Fractured Mind Episode One (A Galactic Coalition Academy Series) Read Online Free

typified no better than in
Cadet Sinclair.
    She should have been turfed from day
one.
    She was still here. Why? Because someone out
there had the erroneous belief she could pull through her
troubles.
    She didn't want to.
    And that was the bottom line.
    “You've gone all sullen and somber,
lieutenant. I'll repeat once more, the Coalition will beat the
Ornax. We defeated the lost star – given time, we'll overcome this
obstacle, too. Anyhow, lie on your stomach, close your eyes, and
think pleasant thoughts while I deliberately break a few of your
mechanical vertebrae and access their internal mechanisms.”
    “Sounds painful.” Karax lay on the medical
bed and nestled his head against his hands.
    “Sure is. But someone like you knows how to
push past pain. Oh, and I'll also half sedate you, which will help.
You'll find your mind wandering during this procedure. Don't worry
– it's a side effect of the anesthetic I have to use. Sit back and
enjoy the show. It'll take an hour.”
    Wallace got to work.
    As soon as he injected something into
Karax's neck, Karax felt a slow wave of unconsciousness shift
through his mind.
    It didn't pull him down into sleep. Not
fully.
    A part of him was still aware of his body
pressed against the cold medical bed. The rest wandered.
    Which was a bad idea. Because whenever
Karax's mind wandered, it always returned to the same place.
    His home world.
    The invasions.
    One after another, week after week –
Barbarian raiding parties attacking his settlement relentlessly
over a harrowing three-year period until finally they claimed the
planet and pushed the settlers back.
    Karax lost his whole family during the
raids. One after another.
    He... he'd survived.
    He could see it now – the settlement around
him, the stark brown and grey reclaimed cruisers that had been
modified into habitable shelters.
    They'd sat there, nestled against the
verdant green grass as the trees and vines of the planet had massed
around them.
    The settlement had been situated at the foot
of a hill. Behind had been a steep mountain Karax had played on
with his brothers. If you climbed it, you'd see the greatest view
in the galaxy – a massive mountainous valley dotted with crystal
peaks, three silver-white moons constantly visible above the
horizon.
    He could still remember with perfect clarity
standing on the edge of that cliff, wind blowing against his brown
tunic, a smile pressing over his lips.
    Then the Barbarians had come....
    ...
    Lieutenant Karax, ten years ago, colony planets,
border of Coalition space
    “Come on, Karax, get your ass back to camp.
We can't stay up here forever,” Karax's brother called.
    Karax didn't move. He couldn't. That view
sucked him in. It wrapped its hands around his gaze and drew it
forward as he stared at each crystal peak in turn.
    His attention inevitably drifted towards the
three moons in the sky. They stood sentinel over the planet, like
three guards watching her from space.
    “Come on,” his brother said, terse voice
filtering up from further down the hill.
    Reluctantly Karax pushed back, ripped his
mesmerized gaze from the moons, and trudged away.
    As soon as his reclaimed leather boots sunk
through the soft inch-high grass, his gut trembled.
    Far in the distance, he swore he could hear
something.
    Something out of place.
    “Kiros? Kiros? You there?” he shouted.
    He didn't know why, but a flare of fear
snagged his heart.
    He shifted forward, boots crumpling the lush
grass. His head swung from side-to-side as he scanned for his older
brother. “Kiros?”
    No reply.
    Then he heard it, that odd rumble shaking
through the hills.
    Cruiser engines.
    He stared at the topaz-blue sky just as
three cruisers shot past the mountain peak, heading down to the
settlement below.
    At first he thought they were suppliers.
    They weren't.
    The ships were ramshackle, cobbled-together,
brown and black hull plating interspersed with pulser turrets and
rotating cannon shafts.
    “Kiros!” He