Star Brigade: Resurgent (Star Brigade Book 1) Read online

  “The hostages are near, as is the stink of death,” V’Korram growled quietly as he sunk into a fighting crouch, sniffing in the direction of the gaping corridor hole.

  “I’ll set up a cloaking perimeter around us with my datapad,” Sam whispered, hooking the device back to her belt. “They won’t detect us once we reach any active sensors.”

  “Good deal, Heatstroke,” Habraum whispered. “Move forward.” V’Korram took the lead on all fours. The rest of the combat team followed quickly and cautiously through the stony egress. Soon the light of the corridor faded, everyone slipped on their night vision lenses to compensate.

  For several macroms, the team moved in silence. Aside from din of drills humming in the background, probably from the higher regions on the asteroid, there were no other sounds.

  “I’m detecting around thirty sentients ahead,” Liliana said quietly in the dimness. “Two Korvenites.” Just then an intense halo of light appeared up ahead, now a bright fissure breaking through the darkness as CT-1 moved closer. Habraum silently motioned to V’Korram and Honaa, both the stealthiest on the team. Honaa, rigid in posture, slinked to the lead next to V’Korram as they went up to the crooked hole. The noticeable bristle in V’Korram’s fur told Habraum the sight ahead was not good.

  Without another thought, Habraum walked ahead as easily as he could manage and almost fell forward at what he saw. In front of him was an expansive, spherical crater in the middle of the asteroid. Its walls, bejeweled in sparkly cobalt-tinted ore, stretched upward for several hundred metrids into pitch-black gloom. The depression itself was illuminated by several bright bulbous halolights rooted in various parts of the walls. The other side of the crater sported a sizeable rock cleft similar to where Habraum and CT-1 currently stood, but leading into another corridor laden with consoles and technology-grafted walls. As everyone removed their night vision goggles, the scene within this rock depression seized the Cerc’s attention—and revulsion.

  About two dozen beings in tattered mining outfits sat shackled in the room’s center, guarded by two armored Korvenites. Not even a whimper escaped the prisoners, all rounded up in four groups of six. Habraum saw the guards and his throat tightened. Golden armor; the mark of a KIF Retributionary. Their deadliness was renowned. One Retributionary circled the captives on foot while the other flew above the prisoners with propulsion boots. Neither Korvenite noticed the seven Brigadiers bunched up in the tiny asteroid fissure to their right.

  “HAH! My damper works,” Khrome bragged quietly.

  “Shhhhhh!” Tyris’s reprimand cut like a harsh draft.

  Something just beyond the far corner made Habraum recoil, a towering bloodied pile of something fleshy, but nothing identifiable.

  “Reign,” Sam whispered in his ear. “We need to act soon. Crescendo and I detected several Korvenites two levels above us.”

  Habraum turned from the grotesque sight and nodded. He crawled forward, gesturing Honaa and V’Korram toward their targets.

  The two Brigadiers exploded into action, leaping at their targets as one. The airborne Retributionary never saw Honaa until the Rothorid was practically atop him. Honaa phased his talons through the Korvenite’s chestplate, fleetingly distorting the atomic bonds binding his foe with excruciating results. The Retributionary stiffened and fell from the air. Honaa yanked his hands out and landed on all fours.

  The grounded Retributionary swung around as soon as Honaa touched the other Korvenite. Must’ve sensed the attack through that shared mind link, Habraum noted as he watched tensely. The Retributionary powered up his chestplate’s repulsor harness, aiming at Honaa as he landed—and ate a brutal dropkick to the helmeted face from V’Korram.

  The Korvenite’s head snapped back, and he crumbled like a puppet cut from its strings. The whole ambush took less than six nanoclics.

  “Hurry,” Honaa hissed up at the Brigade. Already he was scampering to the stunned and increasingly vocal hostages. “The other Retributionaries undoubtedly felt that through their Unilink.”

  “He’s right,” Sam added firmly. “Around twenty Korvenites headed this way.”

