“It is, and to whom am I speaking?”

  “This is Admiral Reese of Luna Command. Acting War Commander Reese,” the man said, adding emphasis each time he mentioned his rank.

  “My God, he’s an ass, isn’t he?” my pops interjected. Sumo had a chunk of the beast in his mouth. It seemed to match the missing spot on the creature’s face. I stepped in to do my part.

  “What can I do for you… sir?” I asked as I hit the thing in the thigh, then leveraged it over my head using my body as the fulcrum. Worked great, but I had forgotten about the hooked razor claw which caught me under my good arm and ripped through the armor and yeah, it began peeling away flesh. My… flesh.

  “I want my ship back, Captain, and I use that term loosely, No one can explain how you got a multiple rank promotion when Fleet Command is offline.”

  Shit, that hurt. I punched the goddamn thing in its fucking mouth. “Probably the same way you made War Commander... sir.” Yeah, that was a dick move. But then again, I’d been an asshole way longer than I’d been a captain. Hey, I did add the ‘sir’ to the end.

  “That was a dick move,” my pops said. Followed by, “I like it. Shoot, let’s all make up new titles for ourselves. I am King of Cedar Key and the lower half of part of the county of Levy. Not the part currently overrun by monsters… someone else can rule there.”

  I brought an armored knee down into the face of the Furie with a sickening crunch. I wasn’t entirely sure if the crunch came from me or it. Ada had my pain receptors dialed down so low, I could no longer tell.

  “I’m waiting,” the admiral said impatiently. Obviously, I had missed more of the conversation while my dad had talked right over the other man’s comms signal, but technically, I was otherwise engaged.

  “For what?”

  “Look, Son, you can address me as Admiral or War Commander. I am a superior officer and deserve that level of respect.”

  “Go fuck yourself!”

  “Excuse me?” the man said stammering. He obviously wasn’t used to being spoken to like that.

  “You heard me. You fucking washed-up twat. Fuck you! You have no skin in this game. You run an unnecessary auxiliary base that was all but unaffected by the actions on Earth. Unpin my ship’s comms array, and once we have secured the known enemy combatants, we will make arrangements to make a stop at Gateway.”

  I studied the piece of my own skin hanging down knowing it should hurt way more than it was.

  “You do have the ability to shield yourself mentally from all of the pain,” Ada said, reading my thoughts again. I focused on the arm, and indeed, I was controlling the pain. I eased back on the setting and holy fuck, it hurt like hell. I quickly dampened it back down. I wasn’t sure if it was better if she handled that or me.

  “Captain Hauk is moving a fireteam into a pincer move,” the AI said.

  “Good.” I was growing less impressed with the legendary Red-7, but they had been through hell.

  “Multiple targets,” she said.

  “You going to unmute him?” my dad said. “I want to hear this shit.”

  I hadn’t even realized I had, but sure enough, the flag officer was using all manner of words to let me know what high treason was and what the Space Force equivalent of keelhauling involved. “You are a pirate, and how you ever…”

  I cut the feed as I belly crawled to a position where I should be able to lay eyes on one of the two remaining monsters. “Ada, do whatever it takes to retake full control of our ship. Permanently lock out that asshole and anyone else who attempts to commandeer the vessel. And get us a goddamn drop ship!”

  My Rattler barked twice, and an arm and a leg disintegrated from the target’s body. That felt good. Hauk and his men dropped the other one before I even had eyes on it. The company medic was suddenly at my arm applying a field dressing.

  “We lost both of the camels,” Captain Hauk said, walking up and eyeing the scene. “Where’s our ride?”

  The camels, or CM-L’s, were the modern military’s pack mules. Agile autonomous cargo haulers that could go nearly anywhere. Each carried food, munitions, and medical supplies for a platoon. Jordan Hauk had been using the other to transport the worst of the wounded.

  “I’m working on it.”

