Rebel Yell: Operation Ardent Redux: Episode 1 (A Space Opera Adventure) Read online

  Rebel Yell

  Operation Ardent Redux:

  Episode 1

  Rebel Yell

  Operation Ardent Redux:

  Episode 1

  By J. L. Stowers

  Copyright © 2020 by J. L. Stowers

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  First Edition, 2020

  Editing: Keri Karandrakis

  Cover Art: Taurus Covers

  Visit the author’s website at www.jlstowers.com

  Dedication

  For my great uncle, who paved the way for my fascination with the stars.

  Contents

  Dedication

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  To be continued…

  Dear Reader

  Chapter 1

  Roni’s breath was slow and steady as she navigated Osirion through the minefield and toward the Houston. She’d done training exercises like this in the past, but never in such a smooth-flying ship. This time, it was the real deal, and she was never more thankful to pilot the Galactic Conglomerate’s newest prototype rather than an outdated rebel ship.

  “Easy,” Howard said softly as he watched the view on the large display screen in Osirion’s bridge rock back and forth.

  “Cork it, old man.” Roni furrowed her brow and nudged the controls ever so slightly to tilt the ship so it avoided a low-hanging mine. She watched the proximity sensor screen as the last mine cleared Osirion’s hull.

  A collective, audible sigh washed through bridge as they made it into the safe area between the massive, white-paneled research ship Houston and the minefield. Roni couldn’t help but smirk at the massive ship from their cloaked position. Using a GC ship to rescue another GC ship right under the corrupt president’s nose was her definition of poetry.

  “There, the easy part is done.” Roni stood and pointed at Cruz. “You ready, Boots?”

  “Don’t call me that,” Cruz signed as he adjusted his prosthetic legs then stood. The war-hardened man towered over Roni but didn’t scare her in the least. Not much did, honestly.

  “Take it easy, big guy,” Roni said with a chuckle. “Save it for the GC scum inside.”

  Roni picked up her blades and slipped them into their holsters before checking her two energy blasters.

  “Don’t forget to set those to stun,” Howard chimed in again, arms folded across his chest. “Bob wants to limit casualties.”

  “Well then maybe dear old Dad should have led this mission himself. Get ready, tubby. You need to dock this puppy.” Roni stepped aside, giving the aging mechanic access to the captain’s chair and matching his eye roll with a sneer. “Look, I know I’m not your beloved Dani, but she’s got a job to do and so do we. So, let’s get over ourselves and get it done.”

  “Agreed,” Cruz signed.

  Roni sighed. “You know, I really wish you’d reconsider my offer.”

  “I don’t need an artificial voice box. It’s never been a problem before,” Cruz signed back, clearly annoyed.

  “Yeah, you say that, but when we’re fighting these yahoos and you can’t answer me, you’ll regret it.”

  “If you have time to talk when you’re fighting, then you’re not doing it right.” Cruz smirked.

  “Hah.” Roni pointed at him and winked. “Fair enough.”

  She hopped in place and stretched her arms. “As soon as those doors open, take us in, alright there, Howie?”

  “It’s Howard, young lady. And, yes. I’m ready.”

  “Man, I don’t know how Dani does it. You guys are so uptight. Let’s go back and get the teams ready.” Roni glanced at the Houston once more. She had never been on such a massive ship, but Cruz had briefed her on the layout, and she knew exactly how to get to the bridge. “Time to liberate this floating science lab.”

  She hurried down Osirion’s halls with Cruz close behind. His ability to keep up with her better than her own team impressed her. She began to wonder if she underestimated the man.

  Inside the cargo hold, two groups of well-armed rebels waited. They’d selected their teams prior to departing for the mission. Each member was highly skilled in hand-to-hand combat, some trained by Roni personally.

  “Alright guys, listen up.” Roni waited for the chatter to die down before continuing. “We’ll split into our preassigned groups and move out as soon as the loading door opens. My team will make for the bridge in an effort to seize control right away. Cruz’s team will take the engine room then mop up any GC troops and hold them in the designated area until we reach the drop-off point.”

  Cruz lifted an eyebrow at her.

  “Right,” Roni said with a sigh. “And try not to kill anyone… or whatever.”

  Roni looked over the group as they began to prepare themselves before she turned to Cruz. “Oh, geez, wipe that smug grin off your face. I was going to say that anyway.”

  Cruz just continued to look at her with his half grin before walking past and down to his team.

  “Initiating docking procedures now,” Howard said through the communications device Roni wore on her ear.

  “Hurry and get down here as soon as you can,” she answered.

  Roni joined her group and nodded to each member. They had done missions like this before, though not on this scale. Still, they knew how to clear a ship and do it fast. Her gaze drifted over to Cruz as he instructed his team. Each person’s eyes were locked on his hands as he ran through the plan. Roni suddenly felt compelled to say something to her team but wasn’t sure what. They all already knew their place in her formation, and endless training activities between missions had kept them sharp.

