Arkana (ESS Space Marines Book 4) Read online

  The Arkana were sweeping through the universe like locusts, coming from some unknown origin back to an even older origin. They didn’t just want Earth, but everything between them and Earth. Why? Was it just because they didn’t want anyone to get in their way, or did they actually want to conquer everything?

  In history, she had learned about leaders on ancient Earth that had tried to conquer the known world. Rome had seemingly gotten closer than most, but still had fallen in the end. Would the Arkana be so foolish as to follow in the footsteps of their ancestors’ ancestors? Or did they earnestly believe that they were more capable and thus would avoid repeating history?

  Or was there something else altogether?

  She just didn’t know, and she had no way of knowing. Her father might have been an Arkana, so that might sit in half of her genetics, but it didn’t give her any answers. Just questions... Questions that she wanted to ask, and questions that were asked of her.

  Andy tossed and turned for an hour before giving up. She got out of bed and went to the bathroom, splashing water on her face and staring at herself in the mirror.

  Nothing about her looked like the Arkana. There was no trace of them anywhere in her physical appearance. They were lean and pure white. As white as clean snow. Their hair and eyebrows were the same shade, with only their eyes—startling blue—breaking the color scheme.

  Andy was dark. Her skin and eyes and hair were all dark. She had a...normal, human face and a body like a Marine. Not willowy, like most of her father’s race. His blood was in her, giving her their resistance to alien abilities, but there was nothing else. Not even a sense of...longing, like the first Arkana she met had described.

  They said there were others like her, half-breeds, and all of them had chosen to go with the Arkana. Was that true? Or were they lying? Hadn’t it been established they tended toward straightforward tactics?

  If they weren’t lying, why didn’t she feel the same way? She didn’t want to go with them, and leave behind the people and life she knew.

  Growling at the questions and uncertainties piling up in her head, she left her room. She was going pretty casual at this point in just a tank top and long pants, but she was hardly going to put on her uniform for a walk through her own ship. If the shit hit the fan, she’d have to hustle to the locker room for her armor either way.

  When she left her room, she didn’t have a plan...

  ...which somehow led her feet to the brig.

  She stopped at the door and contemplated why she was there, but her subconscious must have had a reason and so she walked in. There was an officer from the tactical department on guard duty, whom she nodded to.

  “Sir,” the guard greeted simply.

  Andy returned the nod although she didn’t say anything as she walked in front of the brig cell, where bars and an energy field doubled up to keep prisoners inside. She looked at the long bunk attached to the wall where the Arkana was stretched out.

  “You’re still alive,” Andy said flatly.

  “And you’ve returned,” came the equally flat reply. “You’re not the only one who can state the obvious.”

  Andy pursed her lips and arched a brow, but bit her tongue against saying anything more on that topic. Sarcasm did not always need to be met with sarcasm, at least if you were hoping for anything resembling a productive conversation. It was highly tempting, but she managed to resist and instead jumped to what she really wanted to talk about.

  “Why did you tell us about Baccem?”

  The prisoner sat up on his bunk, bending his knees and resting his long, slender arms over them. He stared at her through the bars and the shimmering energy field, piercing her with those blue eyes as he smirked. “So, you figured it out.”

  Andy folded her arms over her chest. “Why did you tell us?” After all, the answer to his question was obvious.

  “I have my reasons.”

  “You aren’t going to tell me what those reasons are?”

  He shook his head slowly. “You don’t need to know my reasons, just the information.”

  Her brows drew down slightly and her eyes narrowed. “Your motivations could have a dramatic, and possibly dangerous, effect on us utilizing that information.”

  The smirk faded. “I know,” he said soberly. “My motivations have nothing to do with hostility towards you, or the ESS. That much, I can tell you.”

  It was something, if she believed him...which she was willing to go a little way toward doing. She remained skeptical, but the information in front of them did seem to be correct. At least, it was close enough for them to act on.

  “I still want to know why,” she said, although this time, her voice was quieter.

  He stared at her for a long time without saying anything, then looked away and shook his head with a sigh both audible and visible, shoulder rising and falling. “I know you do,” he said. “I wish I could tell you. But I can’t, at least not yet.”

  She tilted her head. “Why not? You know you’re not going to be going home any time soon.” He was a prisoner of war and could not be released until that war was over. Who knew how long that might be?

  “I won’t be going home ever again,” he returned. “Even if you turn me loose, I can’t go back. I am still alive and they will know. So, I can’t go home again.”

  “So why not tell me?” she asked, forcing the frustration out of her voice. She didn’t want him to know how upset this made her, even if she was sure he already had a pretty decent idea without her making it obvious.

  “I’m sorry,” was all he would say before laying back down.

  Andy stood a while longer, but didn’t say anything else. Eventually, she walked out without another word. She knew this wasn’t going to help her sleep any better.

  Chapter 7

  Andy was on the bridge when the navigation officer announced they had arrived at Baccem. As the ship came out of light speed, the planet appeared large on the screen. It was a pretty sight, a lot of green and brown with the white swirling through the atmosphere. It looked a lot like Earth, though with a bit less blue. Not a watery place, then.

