King of Eon by Anna Hackett ePUB)

Chapter Fourteen

Gayel watched laser fire light up the space around Orzon.

Blue laser arched toward the ugly, insect-like Kantos battle cruisers. Davion was barking commands to the Desteron warriors and the rest of the fleet.

“Oh, my God,” Alea murmured.

She stood at his side. She couldn’t know just how much her silent support meant to him.

From his father, he’d learned that a king had to stand alone, as a beacon to his people. But maybe, with just one special person, he could show himself as he truly was. Maybe he was stronger if he didn’t stand alone.

But right now, he would defend his people. Fight for their empire.

A large warship came into view. It was the Rengard. On one side of the viewscreen Malax appeared, a small, curly-haired woman at his side.

“What did we miss?” Wren asked.

“Malax, Wren, good to see you,” Davion said.

Gayel nodded. “Malax, take the Kantos down.”

The Rengard’s war commander nodded. “Tell our entire fleet to allow Sassy access to their weapons systems. She and Wren have some things planned.”

“Acknowledged,” Gayel said, nodding at Davion.

“Giddy up,” a female voice blasted across the line. “Let’s go bug-hunting.”

Sassy was Wren’s helian-enhanced tablet. Alea had heard the sentient being had acquired quite a personality.

“Let’s try for some decorum,” Wren said dryly.

An amused snort. “Decorum, smorum. Here goes. Initiating.”

All the Eon fleet fired in tandem. The laser fire shot with frightening precision, flying fast and striking multiple Kantos ships.

“Woo-hoo!” Sassy cried. “Let’s do it again.”

A stream of Kantos swarm ships poured out of several battle cruisers. They looked like a brown cloud of bugs.

From the Rengard, silver and blue Eon fighters—sleek and fast—shot into space. They moved into streamlined formations.

“Incredible,” Alea said. “You guys sure make pretty ships.”

The swarm ships and fighters engaged in a dizzying display of fighting. Beyond them, lasers filled the black.

“A Kantos torpedo is inbound,” a warrior yelled. “It’s through the defense cannons. Brace.”

The Desteron rocked.

Alea staggered and Gayel grabbed her.

“Bring our weapons around,” Davion yelled. “Fire.”

Vibrations rumbled through the ship as they fired. A smaller Terran ship zipped past. It bristled with weapons. The Divergent.

It targeted the Kantos battle cruiser, turning dizzying circles around it.

Davion shook his head. “About time you turned up.”

On screen, a man and woman appeared. Captain Allie Borden was one of Space Corps’ best, and beside her was her mate, Davion’s former Second Commander, Brack Thann-Felis.

“We didn’t want to miss the fun,” Brack said.

“Marines and warriors are boarding the science station,” a warrior called out.

On screen, Gayel saw the battered station, and the team cutting through the airlock doors.

“We have several Eon life signs,” Davion said, a dark look on his face. “Our team is going in to find any survivors.”

Alea smiled. “I see Lieutenant Jamie Park. That woman is badass to the bone.”

“King Gayel.” A female warrior turned. “We have an incoming transmission from the Kantos. They’re asking to speak to you.”

Gayel sucked in a breath and looked at Alea, then Davion. “On screen.”

Three elites came into view. They were calm, eerie, their eyes glowing.

“You will fail.”

They were using a robotic voice synthesizer.

“No, you will fail,” Gayel said. “Like all your attempts to assassinate me. It ends today. We, the Eon, and our allies will not allow your reign of terror to continue.”

The elites made an angry, hissing sound.

“There will be no mercy. We will destroy your warriors and your helians. Without warriors, your Empire is defenseless.”

The screen went black.

Cren. Gayel compressed his lips. Alea touched his arm, and it steadied him. “I need an update on the agent.”

“The medical commander says he needs a little more time,” a warrior said. “They’re synthesizing as much of the agent as they can.”

On screen, a smaller Eon cruiser exploded. A Kantos ship flew right through it.

His gut curdled. Lives lost.

“War Commander, Your Highness,” another warrior called out. “Something is happening on the planet’s surface.”

The screen zoomed in. Gayel watched banks of clouds churn, moving unnaturally fast.

“What is that?” Davion asked.

“Something is generating wild storms and high winds. Right above the main Eon base. At current calculations, it will cover the entire planet within two hours.”

“The Kantos,” Alea said. “What the hell are they doing?”

“What else have the scans detected?” Gayel demanded.

“There’s a large Kantos presence near the base, and some sort of equipment. We believe it’s a storm generator. It seems to be affecting the planet’s gravity, and I’m detecting pockets of very low gravity around it.”

