Dreadnought: War Mage: Book Two (War Mage Chronicles 2) Read online

  Dreadnought

  War Mage: Book Two

  Charles R Case

  Illustrated by

  Manuel Castanon

  Edited by

  Jen McDonnell

  Case By Case Publishing

  Copyright © 2018 by Charles R Case

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  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

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Authors Note

  1

  Sara lay on her back in the shade of a stubby tree. She had her arms crossed behind her head, her carnelian red hair splayed out like a fan all around her to let the cool breeze tickle the back of her neck. The long grass of the central park in the ancient human city was matted down to form a nest that gave her a little privacy in the bustling grounds.

  She could still smell the smoke of the previous day’s battle, but laying on her back, she could at least block it from her vision. The sky was a deep blue, with fluffy white clouds scuttling across it, unaware of the carnage that had taken place beneath it the day before.

  Alister lifted his head from Sara’s chest, coming awake from his cat nap at the sound of grass swishing against legs. He was laying down, spanning the length of her sternum, his black tail swishing across her belly, and his paws between her breasts. Sara didn't move, knowing full well who was approaching.

  “It’s a beautiful day, Captain,” Sargent Major Baxter said, stopping just inside her peripheral vision and taking a deep breath through his nose, looking to the sky along with her. He had left his Aetheric armor back in the command tent, and was wearing the same skin-tight black battlesuit she was.

  Alister settled his head back down on his paws, and with a few smacks of his lips, closed his yellow eyes and feigned sleep once more. Through their new empathic link, Sara knew he was miles from sleep, just as she was. Her actions at the end of the battle weighed heavily on both their minds. She had tried to kill her own men in a berserker rage; if not for Alister, she would be laying here all alone on this planet, covered in the blood of her own people. She shuddered at the thought, and felt a sympathetic feeling of regret from her familiar.

  Pushing the dark mood to the side for now, she turned to Baxter. He was tall and strong, and cared deeply for his men and their well-being. She admired him greatly for that, and for other things.

  Hours ago, you tried to kill this wonderful man in a rage you could not control. She felt a guilty pang try and slip in, but she quashed it. ‘Control’ is just one more item I need to add to my ‘Things Sara Doesn’t Know How to do Yet’ list.

  “Hello, Baxter. It sure is. Any word from the Raven?” Sara asked, shading her eyes from the sun behind Baxter’s head.

  He looked down at her, giving a halfhearted smile. “The repairs are done, and the reactors are back online. The ship seems to be in fully working order, but…” He trailed off and ran a hand over his short-cropped, white hair that was such a contrast to his dark brown skin. His deep brown eyes wandered away from her gaze.

  “Cora’s still not awake?” she guessed.

  He gave a nod, putting his hands to his hips and taking a deep breath through his nose. He indicated a spot next to her. “Do you mind?”

  She smiled and patted the ground on her other side, “Over here; that way the sun won’t be in my eyes. This tree is shit for shade.”

  Baxter, ever the practical thinker, took a large step over her prone form, causing Alister to twitch in surprise. Sara put a hand on his back to calm him, and, after judging the situation, he closed his eyes once again.

  Stomping down a section of grass, Baxter sank to a cross-legged position, his back straight and strong so he sat high enough to block the sunlight hitting Sara’s face. He plucked a long piece of grass and began to chew on the end while contemplating his next words. With a grimace, he spat out the grass. Then after a moment spat again, to clear the bad taste.

  “It may look like grass, but that stuff tastes like rotten fruit,” he said in explanation before spitting again. “Sorry,” he said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

  Sara shrugged, sliding her hands back behind her head. “That’s okay. I did the same thing half an hour ago.”

  “And you let me do it?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “I like the solidarity of bad experiences. Years from now, we can say something like, ‘It’s not good, but it’s not as bad as the grass on Colony 788’, and we will laugh while everyone around us scratches their head.”

  Baxter’s eyebrows came together. “You’re an odd one, if you don't mind me saying, Captain.” He leaned back on an outstretched arm. “So, you think we will be working together for years?”

  Sara kept her eyes closed, but smiled. “I’m counting on it, Baxter. We will go out among the stars, and have countless adventures. Didn’t you know the Navy is all about seeing far-off and exotic places?”

  Baxter grunted. “That hook didn't work back on Earth. Their line should be, ‘See exotic places, where everyone will try and kill you’.”

  Sara gave him a chuckle.

