RISE OF THE SOVEREIGN SOLDIER

Chapter 8: The Sky Over Oakhaven

Chapter 8: The Sky Over Oakhaven

The stratosphere above Oakhaven Metro was a very quiet space where the earth's curve met the black emptiness of space. But that quiet was broken as a wedge-shaped shape tore through the upper atmosphere, its hull glowing a dull angry orange because of friction.

The Goliath The flagship of the First Warden Fleet.

Inside the bridge of the orbital dreadnought the air was fresh and smelled a bit of ionized radiation and high-grade coolant. Rows of officers sat behind curved glass consoles, their faces lit by the green glow of active targeting vectors. Standing at the central observation deck his hands clasped behind his back was Lord Caleb.

Caleb was a man made of ivory and political ambition. His white and gold uniform was perfect without any dirt from the battlefield. His eyes had a scary emptiness, like a man who saw people as just numbers.

"What's the status on the targeting grid? " Caleb commanded, his voice smooth and almost musical.

"The kinetic strike weapon is at ninety percent charge my Lord " the chief weapons officer reported, his fingers moving fast across a display. "The target coordinates in the Oakhaven Industrial Sector are locked. The moment we reach geostationary orbit a single tungsten rod will destroy their hidden headquarters."

Caleb smiled, a cruel smile. "General Diana Vance is soft. She thinks a rebellion can be fixed with trials and justice. The Supreme Council wants a slate. Let the world know that when you cross the Directorate your whole history is erased."

"My Lord!" a radar technician suddenly gasped, his voice shaking. "We have a high-energy signature approaching from the side of the atmosphere! It’s below our blind spot!"

Caleb’s brow furrowed. "A military fighter? Scramble the interceptors."

"No, sir... It’s not a fighter. It’s too small. It’s... A single launch pod!"

Ten seconds earlier three miles below the dreadnought an Aegis Oblivion stealth atmospheric interceptor had released its payload.

Logan Vance was strapped into the small shaking interior of a kinetic insertion pod. He wasn't wearing his Vanguard armor; he wore a special pressurized stealth void-suit, its dark plates designed to absorb heat signatures and radar sweeps. On his back hung a modified V-4 Disruptor rifle overcharged to its limit and a wrist-mounted tactical hacking gauntlet that pulsed with an amber light.

"Commander you are entering the dreadnoughts localized gravity well " Marcus’s voice crackled through Logan's helmet speaker fighting through static. "The exterior hull of the Goliath is lined with automated point-defense turrets. If they spot the pod they’ll destroy you before you can deploy the clamps."

"Keep the Aegis satellite network jamming their sensors Ghost " Logan replied, his pulse steady at sixty-five beats per minute despite falling through the sky at Mach 3. "Give me three seconds of blindness on their upper hangar bay."

"Data packet injected... Now! You’ve got three seconds Logan. Good hunting."

The pod’s retro-thrusters fired with a violent burst in the thin air shifting Logan’s trajectory. The pod slammed directly onto the reinforced glass of the Goliath's upper observation deck.

CRASH.

The explosive bolts on the pod door blew outward. Logan surged into the breach before the ship’s automated emergency force-fields could seal the leak. He rolled onto the steel floor of the upper corridor, his V-4 rifle already raised.

Two Warden security guards, clad in white armor, rushed around the corner with their heavy plasma rifles tracking the intrusion.

Logan didn't give them time to react. He fired a burst from his overcharged V-4. The blue plasma bolts didn't just disrupt their armor; the concussive force lifted both grown men off their feet. Slammed them into the bulkhead knocking them into instant unconsciousness.

Logan kept moving a shadow sprinting through the high-tech corridors of the dreadnought. His destination wasn't the bridge. It was the power core.

"Logan " Marcus’s voice returned, clearer now that Logan was inside the ship’s communication field. "I’ve accessed their schematics. The orbital kinetic weapon is powered by a hyper-matter reactor on Deck 4. If you disrupt the containment field the feedback loop will disable the weapon. It will also trigger a localized explosion that will tear the ship apart. You have more than four minutes before the weapon reaches full charge."

