Imperial Recruit
Book Two of The Imperial Marines Saga
Terry Mixon
Contents
Imperial Recruit
Also by Terry Mixon
Acknowledgments
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
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Also by Terry Mixon
About Terry
Imperial Recruit
Book Two in The Imperial Marines Saga
by
Terry Mixon
Andrea Tolliver—a genetically designed human from the Singularity—has finally earned a spot in the Imperial Marines. If she makes it through training, she’ll earn citizenship.
If not—well, best not to think about that.
With ruthless enemies willing to do anything to stop her, she’ll need all the help she can get to survive. Even with friends working from the shadows to keep her safe, will that be enough to keep her alive?
Imperial Recruit
Copyright © 2021 by Terry Mixon
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including information storage and/or retrieval systems, or dissemination of any electronic version, without the prior written consent of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review, and except where permitted by law.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Published by Yowling Cat Press ®
Digital edition date: 3/18/2021
Print ISBN: 978-1947376656
Large Print ISBN: 978-1947376663
Cover art - image copyrights as follows:
algolonline (Caroline Rosa Nicolette Atkinson)
Donna Mixon
Cover design and composition by Donna Mixon
Print edition design and layout by Terry Mixon
Also by Terry Mixon
You can always find the most up to date listing of Terry’s titles on his Amazon Author Page.
Note: the links below (ebook only, obviously) redirect you to my website where you can click a button to go to Amazon. This allows me to participate in Amazon’s associates program and earn a little more. Sorry for any inconvenience.
The Empire of Bones Saga
Empire of Bones
Veil of Shadows
Command Decisions
Ghosts of Empire
Paying the Price
Recon in Force
Behind Enemy Lines
The Terra Gambit
Hidden Enemies
Race to Terra
Ruined Terra
Victory on Terra
When Luck Runs Out
The Imperial Marines Saga
Spoils of War
Imperial Recruit
The Humanity Unlimited Saga
Liberty Station
Freedom Express
Tree of Liberty
Blood of Patriots
Single Novels
Scorched Earth
Storm Divers
The Vigilante Series with Glynn Stewart
Heart of Vengeance
Oath of Vengeance
Bound By Law
Bound By Honor
Bound By Blood
Box Sets
The Empire of Bones Saga Volume 1
The Empire of Bones Saga Volume 2
The Empire of Bones Saga Volume 3
Humanity Unlimited Publisher’s Pack 1
Want to get updates from Terry about new books and other general nonsense going on in his life? He promises there will be cats. Go to TerryMixon.com/Mailing-List and sign up.
Dedication
This book would not be possible without the love and support of my beautiful wife. Donna, I love you more than life itself.
Acknowledgments
I want to thank the folks that support me on Patreon. You got to read this book as I was writing it and that kept me working. You have my deepest thanks.
In particular, I want to thank those patrons that supported me at the $10 level:
Bryan Barnes
Tony Craven
Dave Dolan
David Goldstein
Eugene Humbert
Christian A. Michelsen
John Page
Keith Ramsey
Carl Rumbolo
Dale Thompson
Raymond Wang
Clark Williams
Finally, I want to thank my readers for putting up with me. You guys are great.
1
“Andrea! Hurry up, or you’re going to miss breakfast! And don’t slide down the banister!”
Andrea had just reached the top of the stairs when her guardian, Grace Tolliver, called out from the kitchen, so she hopped up onto the polished wooden banister and slid adroitly down it. Her guardian had scolded her about that far more times than she could count, warning that she’d fall off and break her neck, but she knew her balance was more than good enough to make it. Besides, she loved the rush.
And she needed all the positive energy she could get today.
She landed on her feet with almost no skid and slowed to a more sedate pace as she walked into the kitchen. The large house had several dining rooms, including one capable of seating more than a hundred people, but the kitchen was where they ate as a family when there were no guests.
Grace stood at the stove with Saanvi Modi, their matronly cook. Based on the heavenly scents floating through the air, they were frying bacon, one of her favorite foods.
Her guardian had been an indifferent cook—at best—six years ago, but now even the veteran culinary warrior that ran their kitchen had to grudgingly admit that Grace had mastered breakfast.
