Magna-Blade: Pax Omnis

By Evan Aitchison

War looms on the horizon. As Kado and his allies strive to allay the seemingly inevitable, the ominous Quell are preparing for an assault the likes of which have not been seen for over a century.

Meanwhile, the Vanixx Corps, a force of death and destruction weave their influence throughout the remaining cities of the planet.

The small group of blade wielders, accused criminals of the authorities, must cause more havoc on the true threat. Knowing that this will paint them as villains in the eyes of the public, they must risk it all to save the planet from a global war that nobody could survive.

But are they already too late?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Aug 13, 2021
• ISBN: 9781304330314

Book preview

Magna-Blade: Pax Omnis

By Evan Aitchison

Magna-Blade: Pax Omnis

Evan Aitchison

ISBN:

978-1-304-33031-4

Copyright © 2021 by Evan Aitchison

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 or scholarly journal.

First Printing: 2021

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Dramatis Personae

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Chapter 1

"Revelation – the humbling force.

A time when everything can change course.

Shall we fight the path we’re on?

Or will we always remain the pawn?"

Those words echoed through Kado’s mind, reciting the poetic observances of the late professor Gustenbury. Nicodem had shown him quite a few of those sayings from the professor with the relatively short time they had together. That, and not to mention the additional published works of other professors such as Wiltrite, Hilbert, Beauregard, and even the ancient works of Tesla. He didn’t know where this particular thought came from; it just seemed to repeat itself as he watched Ruana desperately work to save Yai.

Shock her again! Troy roared.

Whump!

A long ringing echoed through the bunker, announcing her still heart.

Again!

Troy, it’s –

Shock her again! He cut Ruana off harshly. His typical short fuse was coupled with greater ferocity as he stared at his close friend’s motionless corpse.

Whump!

They all stood silent as they drowned in hope for Yai to be okay.

The ringing progressed.

Troy shoved Ruana out of the way, desperately commencing chest compressions, We’re not going to lose you, Yai! We’re not!

The rest of the room was somber with grief, seeing one of their own meet their end.

Troy continued the chest compressions, refusing to give up, his tears beginning to drip off on her clothing. He grabbed the charging paddles.

***

Trion, you’ve done well. I want you to confirm our flight plan for tomorrow. The President doesn’t like to be kept waiting, after all, François Vaux dryly addressed his subordinate with the tiniest hint of sarcasm.

He stood by the window of his temporary office on a lower floor of the Citadel tower. He looked out to a bustling cityscape, everyone going about their lives just like it was a typical day; only today wasn’t just any day. It was going to be a monumental day for all history.

Yes, sir. We’ll head out first thing in the morning.

Excellent. Call in the Epilex Guard, He returned.

Right away, sir.

***

Whump!

Beep.

Beep.

Beep. Beep.

The domed ceiling let the very much welcomed pattern bounce its way around the room.

Yai? Troy leaned in to see if her eyes were opening. Her chest rose and fell with each breath.

Slowly, her eyelids showed movement.

She’s stabilized for now, Ruana announced as she double-checked her vitals, but she’ll need to be on bedrest for several days.

The room breathed a sigh of relief as Troy landed himself on the couch, his foot twitching, his hand resting on his beard.

Hey, Kado sat down beside him, resting his hand on his shoulder, She’ll be okay.

No thanks to you, He gently replied. Kado frowned, unsure how to take the response. He concluded that perhaps, Troy was just a little worked up at Yai’s condition, and understandably so. Kado patted him softly once as he rose to leave the room.

Let’s give him some space and some time to cool down, Xostir suggested.

Yeah. Kado headed right to his bunk, a sudden wave of exhaustion flowing over him.

Ruana continued to monitor Yai’s status, as the gentle, steady beeping of her heart continued to quietly reverberate around the room.

She next attended to Dom’s injuries.

How’s he doing? Troy asked. He had startled Ruana sneaking up on her like some sort of assassin. She dismissed any ill will and concluded that perhaps she was just overly focused on Dom’s injuries.

Oh, he’s doing a lot better than before. His internal injuries are much less serious than Yai’s are. I could see him fully recovering in a few days with the technology we have, her voice betrayed her continuous awe of the bunker and the secrets within.

Good, Troy nodded sullenly, and what about her? He slowly paced towards Yai’s hovering medical bed, When we were helping you, I could see a lot of red markers on the holo-display of her body. I assumed that was bad, she picked up the medical sterilizer device she found on the table then followed him back to Yai’s bed, partially to keep the conversation positive but also to ensure he didn’t touch anything, She’s got a long fight ahead of her. Her internal injuries were worse than Dom’s. We nearly lost her. She could hear him let out a shaky breath as she ran the sterilizing device over her bloodied armor and hands.

