The eagles brood, p.18
I AM BROKEN (I AM MAN Book 3), page 18
The Rebel Christian Publishing
Copyright © 2021 Valicity Elaine
Cover illustrated/designed by Valicity Elaine
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.
ISBN: (eBook) 9781736415894
Print: 9781736415887
Amazon Kindle Vella ASIN: B09KKQ5YQJ
This is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Names, characters, and places are products of the author’s imagination. Inclusion of or reference to any Christian elements or themes are used in a fictitious manner and are not meant to be perceived or interpreted as an act of disrespect against such a wonderful and beautiful belief system.
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Contents
Series Order:
I AM BROKEN
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
Continue the series…
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Rebel Christian Publishing
Original Author’s Notes
This book was originally published as an episodic story on the Kindle Vella platform. It has been modified and formatted for your enjoyment. Original author’s notes can be found at the very end of the book. Please enjoy I AM BROKEN and take the time to leave your thoughts and opinion in a review on Amazon, Goodreads, and BookBub. Thank you!
Series Order:
I AM MAN
I AM LOST
I AM BROKEN
I AM FREE
I AM COMPLETE
Other Books by Valicity Elaine
Cross Academy
Withered Rose
To the Lord Jesus
I AM BROKEN
Book III in the I AM MAN Series
By Valicity Elaine
A Rebel Christian Publishing Book
Chapter One
The Frontline mission had been part of training since the Program began. Two trainees were placed in a simulated battlefield to fight their way through a flood of enemies. The goal was to carry their “precious cargo” to the other side of the arena. Once it was placed inside the “rescue” bin, the simulation would end.
The arena was peppered with enemies, they were only Skel frames—discarded units who could be reset a hundred times. Their combat settings were at 40 percent, which meant they weren’t a serious threat to the trainees, but they could still make things difficult. Especially when there were dozens of them with weapons in their hands and only two trainees with standard rifles and a hunting knife.
Only six pairs had ever passed the Frontline mission since the Program began, and only one of them had done it in less than twenty minutes.
Team One: Trainees, Sandra Right and Thia Tonde, completed Frontline in seventeen minutes and thirty-six seconds. Their names were plastered on the wall right below the timer for every trainee to see and envy.
Carter hated Sandra and Thia. He’d never met them, of course, but he didn’t need to. He hated anyone who was better than him, so he used that hatred as fuel as he worked his way through the mission. He had impeccable aim, a strong build, and rarely hesitated during simulations. Carter was the perfect soldier, which was what he wanted to be. In four months, he would graduate from the Program as a Soldier of the Republic, ranked number one in his class.
First, he had to pass this mission.
Everything was going well so far; Carter took care of the enemies to our right while I shot down a charging unit who’d tried to ambush us from the left. Our left side always had less enemies, which was why I guarded it, since I was holding the cargo. This was our fifth attempt at Frontline, Carter and I had developed a strategy. He took point while I stayed in the rear and cleaned up whatever he missed. Which wasn’t much, thank God, because our cargo was difficult to haul around the arena.
Sometimes we got a bundle of sticks, sometimes we had to drag a 150-pound dummy across the field. It was always random. Today we got a loaded bomb. It wasn’t really a bomb, but we still had to treat it carefully. The bomb was the size of a tennis ball, but it was dense and heavy, nearly 12 pounds. It had sensors on it that measured how many times it was “handled roughly.” If the count got too high, it would “detonate.” So we had to move slowly, carefully. Two things Carter didn’t do very well.
He was as reckless as he was efficient, maybe he was efficient because he was reckless. Either way, his wild tactics would cost us the mission if we weren’t smart. It wasn’t as hard as it looked. Since I’d taken the cargo, Carter could go crazy, and I’d only have to cautiously follow behind until we reached the other end of the arena. So we did just that.
A team of Skel poured into the stage area, firing at us without stopping. They were armed with better guns, had more ammo, and since they were Skel, their aim was even better than Carter’s. Without thinking, I dodge-rolled into cover and immediately cursed myself for it. Hooked to my hip, the bomb beeped loudly to let me know I’d added another count to the meter. I’d only heard it beep three times since we’d started, so I figured it was alright. I hoped it was alright. There was no time to think about it. The Skel were on us, marching in formation as they laid down heavy fire.
“Stay low and follow me!” Carter shouted.
I nodded and maneuvered through the field as fast as I could. The Skel had surrounded us. It was a haunting image, their metal frames marching like robots, completely unfazed and unbothered by the scene. That was how they were designed—unconscious machines built for the war.
