Broken Stars (Universe on Fire Book 1), page 4
“Deep in thought?” A voice drew him from his own thoughts, and Kane turned to see Jackson, his second in command and the pillar of the small four person team Kane had been a part of for most of his life.
“You could say so,” Kane said and turned his eyes back to the stars.
Jackson sat down on the roof beside him and joined him in his stargazing. They sat there in silence for a long while, completely comfortable in each other’s company. After all, they had known each other since they were ten years old, when they along with the rest of their team had been recruited for the government secret project. They were brothers in all but blood. That was why Kane knew that something was bothering his friend. But he knew that Jackson would talk in time. And a few minutes later Jackson did just that.
“Are you scared?” Jackson asked.
“A bit perhaps,” Kane answered.
“Liar,” Jackson said in a soft tone. Kane didn’t answer. Jackson knew him very well, there was no point in lying.
“You always were like this, without fear.”
“I’m not without fear, I just fear other things.”
“Like what?” Jackson turned to look at Kane, the stars and the strange colors of the Ethorrian night sky making his brown eyes sparkle in the darkness.
“Things that I have no control over, like losing my family.”
Jackson turned his head back to the sky. “Me too. The aliens don’t scare me that much—either we win or we die. I fear other things as well…”
Kane kept quiet, waiting. He didn’t usually like to pry, but he knew what his friend meant. So he spoke.
“Jane?” Kane asked in a whisper.
“Jane,” Jackson confirmed.
Just like Kane and Jackson, Jane had been recruited by the government, and she had been part of their group since they were children. To Kane she was like a sister, but he knew that Jackson had always cared for her a little more. He also knew that Jackson would probably never tell her that.
“I don’t fear the aliens or dying,” Jackson started. “I fear not telling her how I feel, and I fear telling her how I feel.”
“Telling her might change things,” Kane said, knowing that Jackson would understand the double meaning. Things could change for the better or for the worse.
“And not telling her could be one of my greatest regrets.”
“It is your decision to make.”
“I know,” Jackson said finally. They spent the rest of the night in silence, looking at the stars.
CHAPTER THREE
Several days later, Commander Kane Reinhart lay on his back gazing at the ceiling. He was back in his home on the outskirts of Tokyo, relaxing on his leave. A hand landed on his bare chest and started moving across his skin, tracing the silver lines of the spellscript implanted inside of his skin. Kane glanced down and smiled at the large brown eyes gazing at him sleepily. He had been pleasantly surprised when he had gotten back to Earth and learned that Aiko was on leave as well. The chances of that happening by simple happenstance were slim to none. Which meant that it had probably been arranged by someone, most likely by Admiral Villanueva. Kane and Aiko’s relationship wasn’t something that they kept a secret, but it wasn’t like they announced it. The UEF knew of course, they had filed the paperwork once they had started living together, but they were in different chains of command and entirely different departments.
Aiko was a commander of a navy carrier, the last military naval vessel built by the UEF. It was almost sixty years old, and had been built only three years before the aliens arrived. It wasn’t like the old navy carriers from before the unification, the purpose of those vessels had been somewhat mitigated after the last war and the founding of the United Earth. And most of the military assets of the old nations had been scrapped or repurposed. The Paragon-class carriers were built as mobile bases and deployment hubs, meant to project the power of the UEF anywhere on Earth. They were usually deployed on peacekeeping missions in the conflict zones around the world as well as support in policing forces against various criminal enterprises, such as cartels, terrorist organizations and human trafficking circles, before the aliens arrived.
After the aliens had taken the Earth sky, two of the three Paragon-class vessels in existence had been destroyed in retaliation for the attempts against them. The last carrier—UENS Yasnaya—had continued operating in the way it had been intended. The aliens had destroyed many military bases and factories, but they had allowed the UEF to keep some of its forces, in order to keep the peace they said.
Kane and Aiko met on of the Yasnaya’s missions. Before Kane had been sent to be trained as a mech-frame pilot he had been special forces. Kane’s magical potential had manifested just after his tenth birthday at onset of puberty, as was usual on Ethorria as well. After an incident where he had accidentally set his bed on fire, the UEF had reached out. They had already been watching him, as magical potential could be detected at birth. His parents had been forced to sign documents declaring that they wouldn’t reveal anything about magic, and they had managed to convince his parents to let Kane be trained by the UEF. He knew that some parents of those few with magic had been intimidated or forced to give their children up, but that had not happened with his parents.
His parents had agreed. In part because they were afraid, and had been told that Kane could kill himself without training. But mostly they had agreed because they understood what this could mean for the future. And perhaps most importantly, because Kane’s grandfather had been on the Humanity’s Gift when the aliens arrived and blew it apart. They were patriots who wanted to see Earth free again.
