Reclaim: Reclaim Book 1 Read online

  RECLAIM

  By

  J.A. Scorch

  Copyright © 2017

  All rights reserved.

  www.jascorch.com

  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

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Chapter Fifty

  Chapter Fifty-One

  THE STORY CONTINUES IN…

  AFTERWORD

  THANK YOU

  Chapter One

  Sergeant Teve Porter was a dead man. Whether death came for him today or tomorrow was irrelevant. The war would kill him in the end.

  Creeping up and over a pile of rubble once deemed to be a public library, Teve's fireteam was on a mission sent from Command to destroy a target. Deep inside the red zone of what used to be Los Angeles, California, the group of four soldiers maintained a shared silence on their approach until communication was necessary.

  "Got eyes on the target," Private Levi Moreno said. "I see four Stiltz. Orders, Sarge?"

  Teve moved up the line to the man on point, making sure he kept quiet in the process. He spied upon the lanky mechanized alien species better identified as the Zeal. Each standing at eight-foot tall, the armored monsters stood around Command's target.

  "We proceed as instructed. HQ wants this thing blown to hell. End of story."

  "Roger that."

  Teve recognized the private's nervous tick stirring under his helmet. Subtle to the untrained eye, Moreno's temple flared whenever he faced death.

  "Are you sure about this?" Specialist Roxanna Mishina asked, cutting in.

  Facing her, he said, "I'm sure. We can't come back empty-handed."

  Mish nodded. The scowl on her face said otherwise, but she fell back in line and raised her scoped X762A1 rifle and sighted the Zeal. The half-organic, half-machine aliens invaded the planet a little over three years ago, in 2120. Ever since their sudden, fast-paced arrival—a day forever remembered by every remaining human on the planet—the sentient beings had taken over every major city on Earth and established a series of bases.

  Teve glanced at the e-slate strapped to his wrist and saw a time of sixteen hundred hours tick by. "Places, people. We've only got two hours of daylight to drop the payload and make it back to our ride. Moreno, swap with Mish."

  A nervous soldier on point was the last thing Teve wanted to deal with. He would handle the private later. For now, though, he needed the mission to succeed. Command had been coming down on failures like a ton of bricks in recent times, so he figured there was a significant reason for the sudden desire for perfection.

  For three years, Teve had fought the Zeal. All humanity managed in that time was a series of failed assaults and guerrilla tactics. With seventy percent of the world's population wiped out, the small pockets of resistance did what they could while the developing colony of Mars prepared to hit back at the aliens and reclaim the planet in humanity's name. It was a lot of faith to put into such a new civilization, but the Martian army was all the United Earth Forces and Teve had to believe in. At the age of twenty-seven, the burden of survival wasn’t lost on the sergeant.

  "Mish. Don't drop lasers until I give the order. Moreno will cover your ass while we draw them out."

  She nodded again. Teve noticed her doing everything she could to say no to him without using words, so he avoided direct eye contact. One look into her dark-brown eyes would pull him out of the mission and back to their armored Humvee.

  "Adams. You're with me. We'll backtrack to the alley and cut across the street."

  "Across the street? Are you serious?" the private asked.

  Teve took a step over to Adams and placed an arm on his shoulder. "Deadly serious. Now shut the hell up and take point. I'll cover you."

  Adams let out a sigh as his head tilted away. "Yes, Sergeant."

  Teve watched as the private obeyed, raising his X762A1 rifle. Looking back, he checked Moreno and Mish, giving them a quick nod before sliding down the rubble pile, bringing a few concrete chunks down after him. He filed in behind Adams as they headed for the alley.

  After a few minutes of soft steps, the pair arrived at the remains of the narrow passage. Blown to hell like the rest of the razed city, the lane had scorch marks and giant holes from numerous battles the center had to contend with. There were no tall buildings or sprawling grids of civilization. Only piles upon piles of destruction.

  "What do you see?" Teve asked.

  "The four Stiltz haven't moved an inch. Are they even awake?"

  "They're always awake," Teve muttered. The giant, bipedal beasts resembled something out of a concept artist's dream. Jagged angular lines of a metallic compound unknown to humanity covered the Zeal from head to toe. They stood on two long stilt legs configured like a dog's skinny hind leg. An oversized chest housed the core of the mechanical organism as if the aliens had their armor welded to their bodies. Two thin, yet agile arms protruded from the body with bladed claws while a straight and thick tube stuck out where a head might be contained.

  The Zeal were beyond anything human, but they had an odd familiarity about them. The way they stood on two feet while holding a long, electromagnetic projectile launcher nicknamed iron rifles sent a shiver down Teve's spine. He hated the similarities and often wondered if the creatures were nothing more than a military experiment gone wrong.

  "Sergeant?" Adams asked, grabbing his attention.

  "Sorry," Teve replied as he shook his head. He stared up ahead across the street to a mess of twisted, melted cars. "You see the wrecks? Head there, stay low, and cover my crossing."

