War Begins Book One: War Begins, #1

By Odette C. Bell

The greatest enemy the galaxy has ever known is here. The war will begin.
Diana's had a troubled past. Her family were brutally murdered right in front of her eyes. It's changed the course of her future – but it will soon change more. An ancient race left a gift inside her mind, and it will now rise.
Sampson is a psychic soldier – the Coalition's best. When he's sent to the Academy to spy on students, he has no clue he'll be drawn toward Diana and into the final fight for the Milky Way.

…

War Begins follows a secret alien weapon and a covert psychic fighting to save the Coalition from their greatest enemy. If you love your space operas with action, heart, and a splash of romance, grab War Begins Book One today and soar free with an Odette C. Bell series.

War Begins is the 8th Galactic Coalition Academy series. A sprawling, epic, and exciting sci-fi world where cadets become heroes and hearts are always won, each series can be read separately, so plunge in today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Odette C. Bell
• Release date: Feb 13, 2019
• ISBN: 9781386059356

Book preview

PROLOGUE

Colony Outpost Baxan A

We’re getting closer every day, Professor William Ray said as he leaned in and clapped a warm hand on Bethany’s shoulder.

His wife smiled up at him. There were many things Bethany was good at, but smiling came naturally to her. As her lips curled and pushed toward her eyes, she seemed to bring light into the world. And considering the massive hovering dig lights that illuminated this site had malfunctioned yet again, William could use all the light he could get.

Where’s Diana? He turned his attention over his shoulder as he set his speckled amber eyes sweeping over the dig site. It was massive. A vast underground operation, it had easily absorbed the past five years of his life. This chamber alone, even considering current technology, had taken two years to dig out.

And there was more to come. Briefly pausing his search for his daughter, he cast his gaze to the left and up. It rested on the primary wall and the motif carved across the thick, granular gray stone. As one of the few fully functional remaining dig lights hovered into view and cast its illumination over the wall, he caught sight of those symbols. As shadows danced along their long, intricately carved surfaces, a shiver raced up his back and snatched hold of his heart.

Though it could’ve been easy to tell himself it was just expectation and pure exhilaration at the fact his life’s work was finally coming to fruition, buried deep in his gut was a grain of doubt. It had been with him since he’d set foot on this outpost five years ago, and though he kept a handle on it most days, occasionally it would flare.

He tugged his attention firmly off the wall, setting aside his academic curiosity for his paternal instincts. Using a sharp gaze, he finally spied his daughter on the far side of the cavern. She sat ensconced behind two stacked crates displaying the Coalition Army insignia. Though the Army weren’t funding this dig, he’d managed to procure old equipment. It was a heck of a lot more reliable than the reused, practically stitched together gear you got on these colony outposts.

He kept a hand over his mouth, ensuring his voice would carry, knowing that despite this cavernous room, it could muffle sound somehow. Diana, what are you doing?

It took a few seconds for his daughter to respond. She had a dented datapad in her hand, and she was playing with something in the dust. She pushed up, tilted her head toward him, and managed a wave.

He copied the wave, turned his hand around, and pointed at the ground.

Diana turned back, and though she was far away, he could see the side of her face clearly with his ocular implant. He’d lost one of his eyes during an explosion years ago on a colony outpost even more remote than this one. Without the capacity to regrow one, he’d self-made an implant, and though he could ditch it for the real thing now, he’d always opted to keep it.

His mantra – which happened to be his mother’s mantra, and her father’s mantra, and the mantra of the Ray family going back centuries – was that you grew with your faults. You did not remove them. You could never tell what was a blessing in disguise – only time could.

As William focused his ocular implant on his daughter, he saw the side of her lips moving as if she was talking to someone.

Bethany might not have implants, but she had great instincts, and she took a worried step up to his side. What?

It seems our daughter still has her imaginary friends, he said with a disappointed sigh.

It’s okay. It’s just a stage. Bethany reached a hand up and patted it tenderly on his shoulder.

He looked down, but he couldn’t hide the glum frown stretching his lips thin. She’s not a toddler anymore. She’s eight years old. It’s too old for imaginary friends.

She chuckled. I thought your mantra was that you grow with your faults?