“Cren-cursed bugs,” Davion muttered.

“I managed some high-resolution scans and images before the cloud cover got too dense,” the warrior said.

On screen, Gayel saw Kantos soldiers—rows and rows of them. It looked like they had taken over the Eon base. They were unloading objects from a Kantos ship. He saw several large, roughly spherical, brown pods.

“What are those?” Caze said.

Gayel frowned. “They look like—”

“Eggs,” Alea breathed.

A young warrior nodded. “Scans show that the pods are filled with lots of small bugs.”

“The locust plague.” Ice filled Gayel’s blood. “They’re planning to unleash these. Whatever is in them must be carrying the pathogen.”

Alea sucked in a sharp breath.

“And the storm they’re generating has wild winds that will spread them across the entire planet,” Davion said.

The Desteron’s alarms blared.

The warship jolted.

“A Kantos battle cruiser is heading straight for us!” Davion yelled.

The war commander directed his people, and Gayel saw the ship coming. It was damaged, some of its legs missing from the front.

They were on a suicide mission to collide with the Desteron.

“It’s going to ram us!” Alea braced.

A black ship blinked into being between the Desteron and the battle cruiser.

It was pure black, and covered in spikes. At the bow, the ship was forked, and between the two arms, a blue ball of energy crackled to life.

The ship fired.

The blue ball of energy hit the Kantos ship and it exploded into tiny pieces.

“Who is that?” Alea breathed.

“More allies.” Gayel smiled.

The viewscreen filled with the image of a man covered in black armor. His visor retracted to show his angular, handsome face.

“Excellent timing, Knightmaster Ashtin,” Gayel said.

The man inclined his head. “My fleet will arrive shortly, Gayel. The Oronis are with you in this fight.”

“Thank you.”

The Oronis ship wheeled around and launched into the battle.

“The storm on the planet is intensifying,” Davion said.

“We need to get down there and shut down the storm and plague,” Alea said. “I can go.”

Gayel’s body rejected the idea. Violently.

He didn’t want her in danger. She watched him, her gaze steady and clearly already preparing to fight.

He shouldn’t have fallen for a warrior.

“You need all your ships and warriors up here to hold the line,” she said. “I can go.”

“And I’m coming with you,” Gayel said.

She jerked. “No. You’re the king—”

“All the more reason to fight for my people. I was a warrior long before I was a king.”

The doors to the bridge opened and Aydin strode in. “I’ve made all the agent we can.”

“Good. Alea and I will get to the surface and stop the Kantos plague.”

“Gayel, as your guard, I forbid this,” Adlyn snapped. Ryphen stood beside her, jaw tight.

Davion shook his head. “Gayel, it’s too dangerous—”

“If we take a strike team, they’ll detect us coming. Alea and I have a better chance of sneaking through alone. I was thinking of taking the explora-pods. They are designed to avoid detection.”

Adlyn cursed.

Davion looked at the floor, his face twisted. “The explora-pods are a good idea, but I’ll go.”

“You have a child on the way,” Gayel said. “And a ship to command.”

“I’ll go,” Adlyn said.

Gayel took his sister’s hand. “You have a child waiting for your return. I’m going to do this.” He looked at Aydin. “Load up the agent onto two explora-pods. Now.”

* * *

“The autopilot will do mostof the work, but you can switch to manual controls if—”

Alea nodded. “I’ve trained in simulators on most Eon spacecraft,” she told Caze.

“Okay,” the security commander said. “If everything goes smoothly, you shouldn’t need manual flight control.”

There was a space battle raging. Alea didn’t think smooth was an option.

She stepped back. The explora-pods looked like glass balls the size of small cars, but they were made of extra-strong Eon plastic reinforced with metal fibers. The pilot’s seat was in the center, and the propulsion system sat beneath and behind, made of toughened gray metal.

She could see the craft would be extremely maneuverable. You had to love Eon tech.

The medical commander and his team were busy loading canisters of the agent into the small cargo areas of the explora-pods.

The doors leading into the hangar opened, and Gayel strode in, wearing his black Eon armor.

There was no sign of the king now, he was pure warrior. His purple-black gaze met hers and she felt a zing.

He stopped beside her. “Are you ready?”

She nodded. “Ready.”

She saw him wrestle with a flash of frustration. “I really want to touch you right now.”

Warmth filled her. “Me, too.”

She watched him drag in a deep breath, his muscles tense. Again, she felt a thrill, knowing that she affected him this way. This powerful, strong warrior.

She’d need to confront her growing feelings for him soon. She couldn’t keep lying to herself or him.

But right now, they didn’t have the time.