  Habraum felt his heart thudding in his throat. The element of surprise was gone. No way could this combat team survive a confrontation with the KIF. “Heatstroke, Khrome. Run surveillance and be on guard for Retributionaries. Arcturus, Crescendo follow me and let’s exfiltrate these hostages.” With one hand, Habraum vaulted over the edge of the asteroid fissure and began clambering down to the floor below. The gloves of a Star Brigade field suit had magnegrips that enabled the Brigadier wearing them to latch onto virtually any surface. In this case, the rocky sollunium ore. Tyris and Cortes followed suit. All three reached ground level in short order. While running toward the now terrified and loud hostages, Habraum saw Sam and Khrome take to the air, surveying any noticeable openings around the crater. Now on ground level, the Cerc could see the jutting rises all around, along with various mining equipment he didn’t recognize.

  As for his combat team; Tyris silently slinked over to the fallen Retributionaries, a small pulse pistol in hand. He pumped a trifecta of stun shots into the two Korvenites, both twitching after each shot. Liliana, ever the doctor, began scanning each group of miners with brisk confidence. V’Korram was off in a corner, stalking around the mound of flesh Habraum saw earlier. A shocked recognition flickered across the Kintarian’s leonine features. Habraum, too repulsed by the bloody mass, turned away and focused on the hostages. The other Brigadiers did their best to ignore the grotesquerie.

  An elder Nnaxan male, his craniowhisks torn and covered in white blood, pleaded for freedom in his native dialect. Other hostages did the same. Their eyes all appeared dull, empty. Habraum’s heart sank. By the Makers, what did the KIF put these poor beings through? “It’s okay,” the Cerc reassured. “We’re here to help. You’re all safe.”

  Right on cue, all hell broke loose.

  Every miner began screaming or spewing out gibberish. Habraum turned to Liliana for answers and found it in her alarmed brown eyes. These miners clearly had their minds scrambled to some varying degree by Korvenite telepathy, an infamous tactic the KIF used on non-humans who supported humans. First they shatter the psyche with a being’s own fears and terrible memories until the victim was a drooling vegetable. Tyris moved toward the group nearest to him, reaching for their bounds.

  “No!” Honaa ran and grabbed Tyris’ wrist. “Don’t free them here,” the Rothorid released the Tanoeen. “Even thisss faraway the Korvenitesss can psssychically manipulate thessse hossstagesss into attacking usss.”

  “And those Korvenites are getting closer,” Sam called out as she circled through the air, still working her datapad. “Hurry it up down there.”

  “Understood, Heatstroke. Just transmat them out of here, Arcturus.” Habraum ordered, plucking a pulsing teleglobe from his utility belt and placing it into the middle of that same group. A simple click on the teleglobe’s topside switch and the device shimmered deep blue, flooding over the group of hostages in its wake. A moment later the shimmer vanished into blue sparkles—as had the miners, now safely in the Phaeton’s cargo bay. At that moment Habraum noticed something odd with these hostages. He glanced at the other groups, saw the same thing. No humans.

  “Mind scrambling and some superficial injuries aside, these miners are fine. But where are the human hostages?” Liliana asked, visibly puzzled as she looked around. Tyris and Honaa each went to different groups and placed teleglobes among them. Nanoclics later, more blue flashes signaled their departures. “I’m getting readings of human DNA but see no humans.”

  “I’m wondering the same thing,” Habraum added. This made no sense, especially when they had detected 15 or more human hostages in this area of the mining facility.

  “Because they’re here,” V’Korram growled. Habraum turned and spied the Kintarian pointing a chiseled arm at the sickening flesh mass. The Kintarian’s body fur bristled with disgust.

  Liliana walked tersely i
n that direction and in her haste almost thrust her datapad into the mass. Suddenly, she looked up and went slack-jawed. “Dulce Madre.” Liliana turned whiter than cow milk, cupping a hand over her mouth. Habraum stared at the mass in disbelief and his stomach clenched. A closer look revealed stacks of smoldering cadavers pulverized into shapeless, bloody masses. The gooey flesh covering each was once human skin.

  Khrome floated near the ground, his voice like a sharp metallic smack. “Those are the humans?”

  “I’m getting residual psionic energy readings around the bodies,” Liliana read from her sensory module, her voice and body shaking like leaves. “Th-they were hit by concentrated amounts of telekinesis that liquefied their internal organs and skeletal systems.”

  Tyris let out a low whistle. V’Korram snarled something in the Kintarian language, his pointy ears flattening. The only thing betraying Honaa’s fury was the snake-like shivering of his tail.

