shame. He didn’t understand how they could easily forget everything he’d done for the Corporation. They were too busy projecting their hurt pride on him! He stood up and wiped the tears from his face, how could an aged Commander be caught crying? He looked his remaining inquisitors over and a smirk formed on his face. Oh they wanted control over his children? They’d get it.

  The Demon made his way to his temporary chambers, repair efforts had started the day before in his city. He figured the rest of the city could be fixed first, his lair was ruined. He had grieved for the loss of his many treasures and toys he’d recovered throughout his career, but he couldn’t let his people starve or go without. He was frustrated and couldn’t force himself to laugh. He missed laughing, the exhilaration he felt as he laughed over a dismembered foe. He started to think and wonder, maybe it wasn’t over after-all. The ceremony would be coming in a few weeks and he had time to prepare before he gave up his station. Maybe, just maybe there was a way the Demon could come out on top. He pulled up the maps of the starts and found the planet that the Ceremony was going to be held on. It was named after the Earthling’s own planet- Gaia. He laughed and it felt good. Irony always made him laugh. The sector’s ceremony announcing the victory of the Corporation and the coming days of the Calamity was held on a planet named after their current foe? Oh the deep laughter felt the best, and his stomach heaved with it now. He tapped into his Library and filtered the data, searching for something very specific. Oh Alice, he thought. How ironic would it be that she was the first part of his plan?

  In the days that followed, the Demon lost count of how many meetings he was publically disgraced at. His orders were met with snickers and back-handed insults from his subordinates. He was no longer their Commander, and he knew that very well. He tried to enlist as much loyal help as he could and came up wanting more. Those that were loyal weren’t informed of his full plan, but enough pieces that they could be of assistance to him. His plants and scientists were given instructions on how to form inquisitors from the cloning pools and how to grow their intelligent armor, creating an army per the orders of the HQ. He figured a few dozen of them would be more than enough to get the job done, as he only needed to send two or three to each sector for now. The inquisitors were imprinted with such a high-level of intellect that even two of them could get the job he needed them to do done.

  Ory’Poe was the name of the junior commander that would take his place as the Demon. He didn’t hate Ory for who he was, only that he was to become the Demon. That made him hate the man, even though the man’s career did give him hope that he could carry the title well. The issue was, Demon was not going to give up the title and Ory seemed to understand that. The man did everything he was instructed to do, learning about the inquisitors and the upkeep to the Library and the various bureaucratic procedures the Demon took command of. Running a production station like he did wasn’t the easiest or most interesting task in the Corporation, but it was important. The Demon was responsible for the manufacturing of arms and fuel that was used all across the galaxy, he also oversaw the day to day functions of the populated worlds in this sector. More than a Commander, he was a governor of the people and well liked in his post. HQ took none of that into consideration in light of his failures, however.

  Demon instructed his most loyal of men to get him a message out to the Tower. The man questioned him at first, and was replaced by someone more loyal and less inquisitive. The first man was relieved of his life and tossed into the fuel pits to avoid questioning. It wasn’t the first time Demon had dissolved a man in that archaic fashion, and it wasn’t going to be the last either. Demon smirked and laughed at the nervous man in front of him, but the man took the message and sped off. The Demon knew he never should be attempting to communicate with Alice, but he had grown fond of her in recent days. The evisceration of one’s career and titles shifted things in their mind, even more so when the mind was barely considered sane.

  With the messenger off, Demon focused his remaining resources on the rest of his plan. He oversaw the birth of his new children and made sure all of their diagnostics ran clean and on par with the rest. He was the genius here, not the HQ. Questions were being raised and bodies were being droppe
d in the fuel pits at too fast a pace for the Demon’s liking. He took Ory under his wing and began to nurture a seed of obedience within him planted by charisma and charm. Not a single man in the corporation could be as charming as the Demon or as devious.

  As the weeks closed and the Ceremony loomed over the next few days, Demon and Ory were like father and son. He’d done a masterful work on Ory’s mind and had created an image of himself there at Ory would have trouble reprogramming to see the truth. As the final days approached, a message from the Tower came. Anxiety and other nonsensical emotions washed over the Demon, hesitant to open the communication. When the courage showed itself, he opened the message and looked inside.

