Earth Eternal (Earthrise Book 9) Read online

  EARTH ETERNAL

  EARTHRISE BOOK 9

  by

  Daniel Arenson

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  AFTERWORD

  NOVELS BY DANIEL ARENSON

  KEEP IN TOUCH

  Illustration © Tom Edwards - TomEdwardsDesign.com

  CHAPTER ONE

  The two mechas, humanoid machines the size of skyscrapers, flew through space, heading toward the solar system. Heading to Earth. Heading to war.

  For long months we studied Deep Being, the way of peace, Marco thought. Now we will fight again. Now, with these great weapons, we will defend our world.

  He thought of Durmia, the planet where he had studied Deep Being. He thought of Taolin Shi, the flooded planet where he and Addy had found these mechas. Two worlds in ruin. Two civilizations that had destroyed each other.

  That will not be our fate, Marco vowed. With these machines, we can win our war. We can defeat the grays. We can bring peace.

  He flew inside Kaiyo, the male mecha. Kaiyo was a colossal machine that would have dwarfed the Statue of Liberty. He had a lion's head, maned and proud, and he wore armor engraved with runes. Yes, Marco had come to think of Kaiyo as a he rather than an it. The legendary warrior held a mighty hammer the size of a building—a hammer that could crush gods.

  Marco controlled the colossal robot's every movement. He stood inside Kaiyo's head, enclosed within a sensor suit. As Marco moved, the massive mecha moved in tandem. Marco almost forgot he had a body of his own. As he flew here in space, he was Kaiyo—towering, strong enough to shatter worlds.

  "Eleven years ago, I left Earth for the first time, a scrawny boy," he said softly to himself. "I return home the greatest warrior Earth has known."

  His communicator crackled to life, and a voice emerged from the speakers.

  "What's that? You're talking shit, Poet. I'm the greatest warrior Earth has known. Me! Addison Linden, Goddess of War!"

  Marco groaned. "Goddess of Hot Dogs and Freaks maybe."

  Her voice thundered. "Addison Linden, Goddess of War, Hot Dogs, and Freaks!"

  Marco looked at her—or at least at the mecha she was flying. She was inside Kaji, the female mecha, companion to his own machine. Her mecha wore golden armor, and she carried a sword the size of a tower. Her face was the face of a lioness, beautiful and fierce.

  "I like you inside that mecha," Marco said. "At least you can't elbow me in the ribs this way, and—Addy? Addy! Stop!"

  Her mecha flew closer to him. The metal elbow—it was the size of a truck—jabbed into Kaiyo's side.

  "Boom!" she said.

  Marco's mecha tumbled through space. He struggled to right himself, releasing puffs from his engines.

  "For Chrissake, Addy. Can you not play with these colossal, ancient fighting machines of a forgotten culture?"

  Kaji's golden shoulders, large as hills, rose in a shrug. "Hey, if they can't take a mere elbow to the ribs, how are they gonna fight the grays?" Her feline eyes widened. "Hey, Poet. Do you reckon these mechas have private parts?" She gasped. "Can they have sex?"

  "We're not having mecha sex, Addy."

  "Oh please! Can you check under your armor to see if you have a robo-willy?"

  "Addy! For fuck's sake!"

  "Let me check." She reached for his armor. "Come on, just a peek!"

  "Hands off!" Marco slapped her giant metal hand aside. "Sex later. First saving the world."

  She groaned. "You have your priorities all wrong, Poet."

  Marco pointed. "Look, Addy. The sun. We're almost home."

  From here, the sun was still small, a bright star shining ahead. The two mechas entered the heliosphere, the bubble-like region of space containing the sun's solar wind. They left the vast emptiness of the interstellar medium behind. Even the solar system, so small within the grandeur of the cosmos, was vast. They still flew at warp speed; with conventional engines, it would take years to reach Earth, even from here. They passed by the orbit of Pluto. The dwarf planet appeared as but a dim speck of light in the distance. Soon they saw Neptune ahead, a beautiful blue sphere.

  Home, Marco thought. We're finally home.

