Rebirth (Rebel Wars Book 2) Read online

  Alice’s metal hands didn’t provide the same comfort or heat that a human’s would, but her memories were still intact for the most part and she remembered how reassuring a hand would be. She placed it on Lisa’s arm to calm the scientist down. She had no business being on this bus to hell, but they had to have her on the planet. With no hopes of getting the Stormbreaker free from Corporation control without her intelligence, it was up to Alice to keep her alive. That meant stopping her from panicking and keeping her focused on the tasks at hand. Right now all they had to do was survive the drop to Cydrak. Alice’s alarm sounded inside her head, letting her know that a bit of something had struck her in the back. The pod was breaking apart, despite the effort to slow it down. The damage wasn’t bad, but it was enough to make her concerned for the safety of the entire pod. She maneuvered her free hand to finger the controls, punching in commands and hoping the vessel could still follow them. She angled the ship ever-so-slightly and reduced the speed as much as she could. Like a drunk driver piloting a meteor, their pod kicked into the ground and spit up a wave of dirt.

  No time for hesitation and no time for calculation. Alice’s straps were free and she had started hitting buttons on the control panel. The main gun of the pod still worked and with little effort she was able to pull up a view-screen. A vehicle with 18-wheels and a throbbing engine was within her view, soldiers pouring out of the top and backs of it. Smaller vehicles with wheels were bringing into sight thin-barreled cannons attached to heavy weapons drums. Alice was confused how such a response team could have gotten there so fast, or had their communication really been so good that a simple guess brought this many soldiers here with such good equipment. Alice realized after a second that these were all humans, there seemed to be no actual Corporation soldiers here, only around 50 defectors. She hit the button and watched as the Pod’s gun thumped a rhythmic volley of projectile fire towards her foes. The surviving nine soldiers around her had leapt from their seats and equipped their weapons, taking up positions on the doors. Blasts were already pouring into the pod’s armor, heating it up and starting to twist the metal. This pod wasn’t going to be around much longer. Lisa took her strap off and ducked in behind the wall of men, grabbing a small projectile pistol as she went. She wasn’t much with a gun, but she didn’t want to die without trying. That wasn’t her way.

  All at once, the pod doors dropped and revealed a squad of pissed off men who had opened-fire as soon as daylight hit their visors. Their slug weapons were fast-firing electromagnetic rifles that meant no recoil and no deviation from targets. They differed from the boxes the Paladins carried only in the aspect that they could carry more ammunition and were meant for extended sieges and not one-shot items. They were expensive and difficult to repair once broken, but Alice had vouched for the increase in costs to make sure they would be able to survive as long as they could. They had regular compressed air and heat weapons in their packs as well, but she supported their decision to unleashing this particular type of hell on their human counterparts outside the shuttle.

  The slugs exited the rifles with well-trained, but not expert, marksmanship. A few of the enemies caught shots in the chest and face, and others in the arms. The drop-pod’s automatic targeting procedures gave the vehicles something to worry about as the armor piercing slugs it spat tore the carriers to pieces. The weapons on the vehicles swung wildly from the impact of the slugs and turned some of them on their own men. The Earth camouflage the humans wore seemed to incite Alice’s men into a ferocity that she hadn’t quite counted on. They moved like a wall of force spitting pain in every direction, the meek Lisa hiding behind them and not daring to pop out to shoot. The enemy soldiers began to scatter, a leaderless bunch of cannon fodder Alice realized and she took to the skies with a solitary motion of her feet. She leapt over the men that were wading through the shots being sent their way, a couple of her men being knocked back by hitting their armor. She would have to check on them later, now was action time.

