Authors: Justin R. Macumber
Haywire
by Justin R. Macumber
HAYWIRE
Once our greatest weapon. Now our gravest threat.
A century ago, super-soldiers known as Titans drove alien invaders from the solar system and back to their home world. Now the Titans have returned, infected by a virus and compelled to destroy humanity. Will a scholar, her son, and the only Titan able to resist the infection find a way to save humanity from its own greatest weapon?
Praise for Justin R. Macumber and Haywire
“
Haywire is sure to satisfy cravings for Saturday matinee high adventure space fantasy.”
- Matthew Wayne Selznick, author of the Sovereign Era storyworld
“
A thrilling chase through a superbly realized solar system. Enhanced warriors, space pirates, galactic threats and more make this a powerful debut from a strong new voice in speculative fiction.”
- Alan Baxter, author of RealmShift and MageSign
“
With nods to comic book super heroes, mutant robots, and the sweeping menace of mechanization, Justin Macumber's Haywire is a thrill ride from first blood to closing sigh. Haywire explores most of the tropes of hard-core space opera with nanite technology, space pirates, and a host of bad guys who are good guys, good guys who are bad guys, and all of them just hoping to survive the next catastrophe. Drawn with a broad brush, the comic book roots to this work add depth and style. Sure the good guys are bigger than life, and the bad guys are purely evil, but Macumber drags you through the story at a relentless pace. I found it difficult to put down.”
- Nathan Lowell, creator of the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper and the Tanyth Fairport Adventures.
“
An action-packed sci-fi thriller that will keep you up late into the night!”
- David Wood, author of The Zombie-Driven Life and the Dane Maddock Adventures
HAYWIRE
Copyright 2012 by Justin R. Macumber
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American copyright conventions.
Published by Gryphonwood Press.
www.gryphonwoodpress.com
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording by any information storage or retrieval system, or production and or dissemination of any electronic version, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law.
This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, or incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or persons is entirely coincidental.
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 book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Cover design by Scott Macumber
Dedication
This book wouldn’t exist without the love and devotion of my family. First my wife, Krista, without whose poking and prodding I wouldn’t be writing today. I love you more than words can say. Secondly my parents, Dale and Christine, who raised me to value education and love the written word. Thirdly my brother, Scott, who’s been at various times my best friend, my biggest cheerleader, and a collaborator; and my Uncle Gary, who showed me that being a geek was really cool. And last, though certainly not least, to my grandmother, Bettye. You’ve always been there for me when I needed you, and you hold a very special place in my heart.
I love you all, I thank you, and I send this into the world in your honor.
“
I know not which I prefer the look of – those who attack us or that which defends us!”
Michael Moorcock, The Sailor on the Seas of Fate
(quote used by permission of the author)
Contents
“
Artemis!” Thanatos’s voice shook as it burst through the radio of her heavy starfighter, the fearful timbre so unlike him. “Artemis, where are you?”
“
I’m on my way to Crucible,” Artemis replied. “The system is secure and swept clean. I’m heading to you now.”
Screams and yells crackled over the comm channel in static-filled bursts, making her wince. She’d anticipated hearing the death rattle of the Hezrin, but the throats making those horrible sounds weren’t alien. They were humans. Titans. Apprehension churned in her stomach like a thunderhead.
“
Thanatos, are you there?”
More distant screams blasted from her radio, and beneath that her commander panted like a dog who’d been run until its heart was bursting. “Coming… undone,” he finally replied, the words strained, breathless. “Falling apart.”
In the hundred years she’d served beside Thanatos, never had he sounded so defeated. He’d been her rock through every battle, the one Titan who’d never stumbled. Her heart shot into her throat, lodging in her windpipe. They were too close to fail now, too strong, too sure. He had to stand. Her hands shook as she guided the heavy fighter toward the Hezrin homeworld and pushed the throttle all the way forward.
“
Stay strong,” she said. “I’m coming.”
