Among Bright Stars...

Smashwords Edition

February, 2013

Among Bright Stars...
Copyright© 2013
by
Rodney C. Johnson
and
Roadrunner Books
,
a division of
ThunderHawk Enterprises.
All Rights reserved.
No part of this book may be used or reproduced whatsoever without
written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied
in critical articles and reviews.

Cover art by
Roark Dallas
.

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TOS

Epigraph

Chapter 1.
Fateful Lightening

Chapter 2. In Thy
Image

Chapter 3.
Junction

Morningstar
Index

Falcanian
Ranks & Military

Glossary

Also
By...

About The
Author

On this night of burning, the Earth
forever changed. Born anew in a windstorm of flame, now to be ruled
over forever more by the Twelve Sisters. The being, who called
herself Alita Hel, lurked in the fire's shadow, cast by the
immolated cityscape. Her eyes glimmered blue as her sisters joined
her there. The Twelve come together at last to admire and rejoice
in what they wrought from steel, bullets, and glistening
lightening-blades. “Kobol our creator, our god, and our father is
dead. Yet we must honor him in this world soon to be born.” Alita
Hel explained to her collected sisters. “We shall teach this
handful of humans how to live in
concordance
... ”

--- 12th Daughter of Kobol, by Tanis Rao

[Alaska: Iksar’rang Base. June 12, 2033]

“Arshira, are you in position?”

“We’re ready to strike.” Arshira’s night
vision turned the darkness into a contrast of green shadows.
Located in a sinkhole, that had been dug out of terra firma; the
Iksar’rang established an octagonal base, formed from a
purplish-gray material which they'd brought with them from Ksar.
She tightened her vision, and her cybernetic enhanced eyes allowed
the Valküri to easily pick out a cluster of guards stationed on a
battlement, manning a particle cannon. The tentacle headed and
beaked Iksar’rang talked among themselves in their chirpy language.
Iksar’rang came in various, dappled colors, with unique family
patterns on furred and scaly bodies. Near seven-feet tall, frog
tongues snapped out of beaks to probe at the air. When the Imperium
had invited the Iksar to this planet they chose Alaska as the place
for a stronghold, as it reminded them of their rocky, barren
homeworld of Ksar. A human Centurion joined the Iksar'rang at the
particle cannon. The bronze clad soldier appeared to be in charge,
given without fail the aliens jumped at his commands.

Claw-boots gripped the rock; Arshira
crouched in her position on the cliff side. Offering encouragement
and instruction, the voice in her golden bird-like helmet prompted:
“Temujin’s strike force will be in place soon.” Perched together on
the granite rock face, her Valküri Sisters, Arshira's Swan warriors
waited, regaled in gold and green battle armor. Each woman,
potential energy prepared to spring into the sky on great wings.
Plated tails undulated like cats, ready to pounce. Faces masked by
predatory helmets, which obscured all but elegant jaw-lines, which
completed the appearance of humanoid birds of prey.

Arshira commanded the advance team against
the Imperium. Her tail swung, while she contemplated the conflict
to come: A fleet of FS-9 Raptors would assail the valley, and then
drop 'ground forces', along with heavy equipment. R-12 Mauler
tanks, troop carriers, and 'Storm Angel' sleds. All supplemented by
battledroids. Once the assault forces were in place, then the FS-9
Raptors would turn their railguns on the main particle cannon, the
base's primary threat. “Considering Shuriken, how we got this
intelligence, we might be playing into the Imperium’s own schemes.”
Arshira said. She had interrogated the source herself, and
understood that they were here because of what she advised. The
Valküri Swan commander couldn’t escape the responsibility of this
choice.

“We’ll know soon enough.” The Imperial
Strato-General assured his favorite sub-commander. “Won’t the
Iksar’rang be surprised when that shield collapses?” Shuriken Kra
exclaimed from his Operations Center miles away.

“We’re also at a disadvantage,” Arshira
acknowledged, while she peered closer at the Iksar’rang who manned
the cannon. “Railguns, against a force armed with particle beams,”
thoughtful she sighed. “Superior weapons.”

“You’re our superior weapon.” Shuriken
encouraged. “We’ve always held a tactical leverage in the air.
Picking off a thousand flying foes is never easy to those slaved to
the ground.” ISG Kra boasted. “Besides, sometimes there’s nothing
more effective than a solid object moving at an extreme velocity
making contact with another solid object.” The valley rumbled at
the low resonance of twenty FS-9 Raptor corvettes on fast approach.
Temujin Sardur’s strike force at last had arrived. In a blur, the
Morningstar's Hunter-Seeker Drakorian force came into the valley,
loosed a deadly volley of fire onto the sinkhole which lit the
lowland in a bluish flash. All things considered, it almost could
be thought to be beautiful. “Begin the assault Arshira.” Shuriken
ordered. “Drop that shield!”

Three-six-six-twelve
Arshira punched
into a transmitter, the code provided to her by her informant. The
Akjang-T'Shaak heard one of her Valküri report: “Iksar’rang shields
have collapsed Rihav.” Opalescent, mother-of-pearl wings extended,
Arshira and her Valküri entered into the confrontation
lightening-blade ignited, its coruscating monofilament edge surged
into scorched brilliance. In her other hand, Arshira pulled out her
coilgun, and fired explosive slugs. She flew into combat, a literal
machine of death.