  To be honest, my AI was working on it. I had a feeling that Bayou would send the TriCraft down anyway in time, assuming the ‘war commander’ hadn’t locked them out of the hangar deck as well. I’d left Riggs in an impossible situation just to come down here and what...give this man’s platoon false hope?

  “Work faster, Kovach,” Hauk said before stomping off. The medic finished taping up my arm and also disappeared.

  “You’re welcome,” I whispered.

  “You told a fleet officer to fuck off, Joe. Are you sure that was a wise move?” Ada asked, her voice a well-modulated monotone offering no sign of what she thought. She was, after all, military property and honestly might have some backdoor access that the admiral could use against me.

  “Probably not, but it felt good.”

  “Kid, you know before I die, I was hoping you would make something of yourself…I should have been more specific,” My pops said.

  The line went dead as my dad once again offered me not one shred of anything helpful.

  CHAPTER

  TWENTY-SIX

  Xero was waiting for me when I got back to the armory building. She eyed the bandage on my right arm.

  “Fighting with the locals again?”

  I ignored her. We both knew the wound wasn’t serious.

  “Why does it seem like we have more people?” I asked, looking at the crowded room.

  “We do, basement bunker had survivors,” Xero said.

  That stung, I hated to be heartless, but that put our numbers out of reach for a single dropship again. I followed the woman’s eyes and saw the captain out there checking on his men.

  “You still haven’t fucked him?”

  She smiled and shook her head. “He’s still as honorable as ever?”

  “Worse, never met a guy as hard to read as Jordan Hauk.”

  “Not even Damiana?” she asked.

  She had a point. Damiana Voss had been with Carol Reynolds, two strangers that I’d picked up in Virginia just after Last Day. Both had seemed desperate to get out of an unpleasant situation and offered to help me find one of the other Hammer Industries facilities. Only later would I learn Voss was working me; I was her asset at best.

  “You know she shot me?”

  Xero looked surprised, then asked me to show her where.

  I dropped my torso section with the plate carrier and lifted my base layer up showing her the thin, white scar. It still amazed me I could heal this fast. The woman, girl, person, moved a slender finger over the area, then seemed to do some calculations.

  “Were you near the end of your cycle? The drug regiment?”

  Jesus, this chick was well informed. Hardly anyone inside the project knew that. I nodded.

  “I think she saved your life.”

  “I don’t think so…she ended it.” But yes, I’d begun having the same thoughts.

  She tilted her head and cocked an eyebrow.

  “Technically, I was dead.”

  “Current observations would suggest otherwise.”

  I’d already gleaned that Xero had some insights into Reichert’s augmentation project. I just wasn’t sure to what degree. “Please continue.”

  She bit her lip, and I had to admit she was damn cute. Maybe we could have sex…or not.

  “If your body had run its natural course, the organ rejection would have likely flooded your system with toxins and a flood of white blood cells. That would have sent you into shock, cardiac arrest, and likely liquefied much of your internals. By shooting you, she stopped all that, and if I am right, she was aware of a failsafe or system reset. Her shot looks like it would have grazed the edge of your spleen. An area in which I know they did significant modifications.”

  “I thought you were a computer hacker.”

  She raked her short hair back out of her eyes and looked past me. “I’m a polymath.”

  I’d heard the term but didn’t recall it. Helpfully, Ada whispered the definition to me.

  “You know lots of different things,” I offered.

  She nodded, “More than that, really. I am well versed and highly skilled in many different specialties. Knowing is not enough, you have to be able to recognize patterns, intuit information, sometimes make leaps that carry you further. That’s why I am considered valuable.”

  “You saw all of this coming, didn’t you?”

  “The creatures…no.”

  “The war?”

  She nodded. “I did. I wish I hadn’t, but yes.”

  “You said you didn’t know who was behind it, but you must have some suspicions.”

  “More like contenders,” she offered.

  “I need a name,” I said.

  “That I don’t have… not yet.”

  “So why are you the HVA? You must have intel that someone wants to protect.”

  “Or someone they want to silence,” she said.

