Will of the Reaper: A military Scifi Epic (The Last Reaper Book 7) Read online

  Copyrighted Material

  Will of the Reaper Copyright © 2019 by Variant Publications

  Book design and layout copyright © 2019 by JN Chaney

  This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living, dead, or undead, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from JN Chaney.

  www.jnchaney.com

  http://www.scottmoonwriter.com

  1st Edition

  CONTENTS

  Don’t Miss Out

  Previously in Wrath of the Reaper

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Epilogue

  List of Acronyms

  Ship and Character Names

  Join the Conversation

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  About The Authors

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  PREVIOUSLY IN WRATH OF THE REAPER

  The people of Wallach and Xad struggled to assemble a massive exodus fleet. Plagued with technical problems and challenged by learning each other’s cultures, they worked out a system of shared leadership.

  Halak Cain and his friends unraveled the secrets of Doctor Jaxon Ayers, discovering not only that Vice Admiral Neb’s had been using DNA from an archeology site, but that these new weapons of war were probably going to anger a dangerous alien race.

  Most important to Cain, his mother and sister were finally revived from their cry-pods.

  To make all of this happen, Cain and Elise had to venture onto the most dangerous planet they’d yet encountered. Cut off from the fleet by an Alon scout ship communications jammer, they were attacked by a seemingly benign life force that used solar collection to scour the surface of the planet as they fought to get back into space. When they finally made it back to the fleet, some of the alien hybrids had broken free of their cryo-pods and began a murderous rampage. Perhaps worst of all, Cain realized Doctor Ayers had escaped with some of his mutant experiments.

  Cain and his friends put a stop to the crazed hybrids and learned Ayers definitely used them to create as much chaos as possible. When it was all said and done, Cain and his closest allies decided the best thing they could do for the fleet was to leave it so they could go after Ayers and the abominations the man created.

  1

  “Again?” I stared at a holographic view of the slip tunnel closing on the other side of the system. From this angle it was a giant green ring in the distance, then it was gone.

  The two other ships in my little task force spread out to avoid being ambushed just as we had planned. We were ready for a fight seconds after arriving, because I really thought we had caught up with Ayers this time.

  “That’s the third slip tunnel and the third time he ditched us,” Elise said, arms crossing as she leaned back in the co-pilot’s chair. Her face was flushed, probably because she had psyched herself up for a major confrontation.

  “Doctor Ayers is able to traverse each system more quickly because he does not deploy three ships in a combat ready perimeter around each slip tunnel opening,” X-37 said, his tone pointed. “He simply travels as fast as he can to the next opening.”

  “I get it,” I said. “But we have to be smart. If we rush, we'll run into a minefield or get ambushed. This is uncharted space. There could be Alon warships or aliens. Maybe something worse, who the hell knows?”

  “I’m not arguing with you, Reaper Cain, but merely stating facts,” X-37 said.

  “Encountering aliens might be the best thing that could happen to us.” Henshaw’s demeanor was subdued, probably because he knew I was already mad enough to throw him in a cell or push him out of an airlock. His mistake with Ayers and the hybrids had gotten people killed.

  “The bodies we found on the Alon ship didn’t look friendly. A few of them wiped out the crew of an entire star cruiser,” Elise said.

  “Which suggests they could be potential allies. The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” Henshaw said. “Before you argue, I understand the danger and I agree we should be careful when making first contact. But you must admit, we could use allies.”

  I decided to let Henshaw wonder what I thought of that idea rather than answer. “Captain Hunger, Captain Dempsy, report.”

  “Our sector is clear. We are ready to proceed to the next slip tunnel opening,” Captain Dan Hunger of the RWS Battle Axe answered.

  “Jellybird copies. Captain Dempsy, have you found anything?” I asked.

  “There are no enemies to fight and nothing to salvage here,” Captain Yolanda Dempsy of the Striker of Xad said.

  “Good. Let’s move in a wedge formation with one thousand kilometers of separation. This system doesn’t have much to offer other than the slip tunnel openings,” I said. “Elise, take over.”

  “Right away, Reaper,” Elise said with a salute straight out of an action holo drama. The dynamic young woman was a popular topic of conversation among the people of Xad. Her self-styled uniform was a combination of formality, flash, and function. Despite all of that, only Path surpassed her crazy hair. She had a way of making it appear short or long depending on her mood.

