Valiant (Jurassic War Universe Book 1) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  BOOKS IN SERIES

  WELCOME

  CHAPTER 1 - RACE THE WIND

  CHAPTER 2 - THE PROPHECY OF SEVEN

  CHAPTER 3 - VALIANT

  CHAPTER 4 - BAD NEWS

  CHAPTER 5 - SABOTAGE

  CHAPTER 6 - THE CHASE

  CHAPTER 7 - GRAVITY FLUX

  CHAPTER 8 - CONSPIRACY

  CHAPTER 9 - CORNERED

  CHAPTER 10 - COUNTDOWN

  CHAPTER 11 - REUNION

  CHAPTER 12 - VISIONS FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE

  CHAPTER 13 - A VISION OF MADNESS

  CHAPTER 14 - DO WE HAVE A DEAL

  CHAPTER 15 - SICK BAY

  CHAPTER 16 - DAMAGE REPORT

  CHAPTER 17 - CODI’S DILEMMA

  CHAPTER 18 - I DON’T TRUST HIM

  CHAPTER 19 - THE THINGS WE LEAVE UNSAID

  CHAPTER 20 - TO DREAM OF MURDER

  CHAPTER 21 - RINGS OF SATURN

  CHAPTER 22 - DARK HALO

  CHAPTER 23 - SPIDER-BOTS

  CHAPTER 24 - WARP-GHOSTS

  CHAPTER 25 - THE PROMISE

  CHAPTER 26 - HER FATHER’S LOVE

  CHAPTER 27 - STAYING BEHIND

  CHAPTER 28 - CHAIN REACTION

  CHAPTER 29 - LUNAR HALO

  CHAPTER 30 - HANNIBAL’S BETRAYAL

  CHAPTER 31 - BEAR TRAP

  CHAPTER 32 - CAVALRY CHARGE

  CHAPTER 33 - CRUISING THE RINGS

  CHAPTER 34 - INTERROGATION

  CHAPTER 35 - FINDERS KEEPERS

  CHAPTER 36 - DISTRESS BEACON

  CHAPTER 37 - NO GOOD DEED

  CHAPTER 38 - SEARCHING HERMES

  CHAPTER 39 - SALVAGE RIGHTS

  CHAPTER 40 - SHOW YOUR HANDS

  CHAPTER 41 - NO WAY OUT

  CHAPTER 42 - GUN FIGHT

  CHAPTER 43 - SURRENDER

  CHAPTER 44 - DYING AIN’T PERSONAL

  CHAPTER 45 - STAND OFF

  CHAPTER 46 - ALL FOR NOTHING

  CHAPTER 47 - VANGUARD JUSTICE

  CHAPTER 48 - TITAN

  CHAPTER 49 - TRAPPED

  CHAPTER 50 - HEAVY LOAD

  CHAPTER 51 - SAVE HIM

  CHAPTER 52 - LUPOS RAIDERS

  CHAPTER 53 - TITAN FIREFIGHT

  CHAPTER 54 - NO SURVIVORS

  CHAPTER 55 - PRISONERS

  CHAPTER 56 - BLOOD MARKER

  CHAPTER 57 - AN OFFER

  CHAPTER 58 - FYRE’S BETRAYAL

  CHAPTER 59 - A PLEA

  CHAPTER 60 - DEATH SENTENCE

  CHAPTER 61 - COLOSSEUM OF DEATH

  CHAPTER 62 - RIVAL FACTIONS

  CHAPTER 63 - DUEL OF DEATH

  CHAPTER 64 - DEATH BITE

  CHAPTER 65 - GLAW’S JOKE

  CHAPTER 66 - T.REX STABLES

  CHAPTER 67 - CODI’S PLAN

  CHAPTER 68 - THE FALL

  CHAPTER 69 - TOOTH ACHE

  CHAPTER 70 - RAMPAGE

  CHAPTER 71 - GLAW’S SPEECH

  CHAPTER 72 - ESCAPE

  CHAPTER 73 - AGATHA

  CHAPTER 74 - BONEHEADS

  CHAPTER 75 - ANGIE

  CHAPTER 76 - GAIA

  CHAPTER 77 - WE LEAVE NO ONE BEHIND

  CHAPTER 78 - SHEEP

  CHAPTER 79 - BRIDGE OF DEATH

  CHAPTER 80 - DEATH HAWKS

  CHAPTER 81 - UPDRAFT

  CHAPTER 82 - REUNION

  CHAPTER 83 - GLAW’S BETRAYAL

  CHAPTER 84 - RED IS DEAD

  CHAPTER 85 - BATTLE OF TEMPLE RIDGE

  CHAPTER 86 - PARTY CRASHERS

  CHAPTER 87 - THE DEATH OF GLAW

  CHAPTER 88 - IGNIS SANGUINEM

  CHAPTER 89 - DIVERSION

  CHAPTER 90 - ALL HAIL GLAW

  CHAPTER 91 - CRUCIFIED

  CHAPTER 92 - VAN CLEEF

  CHAPTER 93 - SAVE HIM OR DIE

  CHAPTER 94 - LOVE BITES

  CHAPTER 95 - BLOK’S DISCOVERY

  CHAPTER 96 - ACCOMPLICE

  CHAPTER 97 - TRAITOR’S GATE

  CHAPTER 98 - DEBRIEF

  CHAPTER 99 - FEED YOUR DOG

  CHAPTER 100 - RAGE’S PLAN

  CHAPTER 101 - NEXIS

  CHAPTER 102 – KNOCK, KNOCK

  CHAPTER 103 - PLANET OF THE DAMNED

  CHAPTER 104 - NIA

  CHAPTER 105 - FOR THE MONEY