  “Report,” Captain Wallace announced.

  “We are the first ESS ship to arrive, Sir,” the sensor officer replied. “The Nebula will arrive in approximately six hours, and the Star Runner will arrive in just over nine hours.”

  Then the captain asked the more pertinent question. “How long until the Arkana arrive? Are they still heading in this direction?”

  The sensor officer didn’t reply right away. “Our sensors are interfacing with the Baccem satellites,” he announced. “Yes. Two Arkana vessels are still on a direct route for Baccem. They are estimated to arrive in ten hours at present speed.”

  “So, the 21st will be arriving maybe an hour before the Arkana,” Andy said thoughtfully. “That’s not a lot of time to get three detachments in sync.” It would have to be done of course, and they would do it. At least she’d have a little more time to make sure the 33rd and the 15th were all on target. As the first to arrive at the planet, Andy knew she’d be running the tactics.

  “Keep your eyes on those Arkana ships, and closely. If it looks like they are changing speed, alert me immediately.” He waited for that order to be acknowledged before he turned toward the communications officer. “Contact the planet.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  A few moments later, the screen came alive with a video feed from the planet. Andy stood like a shadow behind the captain’s chair, watching and listening but feeling no need to weigh in on the matter just yet. She doubted her counsel would be needed during this conversation anyway, but as the commander of the 33rd, she was there just in case.

  “I am Captain Wallace, commanding officer of the ESS Star Chaser,” he introduced himself, getting to his feet and inclining his head.

  The pair on the screen were a woman and a man; the woman appeared to be human, while the man was Ronnor. In her research, she had learned that Baccem had been unpopulated
when a colony ship bearing humans and Ronnor found it and settled it. Later archaeological efforts had found there was once a population that had died out, so now it was predominantly humans and Ronnor, but as part of the ESS, there were other species there as well.

  “Captain Wallace,” the woman said, polite but solemn. “I am Regent Theodora and this is Regent Hiram. We thank you for coming. We have been alerted to the incoming Arkana threat and have, quite frankly, been expecting it.”

  Wallace smiled thinly. “Good foresight.”

  Hiram shook his head. “It didn’t take much of that to make an educated guess about the target painted on our planet. Any war-making force coming through space would be smart to want a base to produce more ships, and our factories are some of the best in the ESS for being able to utilize a wide variety of techniques, materials, and ship forms.”

  Andy wondered if this was really the time for a sales pitch, but she’d give him some leeway. It had to be a very stressful time.

  “How far along are your planetary defense systems?” Shailain interjected politely.

  “As you can imagine, we have been pushing it as hard as we can,” Theodora said. “I am afraid that we have only managed to push it up a few days and that’s at full capacity. If we have to evacuate the entire city, we’ll have to stop those efforts.”

  Wallace looked at Andy.

  Apparently, she was going to be talking in this conversation after all. She straightened up slightly and nodded respectfully to the regents. “I’m Major Dolan,” she introduced herself, then went on. “We would obviously find it ideal to evacuate all civilians. We will do our best to keep the Arkana out of your city, but I can’t make any promises. Any who remain will be at risk. However, it is your planet and your people. I cannot give you orders.”

  Theodora and Hiram exchanged a look, while Wallace gave Andy a nod of approval.

  The regents looked back to the captain. “A few of our engineers are going to remain in the innermost buildings of the city. If the Arkana get that far, it will all be over anyway so they might as well keep working on our defense system,” Hiram said.

  “Do we have a read on any other Arkana vessels?” Shailain asked.

  “The two vessels en route now are the only ones within five days of the planet,” the sensor officer said.

  “Did you hear that, Regents?” Wallace asked and they nodded.

  “I’m not sure our defense system will be done by five days, but it will be close,” Theodora said with a nod.

  “First things first, Sir,” Andy said. “We have to get rid of the ones who are coming on us now. If we make it past that, then we can worry about any others. If we are successful,” she went on, nodding to the regents as she said, “and I have every intention that we will be, hopefully we will have bought just enough time for your system to come online before any others make the same attempt.”

  Theodora smiled slightly. “That is our hope, Major,” she agreed. “For now, we have to evacuate as many of our people as we can.”

  Andy nodded. “We are going to help you with that too. My detachment will be coming down shortly and will aid in the evacuation while we wait for our reinforcements and then prepare for the arrival of the Arkana.”

  “Thank you, Major,” Hiram said, nodding to her and then to Wallace. “Captain.”

  “We will see you shortly,” Andy went on.

  The rest of the farewells passed and the channel was closed, the video of the regents winking off to show the planet once again. It was obviously too far away to see any of them, but Andy had the image of people scurrying around like ants, trying to figure out how best to get out of the way of the boot that was about to step on them.

  Andy took a deep breath. “Captain,” she said, turning to Wallace. “With your permission, I’d like to get my people down there.”

  “The sooner the better, Major.”

