Star Soldier Episode Three: Star Soldier, #3

By Odette C. Bell

Ami is thrust into the final battle for her planet.
Central Command is in ruins, and there's only one force that can help her now – the resistance. When they take her back to their home compound, she realizes the war she's fought blood and tooth for has been a lie. There's always been a way to end the battle with the rift monsters – and that way is her.

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Star Soldier follows a gutsy soldier and her ex fighting to save their world from an alien invasion. If you love your space operas with action, force, and a splash of romance, grab Star Soldier Episode Three today and soar free with an Odette C. Bell series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Odette C. Bell
• Release date: Sep 15, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386435266

Book preview

1

Ami Ming

I don’t have the time to stand there, shaking as my world crumbles. I don’t have the time to appreciate how dire the situation is. That not only am I facing two level VII monsters, but they have managed to make their way through the most secure levels of Gordana to the Central Command building.

I don’t have any time full stop.

Because they attack, sweeping toward me in a coordinated move.

My life is whittled down to a point.

But though I’m in no state to protect myself, that doesn’t matter. Xin kicks into gear. With those 12 ribbon-like swords spinning around her, she plunges forward. She also makes a sound. Possibly the first time she’s made an utterance. A great bellowing, pitching cry breaks from her mouth, shaking the very walls of the facility and sending a pulsing blast down the street. I’m forced to bring up an arm and try to hide behind it as my hair is blasted around my face and neck.

I’m aware of the pitching, blaring alarms. They’re so insistent that it sounds as if they’ll tear down the very walls.

But though the alarms blare with their warning, no help comes.

I don’t have the time to wonder what the General is doing. Whether he’s shaking in his boots, or whether he’s clutched up a gun and has shoved it against his temple, realizing this is his last stand.

Xin plunges forward into the fray.

Though there’s still a lot for me to learn about how the light sentinel works, there are a few facts I know back from the days when I was a simple grunt. Light sentinels can only afford to get a certain distance away from their paired. Get too far away, and the connection might break, and the light sentinel will disappear.

If that happens right now, I’m screwed. Or at least, even more screwed than this terrifying situation dictates. Because at the back of my mind I realize that even with Xin’s incredible power, there’s no way we’re going to get through this.

I keep my arm raised above my head, keep sheltering behind it as the wind continues to whip around my face, moving so hard, it’s a surprise it doesn’t cut the skin.

The two level VII monsters concentrate on Xin, because she won’t let them ignore her.

That being said, I know in my heart of hearts that they’re after me. The way they look at me when they can afford to pull their gazes off Xin is unmistakable.

It… bores a hole into my heart. It makes it feel as if a parasite is trying to wend its way into my brain and rip the damn thing out.

It reminds me instantly of the way that level VII demon gazed at me just before I met Xin.

It looked at me… like I was a missing puzzle piece.

Yeah. That’s it. The level VII demon looked at me as if I was something it needed.

And that’s the exact impression I get now.

But the impression doesn’t last, because it doesn’t have time to.

One of the level VII demons takes flight, it’s huge wings sending massive gusts of air blasting into the building as it hovers about 20 m back from the ripped hole in the wall.

The other demon concentrates its efforts on Xin, yet it never dares to get too close to her, especially those 12 ribbon-like swords.

My mind is abuzz, an actual ringing spreading through my ears. Something tells me it’s to do with the sheer mental and physical effort of sustaining Xin for so long while she has to put out so much energy.

No matter how many seconds tick by, I don’t hear the pound of soldiers’ feet as people come to my rescue. I don’t even catch the sight of troop transports through the hole in the wall. No. I’m on my own. Again my mind ticks back to the General, to the Commander, and finally, to Jason.

Though I imagine everybody else is running for their lives, what about Jason?

It’s an expensive, distracting thought – one I can’t dare to entertain right now.

Because Xin needs me.

The level VII demon who’s taken flight suddenly rams back into the building.

It doesn’t use its massive claws to tear out a new chunk of metal with all the ease of a fox digging through a thin layer of dirt. It simply rounds its gargantuan shoulder and shoves it against the outer wall of the building.

The effect is like a category 10 earthquake.

Though I’m already hunkered down, my knees low and stable as I hold my balance, that doesn’t matter. The floor pitches beneath me, and I’m thrown backward, rolling several meters until I come to a stop on my back.

That’s when I feel the connection between Xin and me start to thin.

It’s one of the most agonizing experiences of my life. It’s like someone has shoved a hand into my chest, plucked up my heart, and is now scraping it across reality like they’re spreading jam on toast.

I gasp, wheeze, try to breathe, but it’s too damn hard.

If Xin was a normal angel and this was an ordinary situation, she would probably disengage and disappear. But I know she can’t afford to. And I know, unlike other light sentinels, that she’s smart enough to appreciate how critical this situation is.

So the next thing I know, she flies back to me.

It’s common knowledge amongst even the stupidest grunts that the only people who can touch a light sentinel are those who are joined to it. Still, it’s not something you’re meant to do. It’s not like they’re your faithful dog and you’re meant to pat them after a job well done.

You’re supposed to respect them at all times. Failure to do so may result in the light sentinel ending the joining process and ending you at the same time.

That doesn’t stop Xin from suddenly leaning in, shifting down, and scooping me up.

Touching her is like… allowing my mind to expand to another reality. It’s like having my consciousness pushed into another dimension. As soon as my skin touches hers, reality spills around me as if it’s turned into a liquid.

I see flashes of another place. The barren, rocky wasteland of a planet. Great tracks of stone, but within every cracked rock and crag is light. The dynamic, living light that creates Xin. That unique, powerful form of radiation.

Though I want to grasp hold of that image and hold its mystery in my hands, I don’t have the time. Because suddenly Xin flies forward. Right at the hole in the wall, and right at the level VII demon blocking our path.

There’s a screech, the powerful downdraft of wind, and a chaotic, confusing moment where both level VII demons reach for me at once.

But Xin knows how to fly, and she quickly darts out of their grasps.

The reason I joined the space program wasn’t just to see what the universe was like beyond the borders of this planet. It was because I love to fly.

To see the world so small below me, to ride up high into the clouds.

It’s an indescribable sensation – a feeling that I haven’t experienced in the last five years. Though I’ve flown on plenty of troop transports, they don’t bother giving windows to the grunts. Plus, it’s not a freeing experience – it’s a trapping one. When you fly in a troop transport, you’re not experiencing life on another level. You’re watching it flit before your very eyes as the men you’re riding with are shot at the enemy like cannon fodder.

This? It’s flying.

Unassisted. No technology. Just Xin and me.

I’m suddenly so aware of the feel of her beneath me. Though she technically has a solid body, it seems like just that – a technicality. As my hand latches onto her back, it’s like I’m patting nothing but air. And yet, air that is keeping me masterfully afloat.

She glows so brightly beneath my touch.

That light spills through the air as she continues to dodge the two level VII demons.

Though I know, from experience, that Xin has the power to take on a level VII demon and win, she isn’t displaying that power right now. And it’s not just because there are two of them. It’s… whatever the hell the General did to me in that pod.

He disturbed my connection with Xin somehow,