Star Destiny Episode Three

By Odette C. Bell

Williams is determined to do two things – find Celena and...?
Hand her back to the Emperor or help her? He can’t get her tear-streaked face out of his mind. It haunts his thoughts as he heads to a shady mining outpost. With the Duke controlling this section of space, Williams must find new friends. As he’s drawn further down the rabbit hole of shady deals, merciless merchants, and ex-Royal slaves, Celena must fight the Duke. For the Duke has plans that won’t stop until they swallow the universe, and he will use Celena’s own hands to achieve them.
....
Star Destiny follows a runaway weapon and the hapless lieutenant drawn into her troubles as they fight a corrupt galactic emperor. If you love your space operas with action, heart, and a splash of romance, grab Star Destiny Book Three today and soar free with an Odette C. Bell series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Odette C. Bell
• Release date: Jun 8, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463722343

Book preview

Chapter 1

Williams

Was he alive? Yeah, he was alive. For now.

It had been a week. Read that, an entire week since he’d managed to escape Halifax Two. He hadn’t reached Celena, but he had reached a mining outpost.

There were two things he could be thankful for.

His rust bucket of an old merchant ship hadn’t crumbled out from underneath him, and neither had the universe.

He kept scanning every single galactic and intergalactic news feed he could, looking for any information to suggest Duke Parin had made a play for universal control. Not of course that the idiot would be that stupid to play his hand that quickly. If he really planned to use Celena to overcome the Emperor, it would be no easy task.

Williams walked forward, dragging the merchant cloak he’d stolen from a trader at the Holcomb markets further around his shoulders. He hunkered underneath it, drawing his arms close, but most importantly, dragging it over his human features. Technically, there was no need to bother. This mining colony was out in the middle of nowhere Andromeda. Nobody cared what race you came from. All they cared about was how many credits were in your pocket. Which was why the first thing Williams had done had been to service the guns he’d claimed off the scavengers and pirates back on Halifax Two.

The range rifle had been a truly lucky find. A sophisticated range weapon, now he’d made some key modifications, it would be effective at short or long distances. It was exactly the kind of gun you needed on a shit-hole planet like this. It was a loud, blaring advert not to mess with Williams.

As he made his way through the back, cramped alleyways of the main city of this colony, he always kept his rifle on a strap over his shoulder – there for everyone to see as it swung with every purposeful step.

Just like the modified pirate gun he’d found in the patrol ship before they’d crash-landed on Halifax Two, he’d coded this gun into his neural link. All it would take was a single command – one that would take a split second to give – and the gun would swing up into his hand. Hell, this thing was so sophisticated, he could get it to shoot before it reached his finger.

As soon as he tugged his cloak sufficiently over his shoulders, he let his open palm and stiff fingers brush over the smooth metal of the gun’s power chamber.

He remembered times like this. Back when your weapon was your best friend, and just like your best friend, you treated it to everything it needed.

He’d already bought a new, more powerful zoom scope for it. One he would be able to make some slight modifications to that would ensure it could pick up Imperial armor, even at a distance of over 100 kilometers.

He rounded a corner, heading into an even darker section of the city.

The city, like so many around the universe, was built upward and downward. There were no squat buildings wasting space. One of the main mines on this colony world was only 50 kilometers due east. So the city was heavily populated. But it wasn’t a rich place. It didn’t have privilege and money like Jeopardy Station. It was just scummy, cobbled-together towers stacked on top of one another.

As he walked down the darkened alleyway, jets of atmospheric gases and steam escaped broken pipes above him, clouds of gasses breaking around his body as he strode forward.

He still had the armor he’d stolen off those pirates and scavengers. Better than that, he’d found some useful tech in the belly of the merchant vessel. Whoever had owned that ship, had possessed some skills indeed.

They’d been running Q crystals – the small belly of the ship had been full of them. Technically illegal, but insanely profitable.

Williams was carrying several in his pocket now as he marched toward the less reputable section of town. Not of course that a place like this was ever reputable.

If Williams paused long enough, he would start to appreciate just how far he’d fallen. Or maybe just how far he’d come. He hadn’t technically fallen yet. Nothing he’d done was illegal. Though he should have attempted to contact Imperial Forces as soon as he’d reached a colony, with Duke Parin in control of this entire section of the Andromeda Galaxy, he couldn’t be certain the bastard wouldn’t intercept his communication. In fact, he could be certain that Parin would try.

