The Zygan Emprise: Renegade Paladins and Abyssal Redemption

Renegades

The Zygan Emprise, Book 1

By Y. S. Pascal

www.zygfed.com

Copyright 2012 by Y.S. Pascal

Published by Amphitrite Publishing at Smashwords

Los Angeles, California

For Anastasia, George, and Alexander

Acknowledgments

Thanks to E.G. and Effie for their
encouragement; Anastasios, George, and Alex for their patience; and
Stacy for her inspiration.

And thanks to John and Kerry for making a
fantasy reality. Thanks to MotherMary for her wisdom, Finally,
thanks to Cindy for standing by me all these years, sharing my
dreams.

Book 1

Renegade Paladins

Where Angels Fear to Tread

Charge!

-- Shiloh Cynthia Rush

The Rush Family

John, 26, a graduate student at the
University of Maryland, now departed for the U.S. Army and missing
in action.

George, 24, a law student at Georgetown
University

Connie, 22, a masters student in high school
math and science education at Georgetown University.

Shiloh, 18, ace graduate of Mingferplatoi
Academy and a Zygan Intelligence catascope. Plays Tara Guard, Space
Cadet, in the Singularity TV series, Bulwark.

Blair, 17, after completing high school, has
moved to the UK to work on his uncle’s farm.

Christine/”Kris”, 15, popular teen actress
of the Disney series “Mid-Kids”.

Bobby, 14, high school student and
occasional commercial actor

Andi, 13, middle school student and budding
artist

Billy, 12, middle school student and Little
League champ

Glossary of Zygan and English Terms:

Aheya: Zyga’s second largest city

Anamorph: Change one’s appearance

Anastasis: Rebirth/resurrection

Andart: Guerilla fighter/terrorist opposing
the Zygan Federation

Anorak: A heavy jacket with a hood, lined
with fur.

Athame: A Madai (and Earth) dagger

Bartitsu: A type of Japanese Martial
Arts

Base 12: Like Base 10, but with two more
numbers. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,T,E,10, etc,….

CANDI: Cascading Auxiliary Neurosynaptic
Discharge Interaction, which sends wireless signals directly into
the brain.

Catascope: Zygan Intelligence secret
agent

Cherukles: Zygan handcuffs

Chorize: To separate your mind from your
body during ka’vyr

Chiduri: A desert planet on the tip of
Orion’s sword, home to crab-like species that often shape-shift
into rodent life-forms.

Comm: Communications holo

Emprise: An adventurous, daring, or
chivalric enterprise.

Enclave: A Zygan neighborhood that
duplicates a planet’s environment.

Ergal: A Zygan tool that can be used to
transport in time and space, become invisible, increase or decrease
in size

Gamil: A six-legged equine native to the
planet Chiduri.

Geryon: A spear-like weapon that can pierce
and uncover anamorphed and muted layers

Holo: A holographic (3-D) touch-screen
computer

Hyperdrive: Faster-than-light speed

Ifestia: A harsh, volcanic planet orbiting
the Orion star Alnitak that hosts telepathic species.

Invisible-ize: You got it!

Kalyvi: A Chidurian cave dwelling

Ka’vyr: An Ifestian mind-control
technique

Kharybdis: A watery planet in Orion’s

Lev: Levitate

Madai: An ethnic group of reptilians from
the planet Orion Alpha

Mayall II: Zyga’s home star, in the Galaxy
of Andromeda

Mega: Grow

Megara: A planet famed for its outstanding
entertainment and vacation sites, home to many species of
humanoids.

Meiotes: A species of Ytrans whose young are
born in complementary pairs, and spend their lives together as
partners.

M-fan: Use an Ergal to appear

Micro: Shrink

Mikkin: Zyga’s capital city

Mute: Change one’s appearance
and
genetic make-up

Nav: Navigation holo

Nejinsen: The premier Zygan Medical Center,
in the Zygan city of Aheya

Omega Archon: The king of the Zygan
Federation

Orion Alpha: The planetary home of the Madai
assassins, a lizard-like species.