His training had begun then. At times in the past Kane had felt sad that he hadn’t had a normal childhood, but the last few days had put things in perspective. He liked his life. While he had spent a lot of time in UEF care he did get to visit his parents at times. And he wasn’t resentful toward them, hadn’t ever been really. He couldn’t have waited to go actually, the allure of magic was too inviting. Knowing that he had magic and would be trained to use it did that to a young boy. And so he was trained as a soldier, genetically improved, supplemented by whatever knowledge of magical arts the UEF could buy or find in Ethorria. When he had turned eighteen he and the three others that had been through the training with him had experimental spellscripts implanted below their skin.
It was the solution that the UEF had found for their lack of knowledge. The Wanderers had shared their expertise and knowledge about the spellscripts but not about casting the spells without them. For them that was forbidden. And usually, the mages on Ethorria studied magic for their entire lives. It took decades of study to become a true mage. And the UEF did not have the resources to make that happen. So they did something else. No mage worth their name in Ethorria would consider implanting spellscripts in themself. It made the implanted spells far easier to cast, but it also interfered with any attempt to cast anything else.
Kane had five spellscripts in his body. The first spellscript was on his right breast, a spell that would burn his body’s energy to allow him short bursts of strength and speed. But it wasn’t something that he could use for extended periods without depleting himself completely. The second on his left breast was a spell that would trigger conditionally: if he was ever injured past a certain point, it would eat away at his own body to repair the damage and keep him alive, which made it extremely dangerous.
Third was on his left forearm: a magic-bolt spell that fired a bolt of magical energy. On the right he had a shield spell that could stop a direct bullet shot. And finally, on the back of his neck, was the spellscript for the control spell that allowed him to pilot a mech-frame.
At twenty he had been part of an elite unit that the UEF sent on critical missions usually in hot zones to execute surgical strikes against terrorist organizations. The world might’ve been united, but there were still problems. And the four of them that made up the unit had been trained in both conventional warfare as well as magic since a young age, and had been genetically altered to be simply better.
When he was twenty-two his team had come onto the Yasnaya, which was supposed to carry them to their destination. It was there that he had met Aiko. She had been the first officer then, the youngest the Yasnaya had ever had. It had been clear even to Kane that she was a genius, and that she would advance through the ranks quickly. They were drawn to each other, and soon enough they started spending their leave time together whenever possible. A year later they had moved in together. And a year after that Kane had been sent to Ethorria to help develop the mech-frames. He hadn’t known about Ethorria then, he only knew about magic. He spent the next seven years learning how to fly a fighter and everything else that the UEF knew about space combat, which wasn’t much.
Kane watched Aiko’s finger tracing the lines on his chest and then it came to rest on the amulet with the small green stone he wore around his neck—the command gem for his mech-frame. Somehow he and Aiko had survived being separated, having only a few days or weeks here or there together. But they were both military people and it hadn’t been all that hard, at least on Kane’s part. She didn’t know about magic or Ethorria, she didn’t have the clearance for it. Officially Kane was still acting in his former role as Commander of a special forces team, being deployed all over the world. But he was certain that Aiko knew that it was a cover; she had seen his spellscripts and while she didn’t know what they were she knew it had something to do with his true assignment. She just knew better than to ask.
She raised her hand and started getting out of the bed, but before she could manage it Kane grabbed her wrist and pulled her back onto the bed, rolling so that he was on top of her. She protested for a moment, but his lips on hers quieted her. She broke the kiss and smiled as she tapped at his chest above her.
“We need to get up or we will miss our reservations,” she told him.
Kane leaned his forehead against hers, closing his eyes. He loved their quiet moments, when it was just the two of them. The time they had spent together was far too short and precious. And soon he would be deployed, perhaps for the last time. He did not want their last day together to be spent at a dinner table out amongst strangers.
“Let’s stay here,” he whispered, raising his head to look into her eyes.
She opened her mouth then quickly closed it as she saw something in his eyes. He could tell that she knew that something was bothering him. But she also knew that he couldn’t tell her what, or he would’ve already.
“Alright, we’ll stay.”
***
Two days later found Kane sitting in a small briefing room, Admiral Villanueva standing to the side of the podium preparing to address the room. The room was filled with fighter and mech-frame pilots, and beside Kane sat his three fellow mech-frame pilots, the people he had spent most of his life with. His family.
“You have any idea what the plan is?” Lt. Commander Jane Jamison asked from his left.
“Nope, I’m sure that the Admiral will fill us in soon enough,” Kane said while looking straight ahead. He didn’t have to look at her to know that she would be pouting. She always did when she thought Kane knew more than he was letting on.
“C’mon, the Admiral must’ve told you something,” she tried again.
“Jane,” Lt. Commander Jackson King said to her sternly in his deep voice. Jackson was the most levelheaded one in their little family, which was probably why he had been second in command to Kane when they were special forces. Nowadays their ranks and positions were a bit more nebulous. Technically they were still a part of the Army division of UEF, but they were working with a large group of people from other divisions. Most of the fighter pilots were either recruited directly from academies or from Air Force division.
But in truth they were United Earth Space Force, a division that stopped existing once the aliens had arrived. There were no records of the UESF, as they did not want to risk aliens or even their own people finding out about what they were doing. Already it was hard hiding things from the alien inspections.