  “The Korvenites are almost on top of us,” Sam called from above, also sounding ill.

  “After this last group, we leave.” Habraum tore his gaze away from the lifeless pile, which could be CT-1’s fate if they stayed. “UComm can deal with the KIF—.” He was cut off by V’Korram’s menacing growl through yellowed, razor-sharp teeth.

  The massive Kintarian dropped to a crouch. “Too late,” he snarled, eyes darting all around. Honaa followed suit, tail rattling in attack readiness.

  “He’s right.” Sam floated down near Habraum. “I’m detecting energy signatures converging around us.” The loud hums drew closer, sounding like pulse pistol shots.

  “Evacuate those miners!” Habraum ordered.

  “I’m trying,” Tyris shouted, he and Khrome working furiously on a teleglobe. The remaining miners were growing less coherent. “Something’s blocking the teleglobe.”

  “The Korvenitesss mussst be jamming usss,” Honaa rasped, as the humming suddenly stopped.

  Habraum winced, both at the idea of his team facing this enemy and a sudden twinge on the nape of his neck. He recognized that prickling sensation all too well, which now felt more like jagged spikes than a mere prickle. Habraum concentrated and looked around the shaft’s jagged walls, using his abilities to see beyond normal eyesight. Waiting behind the ore-layered walls, right in front of Star Brigade, Habraum could see the energy-laced outlines of several figures pulsing with psychic power. The outlining of their hazy forms began to glow brighter, as if readying for a massive release….

  “DOWN!” Habraum dove forward. V’Korram yanked a bewildered Liliana to the ground. Every Brigadier ran for cover. All except Khrome, who flew in front of the hostages.

  And the sollunium walls burst apart with a blinding green flash.

  A deep, swelling roar shook the entire asteroid to its core. Thick clouds of sollunium dust and fragments gushed out to flood the crater mine, staining its air. As Habraum rolled and looked for cover behind a tall rocky spike, a blistering energy assault burned right through the sollunium ore wall’s collapsing remains. Green energy blasts lanced in all directions through the thick dust. The spike that Habraum hid behind shuddered and crackled under the Retributionary assault, but he breathed a quick sigh of relief to see his Star Brigade team efficiently taking cover.

  Khrome, however, planted his burly frame in front of the exposed hostages. Psionic beams cut through machinery and rock like butter, but bounced harmlessly off Khrome’s armored skin. Finally, the attackers revealed themselves—a score of fully-armored Retributionaries barreling forth from the destroyed wall. In quick, well-trained fashion they circled the room and kept the pressure on Star Brigade with a continuous volley of psionic blasts from their chestplate harnesses. Golden visors betrayed no expression on the Korvenite soldiers as they assaulted their opponents. The Cerc shouted orders at his combat team, all lost in the thunderous Korvenite attack.

  Habraum felt the tickle of psionic energy against his thoughts and nothing else, meaning that Khrome’s psi-damper worked. “At least I’ll die without the Korvenites knowing my deepest secrets,” he muttered to himself. Not being one to wait around idly, the Cerc snapped up his arm and shot off a radiant biokinetic blast at a Retributionary in mid-flight. Just as the crimson beam nearly hit the Korvenite, he veered out of the way and rocketed at Habraum. The Cerc calmly raised both arms wide, fired and swept them inward, effectively sandwiching the airborne Korvenite between his biokinetic beams. There was a loud crunch, and the Korvenite dropped like a stone.

  The other Brigadiers were having less success. The air sizzled as Sam soared above, a raging comet of orange-gold flame lighting up the crater mine. She weaved expertly around the Retributionaries’ psionic blasts, drawing their fire away from CT-1. But whenever she fired off a flame burst from her hands at the Korvenites, they would put up either a shield or dodge the blast at the last instant.

  The same happened to Tyris, who let loose a whistling hail of ice spikes from his fingers at two Retributionaries pressing toward Liliana. Much to his chagrin, his spikes bounced harmlessly off the telekinetic shield the Korvenites suddenly erected around themselves. Exactly like in the training simulations days ago, V’Korram sprang through the air with his scaphes drawn, skirting multiple beams of energy. Yet the intensity of the blasts kept him from successfully advancing on his foes.

