Rampant Destruction (CERBERUS Book 10) Read online

  RAMPANT DESTRUCTION

  ©2020 ANDY PELOQUIN

  This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of the authors.

  Aethon Books supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  www.aethonbooks.com

  Print and eBook formatting, and cover design by Steve Beaulieu. Artwork provided by Luciano Fleitas.

  Published by Aethon Books LLC. 2020

  Aethon Books is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead is coincidental.

  All rights reserved.

  Contents

  ALSO IN THE SERIES

  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

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  FROM THE PUBLISHER

  ALSO IN THE SERIES

  Fantasy Books by Andy Peloquin:

  Queen of Thieves (Grimdark):

  Heirs of Destiny (Action/Adventure):

  About the Author

  FREE DOWNLOAD!

  ALSO IN THE SERIES

  ASSASSINATION PROTOCOL

  TERMINAL SECRETS

  CYBER STRIKE

  PARAGON SLAYER

  VICIOUS JUSTICE

  GHOST NEMESIS

  SHADOW KILLER

  REBEL HUNTER

  LETHAL EXTRACTION

  RAMPANT DESTRUCTION

  COVERT INCURSION

  Chapter One

  As far as safe houses go, Nolan thought, I could do a lot worse.

  It was a strangely lighthearted thought considering the grim situation. Hiding from the Protection Bureau—the same organization that had burned him and locked him up in the Vault—Nolan was as far off the grid as he could possibly get. He’d hoped never to use this particular safe house, but now he had no choice.

  Yet there was no denying the breathtaking beauty surrounding him. The Celestial Cascades were among the most spectacular natural wonders not just on Exodus VI, but in the entire Nyzarian Empire. Twelve enormous waterfalls filled the air with misty spray that glistened in the predawn light of Lunarus, and the early morning moon seemed to set the water rippling with a thousand dancing diamonds as it plunged more than a kilometer straight down toward a vast pool surrounded by lush temperate rainforest.

  The cabin Taia had purchased was far simpler than the majority of the estates and mansions overlooking the Cascades, but that served Nolan’s purpose perfectly. No one paid the small property any mind, and the abundance of air and spacecraft flying over the waterfalls provided ideal cover for the Phantasm. To Phobury Ground Control, his was just one more ship transporting a wealthy off-worlder on a weekend visit to the Celestial Cascades.

  Taia set the ship dropping quickly toward a thick patch of rainforest a hundred meters from the cabin’s rear. Nolan was surprised to see the trees shimmer and vanish, a holographic image projected onto a system of camouflage netting that parted to reveal a concealed landing pad. There, an unfamiliar starspeeder sat berthed. True to their word, Master Sergeant Kane, Darren, and Zahra had arrived half an hour before them, and evidently they’d already gone up to the cabin and settled in. However, the relief and delight Nolan felt at being reunited with Warbeast Team was clouded by the knowledge of what had brought them here.

  Taia had activated his contingency fail-safes after losing her connection to him—courtesy of the Vault’s broad-spectrum signal jam field and the neuro-spike collar that had been constructed for the exact purpose of scrambling her system. Only the fact that she’d had backups stored on her secondary servers had kept the Protection Bureau’s plan from shutting her down completely.

  He’d managed to escape from the Vault before Warbeast Team had needed to break him out, but that left him with a new problem. The moment the Protection Bureau found out that he’d escaped, they’d be coming after him.

  So he would go after them first.

  Agent Styver and his bosses had made the mistake of trying to lock Nolan up, using him as their lab rat rather than putting a bullet in his brain. They’d taken their shot at him and missed. Now it was his turn to fire back. Warbeast Team would tilt the odds just a fraction in his favor.

  A hand rested on Nolan’s arm, and he looked over at Jadis sitting in the co-pilot’s seat. She wore a simple combat suit—the older-model armor that Taia had retrofitted for her synth body—but no helmet, and Nolan could see the lines of worry she’d been trying to hide since she and Taia had rescued him and Jared.

  And she was right to worry, he knew. Her civilian life had been shattered over and over: The attack on the Spacer’s Paradise as the White Sharks tried to kill Nolan; Mimi’s death at the hands of a corrupt Doof SWAT officer; her kidnapping by Shadowspear to use as leverage against Nolan; the op on Corrigan to eliminate Sic Semper Tyrannis; Nolan’s capture and whatever she and Taia had done to get him out. The woman numbered among the bravest, strongest people he’d ever known, but everyone had their breaking point.

  He placed a hand over hers, squeezing it gently and giving her a smile he hoped looked reassuring. “If nothing else,” he said, trying for wry humor, “you’ll get to enjoy some pretty spectacular views.”