“Fine,” Jane sighed and turned to look at the podium. Kane fought down a grin—Jackson was the only one that she always listened to.
“I think that the Admiral is ready to start the briefing,” Lt. Commander Ishanvi Patel leaned forward from her seat beside Jackson. Ishanvi was the quietest of them, content to let the three of them bicker and fight while she sat in the corner and watched. Not that she wasn’t known for throwing an inspired insult or two their way when they annoyed her. She was probably the second best pilot of the four of them, just behind Kane.
Admiral Villanueva stepped up to the podium and the room grew quiet. “I’m sure that most of you already know, but I am here to tell you that we will begin military actions against the Qash’vo’tar in five weeks’ time. This is just a preliminary briefing, more thorough planning and briefing sessions will follow in the next few days.”
As the Admiral spoke, Kane could almost feel the mood in the room change, from curious to excited. This was what they had all been training for.
“Some of you will be a part of those meetings, some of you will not,” the Admiral continued. “But what you should know is that we are preparing for an action against the Qash’vo’tar warship in orbit. We will be splitting you up into four attack squads. Five fighters and a mech-frame in each. The four squads will execute a coordinated assault against the warship with the mission to disable or destroy it. Once that mission is accomplished, an assault shuttle, assisted by the mech-frame pilots, will be sent to the tether station in orbit to take control of it. At the same time an assault group on the ground will be ready to attack and take control of the Kilimanjaro tether point—the assault will only begin on confirmation that the warship in orbit is neutralized.”
Kane nodded at the Admiral’s words. If they failed against the ship it would be pointless to attack the tether point on the ground. The Qash’vo’tar would bomb the planet in retaliation.
“Now, I’ll go over more specifics of the assault as planned so far, be advised that while this will most likely be the final plan, it still is subject to change. Any input is encouraged,” the Admiral said and turned on the large screen behind him showing the details.
Kane leaned forward and settled in for a long session.
***
A week later Admiral Leon Villanueva stood in the office of the Vice Admiral Isabella Rodriguez in Geneva. The fact that they were meeting here was because the Vice Admiral served as a Councilor of the United Earth Council and her duties rarely allowed her to leave the city. Leon didn’t mind, as it was a relatively short trip from Brussels where the UEF headquarters were.
Vice Admiral Rodriguez looked out of the window at the night sky. There was no star field night sky here, the light pollution was too great for that. It didn’t change a thing. The sky called to them.
Some psychologists often spoke about how human desire was an irrational one. Humanity didn’t need the stars to survive, after all. They had all that they needed here on Earth. The only reason why they yearned for the stars so much, in their opinion, was because they were denied to them. It didn’t stop several thousand people from committing suicide every year.
The first case of what was now called Lee syndrome—named after the man that had first diagnosed the condition—had been five years after the day the aliens destroyed the Humanity’s Gift. And it had been a man by the name of Lawrence Smith, a scientist who had designed the drives for humanity’s first FTL-capable spaceship. His family had spoken out in the days following his suicide, talking about how he had lost hope and the will to live after he had seen his life’s work destroyed, after it had truly sunk in that humanity would not reach for the stars again. And slowly more and more people chose to end their lives. A generation of dreamers they had called them, people who had given their all to see humanity in the stars, and those at home who watched enthralled by what the future could hold for them all. Only to see their dreams shattered by the Qash’vo’tar.
Earth could survive without the stars, Leon knew, but its people would not. Already the voices rose—the blood remembers—and they called to their leaders searching for a way to grasp that which they were tortured with every time the sun set.
“They arrive tomorrow,” Vice Admiral Rodriguez said, her eyes never leaving the sky.
“They do,” Leon agreed. The Qash’vo’tar’s resupply ship and its escorts always arrived at the same intervals, every three years and four months. Tomorrow their resupply convoy would arrive, a single cargo ship carrying supplies and personnel that would be swapped out with those who were here. And four escorts, three warships of the same class as the one in Earth orbit, and one larger. Their estimates put the bigger ship at around two times the size of the smaller ones. One of the smaller ships would switch places with the one in orbit and after a few days in orbit they would leave again.
The attack on the aliens was planned for the days after the group leaves. The timing had been decided based on many factors, but the most important one was time. If they were successful and manage to take back control of Earth orbit and the solar system, they would have three years and four months to prepare before the aliens came back. The IGS—the Intelligence Gathering Sector—was fairly certain that the Qash’vo’tar had no FTL-capable communication systems, a fact that had been somewhat agreed upon by Earth’s best scientists. If they were right, they would have a bit over three years to prepare; if they were wrong…
“Are we rushing this?” the Vice Admiral asked, her voice clearly revealing her inner doubts. Leon knew that the only reason she had voiced her doubts out loud was because the two of them were good friends. To the rest she was one of the most vocal Councilors behind the decision to fight back.
Leon didn’t answer immediately. “We have been preparing for the past sixty years, in one way or another. Now is the only time in all of those years that we actually have the tools to pull it off.”