  "Only two hundred years ago," he said softly, "the orbit of Neptune would have seemed impossibly distant, a frontier beyond human reach. Now it feels like coming home."

  Addy's mecha nodded. "And I think I see Earth ahead. That tiny dot like a blue star."

  Marco saw it. "Earth. The cradle of humanity. Birthplace of all our art, science, and understanding. All that we humans have achieved, from Mozart to the wormhole—all came from that grain of sand."

  "The cradle of hot dogs!" Addy said. "Of hockey and Spam! Of jalapenos stuffed with cheese and wrapped with bacon!"

  Marco rolled his eyes. "Not everything is about food, Addy."

  "Hey. I mentioned hockey! Hockey matches while drinking beer and eating nachos and spicy wings . . . in the, um, cosmic cradle of humans." She grinned. "See? I'm a poet too."

  "Yes, Addy, that was beautiful."

  They flew onward, and they finally saw Saturn ahead. Marco remembered flying by Saturn ten years ago aboard the Miyari, marveling at its beauty. He decided to take a detour now, to fly by Saturn again, to view its beautiful rings one more time before continuing on to Earth. Addy followed. Saturn grew larger ahead, its rings shimmering.

  "It looks like a giant onion ring," Addy said.

  "Not everything is about food!"

  "Fine, fine. A donut then."

  "Addy!" Marco groaned. "It's a wonder you don't weigh six hundred pounds."

  "Oh, I weigh about six hundred tons in this mecha."

  As they flew closer, Marco frowned. He narrowed his eyes.

  "Do you see that?" he said. "By Titan. Saturn's moon."

  Addy stared with him. She hissed, and her mecha raised her sword.

  "Fuck. It's them. Those assholes. The grays."

  Marco reached toward some of the holographic controls that hovered before him. He zoomed in on Titan. It was a large orange moon, larger even than the planet Mercury, with a dense atmosphere. It was a cold world rich with hydrocarbons, and methane rained from its clouds. Here was a harsh environment, but humanity had settled this world. Several towns dotted Titan's surface, home to miners and their families, and a handful of satellites orbited the moon.

  And now the grays had come too.

  Dozens of their saucers, maybe hundreds, were flying around Titan. As Marco watched, three saucers blasted their cannons, destroying a human space station. Debris rained into Titan's atmosphere, burning up. Several saucers began descending toward the colonies.

  If any human starships had fought here, they had already fallen.

  Holographic alerts flashed before Marco. A message was coming in from Titan. Marco played it.

  "If anyone can hear us, by God, help!" A man appeared in a grainy video image. His voice shook. "They're everywhere. They're slaying the last few
men. They've taken the women. Help us. Help us please! They're coming. They're—" The colonist spun around. "No. Get back! I'm armed! I—"

  Claws lashed.

  Blood sprayed.

  With a gurgling scream, the image died.

  Marco forced a deep breath. The old terror of war rose in him again.

  Breathe.

  He had to breathe.

  Addy's voice emerged from his speakers. "Poet, you picked that up?"

  He nodded. "I did."

  Addy's voice was strained. "You up for a good old-fashioned bar brawl?"

  He nodded. "I am."

  Addy's mecha raised her sword. "Let's show those fuckers what real soldiers can do."

  Ahead, the saucers had seen them. A hundred came charging toward the mechas, leaving Titan behind. Several were motherships, large as football stadiums, built of dark metal and engraved with hieroglyphs. The others were small red fighters, spinning madly like throwing stars.

  Standing inside his mecha, engulfed in a suit of sensors, Marco raised a small hammer. His mecha raised his own hammer, a weapon the size of a starship. At his side, Addy's mecha raised her sword, and the blade caught the sunlight.

  The saucers stormed closer. Their cannons fired.

  Plasma blasts flew toward the mechas. Alarms blared and holographic warnings flashed.

  Marco swung his hammer.

  A bolt slammed into the hammerhead, and the mecha jerked. Pain blasted up Marco's arm. More blasts slammed into his mecha's breastplate, denting the armor. Inside the machine, Marco felt the impact on his own chest. He was one with Kaiyo, fighting as the giant, feeling his pain.

