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  RESURRECTION

  A Col Sec novel

  By

  Jan Domagala

  Copyright © 2014 Jan Domagala

  All rights reserved.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Ebook formatting by www.ebooklaunch.com

  This is a work of fiction, any similarity to anyone living or dead or companies or institutes is purely coincidental.

  I would like to thank all those people who have inspired me and have helped me along the way in writing this book.

  Other books by

  Jan Domagala

  in

  The Col Sec Series

  Ronin

  OMEGA

  Discovery

  Retribution

  Extinction

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Prologue

  Part One: Hell Awaits

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Part Two: Hell Unleashed

  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

  Part Three: Resurrection

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Epilogue

  PROLOGUE

  I

  Dalos IV

  2458CE

  Major Solon stormed into the office like a sirocco across the desert.

  “Who killed my father?” he raged as he pulled up in front of the large desk in the centre of the room.

  Captain Nokorovic stared up from his seat at the hulking man before him and tried his best to remain calm. Solon, like his father, had a reputation for violent outbursts of temper and he did not want to be on the receiving end of one.

  “I’m afraid that information is above your pay grade Major,” he replied calmly. He had one hand on the butt of a Magerov P9 pistol held against his right leg just in case. He had been informed of the arrival of the late General’s son and knew what to expect.

  “Above my pay grade, are you really going to give me that crap?”

  Nokorovic stared back at him waiting for the telltale sign that he was going to attack.

  “You’re going to tell me what happened on Toldax right now or I’ll beat it out of you,” Solon said. He waited for a heartbeat hoping that the captain would voluntarily offer up what he wanted to know, but when all he received from him was a blank stare he took a step forward.

  That was the move Nokorovic had been waiting for. He stood up so fast his chair tipped over backwards. He brought up his pistol to aim at Solon, thankful he was prepared for all eventualities.

  Solon saw the move and in a blur of motion, drew his own pistol and fired. The pulsed plasma bolt struck Nokorovic’s hand and sent the Magerov spinning from it. The move had been so fast Nokorovic had little time to react; one second he had the Major in his sights the next his hand was nothing but a bloody stump.

  The door behind him opened and two guards rushed in and were at his back in seconds holding pistols aimed at the back of his head.

  “Call them off or the next shot takes off your head,” Solon warned.

  Nokorovic slumped forward onto the desk holding his bloodied hand against his chest with his other hand. He managed to glance up to give the signal for the guards to back off, his face a mask of pain.

  “Tell me what I want to know… what I need to know? He was my father and I have a right to know who killed him,” Solon pleaded when they were alone once more. He had replaced his Magerov in its holster at his hip.

  Nokorovic looked up and saw the grief in Solon’s eyes.

  “Your father was in command of a mission on Toldax to replicate the results of an experiment Col Sec had undertaken to improve a soldier’s immune system. They claimed it was a failure but the General didn’t believe them. He had the remaining test subject brought to Toldax where they were going to use his blood to replicate the serum used. No one is quite sure what happened after that. The facility was destroyed and all data was lost. We have no records of the event so I’m afraid that’s all I can tell you.”

  “Who was the test subject, what was his name?”

  “He was a Recon Delta Marine, Captain Kurt Stryder.”

  “Thank you Captain for your candour,” Solon said. He was about to leave when he glanced at the bloody stump that had been a hand and said, “I’d get that seen to if I were you,” and he turned and left the room.

  Finally he had something to go on. He would find this Kurt Stryder and he would make him pay for his father’s death.

  II

  Paradisia

  General Lokar Tillic was in his office in the Central Command of the Elysium Alliance Homeworld, Paradisia. He had been up since dawn reviewing certain reports on troop movements and other matters he found totally boring. Being one of the youngest men ever to receive a promotion to full General, and with a brilliant career already behind him, he was the obvious choice to fill the void created by the death of General Solon on the planet Toldax a couple of months previously.

  Generally thought of as a moderate with a leaning towards the right, he had found himself having to take an even firmer stance in certain matters due to his predecessor’s predilection for militaristic action. General Solon had urged the government to spend an increasing amount on strengthening their military. When they faltered he went behind their backs and procured deals with MaxCorp through Jonas Wilde, who was only too happy to supply whatever the General required on a credit line he was never going to see paid off.

  There were several secretly funded Black Ops Programmes that were just monetary black holes that, had the government ever caught wind of, would have ended his career. Tillic had inherited all this and more and once he had learned the depths of Solon’s treasonable activities he could do nothing but despair for the future of the Alliance.

