Space Knight Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  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

  End notes

  Samuel E. Green &

  Michael-Scott Earle

  Chapter 1

  “Fields up, Cadets!”

  I flicked the switch on my belt, and the surrounding air crackled. For a second I was blinded when the magical device activated. When I could see again, the readout on the left corner of my visor listed:

  Prot-field: 100%

  The steaming hot jungle where the other RTF Academy cadets and I were situated had likely grown after the terraforming systems in Tyranus’ atmosphere degenerated, creating a tropical wilderness. My armor’s recycling systems collected my dripping sweat for repurposed drinking water and to cool my equipment’s systems.

  I swatted at a massive mosquito as it made the mistake of flying into my prot-field. The field zapped the bug, and its guts exploded.

  “Great,” I said, wiping at my carapace breastplate. Sticky mosquito innards pasted the synthetic fabric between my light chest armor and spaulders. These low level forcefields only protected against projectiles, which, it seemed, included mosquitoes.

  My readout flashed again, and the prot-field registered 97%. If a mosquito reduced it so easily, I hated to think what a Grendel bullet might do.

  “Ha!” Alice Jones, the mission’s jump mage, slapped me on the back playfully. “Making new friends, Nicholas?”

  The mage’s purple robes looked striking when set against the jungle greenery. The prot-belt cinching the flowing garments around her thin waist would keep them from getting in the way during the battle. Although Alice wouldn’t do much fighting; her role was to take us back to the Academy starship once we’d finished clearing the rift.

  “Hey, all creatures seem to like me,” I said to the beautiful mage. Dust-embossed symbols on her robes enhanced her magical abilities, but they also made her blue eyes glitter. She wasn’t wearing any armor at all, unlike the cadets who were equipped in a hodgepodge of light suits.

  I’d considered asking Alice out a few times, but the Academy staff frowned upon student relationships, and I didn’t want anything to jeopardize my chances of graduating or of getting assigned to the best starship possible.

  “Save your affections, Poor Boy,” Ludas said from in front of us. The nobleman squire strangled his axe handle with both hands as his gaze darted around the jungle. He seemed terribly nervous for someone who was surrounded by three burly knights. Heavy power armor covered their large bodies and the swords in their gauntleted hands pulsed with power. Ludas was the son of Duke Barnes, so these bodyguards accompanied him on every mission. They were only meant to intervene if his life was endangered, but he often ordered them to do his bidding and complete his objectives.

  Needless to say, I didn’t like the guy.

  It wasn’t merely his bureaucratic lineage or his unlimited wealth that soured my opinion. I was, of course, jealous of his status and riches since I’d grown up as the ‘poor boy’ Ludas branded me. Still, he needn’t remind me of my social status or my Academy scholarship every time he spoke to me.

  “Got it, Ludas,” I replied as I forced a smile to my face. His bullying had been the most intense during our first year, but I’d gone out of my way to swallow my pride and be nice to the arrogant aristocrat. My strategy worked, and by the end of our first year, he no longer insulted me every chance he got. He still called me ‘Poor Boy’ though, and everyone but Alice had quickly adopted the name.

  I wouldn’t have to deal with any of my snobby classmates in a few days. This was my last mission as a cadet. After we defeated the low-level Grendels today, I’d be promoted to squire, and well on my way to full-fledged knighthood within the Royal Trident Forces.

  Just like Dad was.

  Then I would be assigned to a Caledonian Kingdom starship and dispatched across the galaxy in service of the Queen. My life would consist of clearing rifts and collecting loot. In a few months, I’d earn enough to afford a decent place for my mom to live. I’d be able to follow in my father’s footsteps and provide for her as he once did. It was my dream, and I wasn’t going to let some spoiled rich kid distract me from it.

  “Level One rift incoming,” the navigator’s voice entered my mind telepathically and kicked me out of my daydreams. Even after three years at the Academy, I wasn’t accustomed to someone speaking inside my head.