So even if Williams was still loyal to the Emperor, this was a legitimate course of action.

… It took Williams a second to shake his head as he appreciated what he’d just thought.

… He was still loyal to the Emperor, right? Because even if Celena had managed to tug at his heartstrings with her sob story, he was a rational man. Williams had always been a rational man. That was what had set him apart, goddammit. It was the sole reason he was still alive in an otherwise brutal universe that wouldn’t have batted an eyelid at his needless death.

Those thoughts and more swirled through Williams’ consciousness. They’d been doing that for the past week. There was something about being trapped in a rickety rust bucket of a ship that really locked you into your own circular thoughts.

Williams took another step, and his mind sharpened. It happened on its own, his senses kicking into gear. It was just in time.

He heard the percussive beat of footsteps falling into sync behind him.

Williams didn’t reach for his gun. He connected to it, though, and he got ready.

Just a few more steps, and he became aware of the fact that there were two glinting green eyes staring at him from on top of an atmospheric pipe junction only two meters above him.

It was a trap, ha?

Smart.

But it wouldn’t work today.

Just as Williams took a step underneath those barely-visible glinting eyes, he commanded his gun to blast out. It was just as it swayed behind him, and the seemingly random shot arced wide enough that it caught two attackers who’d suddenly appeared from holo camouflage behind him.

Williams instantly shifted, falling onto his back as he rolled, pushed, and lashed out with his fist. It connected to the creature above just as it sailed down. Before it could sink magnetic hooks through the back of Williams’ skull and kill him in a single, lethal move, Williams let out a blast of breath and kicked. His armored boot slammed into the chest of the creature, knocking it backward a good 10 meters.

Williams was still wearing his modified armor. There was no damn way he would take it off on a planet like this.

As the creature sailed through the air and struck the metal wall with an almighty clang, Williams recognized it.

A Na’irn assassin.

Sophisticated.

Part robot, part biological. Rumor had it they were a failed experiment of the Emperor’s.

Just another secret force Shan had created over the years to bolster his iron grip on the universe.

Unlike the Ares’ Daughters, however, the Na’irn assassins were uncontrollable. Vicious, too. They tended to turn on their commanders with far too much ease, and it didn’t matter how lethal your weapon was if you couldn’t damn well stop it from going for your throat. Which is precisely what this assassin did as it pounced with a hiss, its robotic arms moving in a flash as it propelled itself forward with a jump like a leopard.

Though the lucky shot Williams had managed to blast off behind him had caught his two rear assailants, it hadn’t been a direct blow, and with a hiss of metallic joints, he realized they were cyborgs too.

Fun bunch, he thought wryly just as he commanded the thrusters in his knees to engage. The next thing anyone knew, Williams jumped up a good 30 meters, the stored kinetic energy in his thrusters blasting out in one continuous pulse.

He managed to turn the gun around in his hand as he sailed upward, and just as he reached the zenith of his jump, he let out a blast. It wasn’t precise. He relied on force instead. With his neural link, he commanded the gun to discharge its special function, and a bolt of energy 10 centimeters by 10 centimeters powered down into the alley.

It hit the metal, warped ground plating of the alley and gouged a hole 20 meters across.

As Williams sailed down, his modified armor instantly kicked into gear, a shield protecting his body from the chunks of cascading molten metal spewing around him.

He reoriented himself as he fell so he didn’t land in the crater of smoldering bodies and hot metal.

He landed with a thump, one armored fist angled down as he drew his face up and stared at his handiwork.

The two cyborgs that had attacked him from behind were down, just a twitching leg left of one, and nothing more than a patch of visor remaining from the other.

The assassin was still alive. Partially.

That blast had torn a chunk out of the side of the creature’s head. And though the blow would’ve been enough to kill any creature that actually relied on its brain, the assassin was still alive.

For now.

Confident that his shield could protect him from anything the assassin might be able to produce in its dying moments, Williams walked forward, allowing the rifle to swing back into his grip.

He approached the assassin, the rifle pointed down, the muzzle glowing with a fatal white charge of energy.

He didn’t say anything. The creature didn’t say anything, either.

Did someone send you? Williams finally managed