  Then he learned of the Tartaran Battlefield and of the Colony of Outlaws living there.

  The Tartaran Battlefield was a desolate stretch of space near the planet Tartaran. It was filled with the remains of hundreds of starships that had fought over the rights to colonise the planet close by. The planet had eventually been deemed too dangerous to settle on but not before many lives had been lost in the many attempts to do so. A treaty had been signed between the Alliance and the Colonial Confederation and an exclusion zone placed around the planet to ensure no one ever set foot on it again.

  Years later, when the wars fought there were just a distant memory, General Solon placed a detachment of Black Knights there disguised as Outlaws - the scum and detritus of the galaxy - to deter anyone from straying close and learning what was really going on down there, even though the treaty was still in place.

  Whe
n Prince Aswan, a spoiled aristocrat from the planet Tula Rhan and someone who was used to getting what he wanted, chartered a cruise liner and bribed the captain to stray off course close to the planet so he could view the Battlefield, things took a turn for the worse. Inevitably the ship was attacked by the Outlaws so to prevent an Interstellar Incident and rescue a member of his staff who the Alliance must never get their hands on, Kurt Stryder and General Sinclair of Col Sec sent the Wildfire Team on a covert rescue mission.

  This was when Tillic learned of the truth behind the planet and of a possible solution to some of the troubles his predecessor had bequeathed him.

  Tillic personally took a super destroyer, the Cronus, to Tartaran to take command of the planet before Confederation forces could gain any foothold there. He had high hopes that if they could place a colony on the surface, something that Solon had failed to do with every attempt, they could make significant gains from what could be learned from the indigenous life. If he had not been so desperate he would have looked deeper into the reasons why a colony was never successfully placed there.

  One of the reasons that sleep had evaded him that night and for several previous nights was because he kept receiving increasingly disturbing reports from the Cronus, the ship he had left stationed at Tartaran. It had been weeks since he had taken her there to relinquish control from General Sinclair, but in that time he had lost several shuttles and scores of men to the indigenous life already inhabiting the planet. It was becoming evident to him that the initial reports from the first landing parties had merit.

  He was only to aware he had to produce some results from this present mission or face the wrath of the government for wasting much needed funds and manpower. If he came away with nothing to show for his efforts then he could lose his position or even worse, be convicted of misappropriation of government resources.

  He got up from his seat behind his large desk to stretch his aching back. Placing his hands on his hips he arched his back to stretch his spine then stood upright to his full height of six feet one. Glancing across the room he caught sight of his reflection in a window and what he saw staring back disturbed him. Creases lined his broad forehead and there were dark circles under his eyes, two indications of the stress he was under. His normally bright blue eyes had lost their sparkle and there were even a few streaks of grey in the crest of black hair that was his crowning glory.

  As he glanced away from his troubling reflection he began to pace the width of his office when a familiar tingle alerted him to an incoming call via his Neural Interface.

  “General Tillic, what progress have you made, if any, at Tartaran?” asked a voice he recognised. It was that of Senator Mikal Tovaric, a member of the government who had been against this mission from the start.

  He knew he had to say something but whatever he said would be insufficient to appease the Senator. Finally he decided on the truth and said, “At the moment Senator, not as much as we predicted at first. We have encountered unforeseen setbacks.”

  “What unforeseen setbacks? You knew the situation surrounding that planet before going in. Presumably you read the reports from previous expeditions so I fail to see what could be unforeseen,” replied the Senator sensing he had his adversary on the ropes.

  “One of our landing parties returning to the Cronus was carrying some samples of indigenous life forms but was hijacked en route. They stole the cargo and escaped undetected. We are investigating the incident and initial reports tell us that members of the terrorist organisation OMEGA perpetrated the hijack. We think they used the creatures in an attack on Col Sec HQ.”

  “Can these creatures be traced back to us?” Tovaric asked.

  “If you mean can they be traced back to Tartaran, then the answer has to be yes. These creatures are specific to that planet alone. If you mean will our involvement be connected, then I can only say that I have no idea how they will react. General Sinclair is no fool; no doubt he is aware of who was behind the attack. He knows we have a presence at Tartaran but whether or not he concludes that we had any involvement in the attack is difficult to say, you would have to ask him that question.”

  “We cannot afford another conflict with the Confederation, not at this time, not ever in fact. We just cannot sustain any military effort against an enemy with the resources the Confederation has.”

  “We cannot allow them to learn of our present status, it would leave us open to attack,” Tillic argued.