  Jadis returned his smile, and hers made it clear that she wasn’t buying it. “I’ve always wanted to spend a weekend at the Celestial Cascades.” Her tone held the same note of forced nonchalance as his. “There are worse places to go into hiding, I suppose.”

  Being near Jadis filled him with a deep, pervasive warmth. He couldn’t help marveling at her strength of spirit. Despite everything she’d endured, she refused to break, and faced each new challenge, threat, or impossible obstacle with stubborn determination and unshakeable will.

  She would have made a hell of a Silverguard, he thought.

  The Phantasm gave only a little jolt a
s it settled onto the landing pad. Nolan found himself constantly amazed by what the ship could do. Aidan Severance—or the imposter who had called himself by that name and taken on the moniker “The Redeemer” to rile up the SST—had intended to use it during his escape from Corrigan, but the dead man had no need of such a high-tech ship. The torchdrives had shaved a full twenty-five percent off their travel time between Genesis and Exodus VI, and the Phantasm had everything from full exterior digital cloaking to electronic tracking countermeasures to an array of weaponry that he’d only begun to fully explore.

  Wherever the ship had come from, however it had ended up in the faux-Severance’s hands, it was a masterpiece of cutting-edge technology worth exponentially more than the priciest mansion overlooking the Celestial Cascades.

  As soon as Taia gave him the all-clear, Nolan unbuckled his flight harness and stood. The aches and pains of his time in the Vault had just begun to fade—helped along by a dose of non-addictive painkillers Taia kept handy—and a few shots of concentrated glucose had restored most of his energy. A short rest had done wonders, and awakening to find Jadis sitting at his side had done the rest. Now once more armored in his combat suit and with his Echoblade and NC7 strapped to his belt, he felt like the cunning, lethal, elite operator that had made Cerberus such a useful asset to the Protection Bureau.

  His time in the Vault hadn’t left him unscathed, however. He’d endured torments of mind and body, but it was the information he’d learned during his time inside the prison that haunted him.

  He strode toward the Phantasm’s lone cabin, but stopped as he caught sight of the figure sleeping on the cot. Jared hadn’t fully regained consciousness, though Taia had said he was resting easy, no longer under the influence of whatever psychotropic drugs had kept him sedated in the Reformation tank. Once a strong man, almost as tall and broad in the shoulder as Nolan, Jared now looked like a withered husk. He had skin so pale it bordered on yellow, an emaciated face, and bones protruding from his wrists, cheeks, and shoulders. The man who had been Corporal Jared Garrett of the 37th Infantry had been reduced to this…thing.

  And it was because of him. The knowledge had grown heavier with every passing hour, and nothing he’d done could shake it loose. Jared had been framed—almost certainly by the Protection Bureau—and locked in the Vault because he was the closest genetic match for Nolan, Subject 3-EX. He’d spent the last eighteen months as a Project Icarus lab rat because he was Nolan’s brother.

  As gently as he could, Nolan lifted Jared from the bed—he weighed next to nothing—and carried him out of the cabin. Jadis stood waiting for him at the top of the Phantasm’s lowered rear ramp, and the worry on her face darkened at the sight of Jared in his arms.

  “How much longer will he sleep?” Jadis asked.

  “The longer the better,” Taia said, once more using her feminine, human-sounding vocal upgrade. “His body is still weak, but it is the neurological effects of his time in the Reformation tank that are the greatest cause for concern.”

  Nolan’s gut clenched. The few times Jared had awoken, he’d been only mostly conscious and partially lucid. He’d recognized Nolan and remembered Lina—his fiancée, who he’d sent to deliver something important to Nolan, and who’d wound up murdered by Shadowspear—but the moments of clarity were as few and far between as his periods of consciousness.

  He’ll be fine, he told himself. A bit of rest here, and he’ll be back to himself in no time. He wished he could feel more convinced. Even with Taia monitoring Jared’s condition, Nolan had no idea just how much the Reformation tank’s “treatments” had affected him.

  Nolan led the way down the ramp and across the landing pad toward what appeared to be an underground tunnel that headed in the direction of the cabin. There, he spotted a compact, four-person hover-rail cart. It seemed Taia had prepared for everything, even ensuring mobility between the cabin and landing pad in case he visited in his wheelchair.

  The ride through the underground tunnel lasted only a few seconds. Nolan cradled Jared in his arms as he walked down the short permacrete corridor that connected the hover-rail to a durasteel door barred with complex biometric security. Taia opened it before he reached it, and the door swung open into the cabin’s basement. The basement was empty, marked only by three pairs of footprints in the thick layer of dust covering the floor. No one had been in this place for more than four years—until now.