  CHAPTER 106 - TRAITOR’S BULLET

  CHAPTER 107 - VALIANT’S DILEMMA

  CHAPTER 108 - TRANSMISSION

  CHAPTER 109 - CRASH LANDING

  CHAPTER 110 - NIGHTWING

  CHAPTER 111 - THE CLOUD

  CHAPTER 112 - FULL DARK, NO HALO

  CHAPTER 113 - BATTLE STATIONS

  CHAPTER 114 - GLAW’S LAST CHARGE

  CHAPTER 115 - A FAREWELL TO HEROES

  CHAPTER 116 - MY ENEMY’S ENEMY

  CHAPTER 117 - DEATH OF DAX

  CHAPTER 118 - BIRTH OF A MIRACLE

  CHAPTER 119 - COURT MARTIAL

  KRISTOFF CHIMES

  JURASSIC WAR UNIVERSE: VALIANT

  by

  KRISTOFF CHIMES

  © Kristoff Chimes 2016

  All rights reserved by the author. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval without permission in writing from the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  BOOKS IN THE JURASSIC WAR UNIVERSE

  Valiant

  The Asteroid Thief

  The Martian Thief

  WELCOME TO JURASSIC WAR UNIVERSE: VALIANT

  CHAPTER 1 - RACE THE WIND

  The year 2167 AD.

  The giant transparent dome shimmered over the small human colony town. It protected the inhabitants from the harsh Martian environment. It sealed in breathable air. It kept out the eviscerating red dust winds. It could protect them from invaders. But not from the most determined. Not from the kind they feared above all others.

  Her mother’s trembling hand gripped Myf’s so tight she wanted to cry out with pain. Myf held her breath. She told herself it helped fight the contagion of fear creeping up her spine.

  Maybe it was the screaming wind in the dome’s air filters, but her mother couldn’t seem to hear her. They stared out across the crimson plains at the tiny black dots bursting out of the belly of the storm. With every passing second the dots grew larger and her mother’s grip more intense.

  Giant red clouds stumbled over the mountains of Mars like drunken, rampaging giants belching with rage. For Myf the cloud giants seemed just like the crews of long-haul space flights celebrating landfall on a Saturday night. Crawling on their knees and spewing out a swarm like vomiting monsters.

  Long tentacles of grey smoke jetted out from the black dots. They flew faster than the legendary wind-gods of Mars. Tales that her mother would read to her every night.

  They hit the dome.

  People in the street felt the red dust fall on their heads and whip at their faces. They stopped and looked up at the vast cracks. They began running.

  “Mama, spaceships,” Myf said and slipped her hand free as she felt the wind punch through the shimmering environment dome. Her hair whipped back and forth, lashing her face.

  Ferocious fingers dug into her shoulders and spun her around to face her mother’s wet face.

  “Myf, I need, I need you to,” her mother stuttered and forced a deep calming breath. “It’s time for a game of hide
and seek. Go find your father and tell him it’s his turn to hide. We’ll meet up at picnic bluff. Got it?”

  Myf might only be six years old, but she sensed it was more than just a game. She felt the suffocating veil over the lie. She wanted to lift it. She stemmed her anger by digging her toes into the fast gathering mounds of dust about her feet. For her mother’s sake, she knew it was somehow too important not to play along.