They needed to get to the surface and stop the Kantos.

They’d talk after. If they survived.

“The agent is all loaded,” Aydin said.

“We’re ready, then” Gayel said.

“Good luck,” Davion nodded. “May the warriors guide you.”

Gayel gripped Alea’s arm, squeezed it, then climbed into his explora-pod.

Alea slipped through the open door and settled in the seat. A harness slithered across her chest. In the second explora-pod, she watched Gayel settle in his chair. He turned his head and met her gaze through the clear shields and nodded.

She nodded back.

The others left the hangar, and the door of her pod whispered closed. A second later, the main hangar doors opened.

Gayel’s pod lifted, and then darted out at high speed.

Alea pressed the controls, and her pod followed.

She was thrown back in her seat. Wow. The explora-pod was super fast, and even more maneuverable than she’d expected.

They sped away from the Desteron and into hell.

The space battle raged around them. And staring at it, up close and personal, through the clear hull of her small pod made everything in her body clench hard.

Focus, Alea.

She grimly stared ahead. The orb of Orzon hung in the distance.

Gayel’s pod dived, and hers followed. They zipped through the worst of the fighting. Suddenly, a cloud of insect-like swarm ships flew past, engulfing them.

It was like flying into a giant hailstorm.

The explora-pod adjusted, and Alea fought the urge to take the controls.

She saw Gayel’s pod dodge—left, right, up.

Hers followed right behind…then got clipped by a swarm ship.

The explora-pod spun out of control.

Oh, fuck.

She tumbled over and over, her adrenaline racing, her heart in her throat.

Then she hit something else, and went spinning in a different direction. Alarms were blaring.

“Hull integrity at sixty-two percent,” the computer chimed.

Great. Just what she needed, for her ship to splinter apart. She wrenched the controls and spun wildly, nausea hitting her.

“Alea! Alea!” The roar of Gayel’s voice came across the comm line. “Just let the computer correct. It’s designed for this.”

She sucked in a sharp breath, and lifted her hands. It went against every instinct in her body.

The explora-pod spun several more times, turning everything around her into a sickening blur. Then miraculously, it leveled out.

She was panting. Jeez.

“Are you all right?”

Gayel’s explora-pod was right alongside hers. His intense gaze was focused on her like a laser. She took another steadying breath and nodded.

He looked like he wanted to say something, but then he faced forward. His explora-pod shot off.

Alea’s followed.

Another turn, and the planet was right ahead of them, taking up all their vision.

It was beautiful. This close, she could make out the details of the landmasses and oceans. And the growing bank of fearsome clouds spreading across the planet.

Okay, they could do this.

Another alarm sounded. What now?

Gayel’s curse came across the line. “We have a Kantos ship on our tail.”

Oh, shit.She swiveled. The battle behind them was all chaos and movement. She had a perfect view of the Eon, Oronis, and Terran ships.

Then she saw the mid-size Kantos ship coming their way. It looked like a giant flea.

“Alea, we need to go. Now!”

“I’m right behind you.”

The explora-pod launched forward. The planet got closer and closer.

Kantos fire winged pass them. Shit.

“Evade!” Gayel yelled.

The explora-pods dropped, and moved into an evasion pattern, dodging left and right.

They hit the atmosphere, and the ride got even bumpier.

Davion had warned them that the explora-pods were designed for space exploration—exploring asteroid fields and other anomalies. They were less great at going planetside.

She was thrown back in her seat, her teeth rattling.

Please don’t let the Kantos ship follow.

There was a massive jolt and she was thrown forward against her restraints.

Smoke-filled her sphere.

“Gayel, I’m hit!”

“Hold your course, Alea.” His voice was tense. “I’ve tapped into your system. Your pod is damaged, but the propulsion is still intact. You can land.”

“I hear a but,” she said.

“It’ll be bumpy. Your stabilizers are damaged.”

“Oh, great.” The ship was already shaking like crazy. She coughed, the smoke starting to clear.

They were closer to the ground now.

They charged into the boiling clouds, and all she could see was gray.

Then suddenly, they broke free of the churning clouds and the surface came into view. A large body of water, rivers snaking from it, and then dense, green jungle punctuated by pops of color—red, yellow, lime green.

Gayel’s explora-pod disappeared into the canopy.

Oh, God. She saw the tiny clearing he was aiming for.

Then the jungle swallowed her.

She smiled. They were going to make it.

Then her explora-pod dipped and hit tree branches. It jerked finally, then rolled.

Oh, shit.

Everything was a whirl of green, then there was a giant thump.

Alea felt a flash of pain, then the green turned to nothing but black.