Rules of Redemption (The Firebird Chronicles, #1)

by T.A. White

one of the bloodiest battles of a decade-long war.

Twelve years of silence and solitude,

The Tsavitee had many forms, depending on its position in their ranks.

This one would have been infantry, humanoid in appearance with two legs and two arms, a head with eyes, nose, and mouth. That's where the similarities ended. This one was larger than any human by at least a foot, its form hulking and muscular with skin the color of graphite. She judged him as in the lower ranks given the visible tusks and the stunted horns curling up from its head.

In their own language, Tsavitee meant scourge. That's what they had been to humanity. A devouring horde appearing out of nowhere and decimating humanity with the most bloody and savage war in history.

Like some plague born from the void, they had swept over more than one human colony leaving nothing in their wake but charred remains.

The death toll had been in the millions. Any progress humanity had made in the centuries since they’d started space fli...

Earth was among those hit with humanity's homeworld reduced to a shadow of its former self. Since then, humans had reclaimed...

by some miracle, they'd salvaged a victory, stopping the Tsavitee and destroying the backbone of their fleet. There might have been battles after this one, but this was where historians would point to as the beginning of the end.

While the Tsavitee had been beaten, they had not been eliminated.

They were a deadly force, almost single-minded in their purpose. Beings like that weren’t going to give up. No, they would withdraw, analyze the data, and then return stronger than ever.

each command center looked and operated a little differently. One thing remained the same—it was the military and strategic mind of the ship, a source of valuable intel if the Tsavitee ever decided to return.

Jin hovered several feet above the deck, his spherical body no bigger than her head. His shell was an out-of-date military grade drone coupled with all the advances she could get her hands on. Although his parts might be metal and hardware, his mind was pure organic sapience, with all the pitfalls that might bring.

She'd upgraded pretty much every part of him herself. There were over a hundred small cameras installed on his exterior to help him “see” and analyze the world.

She was average-sized for a woman, barely hitting five feet, seven inches. She had a runner's frame, lean and lithe, with muscles stretched over her long lines. Despite her apparent slimness, she possessed a hidden strength, surprising many an enterprising salvager seeking to take advantage of her. They saw the delicateness of her features, the burgundy color of her hair and gray-purple eyes that changed colors in a certain light, and made certain assumptions. Assumptions she was happy to disabuse them of.

Her entire way of life counted on staying beneath everyone's notice. She hadn't come this far to throw it all away.

Peacetime had been good to O’Riley, taking it from an obscure military outpost to a thriving hub of trade and government. The central area where warships had once docked for servicing was now an open-air market. The atrium slightly resembled a beehive, with dozens of levels of terraces clinging to the edges and a wide-open space in the middle of the station where several varieties of small ships floated from level to level like bees sampling the different delights.

The war might have humbled humanity, but it hadn't broken them. They rose from the ashes to rebuild better and stronger than ever.

She took a deep breath and then another before she pushed everything away, concentrating on centering herself in the here and now.

"Look, they're selling candy globes," he crooned. "Can we get one?" "You don't have taste buds," she told him. "But you do," he said hopefully. She paused and gave him a frown. "I'm not eating that crap just so you can ride my senses.

Jin was an oddity among oddities. Unique in a universe full of unique things. He was machine but not. Artificial but real.

an ability to tap into Kira's senses—taste, smell, touch, sight, and hearing. It allowed him to experience the world on a more human level, turning it from logical data to so...

a soldier in a Hadron class combat suit riding a waveboard into the upper atmosphere. Emblazoned on the person’s uniform was the image of a bird on fire. Behind the soldier, just breaking through the clouds, were ten more in a perfect V formation. The air was filled with fire as wreckage rained down around them, ships above dying as Tsavitee ground artillery picked them off one by one. Under the image was emblazoned, "What difference will you make?"

The Wave Runners were a specialized and elite military unit, bridging the gap between combat suit and aircraft. The hoverboard under their feet made them faster and more maneuverable than any ship ever could be.