There had been rumors of war for years; an Alien invasion, just like in the books. Then the Aliens did invade, rushing into the heart of the Great Republic and nearly overthrowing it. Tensions had been high with Alien rights being restricted and Augments being overtaxed for their modifications. But the last straw happened when both species were forced out of their homes in the Oasis to make room for Pureblood families who wanted to live closer to the Pyramid—the newly constructed palace and home of Primus Kal au Valetia.
The invasion unfolded. A militia of Aliens, Augments, and Pureblood activists charged the Pyramid and forced their way inside. They assassinated three Pureblood officials and left Primus Kal in the hospital for several weeks. He lived. And came back to rule with an iron fist.
Kal vowed the actions of the militia would not go unanswered, and the Great Republic dissolved into civil war. The Skel had existed long before that, robots designed to stand guard and fire weapons when commanded. But the attack on the Pyramid had demonstrated their incompetence, which was only exploited even further when the Pureblood army lost one battle after another to the uprising rebel forces.
Thus, the Program was born.
It took Pureblood volunteers, trained them to become Soldiers or Guardians of the Republic forces, and then used a sample of their DNA to modify the Skel army. The Republic’s new forces would be made up of a fleet of Skel that were entirely sentient. Freethinking. Human.
I personally didn’t care about the Skel army or the new sentient super soldiers the Republic was building. I didn’t even care much for the war, except that I wondered how it would impact things with my half-Mercurian girlfriend. But I hadn’t seen her in two months. And she’d stopped responding to my letters three weeks ago. But maybe the mail was moving slowly, the rebels had blown up another post office not long ago. I don’t know.
I had to focus, anyway.
Carter was already too far ahead of me, and he hadn’t stopped to take out many of the Skel surrounding us. He wasn’t just trying to pass Frontline, he wanted to set a new record. Finish faster than Sandra and Thia. So he’d left me and the bomb behind.
“Carter!” I shouted, shooting down a Skel who’d gotten too close. Mercifully, it’d stopped to reload its weapon when I’d noticed it. But there were two more right behind and I was pinned to a barricade.
I stole a quick glance from my cover and saw Carter sprinting the last twenty meters to the goal. He shot a Skel right in its eye and then quickly turned to land two rapid headshots on another Skel before finishing his sprint.
He made it to the goal. And then noticed I wasn’t right behind him.
I could see the shock and horror on his face as he realized the grave mistake he’d made. But he was more panicked than I was. This wasn’t the first time he’d left me behind. Carter always lost himself on the battlefield. But I made up for it just fine, that’s why we worked well as a pair. I never would have agreed to be his partner if I thought it wouldn’t give me a chance to show off, too.
<
Carter was on the finishing platform, shouting something I couldn’t hear over the gunfire. I felt a shock of pain erupt in my left leg and fell down, glancing over my shoulder. A Skel had shot me in the thigh; they were nonlethal bullets, but they still hurt. I rolled over and pulled my knife from my boot, forcing myself to my feet so I could limp to the goal. It wasn’t far now, and I could hear Carter’s shouting more clearly.
“Throw it!” he screamed. “Throw the cargo!”
The cargo was a loaded bomb, but I hadn’t been too rough with it yet, so I didn’t think twice when I stabbed a charging Skel in its glowing red eyes and then unhooked the bomb from my hip. Using just a second to place the dense metal ball in the crook of my neck, I spun and launched the bomb through the air, throwing it to Carter as hard as I could.
He caught it, a wild look of excitement blazing in his eyes, and then slammed it into the bin.
The bell chimed, ending the simulation. I fell to the ground and heaved a breath, smiling as I heard cheers and applause sounding around me. I pushed to my feet, so I could check the scoreboard; that’s when I heard the cheering stop.
Our finishing time was 14:12. We’d broken Team One’s record—by a mile. But our names had been crossed out and flashing next to them in big red letters was the word: DISQUALIFIED.
Carter lost it. Cursing and charging at the delegates sitting at the judging table. He was stopped by two security guards, who he managed to scramble away from after bloodying the nose of one and twisting the other’s arm until his shoulder dislocated. In the end, it took four guards to stop him and drag him off the platform.
I met him by the judges’ table after he’d been calmed down. He was in cuffs and had a black eye. “Hey, beautiful,” I said, nodding at his split lip. “That was cute.”
He spat a glob of blood and phlegm at my feet. “Shut up.”
“Talked to the judges yet?”
“Said the cargo took too much damage.”
“Ahh,” I reached up to scratch the beard I didn’t have. “Sounds about right.”
“You’re oddly calm about this.”
I shrugged one shoulder, slipped a hand into the pocket of my baggy sweatpants. I’d taken the time to change from the military style uniform we had to wear during mission runs. Carter still had on his combat boots, cargo pants, and a sweat stained long-sleeved shirt. “We did it once. We’ll do it again,” I said.
