The Darkside War (18 page)

32

The hopper rattled and the green hills of upstate New York slid by the open side door. The Empire State base commanding officer had given me leave and let me borrow a hopper piloted by a newly promoted human pilot.

The Accordance was getting nervous, I thought, if they were letting us fly craft now.

I ran a hand down my uniform grays with the single red bar of command on my right shoulder.

What could I tell them about my decision to accept command and collaborate with the enemy?

I understood my father's desire to escape the occupation. I'd seen his desire to see people freed burn inside him since I was a child.

They'd hate what I represented. They would turn their back on me. It would hurt.

But that didn't mean I didn't want to see them.

In some ways, this upcoming visit might end up being the most alien encounter I'd had yet since joining the Colonial Protection Forces.

A long streak of lightning danced across the blue sky. A slow pinprick of light unfurled into a flower of fire that hung in place.

“Lieutenant,” the pilot called back at me. “Did you see that?”

“That's orbital,” I shouted back. “You hearing anything?”

“Chatter, nothing official.” The hopper flared and slowed, spiraling down to land near a road leading into a forest. We arrived at the property my parents had just been moved to. A pair of guards at the end of the road walked toward the hopper as the skids hit gravel.

More pinpricks blossomed in the sky.

“That looks serious,” the pilot shouted. “That looks really serious.”

“It's probably automated Conglomerate probes against the orbital forts,” I said.

“Someone just said the space station got hit. It's lost.” The Accordance had refused to put protection around the creaky old human station. Not a military asset or necessity.

Gravel spat against the side of the hopper as the engines pounded at the road.

I looked down the road and bit my lip. “Take us up,” I ordered. “Get me to the Hamptons.”

The hopper scraped along the road and then got airborne with a screech of power.

My earpiece buzzed. I glanced at my wrist and accepted the call. Only one person would be using an unlisted contact to try to reach me.

Amira's voice filled my right ear suddenly. “Hey, Devlin, you seeing all this?”

“Where have you
been
?” I asked.

She moved past the question. “I just talked to Ken. The Accordance is mobilizing the CPF. No more shipping us off to other worlds, everything is getting set up to fight right here in our own solar system.”

“You said ‘us.' I thought you'd left.”

“I wanted a vacation without anyone giving me orders,” Amira said. “Consider it personal leave. They owe me that, after everything they've done. But as much as I hate the Accordance, Devlin, the Conglomeration is worse. You know that.”

“I do,” I said. “I already agreed to stay in. I've been helping recruit—”

“I know, you've been bunking down at the Empire State barracks. I'm in New Haven, coordinates in a few minutes once I pick a spot. Come pick me up.”

“Yes, ma'am,” I said crisply.

“Fuck you,” she said conversationally. Then hesitated. “Make sure you arm up. People around here don't react well to seeing CPF.”

She cut the connection. My wrist buzzed and displayed the coordinates.

The hopper curved around a foothill, and the road leading back toward my parents disappeared.

33

We fell into a buffeting storm, straps holding us secure to the benches in the craft. Outside, Saturn's horrific winds howled and tossed us around.

With each second the pressure squeezed the jumpship more. Outer armor plates pushed in hard enough to make the bulkheads groan.

“There's something out there in the dark,” I shouted at everyone, yanking their attention away from the visibly distorting hull plates. “And we are part of an elite force of human fighters striking back against it. Accordance commanders might lead us, but we are a
human
fighting force.”

Amira held up three fingers. Touchdown was imminent. Something exploded nearby, jerking the entire craft sideways and smacking us around. Close.

I tapped the stylized Earth and pockmarked moon on my shoulder. “We are the Icarus Corps. And we will make sure our world remains right where it is.”

“Damn right,” Ken said from the other side of the craft. None of us was sure how well the Accordance would support us. They were keeping their weaponry to themselves, leaving us to fighting with human guns. And if they cut and run, we probably wouldn't stand long against the Conglomeration. “So we will fight. Fight harder than the Accordance. Harder than the Conglomeration. Because they
can
be beat. And we have
everything
on the line.”

“And if you think Accordance commanders expect a lot out of you, it's nothing compared to what we expect,” Amira said, and made a fist. “Seal up!”

Helmets snapped into place with a hiss.

A second later the craft struck. The ramp dropped open and the interior of the craft filled with reddish, yellow storming air.

“Out.”

Explosions blanketed the air above us. A full-on firefight. Arrow-shaped Stingrays darted about as they tried to pierce the crisscross lines of defensive fire, but burst apart and rolled off deep into the clouds.

The sun was a bright daystar from here. Or maybe that was a ship burning in orbit far overhead.

“Cover,” Ken said. A twinkling star slammed into the side of the jumpship we'd just exited, ripping it apart. The debris sizzled and sunk into the fleshy surface under our boots.

“No way back but forward.” Amira took point and started moving forward.

We stood on the surface of a Conglomerate mining facility. Large, gelatinous, the floating structure in Saturn's clouds stretched ahead of us for a mile. Treelike spines spouted flaring gas, lighting the hellish landscape randomly. Pockmarked ridges in the living hull provided hiding space for hostiles.

“Troll,” Amira said, pointing into the distance. The chilling and familiar shape thudded toward us.

“Crickets,” Ken reported.

“Okay.” I pulled my MP9 up tight and looked around at my team in their black armor. “Let's go show them who they're fucking with.”

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. + The text for this book is set in Bembo Infant. + Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data + Brown, Zachary. + The Darkside War / Zachary Brown. — First edition. + pages cm. — (The Icarus Corps ; Book one) + Summary: “For ages, people have looked at the stars and wondered if we were alone in the universe. Now we damn well wish we were . . . There are many aliens out there. They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. You will probably fight besides creatures that will haunt your nightmares long after you leave the service, and they're the good guys. However, if you want to survive your first encounter with the enemy there are five aliens that you need to learn to spot on sight. Pay attention now and you might live to see your mama again someday. These are the enemies of the Accordance. Our enemies. They are the Conglomeration, and they seek to destroy us. So we will destroy them first. Devlin Hart becomes part of an irregular army for an alien civilization. A reluctant recruit, he's only here because his parents have been captured by the alien Accordance. Devlin will have to decide where his real allegiances are: because the enemy of the enemy is not always a friend. In this case, they're a far, far worse threat”— Provided by publisher. + ISBN 978-1-4814-3035-7 (paperback) — ISBN 978-1-4814-3036-4 (ebook) + 1. Human-alien encounters—Fiction. 2. Science fiction. I. Title. + PS3602.R726D37 2015 + 813'.6—dc23 + 2014048849