  “Deal.”

  That was all it said, and it overjoyed him. He hated Alice and he hated the HQ, it seemed his hatred for his previous commanders outweighed his hatred for the one who had disgraced him by action. They should have supported him and forgiven him, instead they were treating him like an old man and forcing him out of the game to retire in shame with less pay and no titles he’d spent his whole life earning! They were going to learn what it meant to deal with the Demon.

  Chapter 20

  Alice sat in the garden of the Birthplace forge, exalting in the peace and beauty of the world around her. It didn’t inspire her like it used to and she missed that. It had been weeks since she had been betrayed in space, and she’d come to let that time rest in her mind. She no longer needed the memory to motivate her actions and spur her onwards, she had something else. She didn’t need the desire for revenge either, what she needed was a clear path to accomplishing the goals she had set for herself. She would have to change the way the universe saw the rebellion and saw humanity in order for her plans to work, and to do that she would have to impact the universe. Her plan to kill the Demon had changed some, his death no longer served the same purpose it did but the Demon would still die.

  Her new form was heavier than her old body and she assumed replacing flesh with metal did that. She never felt cold or hot or anything other than vague memories of sensation. She still had those, but that was it. Her combat prowess had increased a hundred times in this form and there was no doubt she was more lethal than anything humanity had put forward yet. The Councilman had taken several days to speak to her, finally giving in to her requests and hearing her out. She had told him how her heart was gone, but her ambition and motives were cleaner than they’d ever been before. The Corporation had filed several complaints of her actions to him, and he’d dismissed them with pictures of her body. Officially she was dead, and it served the rebellion better that way.

  Milly had managed to recover as had Hero. Both of them had decided it was best to take a leave of action for now. Alice respected that, she knew now more than ever how important it was to spend what time you had with the ones you loved and not throw your life away in violence. The mission had the opposite effect on Fiora. Alice reflected on the young girl’s desire to learn and become a better soldier; that used to make sense to Alice. No longer did the desire to turn oneself into a weapon make sense to her, despite it being exactly what she had done. She never slept and no longer rested, and she couldn’t be bothered with missing a shot, landing, or blow…or even her husband. His memory was stored within the vaults of her mind though she chose to not visit him there. She had too much to do.

  Overseeing the mission was her primary concern. She’d received a surprising communication from the Demon, the man she’d beaten against the odds. He was being demoted and robbed of all of his past glories and retirement. He would live a life of disgrace until he either passed from age or killed himself, the warrior’s death no longer an option for him. The communication expressed his rage at such treatment and the offer of an olive-branch between them. She was amused by this, but it seemed like it was expected. She understood what it was like to not be backed by ones superiors. The Councilman never looked at her the same way, even if he agreed with her plan of action. He didn’t like it, no matter what he agreed to.

  Alice stood up from the bench she had been sitting at and approached one of the few remaining oak trees in the garden. The texture of the bark beneath her fingertips was simulated, but gave her the feeling of peace she longed for. She was certain it was all she could feel anymore, peace and logic, yet her connection to the natural world was completely severed. She had to come here every day to reduce the panic within her. She was surprised that panic was still a real feeling to her, and she reasoned that panic was perhaps the only true emotion that someone like her had left to feel. That survival instinct had to exist within her or she’d simply lay down in this garden and become a tree herself.

  Her mechanical frame was lithe and held a hint of feminine sexuality to it, but a hint was all it was. She had mastered the arts of the laser emitters, slug-weapons, and blades in the few weeks she’d become the new Alice. She pondered over the plan and would have smiled in pleasure if she still could. The plan was exciting, yet simple. The Demon was going to let her to the planet during the Ceremony, thinking the entire time it was his idea. He wanted her to kill the representative of the HQ in cold blood, and in turn he would let her escape. He had told her how wonderful a message it would send to both the rebellion and the Corporation. He agreed with her, he wanted open war and by working together they could ensure a finale to the myriad of conflicts that had been going on. He hated that they would dismiss his great strategic genius and he could prove to them his usefulness once more if she did him this one favor. They would both get what they wanted out of it, and that was what working together was all about right?