  “We got this,” she said with a quiet nod. Her statement seemed to satiate their need for encouragement, so Roni positioned herself in front of the loading bay door. A grinding underfoot followed by a thump and a whir signified that they were locked into the Houston’s docking bay. She signaled one of her team to open the door while she waited, weapons poised.

  As soon as the crack was big enough to see through, Roni and her team began firing their energy blasters. Targets crumpled to the ground, unconscious, while others returned fire. Cruz and his team put down cover fire as Roni and her team moved out of Osirion and into the hangar. A quick glance behind her confirmed that Howard was huffing and puffing down to Cruz’s side. Everything was in place.

  “Time to kick some ass,” she muttered to herself as she holstered her energy blaster and drew her swords. Each blade was encased with a hard, electrified sheath that sent a bold of electricity through the flesh of her victims. It wasn’t enough to kill, but it sure was a lot more fun than shooting them. Inside the outer case, sharpened blades waited just in case things got ugly.

  Roni twirled the blades once in a complete circle as she fearlessly walked up to her first target, one of the few GC guards still awake in the hangar. The man’s eyes widened, and he turned his weapon to fire on her. The energy blast was absorbed by her personalized armor, mostly. The little burst that got through caused her to grunt as she brought her sword around the side to clock the man in the jaw, knocking him unconscious with a crackle.

  The few remaining GC troops fled through the doo
r, deeper into the Houston. Roni sighed. “Well, that was disappointing. I only got to club one guy.”

  She signaled her team to follow as she strode over to the door, spinning the sword around effortlessly in her hands and whistling. Once Roni reached the door, she frowned as it failed to open. She leaned over and tapped the button, which in turn sent a small jolt of electricity through her exposed hand and up into her arm.

  “Shit!” she shouted as she jerked her arm back.

  Roni shook her hand, recovering from the shock as Cruz walked up and poked at the button with a splintered board that was previously part of a cargo crate. The door still didn’t open.

  With a roll of her eyes, Roni beckoned her team over. “Get us out of here,” she ordered. A faint clanging echoed through the hangar from somewhere overhead. The last thing they needed was someone overriding the doors and sucking them all out into space. “And rig the bay doors so they can’t open until we want them to.”

  Her team split and got to work. One group worked on getting them out of the hangar and into the rest of the ship while the other went to set the manual override on the hangar doors in case the GC decided to vent the atmosphere and space her entire crew.

  Roni rocked back and forth on her heels, drumming her fingertips on the hilts of her swords. She was never any good at waiting, and an annoyed look from Cruz confirmed it. She switched her fidgeting to a more silent habit, chewing on the inside of her cheek. Even though she liked to be in the action, complicated plans such as the Houston’s liberation made her nervous. There were just too many moving parts. Too much she couldn’t control.

  Sparks flew out of the control panel just before the door slowly drew open with a grinding noise. Roni’s smile widened with the gap.

  “That’s our cue,” she said, beckoning her team to follow. She called back over her shoulder at Cruz, “Meet you in the bridge. Don’t keep me waiting.”

  Roni led the rebels into the hall, hanging a sharp left as she went through the floorplan in her mind once more. Another bend put her nose-to-nose with a GC guard, who crumpled as soon as she delivered a blow from her electrified sword.

  An energy blast from up ahead fired past her, narrowly missing her shoulder and instead landing in the chest of the man behind her. He grunted and stumbled to the ground, the rest of the team scooping him up and walking with him until he managed to get his legs again.

  Roni lowered her chin and grinned, approaching the source of the shot. When the blaster appeared around the corner again, she was ready. Holding her swords together, she swung toward it, the energy blast absorbing into the swords, leaving her hands tingling.

  “Let’s do this,” Roni said with a chuckle as they approached the corner, and she raised her sword with a twinkle in her eye.

  The GC guards stumbled back as the rebels returned fire from behind Roni’s fearless approach. Her suit absorbed a few more hits, and she could feel the protective charge dwindling as each pulse stung more than the last. By the time she was close enough to attack, only two of the guards remained. Roni quickly dispatched one with a shock from her swords, and one of the rebels fired on the last, taking him down.

  “Oh, come on guys, what’s the rule?” Roni turned to face them with a pout.

  “Last one’s Roni’s,” the group mumbled in unison.

  “That’s right. Don’t let it happen again,” she said, her pout transforming into a smile.

  “How’re things coming?” Roni asked over her comm.

  “On schedule,” Howard answered. “In the engine room now.”

  Roni gave a quick nod to her team, and they scattered to check nearby doorways and adjacent halls. She frowned and studied the hilt of one of her swords as a series of “Clear”s echoed back from the rebels.

  After the rebels regrouped, Roni led them to the bridge. She stopped just outside the door and cocked her head, listening. The lack of opposition on the ship wasn’t what she was expecting. There should have been more of a fight.

  She grazed the door with her fingertips. Cool to the touch. A good sign.

  “Howard, you have full controls down there?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Ew… don’t call me ma’am,” Roni said as she scrunched up her nose.

  Howard sighed over the comm. “What do you need, Roni?”

  “Can you see what’s going on in the bridge?”