  A silence built up between them as they enjoyed the short break from organizing the evacuation of the Elif researchers and their security force. The sound of people moving equipment and tearing down temporary structures sounded far away from her grass cocoon, and Baxter seemed to be enjoying the distance, as well.

  They had received word from the United Human Fleet Command (UHFC) after the battle: the Elif had packed up and left the Sol System, saying that they were needed to defend Effrit, the Elif homeworld. No one had heard from Admiral Setti or the High Council in the days since. Fearing another attack on Colony 788 by the Teifen, the UHFC decide to evacuate the Elif themselves and take them to Earth until communications could be re-established. A scout ship had been sent to the Elif home system to determine what had happened, but the ship was not due back for a few more days.

  A destroyer, two cruisers, and a transport ship would be arriving any minute to begin the evacuation. Then Sara would be able to leave this place—and all her guilt—behind. More importantly, she would be back on the Raven, able
to figure out what that core had done to her sister.

  Sara’s comm buzzed, and Ensign Mezner’s cool voice broke her contemplation. “Captain, we picked up four ships jumping insystem. They have been verified as UHF through their transponders. They should be arriving in orbit in two minutes.”

  Sara tapped her earpiece. “Thank you, Mezner. How’s the ship doing?” she asked, unable to help herself. She knew exactly how the ship was doing; it was Cora she wanted to know about.

  Mezner knew what she wanted, too, and her voice took on a slightly somber tone. “No change, ma’am.”

  Sara sat up, making Alister jump to the ground and give her a slightly dirty look. She mouthed ‘sorry’ to him, and he flicked an ear in response before cleaning an already immaculate paw.

  “Thank you, Mezner. We should be up shortly,” she said, tapping the comm to end the call. “You ready? The transport should be here in a few minutes,” she said, looking at Baxter.

  They pushed themselves to their feet and began the short walk to the command tent, which was being taken down a section at a time. She could see that both hers and Baxter’s Aetheric armor had been moved outside, along with a small mountain of crates holding the command center’s hardware.

  A streamer of fire and white smoke dove through the atmosphere like a meteorite. Unlike a meteorite, the object slowed until the fire abated, and then it swung low over the open plain that surrounded the ancient city. Its belly glowed orange for a brief time, then cooled to a white finish streaked with soot. The rumble of the gravitic drives became a tickling in her chest, as the transport ship crossed the ruined city wall.

  Sara could see the broken and still-smoking heaps of the Teifen transports she had smashed in her final assault, and gave a shudder at the feelings that stirred in her. She had killed thousands, and felt nothing but the joy of battle. No remorse, no fear, just pure elation at what her powers had done. Now that elation was replaced with fear and shame. Fear that she would not be able to stop herself next time, and shame that she’d had to be stopped by Alister against her will.

  Alister hopped up onto her shoulder and nudged the side of her head as if to say ‘It’s okay. I’m here for you.’ She smiled and gave him a scratch under the chin.

  The transport came straight in, its stubby landing pads extending from the sleek body like legs of a malformed beetle. A rush of air washed over her and Baxter as the huge transport settled on the grassy field in front of them.

  The ship was five stories tall, with a bank of windows overhanging the top lip, where the bridge was positioned. A hissing sound preceded the entire front of the ship splitting open to reveal three floors of cargo space. A ramp extended slowly to the ground as the gravitic engines cut off, leaving a deafening silence in their wake.

  Baxter opened his battalion-wide comm channel. “All right, people. Let’s get this boat loaded,” he said, whipping his hand over his head in a circular motion. He marched off toward a group of Elif and continued to bark orders.

  Sara muted the channel, not needing to hear what should be loaded first and who was going where. Instead, she looked up to the sky and spotted the three silvery flashes: the destroyer and two cruisers, flying in formation. She then looked to the small moon just coming over the horizon. The Raven was on the surface of that moon, and she couldn't wait to get there.

  Don’t worry, Cora. I’ll be there soon. I can fix this, she thought, hoping she could.

  2

  The loading of the transport took far too long for Sara’s liking. She knew the troops were moving as fast as they could, and she didn't want to push them too hard, after the last few days of intense battle. They had lost friends and comrades in the fighting, and some were still recovering, even if their wounds had been healed by the mages. They had lost over a hundred Marines and twice as many Elif. Sara felt some shame at her impatience when the long line of coffins was being carried aboard the transport.

  She didn’t think to ask, but guessed that there were enough foldable coffins stored on the Raven to bury them all. That thought shut down any irritability her mind was trying to push. She was responsible for those deaths; they were her troops, and she had ordered them to the surface to defend a place they had never seen, and would never see again. One hundred and twenty-seven Marines were going home in a box because she had been too scared to complete the Familiar spell.