  “Well… shit.” She had a point. I tried another path. “Something here in this country triggered the attacks. Our own assets were used against us?”

  She nodded. “There were breaches, high level internal breaches.”

  “Where?” I needed actionable intel.

  “Everywhere… DARPA, Hammer, Apex, NSA, Homeland. Hell, even the Texas Militia. You realize that a relatively small group of individuals worldwide essentially control everything?”

  I shook my head. “Like a cabal or something?”

  She stared past me as she considered her response. “Maybe it could simply be someone with enough money and influence. I personally can’t think of anything much worse than trying to run the world, but the CIA did a study years ago detailing how it could happen. They said as few as 1500 individuals could bring about world change. Even less if they were very well placed and had additional help.”

  “Who would those people be? Who could do all this?”

  “Not a who, Kovach… a what.”

  My brain jumped to where she was heading. “You are saying an AI started this war?” I asked. This was the stuff of sci-fi films and conspiracy theory nut-jobs for the last hundred years. I remembered the movie with the android foot stomping down on a shaman skull. Good movie, and then I thought about the Decimators. They would have made those T-1000s look like kids’ toys.

  Xero shook her head. “I am saying it was part of it. Nothing but a highly advanced AI could have planned this level of chaos or have breached those systems that fast or that thoroughly.”

  “Who has an AI with those kinds of capabilities?”

  “Us, the U.S. Space Force, to be precise. Program started back around 2015 by the U.S. Air Force to develop a cyber task force of their own. They also got some of the very first quantum computing systems to get them started. They developed multiple highly effective AI systems mainly useful for research, predictive analysis, and pattern recognition. The Stetson, which was the projects codename basically did what the teams of data analysts using super-computers did, it just did it much, much faster.”

  “Are you suggesting Space Force’s own AI,” which was something I had never heard of, “that Stetson was…is sentient? It decided to wipe out humanity?”

  She laughed. “No. I don’t believe any AI has ever reached consciousness. I am one of those who maintains it never will, not by design at least. That would be a Level-5 AI. The best we can do is a moderate strong Level-3. Those can mimic complex sentience structure and nuanced conversation, but you probably know that better than anyone. You have one living in your head.”

  “Ada, your mom thinks you tried to kill the world.”

  “Pointless,” my AI said out loud. “Humans breed like roaches, can’t wipe you out.”

  I elected not to face palm my head or say “Duh!” Yes, Ada was developing a personality despite her programming.

  CHAPTER

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  IAS STONE MOUNTAIN

  The ship’s AI, Belle, confirmed what Bayou suspected. The lockouts to several key systems had been done remotely. It had taken Otero and her team several days to disable the remote access nodes.

  “Comms array coming up now, Bayou.”

  “Thank you, get me Captain Kovach or Hauk as soon as possible.” She’d already tried Kovach on her internal comms to no luck.

  Moments later, her friend and boss’s voice came through. “Bayou, you read?”

  She smiled, “Good to hear your voice, Prowler.”

  “Same. What’s the status?” Kovach asked.

  She knew instantly he knew someone had been screwing with the ship.

  “We’re in stable orbit 250 miles up. Just got comms array back under our control. Maneuvering engines are still offline, but the SEs are working on those next. Any idea who did this?”

  “Probably the admiral at Luna.”

  That jived with what she was thinking as well. “Any way we can block him out… or anyone else?”

  Kovach queried his AI before answering, “Have to change the command codes at the highest level of authentication. Ada says she doesn’t have access at that level.” He paused as if he was talking to someone else, then added, “Get us a dropship down here, and I will send you someone who might help. Our HVA.”

  “Solid copy, Boss, but exfil may be a challenge.”

  Bayou checked the nav screen before giving him the bad news. “Without maneuvering thrusters, all we can do is stay in the rotational orbit that we initially took.”