  Honaa pounced into the fray, eyes gleaming. He turned his body intangible and charged through a Korvenite. As one Retributionary spasmed and collapsed, he dodged under the kick of another and swung his tail upward to whack his helmeted face. Before the Retributionary could fall, Honaa snaked out a clawed hand and hit his foe in the chest with a bloom of purple energy, a matter distortion field. Instantly, the Korvenite convulsed and crumpled without protest.

  The Korvenites’ response was instant, brutal. Six Retributionaries rained down a tandem telekinetic assault on Honaa. Only by turning intangible did the Rothorid survive. Khrome kept shielding the prisoners from stray shots, but his confident smirk was gone. Habraum saw pained winces after each beam the Thulican deflected off his now scorch-marked metal flesh. As resistant to injury as Khrome was, even he couldn’t keep this up for long.

  At first the Korvenites picked different targets to attack, but now they all struck as one, firing off lances of psionic energy at the retreating Star Brigade. Aside from the thinning rock spikes in the crater, there was nowhere to hide.

  “The Unilink, Reign!” Honaa managed to rasp out while dashing for cover. “We must find the arbitrator and disrupt it.” Habraum threw himself back as the jutting spike he had been hiding behind exploded against the impact of multiple Retributionaries. Habraum shot off a quick biokinetic burst before somersaulting away from five coalescing psionic beams, thrashing the ground he just stood on to splintered rubble. Then in the midst of moving, the Cerc saw the Unilink.

  Veins of thin psionic energy coursed all through the room, a shimmering mesh, wrapping around each individual Korvenite. The five Habraum had evaded possessed stronger links because of their proximity to each other. Ethereal fingers of the Unilink streamed through the Retributionaries like small rivers, connecting their minds to each other. But Habraum was oblivious as to how he could disrupt this psionic network, especially with his team in such disorder. How could he have been so arrogant, thinking that he had a chance against such well-trained operatives? I’ve signed my team’s death warrants.

  A shriek. Every Brigadier turned.

  One Retributionary dangled Liliana in the air by the throat. His chestplate harness sizzled. The young doctor gagged,. kicking and screaming, but she couldn’t break the vise-like grip on her neck. Sam dove for Liliana, only to be swatted back by an unseen telekinetic wall. Habraum, horrified, tried to sprint forward but sensed a sting in his neck. A blistering volley of psychic beams cascaded down and he barely rolled away. NO! Habraum looked up helplessly. The Korvenite’s chestplate overflowed with energy, about to incinerate the terrified doctor.

  Until Liliana slammed her hands together. The clap was rolli
ng thunder, issuing out white-hot rings of sonic force, smacking the Retributionary away from her. The cracking of the Korvenite’s armor was drowned out by Liliana’s earsplitting attack.

  The same didn’t hold true for the Korvenite’s scream after a rocky spike sprouted through his chest, the force of Liliana’s attack driving the Retributionary into a protruding spine on the far wall. The Korvenite shuddered violently before wilting in death. As did the Korvenites’s once impeccable formation, falling now into disarray with the loss of one of their own.

  Habraum looked at the planes of energy only he could see, confirming his earlier suspicions. Liliana’s shockwave and the Retributionary’s death upset the psychic veins connecting the Korvenite Unilink. Habraum’s frantic joy was so sharp at the realization it actually hurt. That joy died when he saw the skewed Unilink begin to reknit, something Star Brigade couldn’t afford to happen.

  “Again, Crescendo!” Habraum shouted to Liliana. The doctor, wheezing for air, clapped her hands again and spurted out another sharp sonic blast. Once more Habraum detected a jagged split in the perfect mesh.

  “Heatstroke, Arcturus, form with me.” Habraum raised both arms and fired off two concussive force blasts at the nine Korvenites assaulting Honaa. Sam hovering in the air, and Tyris standing firmly on the ground, sandwiched the Korvenites with a joined volley of fire and ice blasts from opposing sides. The KIF attempted a telekinetic shield to resist the triple team assault—but too little, too late. Within moments, the Retributionaries dropped to the ground, out of the fight.

  “Khrome, Jakadda, forward!” Habraum barked.

  The Kintarian dashed ahead before Habraum finished the command, leaping over wide ore spikes in the ground to sneak behind three confused Korvenites. In a flurry of feet, fists and blades the fight was over. V’Korram crouched over their bodies with fierce satisfaction.