  Her landing on the engine cabin of the 18-wheeler was a spectacle on its own, the flimsy metal of the hood being smashed to bits from impact. The engine was small, as they no longer required expensive and dangerous oils and gasses to run. The cabin itself was meant to house a single driver, though this one appeared to be A.I. ran. The cabin decompressed as Alice smashed it open, flipping backwards and landing in front of it. The carriage was empty, but a squad of soldiers turned to open fire on her and she responded in kind. Gripping the cabin of the truck she tilted it sideways and swatted the group to the ground, confident most wouldn’t attempt to get back up. Several carriers of heavy weapons turned her way only to meet the truck being thrown at them and crushing them beneath the metal. Her soldiers spread out and covered the flanks, the swarms of men being brought to the ground amazed her at the efficiency of her soldiers and their weapons. One of the men who’d been caught by the enemy fire was being dragged by another one, but both were still firing their weapons. She wondered where the President had found these men in particular and why he’d sent them with her. She began to doubt if these were the same men she’d met during preparations, but her memory of the past couple of days faltered slightly.

  She ducked to the ground as a ballistic missile passed just over her head, her hands whipping up to catch the fins and dragging the rest of her body with her. She flipped head over heels and landed on the ground, releasing the missile back towards the unit that had sent it her way. She hadn’t meant to do it, but the machine body she resided in had formulated a plan on its own it seemed. The missile struck the vehicle that had launched it and exploded, rocketing the crew to the sky. Alice regained her footing and stepped out to join the fray. Hands went up in fear after a few more minutes of fighting, and Alice’s crew had captured seven of the human defectors, disarming them and forcing them to the ground.

  This wasn’t quite a base. They’d landed near an outpost of some kind but it was composed entirely of temporary materials and buildings, structures that could be put up in a matter of minutes and taken down even quicker. The vehicles that had gathered here as the sole reason this unit existed Alice reasoned. A human squad was of little use to the Corporation in an extended assault as they wound up being more casualties than standard Corporation men and more expensive to feed due to the intolerance to cloned food. This vehicle fleet must have been responsible for keeping the natives at bay from this location for at least a short period of time. It had been her luck and privilege to touch down here. The fifty or so men that had tried to kill her men were mostly dead, with the seven survivors now held hostage.

  None of the vehicles remained operational, scraps of fire and metal everywhere showing their distaste for the defense. The soldiers brought their wounded to the area they had the survivors, the men checking themselves over and beginning to patch any of the open wounds that had penetrated their armor. Lisa was sitting down not far from them, a green stain on her red fleet jacket reminding Alice that Lisa was still human and the violence had set her on edge. Lisa spat another glob of the vomit and sobbed gently into her arms. There was no time for reassuring her that everything was going to be ok, Alice needed to know what was going on. The drop pod’s gun had stopped firing forever, the broken metal hanging down from its perch. The plates on the pod were compromised and melted, the vehicle had seen its last battle.

  “Who is in command?” She asked the soldiers.

  “Um. Ma’am. You are?” A black haired middle-aged man stated. He was wearing a grey-toned armor with crimson accents around the edges. Alice hadn’t bothered noticing this before, but she believed now that it may be important to her understanding the situation. She expected Rebellion soldiers to fight well, but there was something different about the way these men handled the situation and she needed to know what it was.

  “Yes. But who is in command over your squad?” She said.

  “Ma’am. You are, but if you’re asking who is in command after you, it would be me. I’m Sgt. Masters, and the men y
ou see before you are part of my squad. We were ordered to accompany you instead of the Rebel soldiers.” He stated, wiping sweat from his brow and setting his helmet down.

  “So you’re not Rebels?”

  “Well, obviously we are. We just don’t exist within the Tower’s military structure. We come from the Mars colonies ma’am.” His men were adjusting their weapons and setting up perimeters as they spoke.

  “Mars? I haven’t seen anyone from Earth’s system in a long time. The Mars colonies joined the rebellion?” She asked.

  “Some of us did yes, we broke free before you executed the Demon and the chaos you caused gave us just what we needed to leave Earth’s system. We thank you for that, by the way. As I said, I’m Sgt. Masters, this is Killiam, Graves, Morehead, Starborn, Isaacs, Johnson, Merkowitz, Sidebottom, and Wolf.” He gestured to each of the faces as he spoke, they were all men and they all looked in their late twenties early thirties. She nodded her blank metallic face to every one of them as he said their names.