Imaginary friends aren’t like fake eyes. He brought up a hand and tapped the side of his face, indicating his implant. I’m just worried about her, that’s all.

Bethany shrugged. As she turned her attention over to Diana, and they both watched their child extricate herself from behind those crates, he saw the subdued worry paling Bethany’s cheeks. She might put on a brave face, but she was anxious too.

Diana, for all her childlike brilliance, tended to believe in things that weren’t there….

Diana raced up and reached them, opening her arms as a broad smile spread her cupid-bow lips.

William leaned onto his knee, opened his large hands wide, and scooped her up.

Diana laughed, her jet-black hair with a hint of indigo tumbling around her face like a sheet of water. I was just playing.

I saw. He paused, wondering if he should mention that he’d seen her talking to someone.

Bethany cleared her throat. It’s time for dinner, she said definitively. A cargo ship is about to port. I’m sure they’re going to have the rations we asked for. Which means I can finally make your favorite…. Diana?

Diana, seemingly ignoring her mother, locked her attention on the back wall of the dig site. It wasn’t the first time she’d done that, and it wouldn’t be the last. Several times a day at least, she’d get trapped by that wall as if something had reached from it, grabbed her chin, and held her eyes in place.

That grain of worry William was so used to burying rose, climbing up his belly, marching up his back, and sinking into his hindbrain until a shiver raced through his limbs. He arched his shoulder around until he blocked the wall from view.

Diana just clamped one of her small hands on his arm and twisted to move past him.

He got in the way again. He also made eye contact with Bethany. She made no attempt to hide her worry anymore.

Despite the fact William had devoted his whole life to this dig, he’d started to have conversations with Bethany. Conversations about giving it a break. Or at least sending Diana back to live with his parents for a few months. Maybe if she had a chance to interact with more kids of her own age, she wouldn’t be so….

You can put me down, Diana said as she tried to wriggle free.

Oh, I can, can I? he said playfully.

I am eight years old. I’ve heard you two talking. Eight years old is too old for you to continually scoop me up in your arms.

Confronted, he tried to control his expression as he put her down. Diana—

Before he could start a serious conversation, she tilted around him and stared with fixed attention at the wall. Her gaze moved as if she was looking at something that was moving too. Which was impossible. The hover lights had shifted, and there was no direct illumination falling on the mural anymore. It was as still as a mountain. And yet his dear child’s eyes jerked from left to right as if she was somehow tracking an army through it.

A shiver raced up his back, and this time, he made no attempt to hide it. He took a step in front of her, completely blocking her view as he settled a hand on her shoulder. Diana, your mother and I have been talking.

She didn’t look up at him. You want to send me away. You don’t like the fact that I talk to people you can’t see. You don’t like the fact that I still have stuffed toys and I treat them like they’re alive. You don’t like the fact I still play in the dirt. And you don’t want to have to scoop me off my feet anymore.

Every revelation was like a blow, and he swallowed hard. We don’t want to have to send you away. But—

Your father and I are a little worried that you’re not interacting with kids your own age. Bethany leaned down, her hands on her knees as she too blocked their daughter’s view of the wall.

Why would I want to do that? Diana asked.

Because there’s so much you can learn, he tried with a smile.

Diana took a quick step to his side, looped a hand through his, and turned him around until the next thing he knew, they were both staring at the wall again. "People don’t have that much to teach me. That does. She pointed at the wall, her finger straight and proud. You always said the most important knowledge is from the past. And you’re right."

Bethany took a deep sigh.

William half closed his eyes. I did say that, didn’t I? But I’m wrong. The knowledge you can gain from the past is only one half of the equation. You must use your knowledge to benefit others. But you can only benefit others if you know who they are.

She finally tore her gaze off the wall and locked it on him. Why do you need to know who they are? To benefit them, all you have to do is keep them safe.

You can’t save people you don’t know. Now come on. Dinner is waiting. Though he could have pushed, and though maybe this was the best time to force this conversation, he wanted to get Diana away from the wall.

Bethany was right. It was time for her to leave this outpost and discover just how large the world was beyond these four walls.