  The saucers kept charging. Lasers beamed out. Rays hit Kaiyo, and Marco cried out. The attack seared his armor, burned a hole in his hammer, and the giant trembled. Damn holographic displays kept popping up, obscuring the battle, and Marco cursed, trying to wave them aside, but they kept reappearing. A robotic voice kept speaking in Taolin, and he didn't know how to shut off the damn computer.

  At his side, Kaji was taking a pounding too. Plasma bolts and lasers slammed into the female mecha, searing her armor, chipping off steel shards.

  "That does it!" Addy shouted, swinging her sword. The jets on her back blasted out fire, and she charged toward the saucers.

  Marco joined her.

  The blasts slammed against them. The saucers swarmed. The mechas kept flying.

  With blasts of light and fire, the two forces slammed together.

  Addy struck the first blow, lashing her sword. The massive blade clove through a mothership. The saucer split in half, spilling out thrashing grays. A dozen smaller saucers slammed into Addy, knocking her back. Marco swung his hammer. The head drove into a saucer, crushing it. He swung again, hit one of the small buzzing ships. A hundred flew around him like hornets, blasting their guns, stinging, burning the mecha. The pain flowed through the sensors into Marco's own body. He spun, swinging his hammer in circles, trying to knock them back. The lasers flew everywhere, blinding him, stinging his mecha's eyes. Saucers drove against his armor, spinning like saw blades, cutting through him.

  "Those fuckers are everywhere!" Addy shouted.

  Marco couldn't see. He reached out blindly. Alarms blared and Taolin letters hovered before him, a language he couldn't read. He swung his hammer, trying to clear away the saucers. The holographic warnings kept obscuring his vision, and that damn robotic voice kept speaking. How could he fight like this?

  Between the flashing holograms, he glimpsed one of the motherships charging toward him.

  The enemy ship slammed into his chest.

  Marco fell back, screaming.

  Dozens of smaller saucers peppered him with plasma bolts. Above him, he saw Addy tumbling through space, blindly swinging her sword.

  One of the motherships was flying toward her, prepared to ram into her head.

  Marco activated his engines.

  He flew toward Addy and grabbed the mothership meters away from her.

  His metal fingers dug into the enemy hull. The giant saucer was blasting its engines, bathing him with fire, but he clung on. It was a ship the size of the Colosseum, and Marco gritted his teeth, pulling it away from Addy.

  He hurled the mothership through space and slammed it against another saucer.

  Both vessels shattered, peppering him with shrapnel. Burning corpses spilled out.

  Another mothership flew.

  Addy charged forward, swung down her sword, and cut the vessel in half.

  Marco looked around at the battle. They had done the grays some damage, but many saucers still remained. The saucers regrouped and prepared to charge again.

  "Addy, is your mecha blinding you with fucking holograms too?" he shouted.

  "Yeah! And the computer keeps talking to me in Chinese!"

  "It's Taolin!" he said. "I—Damn!"

  Saucers flew at him, pounding him with plasma. He swung his hammer, but these were enemy starfighters, too fast to hit. They kept circling him, dodging his hammer. The damn holograms rose again, Taolin runes that blinded him. He waved at the pesky controls, struggling to brush them aside. A button flashed, begging to be pressed. With a groan, Marco pressed it, hoping it got rid of the hologram.

  Blessedly, the orange holograms turned green, then faded.

  His mecha thrummed.

  Cannons emerged from his forearms.

  Marco gasped.

  The saucers charged at him, and Marco concentrated, moving his awareness to the cannons. With his mind, he fired them.

  Blasts flew out and slammed into saucers. The enemy ships exploded.

  "Fuck me!" Addy shouted. "How did you do that, Poet?"

  "You see a hologram on your left, an orange one? Scroll down and press the button!"

  A moment later, Addy too grew cannons from her forearms. She fired them, tearing through saucers.