One of the delegates came over and told Carter he was suspended for three days and would serve his time in the detention hall instead of in the field with the other trainees. With a huff of annoyance, Carter held his hands up so the man could remove his cuffs, then he took his disciplinary slip and stalked off.
I caught up to him. “Three days isn’t bad.” It’d been a week the last time he went nuts like that.
“Yeah,” he said.
We walked side by side through the crowd in the arena, a head taller than almost everyone around us. Carter was massive, well over six feet of hulking muscle, but I wasn’t far behind. They said we looked like brothers and sometimes it felt like we were. Like now, as we made our way to the exit and I couldn’t help but notice the mass shifting around us, moving aside so we could get through.
We mostly got this sort of attention because of Carter, but I never complained. He was the top in our class and had the look of a Soldier. Tall, strong, twice as good looking as me. And he was an Elite, the first one I’d ever met in person. The social system had been around for some time, but after the civil war broke out, things got even more complicated. It wasn’t enough to be a Pureblood anymore, we’d somehow developed our own hierarchy. Those with older family lines had dubbed themselves as Elites and claimed most of the wealth and territory available to Purebloods.
I was not an Elite. The Martin family line didn’t go back very far; I could trace my lineage to somewhere in the United States before the Great Exodus but that was about it. My mother told me her family was made up of descendants of a race that’d been called African American while my father’s was Mexican. I had no idea what the terms meant but it’d left me with chestnut colored skin, dark wavy hair, and the typical green eyes every Pureblood in the Great Republic had.
Meanwhile, Carter’s family was old. He could trace his roots to the US, like me, but his family had more than a DNA test kit and some red dots on a digital map. They had birth certificates, carefully preserved records from Old Earth—the original planet humans lived on before relocating to New Earth after their sun winked out.
I don’t know the entire history of Carter’s family, but they were important on Old Earth and managed to make their wealth and power last even here on New Earth. It was something he never failed to remind me of—his importance. How different he was. How it was his duty to be the best. That was why he took his training so seriously; Carter was different from the rest of the Purebloods here. He’d been sent here by his family, the firstborn son of an Elite Pureblood name. He’d come to prove a point, whereas the rest of us had come just to put food on the table.
Nevertheless, I did understand his frustration today, despite my nonchalant attitude. We wouldn’t be able to take a crack at Frontline for another few weeks when it was up on the training rotation again. Since we ran our simulation with a crowd, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to worry about our tactics being copied and our disqualified record stolen. Still, Carter had to chill. Elite or not, the judges would only tolerate his temper for so long until he was tossed out the Program.
We walked a few paces, our shoulders bumping as the crowd swelled around us. A few trainees shouted congratulations, I understood their empathy, but it likely rubbed salt in the wound for Carter. A quick glance at him and I knew he was angry. His eyes were narrowed, brow furrowed, a muscle ticking in his square jaw.
“You gotta go easy on the judges, Carter,” I said.
“I don’t have to do jack,” he said back.
I took an easy breath, mentally preparing myself for the incoming lecture on his family lineage.
He jabbed a thick thumb at himself. “I am Carter au Valeteen—an Elite Pureblood of the Vale Originate, thirteenth cousin to the Kal au Valetia himself. Those judges need to think twice about who they’re scoring before they put the results through.”
“So, you want them to cheat for you?”
He sighed, knowing I’d cornered him. “I hate when you get all logical, little Gray.”
I chuckled, wisely choosing to let the conversation die. It was weird, being the logical one between us—considering I was only nineteen and Carter was four years older. But I’d gotten used to his behavior over the last two months and had learned it was better to leave him to his thoughts when he was in this mood. So I kept my vision straight and enjoyed the silence as we walked to our dorm.
Once inside, he flopped onto his bed and snatched his stress ball from the bedside table. “I can’t believe I’m suspended again.”
I raised an eyebrow, sitting at my desk. “You can’t?”
“Shut up.”
“Your temper is out of control, Carter.”
I heard him sigh behind me. “If I had a dollar—or even a dime—for every time someone told me that.”
“I don’t know what a dollar or a dime is,” I confessed, picking out stationery. My girlfriend hadn’t responded to my last few letters but a stubborn part of me didn’t want to let go. She could have written back, the letters could have been lost in the mail, held up because of the war, or—I don’t know—maybe she was dealing with her own issues.
Carter was laughing. “You’re such a nobody, little Gray. I love it.”
I rolled my eyes. Carter was always insulting everyone. This must have been how the lesser breeds felt compared to the Purebloods. It wasn’t a good feeling. “Thanks, Carter.”
