Star Destiny: The Complete Series, page 1
Star Destiny: The Complete Series
Odette C. Bell
All characters in this publication are fictitious, any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Star Destiny
The Complete Series
Copyright © 2018 Odette C Bell
Cover art stock photos licensed from Depositphotos.
* * *
www.odettecbell.com
Contents
Star Destiny Episode One
Star Destiny Episode One
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Star Destiny Episode Two
Star Destiny Episode Two
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
Star Destiny Episode Three
Star Destiny Episode Three
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Star Destiny Episode Four
Star Destiny Episode Four
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
Star Destiny Episode Five
Star Destiny Episode Five
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
Epilogue
A Time of Kings - Sample
www.odettecbell.com
More complete sci-fi series by Odette C. Bell
Star Destiny Episode One
Star Destiny Episode One
Intergalactic battles, the most powerful assassin in the empire, a twisted royal family, and a man who is way out of his depth.
Commander Williams is going somewhere. In the Imperial Forces, it’s almost impossible to climb the ranks without noble birth, but Williams is the kind of soldier who can. Like a dog after a bone, once Williams locks onto a target, he does not let go. Which is a problem, because his next target will drag him into an intergalactic war, steal his heart, and change his life forever.
Celena is a runaway assassin, the Emperor’s favorite. He will do anything to claim her back; she will do anything to run. With the ability to create star chambers – pockets of almost limitless power – there’s no one who can catch her. Until she runs into him. Williams is just as handsome as he is tenacious. He’s convinced she’s a common criminal, but when her secret is revealed, he traps her. But in taking her on, their destinies intertwine – and this knot will never come undone.
…
Star Destiny is a sprawling intergalactic adventure jam-packed with action, adventure, intrigue, and a dash of romance. Fans of Odette C. Bell’s Betrothed and Shattered Destiny will love this new action-packed serial.
Prologue
“Just shut up already. You are capable of that, right?” Commander Williams spat, his teeth bared. The perfect white enamel sat stark against the jet blue and black of his sleeveless uniform top. It hugged his strong form, but not as much as dusk did as the massive suns of Halifax Two set in the distance.
“What, don’t want any more surprises?” Celena asked, tone far from playful as she pressed her lips together, the flesh becoming as pale as Nubia milk. “Must’ve been a surprise for you, Williams, seeing me take on an entire Separator Unit like that.”
“I told you to stow it,” he growled, voice dipping down low, the strong, strident tone echoing out across the valley.
And what a valley it was. It dropped several kilometers down to a winding waterway that cut right through this breathtaking mountain range.
Across the river and up the other side of the range was their destination – a stationed emergency ship.
Williams was convinced they could reach it by morning. She wouldn’t hold her breath.
Any ship on this planet would’ve been plucked bare by roving pirates and mercenaries years ago.
“You know, these cuffs won’t hold me for much longer. What are you going to do when I break them?” She locked her brilliant, fiery gaze on him, the corners of her lips curling with grim satisfaction.
Maybe that was going slightly too far, because Williams yanked his head around, the strap of his scrounged pirate gun jostling over the torn shoulder of his Shan Imperial Star Forces uniform. A few pink and red scratches were visible beneath marking his shoulder cuff. And just to the side, slightly deeper wounds that still oozed whenever the idiot was dumb enough to make any sudden movements like he did now.
He took a jerked step toward her, the move snapped like a spring. “I’m not going to let you go. No matter what you do. You’re coming straight back to Imperial space with me. And there—”
She didn’t jerk her gaze away, despite the fact his was as fiery as the center of a star. She locked her teeth together, pulling her saliva-covered lips hard over them until the skin was crinkled like melted plastic. “You don’t actually know what happens then, do you? Care for me to explain?”
“I don’t want your complaints—”
“They’ll take me and lock me in one of the Terminator Stations. You wouldn’t have heard of those, because that’s way above your pay grade. You might have been a big shot back on Jeopardy Station, but you need to recognize one thing before you drag me back to hell.” Despite the fact she was still wearing cuffs on her wrists, she took a step toward him.