  It was hard to know how seriously I should take her attempts to imitate the Xad formality while retaining her rebellious originality. X-37 suggested that any mistake on my part would lead to a personality crisis. I disagreed. The kid wasn't so much of a kid anymore.

  I left the bridge and wandered the short, narrow hallways of the Jellybird. After so much time on the Bright Lance of Xad, I’d grown accustomed to long walks to clear my head.

  “Is there a problem, Reaper Cain?” X-37 asked.

  “Do I have to pick one, or can I dump every setback and challenge on you?”

  My limited artificial intelligence was unfazed by my sarcasm. “You may do whatever you like, Reaper Cain.”

  “I’m thinking about Briggs,” I said. The Union spec ops commander had been a last-minute addition to this mission. For reasons I couldn’t articulate to Elise or the rest of my team, I believed his presence would be vital to our success. Or maybe I just felt bad for the man who had once allowed Elise and me to escape a Union trap. Leaving him behind might have meant his death.

  Coronas and Rejon wanted to keep all of the u
nconscious hybrids alive to study. But I understood the back and forth politics of the issue. They might not be able to protect the remaining hybrids if public opinion demanded they be jettisoned. Hell, it hadn’t been so long ago that they were arguing the hybrids should be destroyed along with anything or anyone threatening the combined fleet.

  I wouldn't have a problem with that if it weren't for Briggs and others like him who I had known during my spec ops years.

  “I think I did the right thing by bringing Briggs, but I'm worried he is still being affected by the DNA splicing,” I said.

  “As you should be, Reaper Cain. The man has been thoroughly compromised by the genetic experimentation of Doctor Ayers. And since you brought it up, Jelly and I have noticed that the changes he is experiencing spike each time we leave a slip tunnel,” X-37 said.

  “I better check on him.” Before I finished the sentence, I was heading for the modified storage area we used as a brig.

  “One moment, Reaper Cain. I’m accessing archival data now. There is insufficient evidence to prove Commander Briggs and his team attempted to kill you on Dreadmax,” X-37 said. “Marley Callus and his team actively assaulted you and your friends. If my analysis properly follows the organizational chart of Union special operations, it would lead a reasonable person to believe that Commander Briggs must have had some involvement in the attempt on your life. But that is not the same thing as trying to murder you himself—at that time.”

  I was distracted but tried to listen as I stopped outside the containment door to Briggs’s cell. “Uh huh. Right.”

  “Briggs and Sergeant Crank also engaged you with an exceptional level of violence on Greendale,” X-37 continued.

  I snapped out of my reverie. “And at the end, he let us go when he could have easily stopped us.”

  “Correct, Reaper Cain,” X-37 said. “This indicates a change of heart but does not tell us with any degree of accuracy how the man behaved after we parted ways.”

  “I know, X. But what I see in that cell is a human tortured by science,” I said. “And that’s something I can relate to.”

  “Are you going into the cell or shall I open a communications link?” X-37 asked.

  “I’m going in.” The decision felt wrong. A form of dread I didn't recognize spread through me until it felt like a physical thing. I pushed it away. One thing I had learned during my long career was that fear came in many different forms and wasn’t always bad. “Keep me on my toes, X. If I start to slip or make bad decisions, start kicking my ass the moment I screw up.”

  “I will do my best, Reaper Cain. You know my limitations well, of course. Shall I have Elise or Path standby in Archangel armor in case you need to be dragged clear of the cell?”

  “If you tell either of them what I’m doing, they’ll freak out,” I said. “Path won’t look like he’s freaking out, but you know what I mean.”

  “I believe I understand perfectly, Reaper Cain.”

  “Let’s compromise. Make sure they’re not busy and are as close as possible to my location without actually telling them what I’m doing,” I said.

  “I have requested a test of the Archangel gear and suggested they perform maneuvers in the main storage bay, which is reasonably near your location, X-37 said.

  “Perfect.” I opened the door and stepped into the small room. Commander Briggs was squatting in the corner, his face toward the wall.

  “He may be sleeping,” X-37 said.

  Putting aside my instinct to talk, I watched the man who had been a dedicated soldier of the Union. Not many people made it through the selection process for spec ops. Few stayed at the top of their game as long as he had.

  We hadn't been friends. It was important to remember that. Especially if I had to do something unpleasant to protect the people I cared about.

  The man's posture changed and I was reminded how much bigger he was now than he had been during our encounter in the BSMP warden’s office. Alien DNA had been spliced into his, probably against his will, but who knew.

  “Are you awake?” I asked when he had shifted his balance several times without standing from the deep squat that almost looked painful.