Her other meals could use some work, but they weren’t terrible on the few occasions Saanvi allowed Grace to take the lead with them. Fei, on the other hand, wasn’t allowed to boil water unmonitored.
She was sure that her guardian’s focus on that one meal came from Andrea’s reverence for it. Pancakes, eggs, bacon, and orange juice had made up the first meal she’d eaten after they’d rescued her from the Singularity, and it still held a power over her that defied words.
Na Fei and Kayden Harmon already sat at the nook table, sipping coffee and chatting quietly about something. Together with Grace, they formed both a triad of marriage and her own personal guardian council.
She took her usual seat beside Fei and poured herself some orange juice.
“Are you ready?” the dark-haired woman asked with a smile that lit up her face, highlighting her Asian genetics even after generations away from her homeworld and its influences.
The former marine noncommissioned officer shrugged slightly. “You keep living the way you’re living now. Sadly, things don’t always go the way we’d like. As a backup plan, living in Iron Mountain with us is a fair consolation prize, wouldn’t you say?”
That was undoubtedly true. Back when she’d been in the crèche, she’d lived under a virtual death sentence. She wondered if the survivors of Keeper’s discipline were free of the relocated crèche and being taught how to rule the Singularity yet.
That life had once been her destiny—if she’d survived to adulthood—but she was much happier having left it behind. Keeper hadn’t spared any of them the knowledge that two-thirds of the two hundred girls—all genetically identical to the adults of the Andrea Line—would be dead at her hand before they matured.
Andrea had traded that life for a much freer one in the Terran Empire. The downside was that as a genetically engineered being, she was legally a thing rather than a person. That meant that she had no rights, and if not for Grace’s protection—and that of Duke DeSantis—she’d have spent the last six years in the hands of Imperial Intelligence.
If, of course, they hadn’t dissected her.
Now that she’d grown to know the people of the Empire better, she honestly doubted that that had ever been on the table. The insidious idea had been Singularity propaganda. Even so, that didn’t mean that Imperial Intelligence wouldn’t have been happy to lock her up in some secret facility to study her at their leisure.
If things went well today, she’d finally be recognized as a human being and wouldn’t need to fear that fate any longer. If things went differently, well, she’d have to accept whatever the Empire decreed.
She dreaded rejection because she wanted to become an Imperial Marine more than anything. She’d seen the platoon that Grace and Fei had led fight to save her and knew that was a goal that she could devote her life to.
Grace carefully set a tray holding platters of pancakes, eggs, and bacon on the table and took her seat next to Andrea as Saanvi began tidying up the cooking area.
“Don’t be so nervous,” her guardian said with a smile. “It won’t be bad news.”
“I think you’re being too optimistic,” Andrea said with a sigh as she began loading down her plate with her favorite foods. She slathered the pancakes with butter and poured a generous helping of syrup across them.
“I hate you,” Fei said, eyeing the pancakes. “I just gained half a kilo from looking at those things.”
“Now, now, my dear,” Kayden said, patting the Asian woman’s arm. “Having met you when you were in active service, I can assure you that any padding you’ve added has been integrated into your increasingly gorgeous form in ways that only enhance your exotic beauty.”
Fei narrowed her eyes at her husband. “Allow me to assure you that there’s no complimentary way to tell a woman that she’s gained weight. I recommend you stop talking before banishing you to the couch starts sounding like a good idea.”
Kayden grinned unrepentantly. “We have plenty of guest bedrooms, so I think I can avoid the couch. In any case, I made sure that we purchased the very best, and they have no lumps.
“Still, that was perhaps ill phrased. You’re a beautiful woman, and you’ve always been so. Only now, you have curves.”
Grace laughed. “You’re not helping yourself, Kayden, but you’re not wrong either. Fei, you’re still as tough as you ever were, but I have to agree with our husband that curves suit you.”
“Could we go back to talking about me before this conversation gets filled with all kinds of gross lovey-dovey noises?” Andrea mock complained. “I have to be able to keep breakfast down if I’m going to survive the day. You wouldn’t want me to pass out, would you?”
