Collision (Colliding Worlds Trilogy Book 1) Read online

  “Your aim’s not that good yet,” she retorted.

  “It’s better than your clichés.” She sighed and looked down at her watch. The ships should be arriving at the base any minute now. She walked over and set the blaster in its charger on the weapons wall. “I hope everything goes well.”

  “It will,” Nalea said. “We hit the jackpop this time. Apolo’s informant provided us with the location of their primary camp, and he’s never fed us bad information before.”

  “First, it’s jackpot, which further proves my point that my aim is far better than your clichés. Second, that’s great news. If we could take a camp that big, we could handicap them in one blow.”

  “That’s the plan.”

  Sienna thought for a second. “We could shoot some more while we wait, or… I have an unopened bottle of wine in my room.”

  Nalea grinned. “Wine, definitely.”

  “We’ll grab it and head down to the gardens,” Sienna said.

  “That’s the best idea I’ve heard all day.”

  They headed down the dim hallways toward her room. About halfway there, alarms screeched and lights blinked in muted neon colors down the hallway.

  “What’s going on?” Sienna asked, glancing around.

  The intercom answered her first. The wards have been breached was repeated over and over. Lucky for her, the Sephians had switched everything to English in a step toward integration.

  Nalea and Sienna shot each other a quick look before the pair raced toward the tech-hub, and were the first to join the comm-tech on duty.

  “Status,” Nalea commanded.

  The comm-tech started speaking in Sephian until he saw Sienna and switched to heavily-accented English. “Security has been disconnected at checkpoints Ohni, Ufen, and Teni. No reports from any checkpoints yet. Com-screens are also down everywhere. The entire base is off-grid.”

  “System failure?” Nalea asked.

  “No. We verified. All systems are online,” the comm-tech replied, stress crackling his voice.

  “How could security just disappear in so many places at once?” Sienna asked.

  “Invasion?” The words were no more than a whisper as they passed from Nalea’s lips.

  Sienna froze. Most of their troops were on the mission. The base was protected by nothing more than a skeleton force right now. They didn’t stand a chance against any kind of large attack. “Have you notified Apolo?” she asked.

  He gave her a blank stare. Sienna put her hand on the comm-tech’s shoulders. “Tanel? That’s your name, right?”

  He nodded.

  She looked him straight in the eye. “Tanel, have you contacted Apolo?”

  Tanel wiped his brow with his forearm. “I tried, but all communications are blocked. I don’t know what else to do.”

  “Keep trying. Let Lea or me know as soon as you get stats on what we’re up against.” She turned to Nalea. “We got to find out if it’s Draeken or my people. Or Sephian. And how many.”

  Nalea nodded. “We need weapons.”

  “What is the protocol for emergencies?” Sienna asked Tanel.

  “Um… Um…” Tanel stammered several times before reciting the emergency management plan. “All non-troops should lock themselves in their rooms—they should know that already. Then… Gods, I don’t know. Apolo always handles everything.”

  The comm-tech looked like he was going to freak out. She grabbed his shoulders and looked him in the eye. “Okay, Tanel. It’s going to be all right. Check the protocols. Use the base-wide communications to remind everyone of protocol. Lea and I will cover things until you can reach Apolo. Do you have some kind of portable unit that can’t be cut?”

  Tanel scrambled through a drawer and grabbed a couple of small devices. “These coms are used for system tests, so they’re kept decoupled from the network. They’re voice-equipped, so you can used them for communications.”

  “Good. If you need to reach us, use these.” Sienna and Nalea helped each another fasten the devices to their clothing.

  “Lock the door,” Sienna commanded. “Let no one in but us. Got it?”

  He nodded.

  “You’ll be safe here,” Sienna called over her shoulder before stepping into the hall. The nervous Tanel was out of his chair and at the lock pad before Nalea was through the door.

  Nalea pointed to a map on the wall. “The armory is near checkpoint Ufen.”

  They jogged down the empty hallway. They had yet to see another soldier. Shit had seriously hit the fan.