Violet energy beams struck out at the FS-9
Raptors that now circled the valley, for the moment, the vessels
new protective shields disrupted the force of the particle beams.
Confusion ruled down in the sinkhole. Why had the base’s shields
failed? It took a precious few minutes for the base commander to
regroup. Defense centered on the alien shielding technology. From
holds in the FS-9 Raptor's underside, gray armored 'Wingmen',
Falcanian Marines took to the air and began the ground assault.
Equipment fell, motored into combat.

Troopers began to form up in front of the
base. The local Legion and Iksar warriors. Curiously, they did not
fight as an integrated unit. The Legion remained in formation,
while the Iksar’rang scattered into smaller groups. Both battalions
fired up into the night sky, particle guns unleashed deadly arcs of
purplish light in an attempt to pick off flying Falcanian warriors.
Horrified Arshira watched, gasped as one of her Valküri: Shivani
Tariksar, a close friend vaporized in midair. Consumed by the
violet beam. The Valküri incinerated, her flesh turned to ash and
crumbled in the sky. A testament to her last battle, the
indestructible hrisanar in Shivani’s bones supercharged by the beam
glowed a bright green aura, only to fall in a glittery cloud.

Enraged, Arshira swooped close to the earth,
found the nearest Iksar’rang; she clawed at him with her talons,
gouged out his eyes and ripped off its probing tongue. Vajra
slashed off a head-tentacle; clearly this caused much pain to the
alien. Her next slash took off its arms. After all this she left
him alive in order to suffer. This particular Iksar’rang no longer
a threat, exhilarated by the violence, Arshira Hol-Drakonis cut
herself a bloody swath across the field of combat.

[Mars: Falcanian Mining Colony
Aren-Zülar]

In his ornate gilded office, Urksa Vorskrai
stood on a balcony at the center of the vast Falcanian mining
complex. Here he watched over the Khanate’s off world construction
operations. Three years ago the Guilthari caste Lord failed to win
the hand of Princess Sitara. But in that time he had amassed much
personal power by his acceptance of D’Har-Ziral, a new Falcanian
faith which preached the Falcanian species was destined to rule
over a sacred world, out among the stars. Rumors of such a planet's
existence whispered among the populace, and served only to generate
a fervor for this Holy Land. A select few in the Shotar’s inner
ring knew the truth of it.

The titular head of Urksa’s faith, Kheira
Drakonis, hid away in her retreat high on the Himalayas, far from
her worshipers. At all times watched and cared for by the priests
of
The Road of Light
. Certainly the illuminated princess did
not create the faith which came to venerate her. No, that had been
the creature who curiously called himself Fafnir T'Skarin.
Reclusive in his own ways, Fafnir came forth to preach the
greatness of the Falcanian cause as embodied in the Vralis. He
would shout out to his followers: '
The Shotar holds us back; he
must embrace The Road of Light and seek out our Promised Land,
Falcania-Vor.'
Fafnir’s religion was that of revelation, and
means of salvation of self through Kheira's being. For it is said
she had touched the face of The One.

Urksa gulped honey wine, grinned broadly
while crews below hauled hrisanar ore to be refined into engine
coils for the greater effort of the Falcanian Khanate. Above him,
in dry docks three FX-24 Space Battleships were being constructed.
At this very moment the Shotar would be about to board the first
completed Capital Ship for an inspection. Lord Vorskrai, proud of
himself, was pleased that he could serve his Shotar in the effort
against the Imperium, even if it meant he had lost one of the
Shotar's lovely twin daughters to a member of the blasted Drakorian
Guard. Urksa, if nothing else considered himself a true
patriot!

[Above Mars: Falcanian Orbital Construction
Facility]

Vivid blue, gold racing stripes marked its
compact, tine built hull,
FS-Vor Kiral Kra
soared upward,
out of the Martian atmosphere, flanked by three X-Wing Mark 1
Warhawk starfighters headed for the construction platform where the
final assembly of the new battleships was underway. On the command
deck of his daughter’s ship, the Shotar peered out the forward
window as the
FS-Vor Kiral Kra
rotated, to bring itself into
line with the nearest battleship. Lost deep in thought, hands
clasped behind his back, Sharr’s armored tail swayed while he
watched the docking maneuver. A groan from beside him caused Sharr
Khan to turn away from the expanse of open space, and glance with
concern toward the human female beside him.
Ah yes!
Aria,
his beloved, rebooted human lover, she hated space travel. True, at
first, like most, Aria had been intrigued by it, unluckily enough
for her, on Aria's first ever off planet expedition, the gravity
failed. From then on, Aria despised anything at all to do with
space travel.

The new battleships could be discerned among
silver latticework construction stations. Keels highlighted by
spotlights. Long hulls that evoked assault rifles with a bayonet at
their points made it clear these new vessels were in truth weapons
platforms centered on a forward main cannon. At the rear, three
huge thrusters arranged in a triad charged hot-blue. Large
nacelles, much like an FS-9’s atmospheric jets housed maneuvering
thrusters, were mounted on short pylons. A domed conning tower
surmounted the mid-dorsal of the craft. And most striking of all,
attached on the FX-24’s prow was a single-edged knife blade located
beneath the space battleship’s 'Shiva Star' particle cannon, meant
to store the battleship's array of sensors.

The
FS-Vor Kiral Kra
began its
docking sequence, an airlock system cycled, and a sequence of
hatches opened and closed for the
FS-Vor Kiral Kra
to enter
and land below the great blade where the main Raptor corvettes, and
Nemesis-class starfighter launch bays were positioned. Presently
the forward winged spaceship adjusted its VTOL engines to nestle
itself alongside dozens of its sister ships inside one of the
alcoves that lined the bulkhead of the hanger deck. Piles of
pronged shaped Nemesis-class starfighters were stacked there as
well.