It was just when Bethany took a step to Diana’s side and rested a hand affectionately on her daughter’s head that an alarm cut through the dig site. Sharp and loud, it shook up from the ground and blared with the force of a thousand bells.

Bethany protectively shrugged toward her daughter, clamping an arm all the way around Diana’s shoulders. What the hell is that? The red alert?

Yes. But there was a second alarm blaring between it. William’s cheeks paled, all the blood pumping out of his face until it felt like someone had garroted him. Invader alarm. Get Diana out of here!

What? Bethany skidded down, using her large, athletic form to grab Diana up. Diana might’ve been eight, but she’d always been a preciously small girl.

As blood pounded through William’s head, thrumming in his ears until it felt as if he’d swallowed an exploding generator, he yanked up his hand and accessed his wristwatch. It was also Coalition issue. He hadn’t had to haggle for this one, though. It had been a gift from his long-term friend, Captain Fenton.

William’s fingers, slicked with sweat, dashed across the interactive device as he accessed the communication unit housed in the primary accommodation block above ground.

At least he tried to. He could get a signal out, but nothing replied.

Bethany, carrying Diana close, sprinted toward the set of stairs that would lead up to the airlock and the elevators.

No, William roared, his voice so strong, it croaked and rattled. "Not that way. Above ground has been overrun – comms is down. Take her back through the tunnels. Now, now—"

Bethany had a chance to turn to him. He watched as her eyes pulsed wide, as primal, maternal fear spun through her. Then something else spun into her, cutting his wife down right before his eyes.

A blast shot through the dig site primary door, collecting a chunk of it and sending it hurtling down toward his wife. William didn’t have the chance to say anything more to her. It sliced across her back, an arc of blood splashing over the floor and Diana’s face.

Bethany! The shout was torn from his throat as his heart was ripped from his chest. He staggered forward as his wife fell on top of Diana.

Diana’s shrieks echoed through the room, loud enough to compete with the blaring alarm.

He reached Bethany. He shunted down to his knees, not caring that they grated over a still smoldering chunk of metal. It ripped his sturdy pants and burned his flesh, but nothing could stop him from tenderly pulling his wife’s dead body off his daughter and cradling her in his arms.

Diana shrieked in his ear, tears melting over her face as if they were acid that had eaten away her cheeks. She shoved a hand toward her mother, grabbing a handful of Bethany’s glorious, sleek jet-black locks.

William couldn’t linger. Not even for one last goodbye. He rocketed to his feet, his eyes pulsing wide as he locked them on the mangled dig site door.

This dig wasn’t dangerous, but William had always been a cautious man. Especially on outposts like this. Though this particular colony had been nothing but safe ever since he’d arrived here five years ago, a man like William Ray would never be able to shirk off his past. Being an archaeologist who specialized in managing digs in the furthest reaches of space, a healthy dose of fear was baked into his personality. One of the reasons this operation had taken so long was that William had been meticulous in building the shafts down to this site, lining the primary corridors, shipping in airlock doors that were heavy-cruiser grade, and basically ensuring that short of a Barbarian raiding party, no one would be able to blast their way down here.

But someone had. Because it was a Barbarian raiding party. William confirmed that as he stared over his shoulder at the primary door. One enormous Mascar warrior ducked his head through the mangled remains of the still burning-hot metal. As soon as the massive alien came into view, realization struck William like a blow through his heart.

He was going to die. Everyone on this goddamn outpost was going to die, even if anyone was still alive above ground.

But he would not let his daughter be one of those casualties, no matter what it cost.

Using speed he hadn’t used for years, William flung himself forward and pushed into a roll. He somehow managed to cradle his daughter’s head, protecting her fragile skull from the unyielding stone as their bodies tumbled over it. A hot, spinning blast of red pulsating energy slammed into the patch of ground where he’d been standing. It was so powerful, it didn’t just eat into the stone – it obliterated it, dust, gas, and goddamn burning chunks of rock scattering up in a devastating halo. Pieces of them landed on his back, shoulders, and the side of his face. They were like kisses from Hell itself. They didn’t just cauterize his skin – one chunk that scattered over his earlobe burned right through it.

William couldn’t feel the pain, though. He couldn’t afford to. He pulsed to his feet and shot forward.