  “That means you are only over Texas a few times each week, right?” Kovach asked, picking up on the problem. The TriCraft was great, but it worked best when used almost like an elevator. Drop it straight down right on target, make a drop-off or pick-up, and then ascend to the next adjacent orbit and wait for the mothership’s next pass. There were some workarounds, but they put a lot of undue stress on the craft, and since it was the only operational way they had of traversing to and from the surface now, other than ballistic drop pods, no one wanted to risk it.

  “Time to next intercept?”

  “Just over three hours,” Riggs answered. “After that we won’t be back on that same line for three days unless Otero or your wunderkind down there can unlock those thrusters.”

  “We won’t all fit in one trip. We have wounded and some equipment, but some will have to stay behind,” Kovach said.

  Deb knew he meant himself. He would not leave before everyone else did. “What else can I do for you, Boss?”

  “Keep the high-ground, Bayou. I have a feeling we’re going to need it.”

  “Hard copy on that.”

  Kovach needed one more thing. “Bayou, how is our contingent of Marines?” They had rescued the group from a destroyed ship a week earlier.

  “Most are well enough to leave the med-bay now.”

  “Good.” Kovach said. “We’re going to fill it up on the first run. Something else, though…”

  Bayou had a feeling she knew what was going on.

  “You need to know where everyone’s loyalties are?”

  “You got it!” Kovach said quickly. “We have a lot of things to fight, we don’t need to include any we are giving sanctuary to. You read me, LT?”

  “Hard copy, Chief.”

  “Good… now get that boat on the deck as soon as possible. Let Packer know the LZ will almost certainly be hot. Let me know updates on the rest of your efforts to gain full control. Kovach out.”

  CHAPTER

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  The first group extracted included the wounded, the HVI, and as many others as Packer could cram onboard. Hauk sent his second-in-command, Hadroop, and like me, stayed with his remaining men. They had fought off two more attacks, the last one included something new. A small coyote-type animal with a whip-like tail. They’d learned the hard way that the tail had a stinger and that it was armor-piercing and lethal.

  I was a seasoned soldier, battle-hardened and fearless. But patrolling the nearby woods later that night had me on edge. Fear was something I was familiar with; we were old friends, but since meeting up with Voss’s creature and its psionic capabilities, I knew our fears could be manipulated. Catching a glimpse of Sumo coming to attention, I focused on the combat dog, then what he had spotted. Ada automatically scanned all wavelengths to give me a target. On every spectrum, all I got was a black shadowy outline. Fuck, I was in trouble.

  This was no Furie, this beast was massive. It towered over Sumo like a mountain. Its body was covered in thick fur, and its eyes glowed with an otherworldly light. I could sense the evil in this thing. In a flash of moonlight, I saw saliva dripping from razor-sharp teeth.

  “Sumo, back,” I whispered.

  I knew we were outmatched, but of course, being a total dumbass, I refused to back down. I briefly considered if this was the beast that Hauk had thought was controlling the others, but no, this thing didn’t look aquatic. Even in shadow, I felt like this was more bear or Sasquatch than little mermaid. I raised the pulse rifle and fired. The flare of carnage rounds lit up the entire scene, and I realized my target was not there. Sumo glanced at me confused and then did a full perimeter sweep. Our enemy was gone, or …hiding.

  There is something most people don’t know about Tier-1 military teams. We don’t get deployed that often, and when we do, we’ve usually trained on the exact mission for months. We study the terrain, we build mock-ups of the buildings, we study the enemy, their habits, backgrounds, weapons…everything, and I mean everything.

  Now, we’re meeting new threats every fucking day. Enemies no one could prepare for. Creatures that equaled or surpassed everything we could throw at them, and they still kept coming. We were not at our best, not even me. Joe Kovach, the super enhanced prototype for the future of the military. What a freaking joke.

  The thing attacked, its jaws snapping at my throat. I rolled to the side, but the beast was too fast, and it caught me with a powerful swipe of its paw. I was sent flying, my body slamming into a tree. Jesus, this thing is strong. It felt like a dozier-bot had just swatted me into the outfield.