  “Well gentlemen, I’m glad to have you here. I apologize I didn’t have much time to meet with you guys before-hand. I’m not much for words these days and I was advised to no longer give speeches.” She stated.

  “We appreciate that though. We thought your rousing speech of “even if we all die and we probably will, we’ve done our part!” more sensitive folk probably didn’t appreciate it much, but we know the costs of freedom. My daddy fought pirates when the colonies got disconnected from earth, before that my family fought in the Last War on Earth’s surface, and so far so on. It’s in my bloodline and I wasn’t going to let the Corporation take over every last one of us because they’re scared of some Armageddon. Truth is, people been speaking about the end times for as long as there have been people and if it comes it comes. I dictate how I live until that time, not some stuck-up bulging alien assholes.” He grabbed a canteen from his belt and sucked down the water within in, letting out a gasp when he finished.

  “Good to hear soldier. Let’s get what we came for and get the hell out of here then. Maybe the natives will give us a bit of their help. I’m sorry about the rest of your men, we will fight to free them when we’re done here.” She said. He looked at her with an exasperated look in his eyes before he broke into a chuckle.

  “You really are a spunky one, huh? So after crash landing down here, being separated from the Paladins and having no back-up in sight you want to kill the enemies here, rescue the natives, find some sort of weapon and THEN go back into space on a commandeered ship and storm the largest fuckin’ ship I’ve ever seen in my life? You have some balls lady, and I love it.” He said, the rest of the Mars men grinning and bumping fists at the Sgt.’s version of the situation.

  “No Sgt. You’re wrong.” Lisa said, rejoining the group and looking less sick than she had a few minutes before hand. She had the pistol tucked into her belt, and though shorter than the rest of the men her ferocity was evident. The Sgt. gave her a look and tilted his head slightly.

  “She doesn’t plan on commandeering a ship. She wants us to ride into space on the back of a space dragon.” She said, offering a weak grin to let them know she was still there and not so terrified she was going to be useless.

  “Well, in that case: It’s a good thing I brought my dragon saddle huh?” He smirked and the group broke into laughter. Alice of course didn’t realize the humor in the situation and simply nodded before walking away from the group. She knew that Lisa didn’t believe in space dragons, and she also doubted that even if they existed they could fly in space anyways.

  Fiora clutched her destroyed leg in agony, screaming as the heat of her body rose and sweat poured from every pore. The beast-man wiped the sweat away with a caressing touch, his dark and handsome features smiling down at her but he could not hide the worry within his eyes. She knew that she would die in the service of the Paladins but she never wanted to go like this. She’d watched one of her men be executed without mercy, and the beast-man avenge her fallen men. Now three of them had died, and she was going to join them, and it was all due to luck. She hadn’t made a wrong decision, she hadn’t stepped to the left of a blow when she should have gone right. She hadn’t failed and yet three men were dead and she was on her death bed.

  The other two Paladins- Markus and Eric- stood guard to the fabricated steel hut they were in, standing with vigilance on either side of the door. They had managed to recover a storm box each and their swords, which they now held at ready. Eric’s helmet had been destroyed in the crash and he had nothing but his crimson armor to protect him, while Markus was fully equipped with his ornamental and resistant armor. They were both outfitted for war, and their armor was designed to stop slugs and laser shots alike, each one equipped with the various tools of their order. Shields hung on their backs and grappling shots were loaded on their wrists. Small daggers showed from the tops of their knees and a handful of grenades lined their belts. They were more advanced in the program than Fiora was, and the bulging muscles underneath their armor gave that away. She wanted to stand up, to tell them she was going to be fine but nothing about their situation was fine.

  Her eyes filled with tears as she struggled to breath, her body filling with panic. The surgery she had gone through before the mission had made some of her muscles stronger and her natural healing faster than normal, but something within her was on fire. The muscles couldn’t knit together and every time the blood seemed to cloth it opened back up again. She was feeling weak and saturated with sweat. Her hand dropped to the side of the cot and her vision darkened, warm saliva spilling from her mouth. Just when she thought she was going to slip into unconsciousness she retched hard and vomited to the dirt floor of the steel hut. The beast-man- Jin he’d called himself- had injected her with a couple of antibiotics and something else he called “lifeblood”, but it seemed to do nothing for her. She wanted to know more of him and of the land around them. Something intrigued and sparked her curiosity for exploration, but she couldn’t bring herself back from the abyss she was hanging precariously on.