“Everything will be fine,” Grace said in the tongue, the language of the Singularity. She was completely and flawlessly fluent now, a far cry from the truly execrable accent she’d had six years ago. Andrea and Kayden had seen to that.
It wasn’t necessary, since Andrea had been quick to pick up Imperial Standard, but it was a caring gesture that was just like her guardian.
“Thank you,” Andrea said, reaching over to squeeze the woman’s hand.
As they dug into their food, Andrea hoped that the extra calories she was taking in might one day lead to some of those curves that her mentor was developing, but she knew exactly what she’d look like as an adult.
The Andrea Line—of which she was a genetic member, though they thought her dead—didn’t have any genetic randomization. She’d been raised by a woman that had epitomized what she’d look like as an adult.
At the age of eighteen, she was almost as tall as Keeper had been and had filled out just about as much. A few more years and she’d see Keeper in her mirror every morning, right down to the stylized bird-of-prey tattoos on her forehead and cheeks.
Frankly, she was almost to that point already, and that was the stuff of nightmares. Still, it wasn’t like she had a choice in the matter. Some things in life simply had to be accepted.
Once they’d made it to the Empire, they’d tried to have her tattoos removed, but that had proven unexpectedly challenging. They were somehow imprinted into her skin at a genetic level. Once burned away—which had been almost as painful as getting them in the first place—they’d returned over the next several months.
No, for good or ill, she’d never be rid of her connections to the Andrea Line or the Singularity.
The four of them ate with cheerful jabs and commentary about what was going on around the manor house, and that relaxed her. Maybe she was wrong to worry. Perhaps her concerns would turn out to have been misplaced.
She might as well hope so, since she couldn’t affect the outcome of today’s events. Today was the day she’d become human in the eyes of the Empire, or she’d be consigned to remain a thing.
Fei’s unease grew stronger the closer they got to the capital city. She’d been a combat marine for almost two decades before her retirement and knew what it felt like when she was walking into an ambush.
Grace—frighteningly enough—was the optimist of their triad. Kayden had a more realistic view of the universe and considered everything with a jaundiced eye.
She was the pessimist. If something could go wrong, Fei knew that it would, and thus it needed to be planned for.
Unfortunately, there was very little they could do to mitigate anything about this situation, and she was worried. Civilians frowned on people fighting their way out of social ambushes with flechettes and plasma grenades.
Unlike some of the vehicles that she’d traveled in over the years, their air car was spacious and comfortable. Decadent, even. Kayden was flying them in with Andrea up front as the unofficial copilot.
Well, in actuality, he was letting the girl—the young woman—fly the air car, and her attention was locked on the instruments and their surroundings. There wasn’t any mechanism for Andrea to earn a license, though she was good enough to do so. Still, she could always use more seasoning.
That left Fei and Grace sitting in the spacious rear, where they could talk. Thus far, the conversation had been about trivial things, but Grace seemed to have sensed Fei’s darkening mood.
“What’s the matter?” her wife asked softly.
She’d pitched her voice low enough that Andrea probably wouldn’t be able to hear her, though the girl’s hearing was just as enhanced as the rest of her. If she truly focused her attention on what was going on behind her, she’d hear enough of their conversation to understand what they were talking about.
That wouldn’t do.
Fei activated the privacy screen over where she and Grace sat. The sonic dampening field was very subtle, and Andrea would hopefully miss it since she was so focused on flying. Truthfully, she could’ve initiated an implant call and avoided any chance of her girl overhearing them, but Grace needed to hear her actual voice this time.
“It feels like we’re walking into an ambush,” Fei said. “All my instincts tell me that an enemy is waiting for us at the Ducal Palace.”
Grace raised an eyebrow. “I trust your instincts far too much to pooh-pooh the idea, but I don’t think anybody’s going to be shooting at us. That said, you’re right that there are other kinds of… unpleasantness that could be sprung upon us. What are you thinking?”
Her wife’s voice had changed. It might’ve been six years since they’d served as active-duty marines, but the woman beside her once again sounded like the officer in command of a marine combat platoon, and she’d just requested a briefing from her senior NCO.
Fei approved. While things certainly might not be that grim, it never hurt to be prepared for surprises.