  He turned and rose to his full height, towering over me, and I wasn't short. “I am conscious. I wish I wasn't.”

  “How are you feeling?” I asked.

  He glared at me with his strange eyes—not with malice, but like he was trying to decide who and what I was. “I feel like I'm being ripped apart and put back together second by second. It's not always a bad feeling.”

  Creepy, I thought, waiting for more of an explanation.

  “Most of the time it's pure hell. I'm not gonna lie.” He flinched every other word as though the DNA manipulation forced upon him was emphasizing his point.

  “What can you tell me about the aliens Ayers was trying to bring back?”

  He laughed without humor. “Ayers doesn't know what the fuck he is doing. I know more about the Sansein than he does.”

  “I would like to know where he came up with that name if Doctors Ayers hasn't already provided the term,” X-37 said.

  Our eyes met and he realized what had just happened. I knew without asking a question that the man wouldn't be able to tell me where the name of the aliens had come from. This opened a Pandora's box of scientific inquiry that I thought would keep Ayers, Henshaw, and all of the fleet’s scientists busy for years.

  “Sansein?” I asked.

  He looked almost embarrassed but also at peace with the situation, a type of resolve I assumed came from his experience and hard training. “I don't know if that is actually the word, but that is the best way to say it in our language. It's more of an image, or pair of images, actually. Everything with the Sansein seems to be binary.”

  “You're talking about some sort of genetic memory, right?”

  He nodded, then shrugged.

  “His ability to articulate this information is more than enough reason to keep him alive, as well as any other hybrids that are awakened from the cryo-pods,” X-37 said. “I will prepare a brief to present to President Coronas and Rejon of Xad. I understand why Ayers and Henshaw are fascinated with this development.”

  I wanted to ask my limited artificial intelligence how he could be so clinical, but it wasn't worth the complicated series of nonverbal signals it would take to argue without talking aloud in front of Briggs. Now my focus had to be on the former spec ops commander. Not least because he was dangerous. There was a sense of menace beneath his calm demeanor.

  “Why did you bring me on this mission?” Briggs asked.

  “It's just a hunch. I think you have more to tell me.”

  He didn't say anything. Once or twice, he flinched. For a moment, I thought he would squat down and turn away, but he controlled himself with almost visible effort.

  “We'll try to help you if we can,” I said. It sounded lame but there it was.

  “You could do something for me.” The volume of his voice was so minimal that I barely heard him and made a mental note to review the recording later to be sure I hadn't missed something. Sometimes, when he spoke, his lips moved more than was needed to make the words.

  “I can't let you go.”

  He took a step forward, making me feel truly vulnerable for the first time since I was a child cornered by gangs in the dark streets and alleys of Boyer 5.

  “You could let me go. Do it right now. Just put me in the airlock and push me out.”

  He laughed nervously.

  “You hate what this experiment is doing to you. I get it,” I said.

  He laughed harder, turning away slightly and retreating a step. “I don't even know if I would die in the void. Wouldn't that just fucking suck, drifting around half alive freezing my balls off.”

  “Worst way to die I can think of,” I said, and we both laughed like we were hanging trash on each other after a mission before I'd become a Reaper and he'd become a Slayer.

  “Think about it, Cain. It might be easier
to get rid of me now than later. You know I'm changing, right?”

  I nodded and briefly considered asking him about what X-37 had observed. I wanted to know if every slip tunnel was going to accelerate his change. But something stopped me from asking the question—instinct maybe.

  “Let me know if you need anything. And if you think of more alien secrets we can use to keep humanity from getting wiped from the galaxy, tell me immediately. Jelly knows to listen for you no matter where you are on the ship,” I said.

  “Roger that,” Briggs said.

  The phrase, and the way he said it, made him seem more human than he had since I saw him on Greendale, despite his strange, alien appearance now.

  After my interview with Briggs, walking the halls wasn't enough to quiet my mind. Apparently, we’d been in there talking for longer than I thought because Path and Elise had completed their Archangel training and gone back to their cabins. Tom and Henshaw were manning the bridge, discussing theories and playing cards.

  I entered our gymnasium without turning on the lights. That didn't mean it was pitch black, but it was gloomy. Before long, I was running to the glow of the treadmill’s kilometers display. I'd learned long ago to endure training marches up to fifty or even a hundred kilometers. The union never required us to run that far in a single stretch, but several of us took on adventure race challenges that lasted days with barely any rest.