  Alice agreed to the terms he presented though Councilman Tate was unsure the Demon could be trusted. Project and she had built an interesting psyche profile on the Demon based on the information present in the Library and of the many warzones he’d fought in. It was inspiring for her to realize that the Corporation had been wrapping up so many other wars at the same time it had moved into Earth’s territories. They had opened the door for Earthlings to expand farther and yet had limited their movements, they’d always assumed it was so they didn’t take over Corporation territory but the truth was far better. They were still fighting various other races in their desperate struggle to stop the Calamity.

  It appeared to Alice that the Calamity wasn’t real, and would never be. It was a phenomenon of some kind, an extraterrestrial signal they had picked up and deciphered and assumed it had arrived from the future. The data was incomplete but specific when it could be, and Project had believed that Alice was the catalyst for the Calamity to come into existence. She still didn’t believe in it, but the A.I. swore up and down. Alice was sure that was just a side-effect of his creation from a Corporation brain and dismissed it. Either way, there was work to be done to bring the Corporation down. The more she learned about them, the more she desired that result. They were conquerors, cruel and imperial in their conquest of the galaxy. So many genocides. Too many.

  The Stormbreaker had a new crew now, with Milly, Hero, and Steven (rest in peace) no longer a part of their assets. Alice didn’t bother learning their names, she had no desire to. Project was a permanent part of her ship now and handled the command structure far better than she did. She wanted to focus on the mission and on her role, she didn’t want to order people around and bear their deaths on her chest anymore. Steven would be a part of her guilt for the remainder of her now unnatural life and though it no longer pained her heart it would never leave her thoughts. She hooked herself into the drop-pod, complete with all of her various weapons she considered she may need.

  Alongside Alice, Fiora and her Paladins were strapped into the container. Fiora may have been a better candidate for the inorganic combat procedure that Alice had undergone, the woman was half-way there already. Fiora had beat herself up for all of the many ways the mission had gone wrong, from the deaths of her Paladins to the deaths on the bridge. She always found a creative way that she was responsible and that disappointment had turned her into a colder
machine than even Alice believed herself to be. The Paladin didn’t smile, her eyes dark with death of spirit. Her sword was stretched across her back, the grip within easy reach. The other three Paladins were whispering jokes and smirking, they were clearly happy to be seeing action.

  The world fell out from underneath Alice as the drop pod was shot into space with only one destination. Project made sure they had snuck in under the sensors but that would only last a short period of time. While no official warships or any important members of HQ had shown up, the sky was littered with privateer and news vessels. The ceremony was an important part of what the HQ referred to as unification and tradition. They needed to express control in another fashion besides military might, and it was the best way to do so. Ancient Roman emperors of old Earth had discovered the formula for control was equal parts strength and distraction. The gladiatorial coliseums provided as much control as their incredibly skilled armies did. To give the people of Earth a reason to celebrate and rejoice, the ceremony had been created. And now Alice was going to turn it into a memorial, and Fiora’s Paladins were going to make it a funeral Pyre.

  The Demon had given them enough codes and access programs to get them where they needed to be on the planet’s surface, and a new target. The HQ’s emissary was a red-headed Corporation woman named Sun Fal, and was their favorite public speaker. Her charisma was not like the Demons, but instead it was a sly and unusual sense of humor that made her such a sensation to view. She was attractive, Alice supposed, by Corporation standards and that was enough for her to send them. Alice hadn’t decided how she was going to kill her yet, or even if she would.

  The drop-pod sailed through the atmosphere and popped parachutes, reverse thrusters slowing its descent to the ground. The large boom it made upon impact shattered the air and alerted the nearby patrols. Alice had prepared for this, kicking open the doors and running across the ground with unparalleled speed. Running wasn’t the right term as she practically drove herself on wheels embedded within her larger than normal boots. Emitters shined lights that shone into the eyes of the soldiers for the last time, neutralizing their brain functions and burning holes in the skulls before they could even comprehend what was upon them. Alice leapt off the ground after dispatching the first squad, several heavy vehicles moving up on them. It wouldn’t be long before a full military response was in order. The codes they were given were being transmitted now to order a stand-down, that would only work on those that hadn’t seen them yet.