They were a product of the war. Their tactics had evolved to meet the Tsavitee's superior forces head-on—the suits and board compensating for human weakness. Humans might never be as strong or fast, physically, as the Tsavitee, but they were smart and adapted even under the worst of circumstances. The Wave Runners were perhaps the best example of that.

The boy was around thirteen or fourteen, his guarded expression making him seem older despite the faint remnants of baby fat around his cheeks. In a few years, when time and age had refined the lines of his features, the girls would swarm him. His top lip trembled as he fought to project a strong front.

The other child was much younger, seven or eight. Her eyes were scared, evidence of tear tracks on her face. Her pale, white-blond hair was tied with a silver ribbon. She looked like a doll, pretty and delicate.

some of her innate abilities. It wouldn't take much, a simple rearranging of the density of the air molecules

She hadn't used that power in all the time since she'd left the service. It was chancy; the power unpredictable.

She knew he'd drop what he was doing if he got one whiff of how dire her situation was. To him, their friendship trumped everything else.

that's synth armor they're wearing." Jin didn't have to warn her to proceed with caution. There was only one race known for using that type of armor. It had a distinctive appearance and chemical makeup—not the type of thing Jin was likely to mistake.

Tiny ridges ran along the different interlinking plates. The armor molded over their powerful physiques, making their already muscular bodies even more intimidating. They practically screamed threat. This version was a subdued copper with some type of symbol stamped on the front.

They were a reclusive bunch and tended to keep to their corner of the galaxy, rarely leaving their territories. Most called them wizards due to persistent rumors comparing them to the myth of old. They were said to be capable of mysterious magic, possessing abilities that defied explanation.

she doubted he was in charge. No, that was the man standing next to the boy, his clear gaze on hers. He was older and more experienced than the rest, although Kira couldn't pinpoint what about him made her think that.

All of the people before her appeared around the same age. They were similar looking, taller than the average human, with the same white blondish hair of the boy and girl. The one with dark hair was the man in charge.

Their features were fierce but beautiful, each a work of art in their own way. They were heavily muscled and tall, more so than most humans. T...

These men weren't your average guards. They were soldiers.

They were a unit, anticipating orders not yet voiced. They moved like a well-oiled machine, indicating a long history with one another.

“Twelve years and six months since you disappeared on me," he continued. “Not one word to let me know you were alive and not one of the countless casualties from the Falling.”

her way blocked by a mountain. Her words died in her throat as her head tilted, surprise preventing her from retreating from the dangerous creature in front of her. A pair of irritated, stormy gray eyes stared at her from a face chiseled from granite. A thin slash of a mouth was the one hint of displeasure in the man's expression.

His dark hair hung loose, complementing his stubborn jaw and the sharp angles of his features. He had an athletic body, long, but built like a tank from what she could see in his synth armor.

This was a man used to giving orders and having them obeyed. He was a force of nature given form, implacable and demanding.

He had the same ageless quality as the guard's captain, but in him, it was magnified. He was power and fury, an oppressive weight lingering in his gaze

Something about her warned him she would one day be important to him. At home, you could sometimes feel the coming of a storm when there wasn't a cloud in the sky. He got the same feeling when he looked at her.

Sometimes storms revealed hidden treasures, wiping away the old rot and replacing it with something stronger. Other times they washed everything away, leaving nothing in their wake but devastation.

Skarsdale’s expression remained fixed and remote, no sign of any reaction to that statement. Graydon couldn’t help but be impressed at his composure. It was worthy of a Tuann. Perhaps their race wasn't quite so useless after all.

Not when the humans experimented on their own young, bioengineering unborn children for the purposes of war. They’d have no compunction about doing the same to another race’s children.

Solal spoke subvocally into the auditory implant all his people carried.

"You still have to contact your little friend to hand off the data you recovered from the Tsavitee ship."

She'd done her time in the trenches. This was her retirement, and she refused to get drawn into whatever this was.