Crucible was a smoking ruin as she approached. Thanatos had glassed much of the planet from orbit before he’d taken his Titans down for the final battle, and craters pockmarked the alien world in cruel gouges. It was a terrible sight, one she’d long desired to see. The devastation that greeted her when she landed at the palace was astounding. Every wall was broken, and not a single tower stood. Smoke rose from the sprawling building like a dying dragon that had been run through. Rubble littered the landing area, as did the ships the Titans had landed in, but she managed to find a space close to the entrance hangar clear enough to set down.
When she opened the cockpit and exited the fighter, wind whistled in sharp, high notes as it blew past miles of sundered buildings and lifeless bodies. The crackle of fires and warble of distant alarms came and went depending on how the breeze shifted through the destruction, echoes of the ruin that had so recently rained down. No animals cried out and no insects droned.
From the dark recesses of the palace hanger Artemis heard Thanatos laugh. They’d spent too long together for her to not recognize the sound of him instantly, but the coldness of the laugh, the cruelty of it, was something she’d never heard from him before.
“
The Hezrin th-thought to bring us d-down,” he said from the shadows, a strange mechanical tick in his voice like a broken cog clicking uselessly in place.
There was too little light and too much distance for her to see him clearly, but he appeared stooped. Beside him were other Titans, all of them hunched as well. A tremor ran through their collected bodies, their armor shifting and pulsing in odd patterns.
Without thinking she took a step backward. “What happened, Thanatos? What’s wrong?”
He took a faltering step forward, as did the Titans next to him. “Wrong? To the-the contrary, Artemis. We are now greater than we ever were be-be-before. We no-no longer have restraints. No fear, no compassion, no-no remorse. All we crave now is destruction.” He laughed sharply, like a dog yelping.
“
I don’t understand.”
Light rose up Thanatos’s body as he neared the hangar opening. His nano-armor quivered like mercury around his body, its jerking motions making her sick as it spiked and rippled and flowed. Her sharpened senses reached out to probe his body, and her mental radio connection – which all Titans shared when they were close to one another – filtered through the signals he emitted, all in an effort to discover what was going on. It took only a few seconds for her cybernetic mind to process the data. In spite of herself, Artemis had to admire the Hezrin’s ingenuity.
“
A v-virus,” he said, confirming the information displayed in her eyes. “A tiny little na-nanite virus. After years of trying to stop us with big-bigger bombs and bullets, they finally found the o-one thing that could hurt us. Un-n-nfortunately for them, all it did was make-make-make us even stronger. We’re now fr-free, chaos made flesh, and m-my will binds us. Join me, Artemis. You were always my gr-gr-greatest warrior. Together we can bring the w-war to its true end – on Earth.”
Tears welled up in Artemis’s eyes. She couldn’t believe what she saw, couldn’t believe the words that resounded against her ears like cracked church bells. By all rights this should have been their moment of triumph, when the two of them stood side by side to watch the Hezrin threat finally end, but that moment was gone. Thanatos had been changed, turned into a demon that wore his face and twisted it. The chill that hit her heart was deeper and darker than the farthest corner of space, and she stumbled when she took another backward step. “Don’t do this.”
Thanatos’s armor shivered and spikes sprang up along his back, shoulders, and arms in a horrifying display of frenzied power. He lowered his stance, his feet rutting against the ground like an animal ready to charge.
“
I mean it very-very much. The wa-war will end where it began. The symmetry is poetic. We will dri-drink their blood until none is left. It’s the only way.”
The threat of his words was magnified by the bright red glow in his eyes. His body fidgeted, and his mouth twisted. His sanity trickled out of him like sand from a broken hourglass, and as it ran out Artemis could sense his need for death and destruction build. That need was mirrored by the Titans with him, whose armor trembled and shifted like illusions run rampant. In all their years of battle she’d never once felt hopeless or defeated, but now the world at her feet was like glass ready to shatter at any moment and send her falling into oblivion.
“
You’re not yourself,” she said, not sure which of them she tried to convince more. “This… infection… Fight it! Wake up! You’re stronger than this!”