Preview of A Soldier’s Dream Book Three

The following is an excerpt from the draft of ASD Book 3

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William and Moss and Jones and Jones’ troop were streaking through the atmosphere, each in their nanobot suits. William was tingling with anticipation safely ensconced within the nanobot suit tightly controlled by his BDC, or Body Data Center, which integrated the suit closely with his artificial arms and the rest of his body. The Body Data Center was a breathtakingly advanced computing system implanted in William’s brain which processed all information from his body before passing it on to his brain.

Moss and Jones and the others were using nanosuits that were much more loosely controlled through a PDC, or a Personal Data Center, little more than a miniaturized high end PDA which could be inserted into the ear. For this particular mission that was sufficient, of course, because this was little more than a smash and grab.

The nine men quickly neared the ground and leveled off, streaking towards the prison at a speed well beyond the speed of sound. In unison they slowed greatly, knowing that to blast through the outer wall at that speed would kill anyone on the other side. Also, at that speed, they would just shoot out the other side of the prison. The gravity nullifying gravibots within the suits would render the effects of the collision to nil.

“I wonder if they know we’re coming,” Moss said over the intercom. “I’m pretty sure that at least one person does,” William replied. “Yeah, she’ll know,” Jones said. “Then they’re ready,” Moss said confidently.

At one time they were ready. At one time, Cephala stood and made the announcement to Mary that her son was on the way to rescue them. At one time, Cephala asked Mary to get the Major and to round up the rest of the men. At one time that actually happened.

But since Zhan knew that William had changed the timeline, that didn’t happen any more. That only happened in that timeline, not this timeline. Since Zhan saw William save Jones, Zhan knew that at some point in time William broken through his brainwashing. Zhan knew that William had unpacked all of the experiences and knowledge that Zhan had so carefully taught him to package away into the unused corners of his psyche.

Zhan knew that William woke up and was trying to change all that Zhan had carefully set into place. Zhan knew that William was going to go after Cephala, and he just couldn’t let that happen. Once William had Cephala, he might just go after him too. So, Zhan was there waiting for him.

William and Moss and Jones and Jones’ troop burst through the ferrocrete with explosive force. They rolled across the floor and most were able to spring back onto their feet gracefully, others had to pick themselves up out of the rubble. “INFRASCAN! INFRASCAN! WHERE IS SHE?” William called over their intercom. “No-one in this section! Move out!” He heard Jones call. They took off towards an area that showed as occupied on the scans performed by the nanosuits.

The force of nine nanosuited troopers rampaging through the prison was unstoppable and nearly no-one tried. Some keen and eager guards tried to stop them on their way but those were quickly dispatched with a blast of a sonic rifle or, in the case of Rendition, a fatal punch that would literally take off the person’s head. Rendition, a heavily augmented soldier who was already many times stronger than a regular man should be, was enjoying having his strength amplified even further by the nanosuit.

William and his friends made it around the enormous pentagon shaped building quickly, and as they entered the last section which appeared to be the most populated, the displays in their suits lit up frantically. SNEMPC! began to flash in their displays. “Rodriguez what the fuck is SNEMPC?” Jones shouted in his characteristic fashion over the comm.

“Sub Nano Electromagnetic Pulse Cannon. It’s the only thing that can take out these suits!” William said frantically over the intercom. “There’s no reason for them to have that stuff here! Unless…” William’s heart sank. “OH NO!” William shouted over the comm. He sprinted on ahead of the group. Before him was a long corridor with double doors at the end. He reached the end of the corridor. He grabbed the handle and pulled, but it wouldn’t release. He was about to melt the door or kick it down but then his display showed that there was a ridiculously large amount of SNEMPC on the other side of the door. He felt the effects hit his suit, dampened somewhat by the heavy doors. He leapt back instinctively and landed on the ground, scrambling away from the blast. The doors swung open by themselves.

“Welcome to your new home, William!” He heard a familiar voice call out. “No! No! Please No!” William cried out. He got up on his knees and tried to stand. Not making it, he took a full blast of SNEMPC to the chest. A barrage of the electromagnetic weapon pounded down the hall, ripping to shreds all of the nanosuits of his friends, who had caught up with him. “No! No! No!” William was crying out, reaching forwards with one of his arms as it melted and fell onto the ground in a pool of shimmering gray. His suit gone as well as his artificial nano arms, he knelt in the corridor, shirtless and armless and wearing only battle fatigue pants and boots taken from the ship.