  Nolan carried Jared up the basement steps and, at Taia’s direction, moved down the hallway at the top of the stairs toward a small bedroom at the western end of the house. The room was simply decorated but comfortable, with a plush-looking double bed that had a perfect view of the Celestial Cascades. Nolan couldn’t help smiling as he set his brother down gently onto the bed. That would be a good sight for Jared to wake up to.

  Jadis rested a hand on his shoulder. “I’ll stay with him,” she said quietly. “You go do what you need to.”

  Nolan looked at her. Worry wasn’t the only thing lining her face; she hadn’t slept more than a few hours since his escape from the Vault, and from what Taia had told him, not much more in the days leading up to his breakout.

  But he just nodded. “Thank you.” He leaned close and kissed her—a soft, gentle kiss, but one filled with all the emotions swirling within him. “Really, I mean it. I know it’s not what you signed up for, but—“

  “Please!” Jadis dismissed his words with a wave. “It’s exactly what I signed up for.” Her smile sparkled bright despite her visible exhaustion. “I knew what I was getting myself into, Nolan Garrett.” A hint of mischief shone in her eyes. “And now that I know just how handsome your brother is, I’m much more excited to spend time alone with him, ‘tending to his needs.’”

  “Cruel!” Nolan mimicked a dagger thrust to his heart.

  Her smile transformed into an adorable beam, accompanied by a little peal of laugher he’d always found so marvelous. “Go.” She shoved him gently toward the door. “Get out of here.”

  Nolan cast a backward glance just before he left the room, and found Jadis settling into one of the two stuffed armchairs next to the bed, within easy reach of Jared. She’d done a marvelous job of caring for his brother in the last few hours since their rescue. Nolan hadn’t seen that caring side of her until now, but it shouldn’t have surprised him. Jadis was…well, she was Jadis, and the more he got to know her, the more he realized there was to know.

  He pushed the thoughts aside as he hurried down the hallway toward the cabin’s living room. There was no time for happiness, frail as it might be, until he had solved the problem of the Protection Bureau once and for all.

  Three people were waiting for him in the living room. Master Sergeant Kane stood over the dining room table, upon which he’d arranged a broad assortment of pistols, rifles, heavy machine guns, grenades, ammunition mags, energy clips, and explosives. Darren knelt next to a stack of equipment that now occupied what should have been the living room. The big man fumbled with the cables and wires, following Zahra’s quiet instructions to connect everything.

  All of them turned toward him as he entered. Darren abandoned his work and rose to his feet, towering over both the equipment and his wife. Master Sergeant Kane gave Nolan a once-over, but instead of remarking on Nolan’s resemblance to “hammered dogshit” or delivering some other insult, he simply gave Nolan a grunt and an upward nod of his chin.

  Warbeast Team was all business now, planning for what promised to be the most dangerous op of their lives. Gratitude flooded Nolan—they’d come here for him, to help him get his life back. They were preparing to risk their lives for the sake of putting down a threat to Nolan. Team above all, that was the Silverguard way.

  He didn’t waste his breath asking if they had any reservations or would consider backing out. They wouldn’t hesitate, just as he hadn’t hesitated when Master Sergeant Kane asked for his help taking on the Ghostwalkers.

  Instead, he moved straight on to the matter at hand. “The Protection B
ureau is a problem that needs dealing with.” He looked between the three of them. “And not just my problem. Unless we put an end to them, they’ll be a threat to all of us until the day we die.”

  Chapter Two

  Nolan spent the next half-hour explaining what he’d discovered during his time in the Vault. His teammates got very quiet and very serious when he told them about the Project Icarus data on him and Jared, especially when he explained that Taia had calculated a high probability that they were Subjects 1-EX, 2-EX, and 4-EX—a fact she’d mentioned during their flight between Genesis and Exodus VI.

  What he didn’t tell them, however, was what he’d learned about Taia and her previous link to the Protection Bureau. He had spent the hours of travel grappling with the realization that her complexity made it impossible for him to fully understand her.

  Ultimately, he’d decided he would trust her when she said that her latest upgrade—deactivating her original self and uploading a near-identical clone of her operating system free of the Protection Bureau’s restrictive programming—made her fully and exclusively loyal to him. The only alternative was to cut her out of his brain, and he couldn’t do what needed doing without her.

  And if she is still under the Protection Bureau’s thumb, he thought, we’ll find out soon enough. His plan involved plenty of opportunities to test the limits of her new “freedom.”