Rikkard's Revenge: A Military Sci-Fi Series (Darkspace Renegade Book 4) Read online

  RIKKARD’S REVENGE

  ©2020 GJ OGDEN

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  Published by Aethon Books LLC. 2020

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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead is coincidental.

  All rights reserved.

  Contents

  ALSO IN THE SERIES

  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

  FROM THE PUBLISHER

  ALSO IN THE SERIES

  Also by GJ Ogden

  Readers' Favorite, 5-stars

  About the Author

  You can connect with me here:

  ALSO IN THE SERIES

  Darkspace Renegade

  Wolf Squadron

  Rogue World

  Rikkard’s Revenge

  Renegade Resurgence

  Centrum Incursion

  The interstellar bridges provide a lifeline for billions of people. To save humanity, Hallam Knight must tear them all down.

  Acknowledgments

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Thanks to Sarah for her work assessing and editing this novel, and to those who subscribed to my newsletters and provided such valuable feedback.

  And thanks, as always, to anyone who is reading this. It means a lot. If you enjoyed it, please help by leaving a review on Amazon and Goodreads to let other potential readers know what you think!

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  Other Sci-Fi series by G J Ogden:

  The Planetsider Trilogy

  The Contingency War Series

  The Star Scavenger Series

  1

  Whether in the flames of nuclear fury or through the brutal application of Cad Rikkard’s sword, Dr. Shelby Rand’s renegade hideouts and outposts had been crushed by the Blackfire Squadron. Yet the leader of the Darkspace Renegades had evaded Cad. And still there was no sign of Hallam Knight or Dakota Wulfrun. However, with each outpost and hideout that fell, Cad knew he was drawing closer to his quarry. It was only a matter of time before his reforged Black Prince sword was wet with the blood of the Wolf Squadron renegades. Sooner or later, one of the renegade sympathizers would point him in the direction of Rand and the others. And if not, he’d simply move on to the next outpost or hideout, and then the next, and the next, until finally, there was nowhere left for them to hide.

  Cad’s current target was on the mineral planet, Liber. It had been identified and fed through to Cad by his hacker accomplice Falken. The outpost was actually a mineral processing plant that was owned by an anonymous company. However, “anonymous” wasn’t a concept that seemed to faze the genius hacker. Falken had managed to find links between the plant and other similar “anonymous” companies that Falken had also discovered harbored renegade outposts. However, despite the hacker’s skill at discovering information that was supposedly secret, she had still been unable to locate Shelby Rand’s personal hideout. This left the Blackfire Squadron with no option but to continue their bloody reign of terror.

  Cad Rikkard drove his foot into the door of the renegade outpost building, smashing it off its hinges with a single powerful kick from his armored boot. The door collided with a renegade that had been waiting, weapon in hand, a few meters behind it, killing him instantly. Reforged Black Prince sword in hand, Cad stormed through the opening and was assaulted with a barrage of small arms fire. However, the bullets merely deflected harmlessly off his armor, just as they had done on the other renegade outposts he’d assaulted and wiped out. Armed renegades ran at Cad as he marched imperiously into the building, and he brought his sword down on the closest attacker. The power of the blow cut the man in half down to his navel. Cad pulled the blade clear and marveled at the savagery of his own assault. He had still to get used to the lethality of his newly reforged blade, constructed from a composite of Draga Vex’s power armor and hull plating from his fighter. Raising his eyes from the blood-stained, steel-gray blade, Cad saw that the two other renegades inside the building were similarly awed by the sight of their fallen comrade. They both backed away as if Cad was the devil himself, come to claim their souls.

  “Stay where you are, or I’ll use this!” cried one of the two remaining renegades. The man was holding a grenade above his head, and Cad could see from the circle of red light around the base that it had been armed. However, the renegade was standing only a few meters from Cad, making it obvious that he would not follow through on his threat.

  “Drop that and you’ll just blow yourself to pieces, you fool,” replied Cad, continuing his measured pace toward the man, untroubled by the renegade’s threat. “Just tell me where the leader of your little cell is and you both can run off home.”

  The second of the two renegades was fumbling with his pistol, frantically trying to slap a new magazine into the grip. Four more attempts later, and the renegade finally succeeded in loading the weapon. However, before the man could raise the pistol in anger, Cad had swung the Black Prince sword. A second later, the renegade’s arm thudded into the ground, severed clean off below the elbow. The man screamed, as much from shock as from pain, but his cries were quickly silenced as Cad drove his fist into the renegade’s shrieking face, crushing his nose and cheekbones
as easily as egg shells.