William, eyes blurred by tears, stood up and began to stagger into the room past the doors. In it he could see Zhan and dozens of Empire troops, about half with SNEMPC rifles and the other half with regular sonic rifles. Beside Zhan was an Empire trooper with his hand around the throat of a woman, a nanoshard pistol to the woman’s head. That woman was William’s mother. Who Zhan had was worse. Zhan had his arm around the neck of another old woman, this one a very elderly Asian woman.

William looked at his mother. She had a horrified look on her face, undoubtedly at least partly because she was seeing her son with no arms. “It will be ok, William,” she called to him after a while, fighting back tears.

He gave her an exasperated look. He had no reply to that. He didn’t know that to be true in this timeline. William looked at the other woman. Through his tears William looked into her eyes. Once he was able to focus on them he fell to his knees in absolute defeat. “Cephala,” he said resignedly. “No…” he said.

The empire troops went out into the corridor, passing on either side of William. He could her scuffling behind him, some sonic blasts, some shouting and some muted punches, but eventually it became quiet.

“I’ve been expecting you, since I saw you on Eden. Messing with the timeline is risky business. I should have taught you better,” Zhan said.

“What did you do to her?” William asked. Zhan replied, “Cephala? This is what she looks like if she doesn’t get her medicine. And other things. Are you still so anxious to rescue her like some storybook hero? Does she still trip your trigger, boy?”

William, using his shoulders to wipe his eyes, only marginally successfully, stood to face Zhan.

“I’m no boy, and I’m not your son, you bastard. I’m going to kill you! You can count on it!” William seethed, his hatered for Zhan pouring out with his words. Zhan chuckled, and said, “Look at yourself. You’re a scrawny teenager with no arms. No arms and by the looks of it no friends. What can you do to me?”

“I will do worse than you did to me,” William replied, and then said nothing. Zhan stared at him for a time, waiting for him to say more. When he didn’t, he raised his eyebrows and then turned to the man to his right and said “Take them. Each in individual cells. Put the remaining Tuscany personnel also in individual cells. Mary too. I’m taking Cephala with me, she needs… things.” “Yes sir, Master Zhan,” the Empire trooper said and the men efficiently carried out Zhan’s orders.

The troopers led Moss and Jones and the others out of the corridor through the room. They were all visibly roughed up, but Rendition was limping badly and had multiple sonic rifle burns. The room had entrances to three cell blocks. William’s friends were led into the one on the adjacent wall to the left.

As Jones walked past William he kicked him in the back. William, armless, fell to his knees again. “You fucking led us into a trap you asshole!” He shouted. Moss, being pushed along behind Jones took an extra half step forwards and kicked Jones soundly in the rear. Jones, hands restrained behind him like the rest, turned and confronted Moss, hatred in his eyes. Moss said, hissing his words, “He had no idea, you moron. Leave him alone! You didn’t hear the Asian prick, did you? This is because he saved your ass and changed the timeline!”

“I don’t care about the fucking timeline, Moss! I was a free man and now I’m a captive in some damn Empire prison on the other side of the galaxy. This isn’t what I had in mind when I woke up this morning!”

“Get moving, Resistance scum!” The Empire trooper nearest the pair said, shoving them roughly. William just stood back up and said nothing as they exited the room. After a few moments it was just him, Zhan, Cephala and one Empire soldier standing behind William, ready to lead him out too. They all just stood there and stared at each other.

“William…” Cephala said, tears in her eyes. “I tried,” he said softly, looking at her. “And you will try, again,” she said, giving him a single nod. William looked down. The Empire soldier grabbed him firmly by the crook of the neck and shoved him towards the exit the others had been led through.

Zhan turned Cephala around to face him. She stood mutely before him. “Well, look at you. Do you see now why joining the Resistance was such a bad idea? It’s been very hard on you.”

“Only because of you, Zhan,” Cephala said. “Things were fine until you became obsessed with the boy.”

“It’s him that is obsessed, with you,” Zhan said. “I’m just continuing my experiments. I’m trying to make things better for us.” “Us who?” Cephala said. “Us, the Elders. You do remember you are an Elder too, don’t you? Or has your memory decayed along with the rest of you?” “I remember just fine,” she said.

Cephala straightened up and said defiantly to Zhan, “I’m an old woman, I need to sit down and rest.” Zhan replied, “Can you make it back to Mars?” “Yes. Make it snappy.” “Yes ma’am,” Zhan said mockingly. “Up yours,” Cephala snapped back.