Pedagogue: Mingferplatoi Academy
Professor

Plegma: A cloud-like nebula, home of the
Syneph species.

Sentinel Corps: The elite Zygan Royal
Guards

Sidon: A city in Ancient Phoenicia in the
Middle East

Stun Gun: A Zygan weapon with multiple
settings, including Stun and Kill. Stun freezes the target, Kill
lasers the target to a crisp.

Syneph: A cloud-like being that can change
shape and color.

Temporal Leap: Using an Ergal to go move
around in time without looping—so you can return at any time, even
before having “left”.

Thal: A Kharybdian dwelling

Thomeo: Orion style skyscrapers that look
like giant inverted ice cream cones.

Time Loop: Using an Ergal to go into a
different time and then return right after you left

X-fan: Use an Ergal to leave or
disappear

Ytra: The home planet of the Meiotes.

Zyga: The home planet of the Zygan
Federation

Zygfed: The Zygan Federation

Zygint: The Zygan Intelligence Agency

Chapter 1

Aurora

Mingferplatoi Academy—two years ago

His heel hit the edge of my lip. I felt a
sharp stab of pain and my blood began to flow. Livid, I spun around
and slammed the side of Spud’s cheek with my fist. He cried out and
collapsed into a crouch, then sprang towards my stomach. I was
ready. I tightened my abs and shot both arms up into his jaw before
he could make contact. The force of the blows sent his body back
onto the floor, where he lay grunting and clutching his face.

Still wary, I lifted my foot and lightly
placed it on Spud’s writhing abdomen, then looked up at the
pedagogue for an acknowledgment of my victory. I caught the flicker
in in the edge of my vision, but it was too late. Spud’s powerful
legs launched into my pelvis and threw me screaming against the
wall. For the next few minutes, I remembered nothing more.

* * *

Maryland—three years ago

If I’d known I’d never see him again, I would
have told him how much I loved him. John was my favorite brother,
but I was furious at him for choosing the Army over us. He made the
announcement at dinner on April twentieth, exactly three years ago,
at 6:52 pm. This was going to be our last supper together for, he
insisted, only a few months. I remember staring down, fiddling with
my pendant. I couldn’t bear to look up at his face. I had just
turned fifteen a few weeks before, and he’d promised to teach me
how to ride his Moto Guzzi. Another broken pledge.

John’s flight was scheduled out of Dulles at
6:45 the next morning. The only thing on his mind was getting ready
in time.

We were all kind of in shock. My youngest
sister Andi was only eleven. She cried like she was losing Grandpa
Alexander again. The rest of us tried not to. I glanced at Connie,
who was nineteen going on thirty. Her eyes reflected disappointment
and the barest hint of distaste. John had never been
her
number one sib.

With eight brothers and sisters to pepper him
with questions, John spent the rest of the meal explaining why he’d
made his sudden decision: to serve his country, for travel and
adventure. For a chance to learn about things he’d always wanted to
know. Tweens Billy and Bobby shared John’s excitement without
really understanding the danger. The virtual soldiers in the war
games they played every day could be resurrected to life with the
simple touch of a button. There wouldn’t be such a button in the
Army if something went wrong. I sat quietly at the table, sliding
the food I could no longer swallow around on my plate with my salad
fork.

John gobbled down his stew and then, anxious
to pack, rushed to his room trailing siblings like a paternal Pied
Piper. I didn’t feel like shouting my thoughts over a row of
bobbing heads. My only hope to catch him alone for a few minutes
was to set my alarm and wake up well before the sun. But it was the
sheets of rain assaulting our cottage that made me leap out of bed
in the middle of the night. The drumbeat of the drops on my
half-opened window had almost drowned out the sound of John’s
motorcycle as it sped away from our farmhouse and, carving an
S-shaped skid in the gravel shoulder, turned the corner down by the
gate to the main road.

