Orion Colony Complete Series Boxed Set J.N. Chaney (books for new readers .txt) 📖

The creature thrashed a moment more then went still.

I looked up to see Stacy standing over two more dead alien beasts, also apparently having gone for the head. Tong’s unit was missing a left leg. He was sitting slumped dejectedly against a large rock that protruded from the jungle floor.

In minutes, we were reduced to two mobile armor suits. John was also somewhere out in the open. I searched for a solution to our problem in vain as incoming grenades and missiles batted me from side to side.

“I don’t know how much longer we can keep this up,” Stacy shouted over the sounds of her shoulder cannons. “Dean, I—”

A deep rumbling reached our ears. It was the sound of not just one but many vehicles. Legion must have heard it too. All weapon fire ceased. The scene that a moment before had been hell quieted as if everyone were eager to hear someone speak.

“Is that…” I asked.

“Behind us!” Tong yelled from his downed unit in pure relief. “It can’t be.”

I turned, not even knowing what to expect. An armada of predators raced across the fields toward the jungle.

I squinted, trying to see who or what was driving the vehicles. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I caught sight of Remboshi warriors decked out in their white armor and armed to the teeth.

There were dozens of the vehicles, led by one that had a smiling Jezra in the passenger seat.

“How?” I asked, not able to finish my sentence.

“Jezra took off right after you did,” Ricky’s voice sounded over our comms. “She said she had to do something. Took all the predators with her too. She’s woken the Remboshi from their hyper sleep.”

I looked over to the wall to see the Orion gates open. Civil Authority Officers, a loping great dog I recognized as Mutt, and others streamed out of the encampment.

“Hold on,” Elon said. “We’re on our way.”

“I’m establishing a link with Jezra and the rest of my people,” Tong said excitedly. “It has been a long time since the Remboshi have been awakened. Longer still since we have mobilized for war. I—”

“Check out the satellite,” Stacy warned. “We have something big coming in from the east!”

I obeyed, looking down at my screen. She was right. Something large was bearing down on us fast. I moved to defend against this new threat when I realized it wasn’t coming at us from the ground but rather the air.

I looked up, shading my eyes against the bright twin suns. A flying craft I had only seen an outline of before raced through the sky, carrying four power armor units below it on cables.

“The Rung!” Tong shouted. “The Rung have arrived!”

21

“Sorry we couldn’t bring more help,” Dama’s voice crackled over the channel. “We took back the craft from the rest of the Legion infected in the bunker, but the ship can only carry four suits at a time.”

“They’re with us!” I could hear Tong shouting, not through the comms but out loud through his suit’s exterior speakers. “The Rung fight with us!”

Immediately, I could see the incident Tong was trying to sidestep. The Rung and the Remboshi had a hate-filled past. If the newly awakened Remboshi still harbored the same hate toward the Rung, all could be lost. They had to be headed off before the Remboshi attacked them.

Tong exited his suit, springing over to his people with his arms in the air. The Remboshi in the predators turned their weapons toward the Rung craft.

My heart sank in my chest. Here on the brink of defeat, we were given a glimmer of hope, only to have it ripped from us by infighting on our own side. The past would kill us faster than our present.

“Dean, you have to talk to them,” Stacy said through her channel. “You’re the Chosen One. They’ll listen to you.”

I wanted to argue, but I knew she was right. If anyone had the opportunity to stop the coming fight from our own allies, it was me. I had to step up and use my “chosen” abilities.

“I don’t know what to say,” I said.

“Speak and they will listen,” Jezra’s voice came over the comms. “They know my prophecy. They trusted it enough to sleep for so many years. They will follow you now.”

The Rung ship descended on our right flank, unhooking the thick cables from the four new armor suits so that they landed hard on the ground.

The moment was so tense, you could cut it with a blade. All the weapons the Remboshi had were pointed not at Legion, who had retreated into the jungle’s cover, but at the descended Rung.

“Stop!” I shouted, moving my suit in between the two factions. I opened the hatch to the armor and sprang out onto the scarred ground of the jungle, all the while keeping a wary eye on the infected, who had retreated a few hundred meters into the denser section of the jungle. I could imagine Legion was hoping for the exact opposite outcome that I was. “If you want to live, then you need to stop!”

All eyes were on me. Those of the Remboshi to my left, the Orion colonists around me, and the Rung to my right.

The only reason he wasn’t attacking was that he anticipated the Rung and the Remboshi’s long time hate for one another would play out now. If that was the case, he would wait until one side slaughtered the other then raise the dead soldiers and use them to wipe out the winning side.

I had to act fast. But before I did, I had to believe that I was the Chosen One.

“Whatever differences you have had in the past, whatever sins you’ve committed against one another, none of that matters now,” I yelled. “If you don’t put the past aside and look to the future, there will be no tomorrow for any of us.”

Mutt barked and