Williams stiffened, expecting an attack. But he didn’t shoot her. Just yet. His brown eyes – deep, large brown eyes that, before she’d known him, she would’ve described as soulful – ticked from left to right, assessing her every movement. “And what’s that?”
“They’ll use me to kill. That’s all the Emperor is interested in. It’s all he’s ever been interested in. Right now I have a conscience.” For the first time, her voice wavered with emotion. It split her tone, twisting her pitch until she sounded as if someone was strangling her. “But when they get me, they’ll strip it back.”
He didn’t react. Williams was always the consummate soldier. And any good soldier quickly learns in this complicated universe that the key to success is control. Your expression, your body language, your muscles, your fatigue, and yeah, your conscience.
He took a moment. A moment where she was sure he was dredging the depths of whatever counted for his conscience. His lips ticked back as his gaze flicked away. “Not my problem.”
If he hadn’t been too cowardly to stare at her as he said that, he would’ve picked up two tears glistening at the edges of her tear ducts. “Fine. I’ll make something else your problem.”
He began to turn away, but he twisted quickly, his regulation tactical boots crunching through the grass as he spun with poise and balance. Though the pirate gun he’d managed to scrounge was practically Stone-Age compared to the weapons he was used to as a Forces soldier, it still had basic functionality. It was coded into his neural link, and with nothing more than a twitch of his trigger finger, it would swing up from its strap using small thruster cells lodged in the shoulder mount, and it would lock into his grip.
All it would take was a second.
And a second was indeed all it took as he twitched that finger and the gun locked into his hands.
He leveled it right at her throat, right at the two glowing lines that ran down the front of her neck, deviated diagonally from her collarbone, then met up in the center of her chest. Lines that few in the galaxy would recognize.
As the cuffs degraded, they showed her for what she truly was.
An Ares’ Daughter.
The most coveted soldiers in the Emperor’s arsenal, they could, and often did, decide wars.
Celena had no fear for her life. Just as Williams’ grip on his gun was steady, so too was her gaze. “How long are you going to stand there staring at me down the barrel of a gun, Commander? We both know you’re not going to shoot.”
“Want to try me?” His body crunched low over the gun, his fingers settling over the trigger.
“Do you know the only thing the Emperor would consider worse than letting an Ares’ Daughter go?”
“You keep trying me, and I will pull this trigger.”
“You are not in control of the situation.” The dying light of dusk lit up the side of his face, running along his chiseled, hardened cheekbone and glinting off the top of his gun.
“You’re right.” Her shoulders slumped, bitter realization flooding in. She dropped her head, but only for half a second. Slowly, the muscles of her neck tightening like vices, she dragged her gaze up and locked it on him. “But you’re not in control, either. And that, Williams, is the point.”
1
5 days ago….
Celena leaned against the wall, the soft flesh of her palm pressed against the cool metal as she considered her creation.
It was a map.
One she would use to get out of here. When the time came.
She lived on the top level of Accommodation Block Alpha Two, and unlike most of her neighbors, she had a balcony. They were mostly enlisted soldiers and officers in the Forces Army. Celena most definitely was not.
The glass door was open to the balcony, letting in a marching, sharp breeze that whipped around the room.
Though she had a weather-control system lodged in the wall next to the front door, she rarely used it.
She liked it when the wind howled and screamed in through the open door. It reminded her just how brutal the real universe was beyond the comforts and luxuries of Jeopardy Station.
Half closing her eyes as she concentrated on a singular point in space, Celena let her gaze slide toward the view.
She could see the ocean below – a slice of glittering blue glory along the horizon line. Rising through it at even intervals were the towers and floating spires of the station.
The station – despite its name – was technically a planet. Albeit an artificially created one.
It had been crafted in the Central Arena – an area of space that spanned an entire spire of the Milky Way. There, the Shan Empire sat – the ultimate rulers of most of the known universe.
Few got to visit the Central Arena.
She had.
She hadn’t been a visitor.