  The mechas hovered back-to-back, firing out an inferno, tearing through the saucers. Marco grabbed another mothership and swung it like a shield, slamming it into smaller saucers. Addy kept firing, shattering the smaller fighters.

  With their cannons blasting, the tide turned. A few last saucers turned to flee. The mechas chased, their cannons fired, and the saucers exploded.

  The battle was over.

  Kaiyo and Kaji, ancient mechas of Taolin Shi, hovered in space among the wreckage of a hundred enemy ships.

  "Poet?" Addy said.

  "Yes, Addy?"

  "Can you check under your armor for a robo-willy now?"

  "No, Addy."

  She sighed. "Such a party pooper."

  He engaged his engines and flew closer to Titan. "Come on, Ads. There are grays down on Titan. And maybe still some colonists."

  They flew down toward the moon. It was a rough entry; the atmosphere was thicker than Earth's, a dense soup of methane and organic smog. Hydrocarbon rain streamed around him, and soot swirled through the air. Marco couldn't even see the surface, just clouds and rain and ash.

  Finally, farther down, he could make out landforms. A lake of methane shone below, and dunes rolled toward hills. Mountains soared in the distance. The land was yellowish and brown and wet.

  "There." Marco pointed. "Look at Gandalf Hill, just below Erebor Mountain. I think that's a colony."

  Addy flew her mecha at his side. "Gandalf? Erebor? Aren't those characters from your nerdy books for nerds?"

  Marco rolled his eyes. "Well, we can't all be connoisseurs of fine literature like Freaks of the Galaxy. But yes, Gandalf is a character from The Lord of the Rings. Erebor is the name of the dwarves' mountain. The original explorers of Titan, all the way back in the twentieth century, named its landforms after characters and locations from Middle Earth."

  "Nerds," Addy said.

  "You'd probably name them after hot dogs."

  "Not true!" Addy said. "I'd name the mountains after freaks. Pillowman Hill, Elephant Man Mountain, Lobster Girl Gorge . . ."

  How easy it was to joke, Marco thought, when one f
ought wars from inside massive machines of steel. How easy it was to banter when death was just the press of a button. How different it was to face death up close, wearing nothing but tattered fatigues, armed with nothing but a rifle!

  They landed on Gandalf Hill. Standing in the mechas, Marco and Addy towered above the colony. Tractors and bulldozers lay smashed and burned in the valley, and human skeletons still sat within them. Other skeletons, wearing mining helmets, lay scattered across the land. The colony sprawled across the hilltop, a complex of domes, tunnels, and bridges. It was the size of a shopping mall, large enough for thousands of colonists.

  And thousands of grays, Marco thought.

  "Are the colonists all dead?" Addy looked around at the burnt skeletons.

  Marco felt queasy. "Remember the message? The grays killed the men and captured the women."

  Addy's mecha clenched her fists. "Let's kill those sons of bitches, Poet. Let's kill 'em dead."

  Marco nodded. "I'd like to. But if there are any grays on the surface, they're inside the colony. We can't fit inside while wearing these mechas."

  "Then we go in ourselves," said Addy. "My mecha has an armory. There are rifles, knives, grenades. There's even armor. We go in and kill those gray fuckers. No mechas. Just you and me. Like the good old days."

  "There might be hundreds of grays in there," Marco said.

  "Come on, we can take 'em," Addy said. "We faced the scum and marauders, remember?"

  "We had an army then," Marco said.

  "We do now too," Addy said. "A two-human army."

  "Ads, I don't know. Maybe we should call for help from Earth. Maybe this is too big for us."

  She stepped closer to him. Her mecha placed her hand on his mecha's shoulder. "Listen, Poet. You know what happened to me while you were searching for the Ghost Fleet, right?"

  He nodded. He spoke softly. "I know."

  "I was so scared then," Addy said. "I was naked, my head shaved, bound, broken. But I rose up against the marauders. I did not back down. And I will not back down now either. I'm going in there, and I'm fucking shit up. Are you with me?"

  It was madness. He knew it was. It was suicide. But he looked at her mecha's feline face, and he could see her fierceness there. He nodded.