  “What do I get if I win, Ma?”

  Her mother’s strained face forced a smile. “You get to live another day.” Her mother’s favorite phrase. “We all do. And... You get a picnic.”

  Myf felt the wind tug at her teddy bear, Mr Wacko. She was impatient to fly. But something held her back.

  “Why can’t you come with me, Mama?”

  Her mother wiped her own tears on the sleeve of her uniform.

  She spun Myf around to face the landing bay on the edge of town. “The game doesn’t work that way,” her mother said in a cracking voice as the long tentacles of smoke punched more black holes in the dome. Sending shards like rainfall down onto the townspeople. Skewering them like fish in a barrel.

  Her mother shielded Myf’s eyes. But Myf needed to see for herself. She longed for the home she didn’t know.

  This is what it means to live on Mars.

  “Now, run, Myf,” her mother cried. “Race the storm.”

  Myf knew all about outrunning the winds of Mars. Faster than any wind back on Earth. Not that she remembered her home planet.

  “And don’t look back. Or you’ll lose, Myf. And you know how you hate to lose.”

  Myf loved to win. And she knew her mother knew it was her one weakness. She’d accept this dare. She felt she had no choice.

  Myf ran.

  She felt a tug in her stomach as she left her mother and then felt it yield to the greater power of the wind. A vast shadow glided over her head. It seemed to swallow her up. The temptation to look back felt too great. She glanced over her shoulder.

  A spiral of dark figures leapt from the giant shadow and drifted to the ground. A tall figure leapt down at her mother. His armor glowed red and black. The flames of his sword spat in her face. He lashed out with one arm and struck her mother.

  Myf screamed into the wind as her mother fell into the red dust. The dark figure smiled at Myf with the face of a wolf. And then the dust whipped up into a cloud. Her mother vanished.

  Myf screamed into the wind until the dust choked her. She wanted to run to her mother, but she felt her legs frozen to the spot.

  The flaming sword cut though the dust cloud. Another joined it. And then another. Slashing through the dust towards her.

  Daddy! I must save Daddy.

  She felt the wind under her arms, buffeting her towards the loading bay. There, she knew, she’d find her father. Somehow, he’d make the game start over.

  He had to.

  Her eyes clogged up with wet dust. She half fell and felt half carried by the wind through the huge landing bay doors. Rows of spaceships stretched back as far as she could see. People ran between them. Shouting. She didn’t recognize any of them. Her own shouts seemed like whispers drowned out by engine roars.

  “Daddy? Daddy?”

  She felt someone grip her arms. She pulled back her cemented eyelids and lip-read her name repeated over and over. She squinted up into the face of her father.

  “Myf, Myf?”

  Cradled in his arms, she nodded and forced her eyes wide.

  “Where’s your mother?”

  She hacked up a lump of sticky dust. “Run. Picnic. Win. Live.”

  Her father spoke rapidly into his comms unit. “Gaia? Gaia? Can you make it to the loading bay?”

  Static roared over his receiver.

  Her father set her down. “Wait here,” he said. “I’ll be back.”

  She turned to follow as he sprinted into the raging dust storm and the dark shadows spiraling down from the swirling red sky.

  “No, Daddy, no.”

  CHAPTER 2 - THE PROPHECY OF SEVEN

  12 years later on the planet Vanguard.

  Thirty seconds...

  “They’re out of time,” Sol Morlok said to Gaia under the shadows of the temple’s tall twisting spires.

  “What do you mean?” she asked with such innocence he wanted to kiss her. He wanted to taste her innocence on his lips so he’d remember this moment. Remember her, forever.

  “They have minutes to live,” he snapped at her, as if it was her fault.

  If she only knew I am the one to blame...

  She squeezed his hand. “You did everything you could,” she said and he felt such warmth and faith in her voice that he wanted to hurl himself off the cliff.

  Sol Morlok stared up through the break in cloud cover. Galixire, the smallest of Vanguard’s five inhabited moons spurted molten ash plumes from newly formed volcanoes. Like a ravaged, broken, weather-beaten ship it sailed through the violent solar storm between the volatile twin suns.

  Morlok’s immensely powerful pocket-telescope received high definition images transmitted from an orbiting telescope. All he had to do was point it. And pray.

  As he focused on the scores of spaceships fleeing Galixire, bright red forked lightning like a wire-wool crown of thorns enveloped the moon. Flares bigger than planets pummeled Galixire.

