The Immortal War Read online

  The bulky starship gained definition the closer it got. The team moved out of the way, and the Sally set down in the clearing, and right on top of the small shuttle. The weight of the muleship smashed the vehicle into the thickness of a baking pan before the landing gases disappeared into the atmosphere of the station. The rear landing bay door fell open and the team ran inside, keeping their distance from the still radiant mutants. The door rose up and locked into position even as the Sally was lifting away and bolting for space.

  The mutants remained in the landing bay while the three Humans raced inside the ship and to the bridge.

  The place was packed. Even the five mercenaries were there, their eyes locked on the various monitoring screens, some with an outside view of the station and others showing graphic displays of the battle about to take place in the surrounding space.

  “Welcome back,” said the master chief. “I take it with the mutants coming along for the ride your mission was a success.”

  “Not hardly,” Adam replied. “Kracion got his wish. He’s immortal and more a threat than ever.”

  “How is that so?” Tidus asked. The towering Juirean was at one of the all-purpose stations. The Sally was bolting away, from both the station and the battle field, not wanting any part of either.

  “He found a way. We’ll explain later.” Adam moved up next to the Juirean. “What’s going on? Is the fleet going to take them on? That’s crazy.”

  He triggered a comm link, dialing in a military access code.

  “This is Adam Cain calling the nearby Human fleet. Come in.”

  The line crackled. “This is Captain Quinton McCurry, commander of the fleet.”

  “Captain, what are you doing? You know you can’t go up against the Klin ships. And keep your distance from the Aris station as well. It’s about to blow.”

  “We are a half light out from the station, Captain Cain. And as far as taking on the Klin, we have a strategy we are about to check out. Whether we stay and fight or run for the hills will be known momentarily. Please stay off the line until we know which. I’m a little busy at the moment.”

  The line went dead.

  “I guess he told you,” Copernicus said, no humor in his voice. He was just as worried as the rest of them. The last thing they needed was to have more ships destroyed in a losing cause.

  “The Klin are firing,” Tidus reported from his station. “Using their concentrated beam weapons.”

  Although the Sally was too far out to see the battle visually, the graphics were able to convert the readings into fairly decent representations of what was happening. To their delight, they could see that a number of the Klin beams were being diverted away from their targets. The diffusion screens now carried stronger signals and were angled at such a degree as to deflect the deadly force away from the ships. But not all were so lucky. Easily a third of the beams managed to reach the hulls of the Human ships, yet most didn’t follow direct paths, the screens managing to divert the beams enough to cause them to miss their intended locations. The ships didn’t explode, operating now in depressurized status, yet there was still damage. Other beams reached the shields unaffected by the angle, burning into hull metal and slicing through large sections. These ships began to break apart, while escape pods with abandoning crews filled the space around the condemned vessels.

  Yet this was still better than any force had done against the Klin invaders. It was progress. And the Human warships were inflicting damage on the small Klin fleet. Their defensive systems were nothing to write home about. They relied on the power of their offensive weapons to protect them. Now the overwhelming number of allied ships was taking a toll. Soon, Kracion was down to only five standard Klin ships before his flagship appeared from the surface of the Aris station and the squadron bolted from the area.

  Then the station exploded. It was a tremendous event, like a miniature supernova. Apparently, the station was already rigged for self-destruction, a precaution from billions of years before in case of some unforeseen happenstance.

  “Where’s he going?” Riyad asked once the screens cleared and no sign of the Klin ships remained.

  Adam snorted. “Anywhere he damn well pleases.”

  “And with the Klin pouring into the Milky Way through the portal in the Dysion Void, he’s going to have all the firepower he needs,” Copernicus added.

  “Another bad thing,” Adam said. “He probably has other tricks up his sleeve he hasn’t even had time to show the Klin. Their beam weapons are bad enough. Who knows what he’ll throw at us next.”

  “And now he has all the time he needs to take us down…all of us.” Coop finished off the topic.

  The bridge was silent for a long moment until the mutants entered, having wrapped themselves in storage tarps for modesty. The mercs backed away; they knew the beings by reputation only, and now they were in the same room with the immortals. Unfortunately, Adam thought, they’re no longer the only immortals in the galaxy.

  Adam made the introductions, ending with Monty Pitts.

  “We thank you for your expeditious rescue, Master Chief Pitts,” Panur said, extending his hand. His skin was still warm to the touch, but Monty took it anyway.

  “Anyone care to explain what just happened?” Monty growled. “I thought this Kracion dude couldn’t become immortal without assimilating one of you.”

  “Unfortunately, there was still some of my prior creation available on the station,” Panur said.

