Forged by Battle (WarVerse Book 1) (27 page)

Chapter 65

Rodrom

Rodrom looked up from Lorelei at the lightning strike. Vincent staggered, went down on one knee, and blue snakes tore over his armored plates and into his joints.

"Vincent, no!" Rodrom screamed, helpless to do anything but watch.

Smoke poured from Vincent’s engines and the lights along his frame dimmed. Then everything flared as if the power had been flipped back on. Fire poured from the engines on his legs and launched Vincent like a bullet towards the Shadow. The bear reared up, but it was too slow to respond, and Vincent collided into the center of its chest and barreled it over.

Whatever Ele had done had given Vincent an unbelievable edge. He moved too fast to follow, and everywhere his machine fists struck, a blue halo of sparks erupted. Vincent tore off spines, threw aside counter attacks, and punched with the ferocity of a tank.

The bear struggled to counter him, while bits of Shadow wisped off like smoke from a dying campfire. Each time it threw its paw, Vincent dodged out of the way and countered with a lightning-infused strike.

"You really need to wake up for this, Lorelei. They do not make anime this good anymore." Rodrom gripped the pendant on his chest again, hoping that whatever magic was inside him could wake her up. It was like dunking his head into a tank of white noise. The battle between Vincent and the Shadow was throwing up too much interference, or whatever the magical equivalent of that was. Rodrom had run out of ideas. He just hoped Vincent didn’t run out of juice before he took down Ursa.

But when he looked back, the Shadow no longer seemed like it was being demolished as it had moments before. The initial shock of Vincent's sudden power-up and attack had faded, and the beast was adjusting. Without the advantage of surprise, Vincent was overwhelmed by the absolute strength of his larger opponent, and the Shadow took full advantage of that by charging in and attempting to pin him down. Vincent was using his jump jets to stay just out of reach, and got a few good licks in, but he could only keep it up so long.

Another kick of the thrusters, another lunge, and Vincent cracked his lightning fists across the Shadow's maw. Before he could pull away, the face he’d struck collapsed, then reformed with Vincent's arm in its jaw.

Vincent's other arm cracked the Shadow across its head half a dozen times in half as many seconds, but the bear’s grip was too strong. Vincent couldn't get away.

That didn't stop him from lifting his foot and firing his engines for all they were worth. The jet flame pushed him back while ripping through the Shadow, and Vincent was freed from the maw to fly backwards onto his back.

Unfortunately, he only took one of his arms with him. The mental anguish of losing the appendage—machine or not—poured through the open bionet connection between them.

The Shadow turned, roared in victory, and stalked towards his fallen prey.

Chapter 66

Vincent

Vincent was in utter agony. The machine meld made it feel as though his own arm had been burned and ripped from his body. The pain and shock were overwhelming, and he cursed the gnomes for ever creating the meld to begin with. He was lying on his back, his wings crushed, his arm gone, and only two minutes remaining on the clock.

He was finished, and he hadn't even fulfilled his mission. He refused to die bonded with a machine, even if it was the only thing that had kept him alive long enough to fight the monster approaching him. The Shadow was moving slowly now, as if it was enjoying the sight of him writhing on the ground. Well, he would meet it head on, and be killed on his feet.

Vincent keyed the command to start draining his cabin, feeling the gel that suspended him falling away. His perception warped and twisted between the sensors outside and the pilot within, and he become increasingly disoriented. He heard voices. Voices that sounded like the other pilots in his unit. When his view fractured and shifted between outside and inside, he could have sworn he saw other Chimeras in their machine meld forms.

When Vincent finally sat upright in his cramped cockpit and started hacking up the disgusting fluid from his lungs, he found it had not been a hallucination. He pulled his emergency release, forcing the armored panels to recede and his cockpit to open, and climbed into the muggy, smoke-filled air outside. He gulped down several breaths, and watched as the other pilots of his squadron fell out of the sky in formation around him.

Each landed with a flare of jump jets and a bend at the knees, then stood up tall and unloaded their weapons into the Shadow. The beast had managed against Vincent's assault, but under the combined attack of nine others, it began to falter.

Vincent wasn’t sure if he or Ele had weakened it more, but the rounds started piercing into the coherent body, and the lasers carved out large chunks of the Shadow’s flesh. It was still reforming, fixing the damage that they inflicted, but it struggled to keep up.

Each shot took its toll, and between the nine Gatling cannons, missile launchers, and laser fire, it was losing mass.. It roared again, sending out the invisible waves of force that had knocked Vincent down in his ship, but it couldn’t knock over nine Chimeras.

Vincent cheered his pilots on, telling them to send everything, to empty their magazines into the thing. Before his eyes, the Shadow twisted and shrank, becoming the man-shaped mass he had first seen. With inhuman speed, it launched itself into the forest, and out of the line of fire.

Several of his pilots made to pursue it, but Vincent ordered them back. He wouldn't risk them all, not against that thing, whatever it was. He had Rodrom, and Lorelei, to consider.

Chapter 67

The Exile

Exile once more lay in the mud. Her Shell had saved her from the fall, but she was not sure why she’d allowed it to. She had failed, completely and disastrously. The Shadow was freed, it had consumed a power she could scarcely understand, and the one chance she had to destroy it had been foiled by the very human she had come to the planet to save in the first place. It was all too much: too many coincidences, too many variables that had aligned to bring them all here.