“Concentrate,” she spat, using the exact urgent tone her teacher had used on her years ago.
It focused her.
She brought up the small, variable drill clutched in her left hand and let it hover over the wall.
She drew a circle, her measurements perfect, despite the fact she hadn’t calibrated the tool to help her.
When it came to circles, for Celena, they were instinctual.
Another blast of wind made it in through the open door, ricocheting around the room like shots from a sound-wave gun.
They caught her shoulder-length purple hair and whipped it around her sharp eyes.
She didn’t blink, even as a few strands sliced over her nose.
She paused, then drew another circle.
“There. That ought to do it for today.” She took a step back from the wall, letting the drill piece drop to her side, her thumb sliding over the control button and turning the device off.
Few would allow a variable drill to hang precariously close to their leg.
Few were like Celena.
She’d always led a life of calculated risk.
Settling a breath deep in her chest, she took one more step back and tilted her head to the side.
Her room was nonstandard, much larger than most.
She didn’t care about the reading nook she had beside her balcony, the one where, if you sat right, you could see the Central Command Tower splitting up to the sky in the middle of the city, a testament to power and the Shan Empire’s technological prowess.
She didn’t care that she had a comfortable bed off to one side – one with a real gel-vara mattress that controlled body heat and assisted in healing throughout one’s nightly rest routine. While most of the grunts who lived in the rooms around her had to put up with pods in the wall and no balconies, she had money.
And money set you apart, even at Jeopardy Station.
The money wasn’t even hers – she’d stolen everything she owned, for everything she’d ever owned had once been stolen from her.
Not the point.
She’d bought this apartment for one sole purpose.
It had a lot of wall space.
Still considering her map, she nodded once then turned.
She dumped her drill on the table by the door.
She had to get to work.
She walked out, the door closing behind her as her hair fanned around her, the wind managing one last howl before it cut out.
The sound of the wind might have cut out, but Celena’s life had taught her one unavoidable lesson – even if an enemy goes quiet, that doesn’t mean they’re gone.
…
Williams
“You’ve got to be excited, sir. With a birthday tomorrow and a hot date with a Shan representative, things are looking up.”
Williams looked to the side, eyebrow sliding up as he considered his second-in-command and arguably best friend, Jeff Towers. At six-foot-one, he sat just an inch under Williams, but made up for it with a bulkier form fitted to his combat class of Carrier. Carriers were exactly what they sounded like – units who accompanied the more agile, elite commandos into battle, be it space or planetary, with equipment and ammo bolts.
“When were things looking down?” Williams smiled. Maybe it was arrogant – okay, it was arrogant – but for the first time in his life things were on solid ground, and Williams wanted to celebrate it. While he could.
He’d received some worrying news this morning about skirmishes in the Central Divide. He had friends stationed there, including his mentor, Captain Bentley, so he kept an eye on that region of space.
Plus, it was the canary in the coal mine, if you didn’t mind an old Human phrase.
When things kicked up along the Central Divide, it was always an indication that all was not well with the Empire.
Williams’ lips ticked down into a half-frown as he thought about it. Then the last thing he wanted to see caught his eye.
“What’s with the sour expression?” Jeff leaned in, his brow crumpled.
Jeff got his answer as he twisted around and saw the exact same sight that was curdling Williams’ stomach.
Celena.
No last name, just Celena. She was technically human, and as per human tradition, she should have at least two names, but Celena was an oddity in every respect. Someone who seemed to go out of their way to do two things – skive off society and irritate the hell out of him.
She was walking out of one of the main pillar lifts in the middle of the circular promenade. The bank of lifts had about 20 different units, each operating nearly continuously as traffic came and went from the upper levels.
And yet, out of the sea of civilians and army personnel coming and going, Williams’ eyes locked on her with all the magnetic power of targeted ionic blasts.
She was wearing the exact same thing she always wore – a simple white tunic with blue and gold accents around the hems, and sturdy boots. The tunic was nice – expensive, much more than he’d ever be able to afford. But the boots?
_preview.jpg)