  Adams nodded as he took a deep breath. "Okay. Too easy."

  The mission was Adams' first. Teve wondered how many greenhorns Command planned on sending him. He'd seen enough soldiers die before reaching their potential. This man would be no different. He grabbed him by the shoulder from behind. "You can do this, Adams. Now go."

  Adams nodded before he charged out of the alley and crossed the street. Teve moved up to the edge and waited as the Stiltz kicked into action and spotted the human. The four of them walked as one and began firing their weapons in Adams' direction. The private dropped down by the wrecks while a series of ferromagnetic bolts stabbed into the ground by his feet
. The iron rods reacted to the atmosphere the second they were fired, heating up to such intense levels that they continued to do damage after striking a target.

  The first few bolts began to fizzle out after a few moments while new bolts continued to pound the metal surface of the wrecks. Adams raised a thumb toward Teve and pressed his body against the remains of the car.

  The Stiltz continued to move at a slow pace toward Adams, not feeling the need to charge at the lone human despite having the ability to outrun an Olympic athlete. While the aliens played games with Adams, Mish would be lining up the laser dot on her rifle to the distant target Command had selected. The objective resembled a giant power transformer. The Zeal soldiers stood guard over the object as it was in the process of expanding itself further into the city. Command wanted it gone, along with a thousand other targets, so they sent Teve's fireteam in to drop a laser and paint the objective for a long-range missile strike.

  From the alley's edge, Teve opened fire in the Stiltz' direction. The four tall alien bots were about a block away from his location but still within killing range. The X762A1 rifle he fired spat out armor-piercing incendiary rounds that barely scratched their chest plating. A full clip of direct hits from his weapon would put a Stilt down, but as soon as they felt one bullet hit them, they often reacted with deadly force.

  "Adams. Use the forty," Teve yelled, instructing him to switch to his grenade launcher. Equipped with a high explosive white phosphorous blast, the grenade could take out a single Stilt if a soldier was on target. The rookie would likely miss, but Teve had to let him get his hands dirty if he was ever going to survive.

  With a shaky arm, Adams loaded up a grenade while his sergeant continued to fire. His armored rounds spewed out at an alarming rate in a scattered attack designed to confuse the enemy. Adams signaled his readiness to shoot and carefully angled his weapon for the lead Stilt. The rifle popped and lobbed out a grenade over a perfect arc. The explosion tore out loud into the sky, confirming the soldier had landed a direct chest strike.

  Teve couldn't believe his eyes. "Perfect shot, you son of a bitch."

  The Zeal soldier crumpled to the ground with a giant, sparking hole in its chest. Its comrades didn't flinch as they continued to shoot, moving at a slightly faster pace.

  Teve dodged some incoming fire and pulled back. He wouldn't be charging across the street anytime soon, instead opting to draw their attack. Falling back into the alley, he charged up the pile of rubble and found a small section of wall still intact. He popped his X726A1 through and fired a full clip at the Zeal.

  They instantly shifted their attention from the pot shots being taken at them by Adams and focused on the new, more hostile target.

  Teve rolled back to reload as a hail of bolts came streaking in and over his position. The short rods stabbed into the brickwork and toppled the wall in a few places, reducing his cover with every strike.

  "Jesus," he said. "Too damn close." He held a finger to his ear and found the button for his radio. "Mish. Have you got a lock?"

  "Yeah, Sarge," she said over the comm. "Missile's already away. ETA two mikes."

  "Shit. Hold her steady. Pull out as soon as the missile hits. Moreno. You cover her ass, got it?"

  "Yes, Sergeant," Moreno yelled over the sound of gunfire.

  Teve dropped down and moved farther up along the section of the wall till he found another decent piece of cover. He popped up as the three Stiltz arrived on top of Adams' location. Instead of firing again, he reached for an EMP grenade on his belt. The small, yet powerful device could take out all three of the aliens if they got close enough to the blast radius.

  "Adams. Maintain fire. We're out of here in two mikes," Teve said over the comm.

  The private didn't respond. He was too busy shooting at the lead Stilt, concentrating as his shots brought down the second alien to its knees.

  "Good job," Teve muttered as he charged the EMP. "Nade out." He tossed the small cylinder over the wall. It landed directly beneath a Stilt’z feet and went off a few seconds later. The strong electromagnet pulse radiated and fried the alien's armor and systems. The shocked Zeal soldier fell over, still alive but trapped inside its mechanized body.

  "One left. Take it out."

  The fireteam, excluding Mish, fired upon the remaining Stilt. It received direct hits from every angle and collapsed into a heap after a few hundred rounds.

  "Good shooting, people. Moreno. On me."

  The soldier didn't take long to head back to his sergeant. Adams stopped off at the fried Zeal and blasted off half a clip into its chest. The task had to be done to prevent its friends from repairing its armor.