  A few seconds passed.

  “Looks like just a lot of standing around. There are a few GC troops tied up in the corner.”

  “Thanks,” Roni answered, her voice dripping with disappointment. Had she known her mission would be so dull, she would have asked her father for a different one. Not that he would have given it to her. His paternal protection often annoyed her.

  Roni signaled one of her men, who ran up to the access panel, but before he had time to hook up his computer, the door slid open. A tall man wearing a GC uniform stood in the doorway, peering down at her with aging eyes. His short, blond hair matched his full beard.

  “Veronica, I presume?”

  “Roni.” She took a moment to examine the man further. His slightly imbalanced stance. The cane. The unmoving right side of his face. “You must be Patrick Alexand—Holy shit! What the hell is that?”

  Roni pushed past Patrick and into the bridge, her jaw hanging open and her eyes locked on the biggest ship she had ever seen.

  “That would be Penn’s ship. It arrived not long after you docked,” Patrick answered as he moved to her side.

  “President Penn?” Roni couldn’t take her eyes off of it. It dwarfed every other ship she had ever seen, even the massive colony ships that had carried away half her home planet’s population. Roni mumbled, “It’s good to be king.”

  “Captain Alexander, sir, the presidential ship is targeting us,” called out a crewmember.

  “Full power to shields,” Patrick ordered.

  “Howard, we need to get out of here… like, yesterday,” Roni said, pressing the button on her comm.

  “Had a bit of a delay,” came Howard’s panicked reply through a sea of noise. “Reinforcements would be great right about now.”

  Roni narrowed her eyes and signaled her team. “Are you under fire, Howard?”

  “Yes! Do I need to spell it out for you?” A small explosion rang through the comm as he spoke.

  “Help is on the way,” Roni answered, waving the rebels out the door. But her eyes were locked on the image of Penn’s ship.

  Roni squinted and slowly walked closer to the image, her hand still on the hilt of her sword. Two small rebel crafts flew high above Penn’s ship before turning sharply and barreling down toward the massive weapon targeting the Houston.

  “Who is that?” Roni mumbled quietly, staring.

  Her eyes widened as their intention became clear. The two ships dove into the presidential ship, and a blinding white light rippled toward the Houston, causing it to rattle and shake.

  “Who was that?” Roni asked again louder, over the noise.

  “Looks like the hyperdrive is operational, sir.”

  “Get us to the rendezvous point, now,” Patrick ordered.

  The stars around the Houston blurred as it leapt into hyperdrive.

  Roni’s heart was pounding in her chest. The rebels were the only family she had left, and she took every loss personally. “For the love of all that is holy, will someone please tell me who was piloting those ships?”

  “The signatures on the ships match rebel crafts Gertrude and…”

  Not Diane, Roni silently pleaded.

  “…Diane,” the information officer confirmed.

  Roni felt her heart fall out of her chest and hit the floor. She stared down at the empty space near her feet before the wave of rage rushed over her. She unsheathed her sword and pounced on the information officer, holding the blade to his throat. “You’re lying!”

  Hands gripped her arms and sides, lifting her off of the wide-eyed man and carrying her to the hall. Patrick filled the d
oorway, somehow seeming larger and less frail than he had before.

  “Take your aggression out on the GC troops. Not my men,” he said, staring at her coldly, pointing down the hall.

  Roni didn’t need to be told twice. She ran down the hall toward the engine room, blinking away the moisture that gathered in her eyes and replacing the remaining bits of her grief with rage.

  When she drew close to the fight, she slowed, stepping lightly, swords drawn and blades bared. She peeked around the corner. Several of her team were down along with all of Cruz’s team. Cruz and one other rebel occasionally shot from the door to the engine room while seven GC soldiers alternated fire.

  They never heard her coming.

  Roni’s blade slid down, into the neck of the first GC soldier. Without hesitation, she stepped forward to the next and rammed the other blade up under his chin as he turned to look at her.

  She shook her beloved swords free from both bodies, a third man turning toward her after hearing them hit the floor. Before he could call for help, she sliced across his windpipe. The man fell to his knees, gurgling.

  All Roni could see was red, everywhere she looked. The remaining four guards turned toward her, giving Cruz the opportunity to stun one, causing him to fall to the floor in a crumpled heap.

  In a flurry of jabs, slices, and blood, the remaining guards fell to the floor around her. Spatters of blood arced across the white panels of the hall. The firefight was replaced by heavy silence as Roni stood amid the destruction, the blood of her victims dripping off the points of her swords.

  Howard peeked at her from the doorframe. “Oh, Roni…”

  She didn’t respond. She couldn’t. And she wouldn’t know what to say even if she could. The rage filled every ounce of her. She wasn’t done. Not by a long shot.

  Cruz stepped out of the engine room, his expression softening. His eyes caught Roni’s, and she quickly looked away.

  Silently, he approached her, gently taking the blades from her hands.

  Roni didn’t fight him. Her breathing began to slow, returning to normal, but the tempest of emotion she felt seethed below the surface.