But she’ll make it, you think? He kept his gaze on Yai as he asked. After a brief pause, Ruana smiled, She’s a fighter and she’s driven. She’s also healing up well. I’d be surprised if she didn’t eventually make a full recovery.

Her hands and armor were now clean then she patted him, Come on, let’s let her get some rest. She’ll be well enough to move to the bunk in a few hours.

As they stepped away from Dom and Yai, some privacy walls slid up out of the floor to surround the medical beds, allowing the patients to sleep more restfully. Troy headed to the kitchen, Ruana felt compelled to follow him, she needed to say something to him, but she just wasn’t sure what. Sjar, Cymari, Cnidus and Ptalojn followed the two of them into the kitchen.

As Troy was grabbing a sweet snack from the fridge, she sat down and continued their conversation with the least amount of awkwardness that she could, You know, Kado wasn’t trying to get them hurt.

He was silent a moment, and after taking a breath was ready to open up the floodgates of everything that had been bouncing around in his brain, "Kado was a fool! His plan was completely reckless! He should’ve had accurate data first, should’ve known their capabilities before going in. We all nearly died."

Ruana nodded as she rested on her elbows on the countertop, Yes. It wasn’t the best plan. I think he gets that now. We’re all new to this vigilante kind of thing.

He shouldn’t be the one calling the shots, Troy grumbled as he scarfed down the little bowl of gelato.

Well, maybe he can consult you guys for ideas, Ruana replied, You and Dom have more experience than him with military operations. Yai has her skills from her military background too. But Kado and I, we only know a little bit about how to fight and most of it is just information fed to us, we haven’t really put it into practice. And remember, Kado has been alone all this time and has had to rely on getting all of his knowledge from Xostir and Nicodem’s videos, Troy huffed, He’s lucky he found us.

Ruana let out a chuckle, hoping she calmed his spirits, Yes, he definitely is, she paused as she saw Troy finish off the sweet dessert, How was it? she grinned as he laid the spoon into the dirty bowl.

Disgusting.

Well, why did you finish it? she giggled.

I don’t know. Better than the alternative, Troy grinned.

Ruana cocked a brow, What would the alternative be?

Punching Kado in his perfect teeth.

Her grin dropped.

Uh oh, Sjar said silently to Ruana.

"Hey, I wouldn’t hit him that hard. If Yai had died though. I can’t say what I’d do."

Well, we’re going to be more careful moving forward. And Kado won’t come up with the plans all on his own. Sound good? she tried to bring her grin back to the fore, she didn’t want to lose the progress she had made in calming him down.

Yeah, he nodded, I’m going to hit the hay. You let me know if her condition changes?

Absolutely, She stayed at her seat as he left the room.

He’s got a short fuse, doesn’t he? Sjar, her blade commented.

You can understand why, Cymari interjected, He’s known Yai a long time and Dom even longer. If either of them died, he’d lose his two closest friends.

We’ve all grown closer to our wielders over the past several months, Dom’s blade Cnidus added. If we lost anyone, it would be tragic.

Yai felt no anger towards Kado, Ptalojn added.

When she was struck by the Vanixx Corps weapons, her thoughts never indicated that she blamed him - rather, she blamed herself. I felt you should know that.

Ruana was shocked to hear a conversation neurally shared with her between the four blades. It was all communicated so quickly through her mind, and while she was able to process the thoughts, almost subconsciously, she couldn’t respond as quickly as needed. By the time she had responded to Ptalojn to say, That’s good to hear, the four blades were already discussing eighteen entirely different subjects simultaneously. She figured she’d let them discuss matters amongst themselves in their own dialogue and at their own pace. She glanced over to the four vertically hovering blades beside her with a mild glint of surprise, I might call it a night. I’ll have to keep an ear out for Yai.

I will also be carefully monitoring her vitals, Ptalojn assured her. She nodded, Alright, that’s a good idea.

Ruana headed for Kado’s bunk. She was sure Troy went to sleep for the night by now. As she rested a hand on the handle of Kado’s door, she doubted that he would be in bed yet, especially after a day like today. She creaked the door open slowly and carefully peeked to see if he was still awake. He was sitting at the desk in the room pouring over some sort of hologram of a map.

Hey, you – uh – you okay?

Kado turned around slowly, his eyes glazed with tears and his expression conveying nothing other than guilt, I almost got us all killed today so, yeah, I’m great.

She approached as she saw a tear bead down his cheek. He turned back to the hologram, the embarrassment clear from his hunched posture. She rested a gentle hand on his shoulder and leaned down near his ear to whisper, We survived thanks to you.

He scoffed, Yai and Dom are alive only because of you. Troy doesn’t think I should be in charge. I can tell. Maybe he’s right. Maybe Troy should be the one in charge.

Troy in charge? Ruana chucked, He may have more combat experience, but he’s too hot under the collar to make sensible decisions at all times.