  “Ufen, Ufen. That’s D. Can’t risk it; that one’s off the grid.” Sienna spoke her thoughts aloud. She came to a screeching halt and grabbed Nalea’s arm, stopping her instantly. “The training room. It has plenty of weapons, and it’s closer.”

  Nalea nodded. “Good idea.”

  And with that, they cut down the hallway to their left and were in the training room seconds later. They cautiously stepped into the large room and spread out. The facility was empty, and they ran to the weapons cabinet. Fortunately, all the lock pads still worked, and she followed Nalea’s lead in grabbing weapons and gearing up even though Sienna hadn’t trained with many of the weapons yet.

  At that moment, Tanel’s shaky voice came over the intercom, telling everyone to lock themselves in their rooms.

  “Ready?” Nalea asked.

  Sienna shoved a handful of hand restraints into the one cargo pocket that wasn’t chock full of weapons. She did one final check before looking up. “Ready.”

  Nalea poked her head into the hallway. “Clear.”

  Sienna stepped forward, and her back pocket zapped her with a tiny electrical bolt. She fumbled for the comm that could double as a portable bug killer. Nalea had hers out and to her ear already.

  “Go,” Sienna commanded into the flimsy bookmark-shaped device.

  “It’s the Draeken,” the comm-tech said in a rush. “They’re everywhere. It’s impossible. How’d they—?”

  “Calm down, Tanel,” Sienna spoke into her com. “How many are there?”

  “Don’t know. Dozens. More.”

  Not good. “Where are they now?”

  “Looks like they are all moving toward the Commons from the three checkpoints.”

  Nalea frowned. “But there’s nothing at the Commons. Why are they moving away from the armory?”

  “They have to go through there to get to the tech-hub and the officer quarters. Or, ah, shit. Of course.”

  “What?” Nalea asked.

  “They plan to set up shop in the Commons to divide and conquer the base.” With the exception of a few smaller hallways that connected the larger hallways like strands of a spider’s web, the ship was set up according to a hub-and-spoke pattern, with everything coming together at the Commons. The Draeken would effectively cut off all areas of the base from each other then sit and wait for Apolo to return. They could decimate the Sephian force in one blow with minimal casualties on their side.

  “Good work, Tanel. Keep us posted.” Sienna slid the comm back into her pocket.

  “We can’t let them take the Commons. If Tanel can’t get a hold of Apolo to warn him…” Nalea didn’t finish. Sienna couldn’t blame her; they both knew the outcome already, and it didn’t need to be put into words.

  The lights all brightened. Nalea winced, and Sienna pocketed her drades. “They’ve accessed the light systems,” Nalea said, shielding her eyes with one hand.

  With the Sephians blinded, the Draeken could practically waltz in and take the base with no casualties on their end. For this situation to happen when half the Sephians were off base, there was no way it was coincidental. Decision time. She grabbed Nalea’s arm. “Okay. You find some sunglasses and head to the checkpoints that didn’t show breaches to pull together what’s left of our forces into something that can take on the Draeken. Since I can see, I’ll try to beat the Draeken to the Commons and block them.”

  “You can’t possibly think to hold off the Draeken on your own.”


  “Maybe, maybe not; but I can at least buy you time to bring in the cavalry.”

  Nalea watched her for a moment then nodded. “Kill on sight.”

  “Damn straight.” As they split to go down separate hallways, Sienna paused and turned to face her friend. “Hey, Lea?”

  “Yeah?”

  “You better not drink that wine without me.”

  “Wouldn’t dream of it.” She gave Sienna a smile that was all too quickly erased by battle-hardened features before disappearing around the bend of the hall.

  Sienna was alone; completely, utterly alone against an alien force she didn’t stand a chance against. She’d only seen one Draeken before—the scout Legian had killed who, without Legian’s action, would’ve killed Sienna. She reached for the com. “Update,” she commanded.

  “Looks like each group is a full squad. Twelve in each. There are at least four groups, maybe more. The Ohni group will be there soon, within a few minutes at most. Some med-techs blocked the hallway. It slowed them down a bit. The other two groups are farther back. Looks like some of our folks are fighting back.”