  Monty looked at the others in the room. “And now we’re screwed? Is that what the understanding is? The whole purpose of this mission was to stop Kracion from becoming immortal. And if he succeeded, then all would be lost. Is that how it is? Are we all fucked?”

  “Our challenge has definitely increased exponentially,” Lila said. “Yet all is not lost. Now that we know for sure what we are up against, we can devise strategies and defenses. There is still hope.”

  Adam looked out the forward viewport of the Mustang Sally, at the blackness of space and the fire of the distant stars. He shrugged.

  “Hope?” he said to the room. “We better have more than that going for us. Hope and a buck will get you a cup of coffee, but not much more. It’s going to take a whole lot of luck as well.”

  26

  Kracion set a course for the second Aris station. This was where the technicians were kept, all in their encasement chambers, waiting. He laughed. Waiting for what? They, like the Privileged, had been kept alive all these billions of years. Yet unlike Nunki and his kind, Kracion’s people did not have a certain future waiting for them. Even if the Apex Being project had failed, the Privileged would have moved on to another future. They would achieve their immortality, even if not in the most ideal manner. Yet the technicians would not share in that future. Indeed, there would come a time when they would all be replaced by the mechanical servants of robots and service modules.

  But now….

  Now Kracion could offer them something. He had twenty-seven vials of immortality with him and the means to deliver it. He could lead a small army of immortal Aris against this galaxy and many more, if the spirit moved them, and across multiple universes. Yet he’d already worked out the scenarios. If he allowed other Aris to become immortal, then he would not be in a unique position to lead them. He would then be just one among many.

  Just as he considered himself a god to the galaxy, he could only claim that title because of his unique status among the living beings in existence. He alone would be forever. That would make him the god he—and they—imagined him to be.

  Yet the mutants still lived. He laughed again. Lived was such an arbitrary term when used in this context. Even if assimilated, the immortals would have lived on, only in another form, as J’nae did within him now. He thought of the consequences of their continued existence. Were they a threat to him? Definitely. They were not only immortal, but geniuses as well; witness Panur and his creation of the J’nae creature.

  So…there would be three gods in
existence. Was that such a bad thing? It could be. The mutants would not stop planning his demise—ever. And the danger didn’t come from the threats he could see, but from those he couldn’t. Although he was intelligent beyond compare, he couldn’t predict the future. There may come a time when the mutants could devise a counter to him, either a way to destroy or contain him.

  Kracion shrugged off his current concerns. Knowing that the mutants were free and a threat to him was enough at this point. He would continue to look for ways to destroy or contain them, even as they did the same regarding him.

  In the meantime, Kracion had a galaxy to conquer. And as he had proclaimed before, he would accept no surrender before its time. And that time would come only after the galaxy knew what he could do. Only when the fear of him was absolute would he allow the beings of the Milky Way galaxy to bow at his feet. And foremost among them would be the obstinate Human Adam Cain.

  But first, Kracion—the immortal Aris—had to become the destroyer of worlds.

  The End

  Coming next…

  The Human Chronicles Saga #26

  Destroyer of Worlds

  December 2018

  Don’t miss a thing!

  Sign up to be added to my master email list. As a member, you’ll receive updates and announcements, including release notices of upcoming books, purchase specials, free books and more.

  Subscribe to My Email List

  Contact the Author

  Email: [email protected]

  Website: bytrharris.com

  Novels by T.R. Harris

  The Human Chronicles Saga

  The Fringe Worlds

  Alien Assassin

  The War of Pawns

  The Tactics of Revenge

  The Legend of Earth

  Cain’s Crusaders

  The Apex Predator

  A Galaxy to Conquer

  The Masters of War

  Prelude to War

  The Unreachable Stars

  When Earth Reigned Supreme

  A Clash of Aliens

  Battlelines

  The Copernicus Deception

  Scorched Earth

  Alien Games

  The Cain Legacy

  The Andromeda Mission

  Last Species Standing

  Invasion Force

  Force of Gravity

  Mission Critical

  The Lost Universe

  Destroyer of Worlds

  The Human Chronicles Book Bundles

  Bundle #1 - Books 1 -5 in the series

  Bundle #2 - Books 6-10 in the series

  REV Warriors Series

  REV

  REV: Renegades

  REV: Rebirth

  Jason King – Agent to the Stars Series

  The Enclaves of Sylox

  Treasure of the Galactic Lights

  The Drone Wars Series

  Day of the Drone

  In collaboration with George Wier…

  The Liberation Series

  Captains Malicious

  Available exclusively on Amazon.com

  and Kindle Unlimited.