  “Do you really believe they are waiting to attack us? They want peace as much as we do. No, the only alternative is a diplomatic solution,” Tovaric said.

  “Not if we can succeed with our mission on Tartaran, they need never know of our weakened status and you would not have to go to them cap in hand,” Tillic offered.

  “Against my better judgement General, I will allow you one more week to produce the results you promised. At the end of that week, if you have not been true to your word then I must contact the Confederation to see if we can come to some agreement over the present debacle.”

  “Good luck with that Senator,” Tillic said.

  “What do you mean by that?” Tovaric wanted to know.

  “I personally took control of Tartaran from General Sinclair under threat of further conflict. You will have your hands full putting a spin on that one,” Tillic explained. The moment the words had escaped his lips he knew he had handed the Senator a solution.

  “Then you had better hope you are successful ‘eh General. I would not like to have to lay blame at the feet of a lone general; it taints the good name and reputation of us all unless we claim you acted without our knowledge; gone rogue. Do I make myself clear General?”

  “Perfectly Senator,” replied Tillic as he severed the call.

  Sweat beaded his brow. He was in serious danger of being convicted of treason just so that blame would not be allocated to other members of the government. His back was against the wall and he had to act fast.

  He contacted the Captain of the Cronus through a sub-space encoded comm. channel.

  “Captain you have five days to obtain a foothold on the planet’s surface, no excuses. We have run out of time now and we have to succeed or both our careers have ended, understood?” he said once the call was connected.

  “Completely sir,” replied a rather shaky voice.

  “Good, I will be sending you someone who will take complete charge of the operation from here on. You will give him your complete co-operation. He will be with you in a few hours,” Tillic said before closing the connection.

  Accessing another comm. channel he called the person in question, Major Solon.

  “Are you and your men ready to deploy Major?” he asked.

  “We will be ready by the end of the day General,” Solon replied confidently.

  “You depart in one hour, there is more at stake here than we first thought and time has just run out. Make it happen Major,” Tillic said as he paraded around his room.

  He sat back down in his chair and put his head in his hands as he wondered what had become of his career.

  Part One

  Hell Awaits

  1

  I

  Celeron

  Kurt Stryder was woken by the sunlight streaming through his bedroom window. He checked his Neural Interface that linked him to various local networks, communication arrays and also the more extensive Col Sec network, and he learned it was 9.30am, a little later than he expected.

  Over by the window he saw the outline of the woman he loved framed by the bright sunlight. Her well-toned body glistened in the morning sunlight, from her broad shoulders down to her trim hips, on to her perfectly round behind and down her shapely legs. Her black lustrous hair hung loose over her shoulders and half way down her back.

  “Good morning sleepy head,” she said without turning. Her enhanced hearing had alerted her to him waking by the change in his breathing pattern and the quickening of his heart rate at seeing her, which was something she was gradually
getting used to. She was learning to accept it as normal now, for her at least. Not the quickening of Kurt’s heart rate when he saw her though, that was something she took great pleasure in and hoped would never change.

  “Good morning gorgeous,” he replied then asked, “Why did you let me sleep so late?”

  “You looked so cute there, all snuggled up, I didn’t have the heart to wake you,” she said. “The view from this window is amazing. I can understand why your parents built this place here.”

  “I’m just glad it doesn’t overlook any of our neighbours, you’d give them a heart attack standing there like that,” Kurt joked.

  “What neighbours, there’s no one around for miles?” Zara replied turning to face him, her hands on her hips and an expression of mock anger on her beautiful face.

  “Well, it’s just as well then,” he said with a broad grin. High cheekbones hinted at his Nordic ancestry as did his short blond hair, which was tousled from sleep. His cobalt blue eyes took in every aspect of her body from how the toned muscles moved beneath the mocha coloured skin to the curves of her firm, yet full breasts and he felt his breath catch in his throat.

  “Kurt my eyes are up here,” she said with a sweep of her hand to show him the way.

  “I know where your eyes are my dear, I can look at them any time I like, but you’re naked and that doesn’t happen often enough,” he replied with a lascivious smile.

  “You see me naked every night and every morning,” Zara said in exasperation.

  “What can I say, I’m a guy,” he replied as if that was explanation enough.

  With a laugh bubbling up inside her she jumped onto the bed straddling him and asked, “Why do I put up with you?”

  “Simple, because you love me,” he answered.

  She looked at him, her large brown eyes conveying a message no words ever could, and he knew he was right. She leaned down and kissed him, lightly at first then deeper with growing passion. Her tongue began to explore his as his lips parted to invite her in and they both felt a familiar tingle.