"Then I'll have to be quick, " Logan said flatly.

He reached the heavy blast doors leading into the reactor core. Before he could interface his hacking gauntlet with the console the doors slid open automatically.

Standing in the center of the catwalk surrounded by the blinding pulsing light of the massive hyper-matter reactor was a squad of six elite Warden Huntsmen. Standing behind them was Lord Caleb himself holding a sleek silver submachine gun.

"Logan Vance " Caleb spoke, his voice echoing over the hum of the reactor. "You are remarkably persistent. To climb all the way from the mud of Oakhaven just to die in the stars."

Logan stepped onto the catwalk, his rifle lowered slightly and his posture relaxed. "Caleb. You’re a politician who bought a seat on a battleship. You don't know how to command a war."

"I don't need to know how to command, " Caleb sneered, stepping back as his six elite guards raised their weapons. "I just need to know how to execute. Eliminate him."

The six Huntsmen fired simultaneously.

Logan didn't drop to the floor. He activated the prototype uplink vest beneath his suit. A brilliant hexagonal amber energy shield—the Aegis Deflector, a trillion-dollar technology the military didn't even know existed—materialized around him absorbing the plasma fire in a shower of sparks.

Before the guards could process the technological anomaly Logan moved.

He deactivated the shield using the stored energy to launch himself forward. He swung the V-4 rifle like an instrument shattering the first guard's helmet visor. In an unbroken motion he grabbed the fallen guard's plasma rifle using it to blast the walkway beneath the next two soldiers. The steel plating buckled, sending them plunging into the reactor's containment trenches.

The remaining three Huntsmen attempted to close the distance with close-quarters energy blades. Logan was a master of the Vanguard ledger. He slipped through their formations like smoke, his strikes precise and devastating. A palm strike to the chest plate broke a rib cage; a sweeping kick sent another over the rail;. A brutal elbow strike to the throat dropped the final guard to his knees.

In less than thirty seconds Caleb's elite protection detail was gone.

Caleb backed away, his face draining of color as Logan walked toward him, his boots clicking heavily against the metal catwalk. The silver submachine gun in Caleb’s hand was shaking violently; the barrel was tracing circles in the air.

"You... You can't kill me " Caleb stammered, his arrogant composure shattered. "The Supreme Council... They will destroy everything you love. They will burn the nation!"

"Let them try " Logan whispered, his voice dropping to that sovereign frequency.

Logan’s hand shot out clamping around Caleb’s wrist forcing him to drop the weapon. With a twist Logan shoved Caleb against the reactor’s primary control terminal. Logan’s left hand flew across the interface plugging his gauntlet directly into the ship’s core.

"Infiltration " Marcus’s voice boomed through Logan's earpiece. "I’ve overridden the strike weapon. The tungsten rods are being ejected harmlessly into space.. Logan... The reactor is at critical mass. You need to get out of there !"

"Not yet, " Logan said. He looked into Caleb’s eyes. "Tell the Architect that the Sovereign is coming for Sector 0."

Logan slammed his fist into the console triggering the emergency evacuation sequence for the ships bridge and upper decks while simultaneously locking the flagship’s thrusters on a trajectory that would send it crashing safely into the northern ocean.

Logan grabbed Caleb by his collar. Threw him into an open escape pod near the catwalk slamming the launch button. As the pod shot away into the void, Logan. Ran toward the observation deck breach.

The ship around him was groaning, explosions ripping through the decks as the reactor began to fail.

Logan reached the glass of the observation deck looking out at the massive expanse of the blue earth below. He didn't have a pod. He didn't have a parachute.

"Logan! What are you doing?!" Marcus screamed over the comms.

"Falling with style Ghost " Logan murmured.

He leaped out into the void of space, the exploding Goliath blooming into a massive fireball behind him as he began his rapid fiery descent back, toward the world he was destined to conquer.