  Without another word, Sienna sprinted toward the Commons. There was no sound as she approached the large, open area, not even the usual noise of pots and pans clanging in the kitchen.

  Looking around the room filled with enough tables and chairs to seat half the base, she turned back to the kitchen. It was the only place where she wouldn’t be a sitting duck. With a hop, Sienna hoisted herself over the waist-high counter and gauged her surroundings. The ceiling was ten feet high. It would limit the intruders’ ability to fly, and she could use all the help she could get.

  She set two blasters on the counter in front of her. One human against thirty or more winged aliens—she’d have better odds of winning the lottery. She shook her head. All she needed to do was delay the Draeken until Nalea brought in the reinforcements.

  A noise came from hallway Ufen. The temperature in the Commons seemed to skyrocket, though she knew it was from her adrenaline. More sounds followed: boots thudding, weapons clanging, clothes rustling. It grated against her nerves. Show time.

  She wiped sweaty hands on her pants before reaching into a pocket and pulling out a small disc. A Draeken chaos-charge. She examined it with irony. A taste of their own medicine would serve the bastards right.

  When the first Draeken came into sight, she nearly dropped the charge. Sienna had forgotten how intimidating they were. Taller than even the Sephians, with silver hair, gray eyes, and skin covered by complicated weaves of colored designs; not to mention those wings. There was nothing else like it. The wings were huge, taller than each soldier. Even tucked in, they were the same width as each Draeken. It was terrifying and beautiful in a fallen angel kind of way.

  As they started to spread out, she swiped her finger down the ignition pad and threw the disc into the center of the squad. The charge was designed for use against Sephians, but she was counting on the fact that the thing wouldn’t be pleasant for its creators, too. The moment the charge hit the ground, she crouched behind the counter, closed her eyes, and held her hands to her ears. Even so, the sound was deafening when the charge exploded in an eruption of light brighter than the sun and a sound like a harpy’s screech.

  When she could bear it, she pulled her hands from her ears and picked up the blasters. She jumped up and began shooting like she’d gone insane. The Draeken, with blood oozing from their ears, staggered from the blast, knocking down tables and crawling behind them. Two Draeken went down beneath her first spray of shots. The remaining Draeken fired back, and she ducked behind the counter. Their shots cut through the wall like fire through papier-mâché. Her heart lurched in her chest. What the hell kind of technology did these guys have?

  Scrambling to the next counter, Sienna pulled out a second charge. Only this one wasn’t a Draeken charge. This one had been created by the Sephians, and she hated it; it reminded her of the dark ages, when lives had mattered so very little.

  Voices, sounding muffled, were approaching.

  Don’t hesitate. She raised herself enough to send another barrage of shots across the open area. At least one shot made it home, because she heard a grunt followed by yelling. She shimmied across the floor back to the original counter. Can’t let them get a bead on me.

  Sienna simultaneously pushed two buttons on the blood-charge before throwing it over the counter. Like the chaos-charge, accuracy didn’t matter on this one. She curled into a fetal position. Shouts and sounds of scrambling Draeken filled the air. Clenching her fists, she prayed she was safe behind the counter.

  There was no sound when the blood-charge exploded. The screams were the only way she knew it had gone off. And there were plenty of those. She waited for several seconds after everything became deathly silent before she warily pulled herself to her knees and peered over the counter. The entire squad had been killed. Hundreds of tiny x-shaped spurs stuck out of their bodies and wings.

  The marks left on their skin were identical to the scars Legian had gained during the war. His squad had been discovered while sabotaging a Draeken base. The only two survivors, Bente had dragged Legian into the woods, where they had played hide-and-seek with the Draeken for days until they were rescued. Legian had been lucky. If it hadn’t been for Bente to pull energy from, he never would have lived.

  A couple of the Draeken still moaned. She felt pity for them. The spurs were coated with a deadly cocktail of anticoagulant and poison designed specifically for Draeken physiology. They were already dead; their bodies just didn’t know it yet.

  Her pity didn’t last long. A shot whizzed by her ear, signaling a second squad already spreading out into the room.