  “Don’t be stupid like he was,” said Cad, pointing toward the dead man, whose blood was pouring like wine onto the concrete floor of the building. “Just tell me where your leader is, and you can go. I don’t care about you. I want Rand and the Wolf Squadron.”

  The man’s eyes trembled at the sight of his fallen comrade before revulsion compelled him to look away. The renegade then stabbed a finger toward the far corner of the building. “He’s in the office on the mezzanine level,” the man blabbed, pressing his knuckles to his mouth as if trying not to vomit. The renegade then placed the grenade on the floor and timidly met Cad’s eyes. “I told you what you wanted, now please let me go,” the man added.

  The renegade’s pleas revolted Cad far more than the bloody mess of flesh and bone he’d left on the deck. Cad grunted and nodded to the man, who then began to edge past him, hands raised, making a bee line for the door Cad had kicked in moments earlier. Suddenly, Cad saw a flash of red in his peripheral vision, and his eyes fell on the grenade sitting on the floor in front of him. He huffed a laugh, realizing that the renegade had activated the explosive before setting it down. “Not such a fool after all,” Cad said to himself, picking up the grenade and noting that its fuse had ten seconds remaining. The renegade was already outside, running as if he were being chased by a pack of rabid wolves. Cad stepped through the door, judging the wind direction and strength from the breeze that washed across his face, then threw the grenade. It sailed through the air in a perfect parabola, struck the man on the back of the neck and detonated, splattering the renegade’s remains across the tarmac. Cad grunted. He’d impressed even himself with the accuracy of his throw.

  Cad entered the building again and turned toward the office on the mezzanine level where the renegade had said the outpost leader was hiding. Outside, he could hear the crack of Alexis’ Five-Seven-Seven pistols as she took care of the remaining renegades while they tried to flee the doomed outpost. He stopped in the middle of a cluster of desks, all of which had been hastily abandoned once the attack had begun, and peered up at the mezzanine office. The lights inside it were off and it too looked abandoned. This was despite the renegade, who was now a splat on the tarmac, claiming the outpost’s leader was inside.

  “Alexis, did you eyeball anyone fleeing through the south exit of the administration building?” Cad said through the comm system in his suit.

  “Not that I saw, no,” she said as the crack of her pistols continued to ring out. “Most of the them out here are either dead or have already run. Maybe this place is a bust after all.”

  Cad grunted and peered up at the office again, wishing that he’d chosen to wear his helmet so that he could make use of its augmented visual sensors. “Stand by, I have one more location to check out,” said Cad, moving toward the staircase leading up to the mezzanine.

  Cad’s boot had barely landed on the first step before a window smashed in the mezzanine office and the barrel of a rifle was thrust out. There wasn’t a weapon in existence that Cad didn’t know or hadn’t used, and he immediately recognized the design of the MX19 assault rifle. Unlike the sidearms the other renegades had used, Cad also he knew that this weapon was capable of penetrating his armored cocoon. Flipping one of the metal desks onto its side, Cad ducked down behind it as the renegade opened fire on his exposed position. He felt the punch of a bullet land on his shoulder, but other than a dent and a scratch, he was unhurt.

  “Just make this easy on yourself,” Cad called out to his ambusher. “Throw down the rifle and no one else has to die.” Cad had no intention of sparing the renegade, but he considered that offering mercy was worth a try. However, the renegade responded only with another volley of rifle fire, which thudded harmlessly into the metal desk.

  “We’re just getting started, Rikkard!” a male voice snarled through the window. “Let’s see how you handle this…”

  A panel in the end wall underneath the mezzanine level was punched out into the room, and Cad watched as an armed robotic system trundled out of concealment. It was basically a mobile gun turret on caterpillar tracks that seemed to have been adapted from a common mining bot.

  Cad smiled. Finally, a challenge… he thought as the turret on the bot angled toward him. He ran out from behind the upturned metal desk a split-second before cannon rounds punched through it like pellets through a paper bag. The turret tracked him as he pressed himself up behind a support pillar, which offered sturdier protection from the bot’s powerful weapon, as well as from the renegade’s rifle. Cad knew that he could likely withstand several hits from the cannon, but he didn’t want to risk injury. With only him and Alexis left after Draga’s death on Doyle’s rogue world, Cad had been forced to act more cautiously. And caution was not the Blackfire Squadron’s modus operandi.