  As he finished the job, the missile struck the transformer and penetrated its core before exploding in a fury. The weapons the fireteam carried could never have broken through the structure the way a laser-guided bunker buster could.

  Teve let out a breath and said, "Target destroyed. Time to get the hell out of here." As he waited for Adams and Mish to regroup, a squad of Stiltz shimmered in the afternoon sun up ahead.

  "Orders, Sarge? Should we engage?" Mish asked.

  Teve stared at the approaching group, counting too many to consider the thought. "Do not engage. We've done our jobs. Time to go home."

  Mish started to smile as the fireteam formed up and moved out of the area. They backtracked down through a sewer network and out of the city to a Humvee left hidden beneath some basic camouflage and shrubbery. The Zeal wouldn't pursue them beyond the city limits. It was as if their directive didn't allow them to waste time and go past a certain line in each area they occupied.

  The four soldiers headed for their vehicle. Moreno took point on the mounted gun, despite the fact it would not be needed. The Zeal stayed inside their claimed city, while humanity crept back to their various hiding places like rats.

  Patting Adams on the shoulder, Teve slowed the private down for a moment. "Fantastic shot back there with the forty. Where did you learn to shoot like that?"

  Adams gave him a shrug. "I was into a lot of sport in college. Guess it helped out today."

  "You're not wrong." Teve slapped him on the shoulder and said, "Hop in. Time to go home."

  The fireteam, made up from former US Marines and ex-civilians, melded back through the remains of a small city once identified as Glendale. The town skirted the edge of the many great Californian canyon ranges, taking the four up to an area once called Hidden Springs. The aptly named region held a forward operating base for the United Earth Forces. A collective of the world's remaining armies, the UEF was the only force opposing the Zeal on the surface of the planet.

  "Not bad, huh?" Teve said to Mish as she climbed into the driver's seat. He settled into the back of the truck to cover her sector.

  "Took out the target, took out four Stiltz, Adams got his hands dirty, and we didn't lose a soldier."

  Mish gave him a weak smile and turned her head back to the view of Los Angeles in the distance. She switched on the electric engine and started a slow and silent journey up a mountainside highway, passing scattered debris and deep holes on the road.

  The city was no longer a city but a smoldering garbage dump of decay. At the center of the mess stood a tall jagged structure the Zeal occupied their time with. Their constant expansion and remodeling of Los Angeles reminded its former citizens that Earth no longer belonged to humanity.

  His thoughts shifted to the sky as Teve wondered if the soldiers of Mars were ever going to step foot on the home planet and retake the lost cities of Earth. In particular, he thought about his slightly older brother, Bradley—a Mars Armed Forces pilot named serving on a Martian battlecarrier he hadn't heard from since before the war began. For all he knew, his brother was another name on the long list of those killed in action.

  He turned back to Mish and soaked in her eyes in the rearview mirror.

  "One day we'll kick these assholes out of here and rebuild. For now, though, we need to take every victory we can get."

/>   Her eyes remained focused forward as the Humvee bumped over a half-destroyed road. She lifted her face to his and said, "You and I will never see that day."

  Chapter Two

  Lieutenant Bradley "Sosa" Porter stared at a distant Earth from the cockpit of his X90 Stalker. He tried to peer past the alien fleet blocking his way from the Mars Armed Forces battlecarrier, the MBC Andromeda, to his home world. The blue planet had lost its great coloring ever since the Zeal began terraforming the ancient rock. The Scientists of Mars theorized the blue glow would soon turn to a dark purple within a few years if the war continued.

  "Launch tube Zero-Seven-Niner. You are a go for slingshot."

  Porter turned his head to one of the monitor arrays in his single-seat fighter to see the launch tube tech give him the all clear. In a few moments from now, he would be shot out the side of the kilometer-long ship via a mass driver like a cannonball into the depths of open space, aimed only at the alien fleet in front of him.

  "Mission number Three-Zero-Five, Porter. In and out. Back home for dinner," Caesar said. Porter's wingman, Lieutenant Andre "Caesar" Briggs flew every sortie with him. The two pilots had each other's back for the dangerous job of package delivery to Earth. The simple description of the profession didn't even scratch the surface of the actual nature of the task.

  "Launch tube Zero-Seven-Niner. Launch in three, two, one. Mark."

  In less time than he could blink, Porter's fighter accelerated down a 100-meter shaft to a speed of 500 meters per second, propelled by a sequence of powerful electromagnets. His engines were automatically engaged as soon as he cleared the tube, enabling him some semblance of control as he and 100 other pilots were ejected out into space.

  Their mission was simple: deliver vital supplies and data to Earth. The only problem standing in their way came in the form of the Zeal fleet that hung in Earth's orbit. Three oversized alien carriers nicknamed Cyclones dominated the pilots’ views, reminding every single one of them what they were up against.

  "All fighters away," Command relayed over the comm. "You know the drill people. Let's get those packages delivered."