  “Activate runic weapons,” Sergeant Myers barked as he marched through the ranks, ensuring everyone was following protocol. He sneered at Ludas and the heavily armored bodyguards as he passed them, muttering something under his breath that sounded a lot like, “Fucking nobles.”

  I removed my sword from its scabbard. As soon as the temporary rune on my palm pressed against the matching Novice rune on the sword’s handle, the weapon glowed with arcane energy. Cascading hues of muted yellow light swirled around the blade’s double edges. The corner of my visor displayed the sword’s stats as it activated:

  Weapon type: Iron Gladius of Minor Edge.

  Additional damage: None

  Power class: Novice

  Weapon effect: Minor Edge - adds 5% weapon damage. Edge lasts longer without sharpening.

  Runes inscribed: None

  Rune class: Novice

  Rune effects: None

  Alice activated her dagger while Ludas activated his axe. Where my gladius was tarnished with age and glowed a dull yellow, their weapons burst with a green brilliance.

  Lights sparked from all around the jungle swamp as the fifty other cadets prepared themselves. They were all wearing Novice armor, fashioned like the suits of armor human warriors wore before the gods gifted us technology to cross the stars.

  The gravity runes inscribed on every Runetech item meant they could be constructed with unwieldy material. Even with gravity runes, some armor pieces weighed upwards of twenty kilos, so every cadet needed to be in peak condition. Our ethos was “strong, fast, and fit”, and there wasn’t a single cadet in this jungle who didn’t mirror that.

  Using the electronic inventory on my prot-belt, I displayed the weapons screen on my visor. I selected the Iron Gladius, and activated the dampener. Immediately, the sword dimmed to grey carbon.

  “Listen up!” The point clerk yelled as he appeared a couple meters in front of us. His wrinkled head bulged with the bionic implants all clerks wore to interface with the kingdom’s database. “Remember, whatever loot you bring back from this mission will count towards your Kingdom Balance. Return it to me after the mission is complete, and I’ll provide you with Kingdom Points.”

  I nodded and tried to keep the pleased smile off my face. After graduation, I’d be able to buy my first piece of Runetech equipment. I appreciated the basic gear the Academy gifted me, but I was really looking forward to building my own kit with KPs earned from this mission.

  The rift site was about twenty meters in front of my designated position. The portal’s center appeared to glow a deep purple. Most of the Level One rifts we’d seen in classes had been closer to b
lue. Its edges were expanding, becoming less ephemeral. Soon Grendel Grunts would filter out of it.

  “Enemy arrival in 10 . . . 9 . . . 8 . . .”

  I hadn’t faced any real Grendels before. There was a big difference between simulations and the real thing. My hands were streaming with sweat, and my heart hammered in my chest with urgency.

  “7 . . . 6 . . . 5 . . .”

  I shook myself free of my worries. I needed to focus. If I failed today, then it was back to the enchantry in Bratton and its meager pay. Mom needed me. I’d come this far; I wasn’t ready to give up now.

  “4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . .”

  I thought about Dad and his exploits as a Space Knight. I wanted to do him proud today. What little I remembered of him stayed in my mind as the final second passed. Had he ever been afraid? I doubted it, so I swallowed the lump in my throat and ran my tongue across dry lips.

  “ . . . 1.”

  The designated drop zone hummed with low vibrations. Dazzling light burst from the rift as it opened. For a few seconds, I was blinded. When my vision came back, I expected to see a small squad of Grendel Grunts moving through the jungle and the closest cadets preparing to engage them in combat. But there was nothing. The rift whirled with color and crackled with energy, but there were no Grendels.

  “Something’s not right,” Alice said. “Where are they?”

  I caught a shimmer, like light reflecting off a body of water, moving through the foliage around the drop site. The cadet closest to the rift suddenly fell onto his back screaming. His stomach tore open, and his guts flew out as if of their own accord. The shimmer vanished. In its place was a bipedal lizard-man atop the cadet. Blood stained its serrated talons. It jumped from the dead cadet to another like a giant grasshopper.