  “Calm child. You can beat this. There is nothing about our planet your body can’t survive, but you have to focus on surviving. You have to want it. The sinners will not find us here, rest.” He said, putting his hand on her head once more and offering her a smile filled with ivory teeth. His skin seemed to ripple as if something was just underneath the surface, and Fiora supposed it was. She’d watched the man transform himself into an animal just to kill a few of the “sinners” he called them, and to her that was one of the most incredible things she’d ever seen. She tried to smile, her eyes squeezing shut and the darkness overtaking her.

  Eric looked over as she vomited, looking away when he noticed what she was doing. He wanted to spare her the shame of having an inferior watch her in such a condition. Her ample bosom had been freed from the tight armor she normally wore and he didn’t wish for her to feel disrespected by his glances. Paladins didn’t spend much time in the company of women, and Eric was one of the few that had limited desire to spend what little time he could with them. And now here he was, on a strange planet with his commanding officer, a woman, dying from an infection on the bed not far from him. He’d watched Cody get executed and had been powerless to do anything about it. He was upset that he had come this far to fail before he’d even gotten started, and he figured that was what Fiora was feeling as well. He had accompanied her to the outpost planet during the last mission she ran with Alice, and then he’d felt like he’d failed her as well. It had taken so many of them to take down that Corporation Officer that he was certain they had all failed the old legends as well. People like Cal, Rufkin, and Rathgard were monoliths of physical prowess and they failed to live up to that legend. Alex had been another legend in their time, but Eric hadn’t thought much for Alex. Something about his legacy and tactics made him not like the man’s memory, but he supposed he couldn’t disrespect what the man had done for him.

  Markus didn’t bother to look at Fio
ra as she vomited. This was his first mission with her and right now he was far too occupied with the death of his friends outside of battle. For a Paladin to die in battle was a glorious thing, to be executed like a sick dog was not. Even worse, some of them had died before they’d even landed due to a misfire from the reverse thrusters and a cataclysmic failure in the structural systems. He wanted to fight, he didn’t want to stand here and wait for an ambush because the woman Officer was too weak to continue. Let her die, and let’s go die ourselves was his opinion on the matter. Eric had eaten a small amount of meat that Jin had offered them, but Markus didn’t care to eat. He was here to die if someone worthy was here, not to live. He’d heard the tale of the multi-armed Officer at the outpost, and was ashamed to be a part of the group that failed to take him down with dignity. Markus was considering the cost of putting a sword to Fiora’s head and assuming command when he felt the brutal blue-eyes of the beast-man on the back of his neck. He looked over his shoulder and locked eyes with him, moving his gaze to the floor almost as soon as they locked. He could feel mental pressure on him in the gaze and didn’t want to maintain it. He cursed to himself and turned back to his post. Something about the beast-man made him feel inferior and weak, like he would never be able to kill such a magnificent creature in battle.

  Jin stood up and moved over to the man who smelled like desperation, he was just as tall as the Paladin and his muscles just as bulging and horrifically powerful. Jin’s hair was short to keep out of his way, but only if he wanted it that way. He could change the length in moments and alter his entire body in minutes. Fluidity was the gift of their race and he was a master of it. He had lived longer than any other modern day Cydrakian and he didn’t have the same penalties they did in changing their malleable forms. One thing he had learned from the humans is that the scents were not much different than that of the sinners and that made them easier for Jin to predict. He didn’t quite know what he wanted to call them yet, but he’d heard sinners talking about the humans before and was certain that was who was dealing with now. This was a great joy to him, as they’d been hoping to have some star-bound allies for a while. His race had never been able to brave the stars, and now more than ever the continuation of their existence would rely on leaving their home.