For once, the Exile started to believe that maybe the teachings had been right, that there were incomprehensible beings who saw to pulling the strings of the universe. Or had the Shadow known what was here? The pieces fit. The other Psykin being drawn towards her had been possessed, which led to her discovery of Rodrom.

All of it had been the Shadow's doing. How? She didn't think its power was so far-reaching, but it was the only alternative to a malevolent god. She had been set up, manipulated from the beginning by something she couldn't hope to control or understand. So naïve. So very, very naïve.

Something was approaching her through the jungle, and she felt the familiar AMI of the Condemned. She didn't want to be rescued, didn't want to go back to the fleet and face her failure. Better she die in the jungle.

Killswitch pushed his way between two trees and into view, and upon seeing her, lifted his hand and gave a signal to the others, who remained hidden behind him.

"You look like hell," he told her.

"The doctor was just picked up by air support. Along with an elf prisoner. How exactly did the mission fail?"

The Exile snapped her head up.

"The Reapers, they dropped down in the elf camp and fought off an unknown, picked up Rodrom, and some new kind of elf. We need to move, ma’am, if you're done making me repeat myself."

They fought off the Shadow? Impossible—nothing was strong enough to do that. Or did its link with the elf hinder it as much as strengthen it?

If they took her back aboard the ship, then she still had a chance. Project Rebirth would continue through Derek Rodrom, She could ensure it did, and with that power eradicate the Shadow and save her people. She could find the elf and destroy her. Absolve herself of her sins.

The Exile pushed herself to her feet.

The mission wasn’t over.

Epilogue

Johnston

Captain Johnston stood in his ready room and looked over the recordings playing across the surface of his desk. Recordings from pilots, from the sensors mounted on the
Inferno
's hull, and from the cameras embedded in the ground troops’ holocammies.

The images disturbed him far more than usual when it came to dealing with the other side. They had been fighting elves and their ilk for so long that it was almost normal. Almost.

But that woman had transformed into lightning and fire… and the recordings salvaged from Barkhorn's flight recorder after his fight were unbelievable.

A massive Shadow monster impervious to munitions, an elf that wielded light, and the monster that he had brought on board and unleashed upon the planet below. Only the elf had been recovered.

The girl known only as Ele was unaccounted for. There was no trace of the electric state she had become within Barkhorn's systems. The Shadow was also at large, which was most troubling. Whatever force controlled such a creature would be a threat to the fleet, and they needed to find it.

Johnston felt responsible for the Chimera pilots who had died under his orders. Those pilots were a part of a much larger plan, one he had been hesitant to put into motion. With only ten remaining, he couldn't afford to lose any more.

The pieces had all come together. The pilots had used their machine melds, Derek Rodrom had been rescued, and the threat justified his decision.

Still, he hesitated before making the call. This was not just a military decision. He was putting the future of humanity on the line, on the chance that they could build a weapon and win this war.

He knew he had no other choice, that any other admiral would do the same in his position.

He would have preferred it be them.

Historians would remember his choice in that moment. For good or ill, he was etching his name into the books of the next generations. He pressed down on the com link, and waited for the voice to answer.

"Yes, Captain?"

"I hereby authorize all resources to be allocated for Project Rebirth. You'll have everything you need."

"Excellent, sir. You won't regret this."

Johnston cut the connection.

"God forgive me."

<<<>>>

During 2009-2010 I had the honor of serving with Delta Company 1/102
nd
Infantry. During our deployment I was privileged to operate as the medic for fifteen of the bravest men to wear the uniform. Not all of them made it into the first book, but the Condemned will be back, and WarVerse wouldn’t exist without them.

SSG Walden, Derek – Killswitch

SGT Johnson, James – Rehab

SGT Elderkin, Ken – Beast

SPC Church, Christopher – Cowboy

SPC Clark, Jesse – Blackout

SPC Picard, Vance – Snowball

SPC Siwanowicz, Robert – Daredevil

SPC Dodd, Christopher – Longhorn

SPC Long, Robert – Trigger

SPC Turrell, Kevin – Tectonic

SPC Purves, Jesse – Locksmith

SPC Croce, Anthony – Klepto

SPC Ramirez-Mojica, Rafael – Ramrod

PFC Cole, Ronald – Widget

2LT Paksi, Charles Arthur Jr

I couldn’t write you as anything but my lieutenant. Don’t worry, I’ll find a place in the series for your cries of “Take the hill”

Thank you so much for reading.

Please leave a review.

The Sage continues in ‘Rebirth by Fire’ coming spring 2015

This book couldn’t have happened without the assistance of several people.

My editor Leah Wohl-Pollack of Invisible Ink Editing

Cover designer James T. Egan of Bookfly Design

My Beta readers Katrina Schroeder, Greg San Fan Andre, Jordan Niehoff, Aaron Durette, and of course my lovely fiancée Danielle Pfanstiehl who has had to hear about this story more than anyone should.

And anyone else who was kept awake by the constant clicking of my keyboard on overnight shifts.

About the Author

Patrick works as a paramedic in Hartford Connecticut, and moonlights as a Medic for the CT National Guard. When he’s not fearlessly combating the common cold or examining feet after a road march he spends his time making things up and writing them down. He lives in Coventry with his incredibly patient fiancée Danielle and his two cats Boy and Girl.