  “Those fuckers are Grendel Elites!” Sergeant Myers screamed. He ran past me, grabbed Alice, and sprinted away from the combat area. “Fall back! Protect the jump mage at all costs. Rendezvous at the extraction zone.” His voice faded, giving way to screams of terror.

  All around me, Grendel Elites were materializing and taking out cadets. Grendel talons cut them to pieces, but I was too far from any of them to help.

  Ludas’ three knights jumped in front of the nobleman, preparing themselves for the impending onslaught. One of the knights suddenly roared and pushed something away from him. The air shifted, and a Grendel appeared. Up close, the monstrous aliens looked even bigger. They were seven feet tall walking lizard-men with dark green scales, wide mouths, and two-inch long razor teeth.

  The knight on Ludas’ left swiped his greatsword in a two-handed swing, but before he could complete the movement, blood exploded out from his stomach where a second Grendel’s talon pierced his armor. This one appeared out of thin air instantly, and it followed up its talon cut by lopping the head off the dying knight.

  “Prot-fields won’t hold up long against Grendel Elites!” another knight said as he fell back to the duke’s son. “Get behind me, Ludas.”

  Ludas jumped behind his two remaining knights. I stood beside them, holding my gladius while the more experienced men engaged the two Grendels. One of Ludas’ knights shuffled forward with a sword thrust aimed at the lizard-man that just killed his friend. The beast raised his arm to push aside the knight’s thrust, but the armored man pulled his blade back, jumped forward to slam his shield into the Grendel, and then clocked the lizard upside the head with the pommel of his blade.

  The attack spun the Grendel to the side, and I felt my body move forward without my brain giving it the order. My sword wasn’t as long as the knight’s standing next to me, but my swing still caught the stumbling creature at the back of its knee. The monster was wearing armor, but it was thinnest in that spot, so my blade cut the bottom half of the beast’s leg off.

  The Grendel growled as it tipped over away from me, and I cocked my sword into my chest in preparation of my next attack. But before I could stab the stumbling monster, the knight next to me pivoted around my left shoulder and brought his longsword around to cut into the creature’s chest. His powerful blow sliced halfway through the creature’s breastplate, and it flailed around the blade before it died.

  Ludas’ knight and I turned to the remaining Grendel, but the other knight had already downed the creature and was pulling his blade out of the dead lizard’s skull. The young aristocrat was standing a few paces behind us, and his axe was shaking in his trembling hands.

  “Good job, Cadet,” the knight next to me said.

  “Uhh. Thanks,” I replied as the emotions swirled in my stomach. I was glad to see the Elites felled by the knight’s powerful weaponry, but the terror in my body was almost overwhelming. Something had gone wrong with the portal. While it was too bad the rest of the cadets didn’t have Space Knights like these to protect them, I didn’t think three, well now two, knights were going to be able to keep us all alive.

  I knelt to grab the dead knight’s sword. Wielding two weapons would give me some comfort. Even though this one wasn’t Novice class, and I wouldn’t be able to use the magic abilities.

  “Out of the way, cadet,” the other knight hissed as he pushed me aside. He clipped his shield to his back and pulled the weapon from my hand before my vision could display the sword’s stats. “This one’s not for you.” He tested the weight of the weapon before pushing Ludas forward. “Let’s get to the extraction zone.”

  The petrified screams of my fellow cadets filled my ears as we sprinted northeast. I heard a chorus of insect-like sounds behind me, and I turned to see a flood of Grunts the size of greyhounds filter out from the rift. They swept through the jungle, running along the ground on their ten legs and swimming just as easily through the swamp water.

  None of the monsters were cloaked so I could see them coming. One jumped at me with its bloody maw opened, but I managed to cleave its head off with a horizontal swing of my short sword. The strike messed up my running form, and another lizard made a jump for my legs. I sprung forward, tripped a bit on my feet, and then turned around with my sword out.