She kneeled beside him and spun the hover chair to make him face her, We should probably come up with plans as a group from now on though. We could use their experience.

Yeah, Kado lowered his head, Maybe Dom should be in charge instead then.

Let’s just leave things the way they are. We’re a team. You brought us all together, let’s leave it at that. We work together, we all contribute to the plans and what to do next. And if we all agree on how to move forward, then that’s what we do, she rested her hands on his, which were planted on his thighs.

Okay, he calmly replied looking down at her hands. She kept trying to meet his eyeline, but his gaze refused to meet hers. For the first time, his age showed. Ever since she knew him, he had always seemed very mature for someone so young, but today – when failure hit him the hardest – she could still see that he wasn’t much older than her. A young man, vulnerable, shaken and unsure of his next steps.

I’m gonna go to bed. You should too. You need your sleep, she said as reached around him to turn off the hologram, Kado wearily looked over as she tapped the controls on the desk. His head felt like it was bobbling on a thin spear. He couldn’t keep his thoughts clear either. Perhaps it was the exhaustion from the day, or perhaps it was the intoxicating scent of her hair. Coconut and vanilla? He wondered.

It’s a synthesized coconut hair product, she has increased the amount she uses in her hair for the past few months, Xostir expanded to Kado silently. As Ruana rose to leave, Kado tried to ignore the distractions of his counterpart and to enjoy the moment they were sharing. Ruana had this way about her when it was just the two of them. She was so gentle and calm. As she headed for the door, he watched her pause as she grabbed the door handle. She turned back to him as she opened it, I spoke with Troy. He blames you of course, but Yai doesn’t. Try to take some comfort in that and get some sleep, alright? Kado nodded, Alright.

The following morning, Dom awoke with what felt like the worst hunger pangs and the driest throat he could’ve imagined. The whooshing sound of the privacy walls slowly lowering, had woken him from the lightest part of his sleep cycle.

Oh good, you’re awake. How are you feeling? Ruana approached, a holo-chart in her hands.

Well, I’m not in as much pain anymore, but I’m starving, he patted his stomach. With a chuckle, she grabbed a plate from Kado and handed it to him. A small table rose from the floor to hover beside Dom’s bed where Kado rested a cup of water.

Glad to see you’re doing better, Dom. You had us worried, Kado wearily grinned. Troy was on the opposite side of the bed and was also smiling as he approached, Dom, you gotta get better at dodging those blaster bolts, man.

Hey, you’re one to talk! The two of them laughed as they gripped hands in some sort of simple handshake the two of them shared.

It was the first time Kado heard Troy speak all morning.

Where’s Yai? Dom asked as he was finishing the first bite of his sandwich. Troy’s expression changed to a serious one, She’s still asleep in that medical room thing.

Dom followed Troy’s pointing finger to a closed rectangular room, much like the one he assumed he had been sleeping in.

Ah, he remarked, That bad huh?

He noticed Kado had stepped away without another word as Ruana excused herself, Speaking of Yai, I’m going to – uh, check her vitals again.

Dom turned back to Troy, noticing the awkwardness between them, What’s going on, man? You all seem...different.

Troy kept his voice low, It’s Kado. He came up with this stupid plan and nearly got you and Yai killed.

Yeah, but we’re alive. He helped get us out of it.

That’s not the point –

Dude, you need to cool it, Dom grinned, knowing his friend and exactly how to talk to him.

You think that when we signed up for this, it was going to be easy – that this was going to be a walk in the park? Dom asked. Troy lowered his head, seeing the wisdom of his best friend’s words, No.

Maybe it wasn’t the best plan. But without Kado we might already be dead. You know how close the VC were to finding us.

Yeah, Troy kept his gaze on Dom’s food, unsure of where else to look.

Let’s talk more about this later. I’m starving, he concluded as he took a hearty bite into his sandwich. Troy nodded and headed back to the couch to silently peruse the news-holo.

Cymari approached Troy.

Not now, Cymari. I want to be alone.

I understand that. Just know that, I know how you are feeling. It’s okay to be angry about this.

Just...go, okay? Can you please get out of my head for just a few minutes?

Cymari headed back to the other side of the room, hovering with the rest of the blades.

Kado glanced over to Ruana paging through a holo panel on Yai’s medical room, then to Dom finishing up his sandwich, finally landing eyes on the back of Troy’s rouge head of hair. Feelings of frustration and embarrassment struck him in the heart and stomach as he replayed the hurtful things Troy said over and over in his head. Troy has a point. The plan wasn’t great. We are lucky to be alive, he thought to himself.

It wasn’t luck. It was skill and a drive to survive that brought us all back to the relative safety of the bunker, Xostir said in a poor attempt to console Kado.

But we all nearly died. Xostir, it was a bad plan. We didn’t even accomplish everything we wanted, and we may have made things worse, Kado looked to his hovering friend from across the room.