  Alister gave her head a light smack from where he perched on her shoulder. She glanced his way, and he gave her a disapproving glare. She could feel his reproach at her train of thought, even if he didn't know the specifics.

  This empathic link is going to take some getting used to, she thought, giving him a little nod and trying not to be too hard on herself.

  After a few hours, the transport and the three dropships were loaded and ready to go. Sara and Baxter watched as the transport lifted off, folding its landing struts into its belly. The rumbling of the huge gravitic drives made her chest rattle till the transport was high in the atmosphere and gaining speed for orbit.

  They were the last two to board the final dropship. Sara looked out the window at the smoking and abandoned city falling away, until it was obscured by clouds and distance, as the ship rumbled and swayed its way off-planet. Colony 788 would be remembered, if never visited again. It was where the second core had been discovered, full of plans from a long-dead, human civilization that had called the stars home. It was the place the first Teifen / Human battle had taken place. It was where the first War Mage in thirty thousand years had been born. It was the place where she had lost the first of her men.

  She knew it would not be the last.

  “We tried to have Ensign Boon do it, seeing as she was the one who installed the core in the first place, but the damn thing keeps throwing up an error message,” Chief Engineer Sabine said, frustration etched into his olive-skinned features.

  Sara was standing in front of Cora’s tank on the engineering deck of the Raven. She looked over her shoulder at her cabin girl, Alicia Boon, who was trying not to be in anyone’s way and failing miserably.

  “Oh, excuse me,” Boon said, stepping out of Caroline Green’s path, only to have Teichek ask her to move so he could plug a cord into the back of the console Boon had scooted behind. The small, blonde woman scowled at her predicament and took a step back.

  Sara felt bad for her, but was also a little fascinated that she was able to handle and initiate the core that was now spinning happily in the box attached to Cora’s tank. She would need to talk with Boon more, once this was all over.

  “Show me the error,” Sara said, stepping up to Sabine’s console and leaning over his chair to better see the display.

  He pulled up a screenshot of the screen he was currently on, but in the center was a box containing a warning that read, ‘Unauthorized user attempt. Core unable to complete boot process. Final User required’.

  Sara frowned at the message. “Is it talking about Cora? She would be the ‘final user’, right?”

  Sabine’s shoulders slumped. “We don't think so. It’s pretty obvious that the controller needs to be in the tank as part of the boot sequence.”

  “We’re picking up some brain activity,” Caroline interjected. “Cora’s interacting with the core. The readings were all over the place for the first twenty or so hours, then kind of dropped off to a pattern indicative of sleep, but with a repeating spike. Like it’s periodically looking for signal or something.”

  Sabine nodded along with the technician’s report. “We think it’s talking about you,” he told Sara.

  “Me? I didn't have anything to do with its installation. Why would it need me…” She trailed off as she thought about it. “Oh. The twin thing. Right. Genetically, we’re the same person.”

  Sabine touched his nose conspiratorially. “Exactly.”

  “That makes the Elif’s behavior about twins sort of make sense,” she mused.

  “Uh, what behavior?” Sabine asked.

  “The Elif refer to a set
of twins as the same person. They understand that we think of ourselves as separate, but in their culture, twins are viewed as singular. They even have the same names,” Sara said, walking up to the tank and pressing a hand to the glass.

  “That’s… odd,” he said.

  Sara could almost feel her sister’s presence through the glass, but she decided the feeling was in her head. Alister wove his way between her legs, rubbing his cheeks on her ankles in solidarity.

  “Okay, what have you tried so far?” Sara asked, still looking at Cora’s floating form. Her sister’s silver bodysuit caught the light as she gently drifted back and forth.

  Boon stepped up at the question, snapping to attention. “The scanner, ma’am. I just pressed my thumb to it, and we got the error message,” she said, back rigid and arms straight by her sides.

  Sara gave the young woman a warm smile. “At ease, Ensign. You’re not on trial.”

  Boon relaxed, but only slightly. “Thank you, ma’am. I did my best. If I did something that put Captain Cora in danger…” She trailed off, not knowing exactly what the punishment for activating ancient tech would be.

  Sara gave her a half-smile. “You did nothing wrong, Boon. In fact, I’m very happy to know that there is someone else I can trust to handle the cores. I’m sure your services will be needed again. I can't be everywhere at once.”