  Chapter 8

  Every squad was kitted out with their uniforms, armor, weaponry, and a pack of supplies just in case. Who knew what was going to happen once they were down there, or what would be available to them? It was better to be prepared, or at least as prepared as they could be.

  Once outfitted, each squad loaded into their shuttle. They waited for clearance from the bridge, which came swiftly, and then each shuttle took off in sequence. As the leader of Alpha Squad, Andy’s shuttle was the one that took off first in a line of six vessels—like a mama duck leading her ducklings into the water. It was just a few minutes before they were ready to start their descent.

  “Prepare for atmospheric descent,” the pilot announced.

  Everyone was already in their seats and strapped in, so there wasn’t really much they could do except be aware.

  The ship started its way to the surface, shaking as it pushed its way through layers of atmosphere. Andy tried to ignore it, but even with all the planetary landings she had under her belt, there was always an edge of nausea.

  Sometimes, she envied the Arkana for their teleport systems. Although from what they knew, it couldn’t have put someone on a planet surface from space anyway...but it was a nice thought.

  Soon—but not soon enough—each shuttle made landfall. They exited with caution, just in case, but there was no one around to greet them. The shuttles closed up and locked themselves shut, where they would remain until the squads returned...or it was clear that they never would. In that case, the pilots would make a judgment call and return to the ship.

  Otherwise, they would wait. They would defend the shuttles, if needed.

  Andy and her squad led the way from the large expanse of flat land where they had landed to the city. It took a few minutes from one to the other, close enough to not be difficult but far enough to be noticed. As they came up to the city’s further boundary, they found a small group waiting for them. One was Regent Theodora and the others wore uniforms that Andy would guess were some sort of security.

  “Regent,” Andy greeted with a nod.

  “Major,” she said. “I wanted to greet you personally and thank you, as well as present you with these.” She handed a pair of tablets to Andy, who took one and handed the other to Roxanna.

  They turned them on and looked at a map of the city. She looked it over quickly, taking note of the highlights. She needed to go over them again in more detail, but she wanted to get started on the evacuation first.

  “Our peacekeeping personnel have been working on the southern half of the city. It would help speed things along if your people could work the northern half. The northeast corner houses a large population of civilian families. We’d like you to start there and help assure the children and caretakers are put on transports to the safe zones we have been erecting away from the city. We started evacuating yesterday as soon as we had somewhere for everyone to go, but...” She sighed. “It’s a big city. And we never anticipated having to clear it all out.”

  “You have no explanations to make to me, Regent,” Andy said. “You point and we’ll go.”

  Theodora smiled faintly, and then started to detail what help they needed...

  For the next three hours, Andy and her squad—along with the five other squads—worked on clearing upset, frightened people out of their homes and onto long transit vehicles that would take them to temporary shelters nearly an hour outside of the city. Andy made sure to receive updates every half-hour from the Star Chaser about the status of the incoming ships, both friendly and hostile.

  Everything remained on schedule.

  Andy saw the last seat on the transport filled then hopped off, signaling for the driver to take off. As soon as that long vehicle was on its way, there was another pulling up into its place. Andy turned and passed by Roxanna escorting another family out of one of the many multi-residence structures. This one was a Selerid family and she had a little girl on her hip. The little one was clearly more worried than the adults, since her skin was swirling rapidly.

  Roxanna was talking with the girl as they walked. As they passed An
dy, she could hear them speaking in the Selerid native tongue at a rate too fast for the translator to keep up. Behind them was a woman Andy assumed to be the mother, smiling feebly. She looked grateful for the help with the child, since she had another walking behind her. The little boy was holding his mother’s hand so tight that the purple skin was changing shades, but she never attempted to remove him.

  Andy let them board the transport without stopping to say anything. She moved into the building and the next apartment that hadn’t been cleared out yet. Everyone had been asked to wait within their homes until someone came for them.

  “ESS,” Andy announced, knocking on the door and stepping in.

  There was an old man, human, sitting on a pale green sofa. He was old enough to need a cane, which he held between his legs while he waited patiently for someone to come for him.

  “Sir, I’m Major Dolan,” she said as she strode in. “I’m here to take you to the transport.”

  He looked up at her with a faint smile. “I’ve been waiting,” he said simply. “May we take possessions?” He gestured at a small bag that sat on the floor beside his feet. “They are just a few things I can’t risk being destroyed, like pictures of my daughter. She lives far away now, you know.”

  Andy was surprised by the flash of emotion that rushed through her at seeing a father talking about his daughter.

  “Yes, Sir,” she said, walking up beside him and taking the bag. “It’s small enough, but you’ll have to hold it on your lap or between your feet. There’s no storage and no seats are going to be empty. Every seat gets a butt in it.”

  That made him smile, which somehow made her feel good. She put the bag over her shoulder and then helped him to his feet. Once he was up and had his cane, he didn’t move as slowly as she expected and she got him out of the building and into the line for the transport.

  “Is it really going to be as bad as they say?” he asked with his grey brows knitting.