  “Alexis, I need you to deal with a bot problem,” said Cad while sliding the Black Prince sword back into its scabbard. Cannon rounds thudded into the metal and gouged chunks out of the concrete floor inches to either side of him.

  “What kind of bot problem?” Alexis replied, still to the backdrop of her Five-Seven-Sevens.

  Cad edged around the pillar as the armed bot moved in an attempt to get an angle on him. All the while, computer consoles exploded and office furniture was obliterated as bullets continued to rain down all around him.

  “The sort of bot problem that involves a twenty-millimeter cannon,” said Cad.

  “On it…” came the reply from Alexis. There was no hint of the mercenary’s usual playfulness or irreverence. This was the cold-hearted warrior version of Alexis in full effect and Cad need her now more than ever.

  Suddenly, Cad felt the thump of bullets landing on his armor, and he realized that the armed bot had driven into the renegade’s line of fire. Growling and rapidly losing patience, Cad leapt over another desk and rolled behind a heavy metal cabinet to avoid fire from both the bot and the office window. Then Cad had an idea. Lifting the cabinet off the ground, he advanced toward the machine. Cannon shells thudded into the metal, with some cutting clean through the cabinet and landing on Cad’s armor. However, the cabinet and its contents had absorbed enough energy from the bullets to take away their deadly sting. When he was confident he was in range, Cad hurled the cabinet at the bot, crushing the barrel of the machine’s cannon into the concrete floor. Drawing his Black Prince again, Cad drove the blade through its gears and inner workings, rendering the lethal machine inert.

  Another shot rang out from the office, and Cad was sure he felt it rush past his face. Ducking behind another pillar, he looked for the quickest route up to the mezzanine level that would keep him out of the renegade’s line of sight. He could easily cut through the stilts that held the makeshift cabin office up, but he needed the renegade leader still breathing. Considering the number of shots that he’d heard outside, Cad very much doubted that Alexis had left anyone else alive to interrogate.

  Cad was about to make his move, when an explosion rocked the building. A section of the ceiling structure above the mezzanine office blew inward, and seconds later, Alexis dropped through the newly created hole. However, Cad only saw her for a fraction of a second as the added mass of her power armor caused her to crash through the roof of the flimsy office cabin. There were shouts and cries from inside the office, then a body was flung through the already smashed glass and onto the concrete floor below. Alexis jumped out of the window moments later, using the thrusters in her suit to arrest her rate of descent, and landed next to the body.

  “Where’s the bot problem?” asked Alexis, sweeping her twin pistols around the room. “I was in the middle of hacking its core, then it just seemed to go offline.” With the threat of the renegades dealt with, some of the sassiness had returned to Alexis’ voice and personality.

  Cad sighed and stepped up beside Alexis. “The bot is underneath that metal cabinet,” he said, pointing to the crushed machine with the tip of his sword.

  “Oh, nice shot,” said Alexis, smiling.
r />   “You should have seen the one earlier,” commented Cad, remembering his inch-perfect grenade throw.

  Alexis then scowled down at the man on the concrete floor, blood oozing from a severe fracture to his skull. “So who was this guy?” she asked while holstering her Five-Seven-Sevens.

  “That was the renegade leader of this outpost,” said Cad, raising an eyebrow at her. “The one we needed alive.”

  “Ah…” said Alexis.

  Cad grunted then slid the unique alien-derived metal blade back into its scabbard. “What were you saying about this raid being a bust?”

  Alexis shrugged. “It’s still a lot of dead renegades. I’d call that a success.”

  The watch built into Cad’s armor bleeped an incoming message. His eyes narrowed, hoping that it wasn’t Damien Doyle calling to check up on him. However, when he glanced at the screen, Cad saw that it was Falken instead.

  “Maybe the crazy hacker girl has some better news,” Cad said to Alexis before answering the call. The image of Falken, sitting at her desk in her lair on Vediovis, then appeared, projected onto Cad’s retinas. “Unless you’re calling to tell me you have the location of Rand’s Darkspace Renegade hideout, don’t bother opening your mouth…” snapped Cad.

  “Oh, well, that’s not exactly why I’m calling,” began Falken. Cad immediately went to kill the connection before Falken quickly added, “But I think I have an idea where it might be.”