  Orbiting satellites relayed the vital health statistics of Galixire’s nuclear reactors onto the view-screen of his telescope and a digital countdown appeared.

  Twenty five seconds...

  “What will happen to us?” Gaia asked.

  He admired her fearless determination to witness the birth of hell as she stared up at Galixire.

  Lightning devoured the tallest spire of the temple. It spiraled down the peaks and raced down its sheer stone walls. It splayed out around Sol and Gaia. He shielded her with the insulation of his cloak.

  “We must hurry,” Sol said.

  He tore himself away from the baptism of fire. He lowered the telescope with all the shame of a voyeur peeking at those souls devoured in the torment of hell. He placed it inside his cloak. He gripped the wrist of the human slave woman, Gaia. He dragged her up the temple steps.

  Fifteen seconds...

  The ravenous claws of dawn scurried ever closer up the side of the sheer cliff face. From the temple’s high peak he looked out across the arid valley. If he squinted his eyes, he could imagine the lush greens and spring blossoms carrying the intoxicating scents, hopes and dreams of young love. A paradise, long ago, shriveled and charred.

  Ten seconds...

  Soon those dawn claws would shred and burst through the thick crimson storm clouds and devour him. He could feel the energy of the twin suns as inevitable as death.

  My soul, I’d give for more time.

  The red giant fireball, Ruber, as angry as ever. The blue giant, Caeruleus, waning, dying. Even without seeing them, Sol knew the stars clashed like titans, spitting solar flares at each other. A duel to the death.

  Five seconds...

  Many millions of miles long, the first dawn flares thundered down on Vanguard’s atmosphere and shattered the thick cloud. Together, Ruber and Caeruleus scorched his blood with ancient lusts he struggled to guard against.

  My soul cries out for my sins.

  Four seconds...

  He glanced at Gaia’s terrified eyes. Still, she would not look away.

  Three seconds...

  He tried to shut out memories of the good times they had shared. Purgatory would be his memories of her.

  Two seconds...

  He cursed himself for his lingering feelings for her. If the Vanguard elite knew of his fondness for a human, it would be dangerous for him.

  One second...

  He couldn’t let her see his failure. He hurled his cloak over her head.

  She whipped it aside.

  “Never shield me,” she said. “Not from truth, not from lies.”

  Galixire erupted into a chain of pink mushroom clouds.


  “I’ve never seen death so beautiful,” she said.

  Her insight could almost make her a Vanguard.

  Fragments screamed across the atmosphere like an army of angels heralding the beginning of the end of the greatest civilization in the galaxy. For Sol, the chunks of Galixire were like fallen angels raining down on Vanguard’s last ocean. Come to wash away their sins. But instead, find the planet barren and in mourning.

  “I said ‘hurry’,” he shouted and pulled at her.

  The dawn winds hissed at him. Tormenting him with the unguarded dreams of sleeping Vanguard souls. He pulled his cloak together around his powerful shoulders and imposing form. A wondrous physique that mere humans would cower before. But just as his slaves trembled in his presence, now he cowered before the unstoppable forces wreaking their inevitable destruction of his planet.

  He was not a religious man, but even he could not deny the prophecy of angered gods. His people had conquered all that lay before them, and at their finest hour, clutched the spear of hubris and plunged it mercilessly deep into the heart of their collective sanity.

  Now I am a few steps from finding the path of sweet salvation for an undeserving race.

  He was not raised a listener. He never possessed the gifts of the watchers. He could not hope to find meaning in the dawn voices of chaos. He clutched at the sheath of his ceremonial dagger with the blue-white knuckles of anger and fear.

  The burning need for answers raged through him. The enormity of his task felt like too great a burden. Doubt plagued his determination. He reminded himself time was running out for them all. He had no choice. History would be his judge.

  They will say, Sol Morlok saved his people. The cost was his alone to bear. Damnation, his eternal prize.

  Tears of blood welled up in his eyes and burned his cheeks like acid. They should be tears of joy, but he felt only sorrow. Each step brought him closer to understanding. Or damnation.

  A ripple of time echoed across Gaia’s eyes with a nursery rhyme that had haunted him since childhood. It flooded back through his mind:

  Moon blood howling in the night,

  Dueling daggers dance sharp and bright,

  Plunging deep their lover’s heart,

  Mourn the loss as they part.

  For they who drink life from the bite,

  Kneel before the lords of second sight.

  He told himself again how her sacrifice would be worth it. He almost believed it. He tore himself away from the shackles of her pleading eyes.