  I’d only intended to keep the thing at bay, but it made a jump at me, and the tip of my blade pierced its maw and drove into the thing’s tiny brain. There weren’t anymore coming at me, so I continued to run. These were the creatures we were meant to fight with a Level One rift, not the Elites who could appear and disappear in an instant.

  I followed Ludas and his two knights into the thicker part of the algae covered jungle. As soon as we entered darker foliage, I heard the screams of the other cadets and stopped. The terrified shrieking and the bellowing of pure agony surrounded me, filling my ears and making my heart slam into my chest repeatedly. I couldn’t possibly help them all, so I sprinted after Ludas’ knights.

  The warriors pressed forward, pushing the duke’s son in front so he was better protected. I thought about Alice and hoped Sergeant Myers had taken her to the extraction zone. The alien’s insect-like chorus filled the air, signaling another wave of Grendel Grunts. Their legs clicked behind us as they surged forward.

  Two Grendels dropped from the tree branches above me and landed atop Ludas’ guards. The knight who I’d helped kill the earlier Elite didn’t get to raise his shield in time, and the lizard man’s sword cleaved through his glittering helmet as if it was made out of an eggshell. The other knight lifted his shield to check the enemy’s next attack, but the Grendel tackled him to the jungle floor.

  The second Grendel grinned at me with its razor teeth. I leaped into the air and slammed my gladius down onto the lizard-man’s left shoulder. My sword pierced its armor and reptilian hide easier than I expected. It let out a surprised gasp as its green blood sprayed over my visor, obscuring half of my vision.

  Annoyed, the Grendel twisted around to glare at me as it drew the blade it held in its right hand back to strike. I chopped down again on the creature’s left arm, and the limb came off the shoulder. Its dark-green blood erupted from the wound and sprayed my armor, but I didn’t let my disgust distract me
.

  It was kill or be killed.

  I flicked my blade out a half second before the Elite’s weapon would have impaled me, and its head came off its thick neck with another grotesque spray of green gore.

  I turned to the other Grendel and expected it to have already killed Ludas, but the nobleman was nowhere to be seen, and the monster was staring straight at me with its milky eyes. The alien tilted its head as though studying me. To my left, I could see Ludas inching behind me as I stared down the armored lizard.

  “Ludas,” I said from the side of my mouth as I held my sword in front of me. “Now would be a good time to grow some balls and help me out.”

  The Grendel was still looking at me, and I was wondering why it hadn’t attacked me yet. I knew as soon as I made a move to attack, it would be on me. This Grendel was an Elite, and the only reason I’d killed the other one was because I’d surprised it.

  Ludas screamed like a madman as he ran toward the creature. He was far too slow, but a distraction was all I needed. The Grendel looked away for less than a second, and I charged. Before I could get to the Elite, its tail shot out and grabbed my feet.

  My helmet smacked into the jungle floor, and I felt tension on my ankles. I tried to stand, but the lizard’s tail tightened around my legs and pulled me into the nearby swamp water before I could cut myself loose.

  Scum filled my lungs as I tried to breathe, and the Novice rune on my hand was the only thing keeping me from losing the gladius. The alien thrashed me about, but my armor shielded me from breaking any bones. After a minute, my enemy’s movements slowed. It was getting exhausted. Every time it slammed me against a tree or back down into the swamp, my armor crumpled. It wouldn’t last much longer, and the Grendel was too strong for me to wrestle from its grip.

  I gritted my teeth as my equipment took almost the entire force of being thrown against a tree trunk. My armor was only a few blows away from fracturing. The alien must have exhausted itself because it paused for a moment. With my gladius in my right hand, I gave my prot-belt the command for a burst of speed, and I jumped out of the swamp water. I didn’t give the Grendel enough time to glance up before my sword skewered it right between the eyes.