I stood frozen by the window, long after he
was gone. The rain tasted salty on my lips, which couldn’t speak
the words they should’ve said: “Don’t go.”

* * *

Mingferplatoi Academy—two years ago

Maybe Spud should’ve just knocked me out for
good. My consciousness returned just as the adrenaline was
fading—everything, and I mean everything, hurt. Especially my
Academy classmates’ laughter from the gymnasium stands. I’d let
that 6-foot gangling Ichabod Crane with the stuck-up English accent
throw me against the wall like a sack of potatoes. That would never
happen again. I’d be sure to return the favor before we
graduated.

“Shall I call you a medic?” I looked up to
see Spud bending down to help me.

“Call me a re-match,” I shot back, grunting,
as I leapt up on my feet, ignoring his extended hand. “You won’t
catch me with that trick twice.”

“I should expect not,” he whispered, brushing
a stray lock of dirty blond hair from his sweaty forehead. “Unlike
yours truly, Andarts are not known to be merciful.”

If he hadn’t said that with a hot British
burr, I would’ve decked him.

* * *

Hollywood—present day

“Earth to Shiloh,” Chell’s voice sang in my
ears. “Anybody home?”

I focused back on my image in the full-length
mirror before me and had to admire Chell’s handiwork as a make-up
virtuoso. The vanity lights, aided by several flavors of mousse and
gel, had brought out the blonde highlights in my very, very short,
spiky hair and covered the jagged pink scar just above my hairline.
Chell, whose own long brown curls teased the toned pecs bursting
through his shiny satin muscle shirt, had cloaked my scattered
freckles with a smooth layer of flax foundation. My azure eyes were
framed by an aggressive ebony corona and the faintest pink of my
lips bled through the snowy layers of the ivory lipstick he’d
painted on with delicate brush strokes. Standing behind me, I could
see Chell, his hands resting at the low-cut waist of his
slim-hipped jeans, shaking his head. “Girl, you
are
a space
cadet.”

It had taken Chell a mere hour to transform
me from acne-cursed thespian Shiloh Rush to Ensign Tara Guard, one
of the teen commandos on the sci-fi action series
Bulwark
.
(Catch us Fridays at 10, 9 Central, on the Singularity Channel and
online at www.singularitytv.com/bulwark!)

I leaned my head back in the make-up chair
and looked up at Chell with a grateful smile. “Credit’s yours.”

“You were due on set three minutes ago, hon,”
Chell chided as he pulled off the tissues protecting my collar and
brushed some stray powder from the shoulders of my skin-tight black
vinyl uniform, studded with the decorative insignia of the Phaeton
Alliance. “Go get those bad guys.”

* * *

The flash of light was blinding. The blast
from the laser cannon had just missed our Jetta starcruiser by
millimeters.

“Arm neutron torpedos!” I barked at Spud,
whose spindly fingers were frantically keyboarding over the
controls of the Jetta’s weapons console.

“Fire!” I ordered.

A large explosion to my right threw me and my
partner against the communications panel, smashing my left elbow on
the hard edge of the metal. Fueled by the pain, I cried, “We’re
surrounded! 360 torpedo dispersion!”

“Aye, aye,” he responded in a terse clip, his
eyes glued to the blue screens of our vessel’s navigational
computers. “Engaging.”

As our spacecraft pitched forward, I reached
over and slammed my fist into the weapons board, setting off a
shower of fireworks just beyond my windscreen. Moments later, a
massive jolt shook our cruiser and it yawed violently side to side.
We gripped our control panels and looked at each other in
alarm.

Spud nodded. “It is our only chance!”

“Evasive!” I ordered as I hit the giant red
button flashing on my console and pulled my joystick back as far as
it could go. Fighting the move, our spaceship groaned up and to
port, and the starfield ahead of us morphed into a field of
blinding lights. I threw my hands in front of my face to cover my
protesting eyes and screamed.