It is true that we were in a dangerous situation working on outdated information, however we did strike their pride and for once the city could see the VC as vulnerable. Those are key takeaways from the mission that were effective and positive.

Thanks, bud. I just wish I could get Troy to trust me, Kado shrugged.

He will, in time.

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Chapter 2

ETA? Vaux raised his voice to the pilot and co-pilot, dispassionate about whichever one would respond. His seat was a few feet back, facing forward. The g’s the Traffinjo pulled were noticeable despite the advanced technology to dampen inertia. Vaux double-checked to ensure his flight harness was restrained. He glanced over to his Epilex Guard, nodding to their helmeted outfits, their eyes obscured by the visors.

Ten minutes, sir, the pilot called back.

The engines of his ship hummed loudly at these high speeds. Vaux had prepared plenty for this meeting with the President, and he was nervous for it to go well. The President summoned them to meet with him to brief him on the situation of the Quell’s rebellious terrorist attacks, the Vanixx Corps’ plan to eradicate the threat, and the arrangements in place to protect the entire country. Vaux’s proposition for the next steps would be a huge change, and he anticipated positive results from their meeting.

Vaux activated his eyeshades as the sun reflected into the Traffinjo off the White House.

Radiant beams of light glistened atop the massively wide stalky tower that had the White House perched on top. The new White House design was quite different from the one that had housed the previous Presidents since the 1800s, but still had some influential elements of its original design.

Some secret service agents stood at the ready on the landing pad as they touched down.

As all stood, Vaux addressed the small crew of both men and women, Thank you for joining me today on this historic occasion. Today we take our first real steps towards making the world a better place since before the Gravity War. Make the Vanixx Corps proud today.

All in unison saluted and gave a vigorous, enthused battle cry of hoo-rah before the loading ramp descended.

The sun shone off the jet-black helmets and armor of the Epilex Guard, the highest elite forces the Vanixx Corps have ever produced.

Vaux strode out front leading the small parade of his five associates while the two pilots stayed aboard the Traffinjo.

A few dozen agents lined the red-carpeted path leading from the landing pad to the entryway. Two agents guarded the shielded door to take any weapons or unsanctioned devices from visitors. After many assassination attempts in recent decades, caution was of the highest priority. As they neared the first gate, they were greeted by a security hologram, "Please remove any accessories that are not directly affixed to your person. Examples of such items are, sunglasses, chewing hum, belts, shoes, gloves, et cetera. Vaux and each of his officers, removed such items and other accoutrements typically found in pockets onto a hover conveyor that would scan these items thoroughly.

As they continued through the screening process, they reached a second gate which scanned their heart rates, reviewed their genomes, DNA and bloodstream for biological weapons, and half a dozen other possible biological and cybernetically augmented threats. The next gate had no security guards. This time they simply strode past a wall of red, seemingly harmless lasers which ran deep tissue scans. Allegedly this would reveal any secret, hidden weapons, or devices of any sort. Typically, they were looking for subcutaneous cybernetics that caused alarm or were illegally installed. Lastly, they reached the final gate which followed a hallway containing a phase-shielded entryway, which only deactivated if the two agents outside allowed entry.

The White House's security was beyond anything anyone else on the planet had conjured up, complete with unseen cameras nearly everywhere. Vaux knew these cameras existed only because he was able to obtain some otherwise redacted security detail about the White House from an inside informant planted months ago. Such an extensive security system was designed by the current President, a man known for not trusting technology and yet being expected to use it and extol the modern-day advances. Once they made it past each security checkpoint they were moving onward down the hall to the circular room.

Vaux alone was allowed into the Office by two agents, one opening the door and one who greeted him once inside. It was overkill, especially for the most trusted visitors, the leaders of their very own country-wide military.

Welcome, Admiral! Thank you for coming.

The distinguished leader gestured to the two facing couches as he walked out from behind his large, sophisticated desk and reached out his arm.

Mister President, it has been quite some time since we’ve had an audience with your graciousness.

Their handshake was firm and abrupt. The President detected just the slightest increase of firmness from his associate before releasing; the release also felt stilted and rehearsed. This gave him the slightest pause for a fleeting moment.

Yes, it has. Well, let’s have a seat and discuss what you came here for.

He again gestured to the two hover couches that faced each other across the room from the Presidential Desk.

Ceilings and walls of the White House proudly wore simple moldings which displayed a modern, elegant appearance. The molding’s style paid homage to the décor through the centuries that such an office has been in place.

Vaux’s five accompanying guardsmen were required to stay outside while two of the President’s secret service remained in the room, one at each door. The two of them each sat on their own couch, facing one another.

President Bennet felt something was amiss as the military leader found his perch. The way he took his seat was not as relaxed as he had seen so many others seat