  Dammit. Where is Nalea?

  She felt in her pockets for another charge. No more.

  “Nuleet,” a Draeken called out. He said something else, but she couldn’t make out the strange curt words that reminded her of the German language. Everything fell silent.

  Building courage, she peeked around the corner of the counter, and found herself looking right into the eyes of a large Draeken with long, mussed silver hair.

  He arched his brow. “Human?” He spoke in clear, nearly perfect English, with barely a hint of that German-like accent. The Draeken sounded genuinely surprised at seeing her. “Surrender. You are sorely outnumbered.”

  “Don’t be so sure. That last squad didn’t last long,” Sienna called out from behind the counter.

  “There’s no honor in using a blood-charge. Only Sephian scum would resort to that.” The Draeken had the nerve to sound pissed off.

  “Then how about you surrender?” she replied.

  The Draeken guffawed. “To whom? I don’t see Apolo here.”

  She gritted her teeth.

  “If you surrender now, we will not hurt you. We have no intentions of harming humans. We came here in peace.”

  “Yeah, sure you did,” Sienna replied dryly. Except her insides were twisted like a wet towel wrung too tight. She wasn’t going to delude herself; she knew there was no getting out of the mess she was in.

  His wings ruffled in obvious irritation. “Have it your way then.”

  He made a motion with his hands, and his squad spread out. At that moment, the third squad appeared, looking a little worse for wear. One against twenty-four. Even after obliterating the entire first squad, her odds hadn’t improved much.

  A hurricane of shots flew through the kitchen, and she scurried to hide between the ovens and refrigerators. Before she reached a safe place, heat blasted her, and a sharp pain cut through her left thigh. She cried out and dropped to the ground. Blood poured from the wound, even though the blast had cauterized the skin around it. So much blood. No! Don’t let it be an artery.

  She had to stop the bleeding fast. She pulled out a hand restraint and tightened it around her thigh. The makeshift tourniquet would buy her a few extra minutes at most before she passed out from blood loss.

  Her attackers must have heard her scr
eam because the shooting stopped. She clenched a gun in her hand. The silence scared her more than the gunfire.

  “Keep moving,” Sienna repeated like a mantra. With a heave, she dragged herself back to the front. Out of nowhere, a boot came down on her injured leg, and she screamed in blinding agony.

  When her vision cleared, she found herself lying on her back, the Draeken who had spoken before now towering over her. He got down on one knee, watching her with silver eyes, then grabbed her gun and yanked her to him.

  “So, have the humans allied with the Sephians?”

  Her strength siphoning from her body, she didn’t respond. He continued to watch her. A laser cut through a wing and he swung back against the sink, the plastic shattering.

  “Sienna!”

  She pulled herself up to see Nalea running toward her. Sienna had never seen a more beautiful sight in her life. The sounds of battle echoed from the cafeteria.

  “It’s about time.” She reached out for the gun the Draeken had taken from her, which he’d dropped when Nalea shot him.

  Nalea gave her a full smile before giving the fallen Draeken a solid kick to the gut. He let out a grunt. She grabbed a fist of his hair and yanked. “Roden.” She spat the name with vile surprise.

  Even though his brow was furrowed in pain, he smiled. “I see my reputation precedes me.”

  “You will pay for what you’ve done to my people.” She pulled out her gun and aimed. His leg kicked out, knocking her down.

  “Lea!” Sienna’s scream came out more like a whisper. Somehow, she pulled herself up on an elbow to helplessly watch as the two clashed, too weak to help. They were too close for her to shoot. All she could do was wait for a clear shot as her friend fought an opponent who clearly outmatched her in both size and skill.

  Time seemed to slow as the two fought. Roden knocked Nalea to the ground, his wings blocking Sienna’s view. They paused for a lengthy second as though frozen then Nalea twisted and came up with a blade, slicing across his shirt. His punch connected, and Nalea fell back.

  With the last of her strength, Sienna fired a shot above his head, and pieces of ceiling rained down onto his wings, hitting his wound. He hissed and strode toward her.