The Guardian (Coranite Chronicles)

Copyright
ã
2011 by Egan Yip

Cover design by Egan Yip

Book design by Egan Yip

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author.

This book is dedicated first and foremost to the One for whom this book was written. Then to all of my family. Without them, this book would never come to pass. And as always, to all the great and wonderful people at LCBC. Over the years I have learned much from them.

Prologue

1 – Here Lies

2 – Shadow and Ghost

3 – Lost Hero

4 – Skytown

5 – Ship’s Rest

6 – Living Gargoyle

7 – Great Sky Race

8 – Mistaken

9 – Golem Project

10 – Reunion

11 – You Never Know

12 – Hunt Below

13 – The Guardian

14 – Terror from the Sky

15 – Havoc

16 – Into the Fire

17 – Caretaker

18 – New Horizons

19 – Berserk

20 – Propaganda

21 – Underground

22 – Enslaved

23 – Human

24 – Life

25 – Stick to the Plan

26 – Finding

27 – Catalyst

28 – Destruction

29 – Darkest Hour

30 – End of an Era

Epilogue…

PROLOGUE

“Here’s your coffee, Captain.”

Captain Kite Ruthers bowed his head and accepted the hot beverage. Not really in the mood to talk, Ruthers sank into the command chair and exhaled. The bridge of his starship, the
Protector
-class
Hercules,
was dreadfully quiet.

The crewman began to say “I apologize—” but the captain silenced him with a wave of his hand. Then Ruthers took a whiff of the deep aroma of the coffee before taking a long sip. With the steady flow of caffeine dripping down his throat, the captain licked his lips.

“Much better.” The captain looked at the crewman through the corner of his eye. “You may speak.”

“I apologize for waking you at this hour,” said the young crewman. “But we received a distress signal from sector Z-23.”

Captain Ruthers massaged his temple with a finger. “I must be out of it. For a second there I thought you said something ridiculous. Could you repeat that?”

The crewman gulped, hesitating to speak once more. “It’s…a distress signal, sir.”

“I got that. And? What else?”

“From sector Z-23—”

“You didn’t say sector Z, did you?”

The young man cleared his throat. “Yes, sir. That’s what—”

“Sector Z is
not
Federation territory,” grunted Captain Ruthers. “There’d better be a
really
good reason for this, Ensign.”

The ensign nervously loosened the collar of his uniform. He walked over to a terminal and said, “There is a good reason, sir. Please watch this. This is the message we received.”

A platform at the front of the bridge unfolded. A hologram was displayed, depicting a man in uniform—a Federation officer. His appearance was terrible: his clothes were torn and dry blood was encrusted on his cheeks.

Sounding out of breath, the Federation officer said, “If anyone should receive this message, I am Commodore Ladestorm of the
Recon
-class
Seeker
. This is a priority one emergency. I know what some of you may be thinking: ‘What is a Federation ship doing in sector Z?’ But this is a matter of utmost importance. We were contacted by an outer world that was under attack. I would have ignored them, but they provided substantial evidence of a very strange creature. This is what we found.”

The holographic projection changed scene and now showed several balls of light in space. The hologram zoomed in on the light, giving a clear vision of the dark silhouettes inside. They looked like giant men and women…soaring across the depths of space.

Captain Ruthers furrowed his brow. “Is this some kind of joke?”

The holographic image went back to showing the Federation officer. “As you can see,” continued Commodore Ladestorm, “these are much different than the records of space monsters in archives. From what I observed, these humanoid creatures are called Guardians; they come in all shapes and sizes and are quite powerful. This is why I am sending out this warning: they are a terrible threat to mankind! They work together and are highly intelligent beings. They can travel faster than the speed of light without starships or teleportation. With their great strength and numbers, they have attacked planets for no reason at all! And just look at the devastation!”

New images came up, this time showing the surface of several planets. The scenes were horrific. Cities were left in ruin. Hundreds of dead bodies littered the ground. Forests were completely burned into nothing more than heaps of charcoal. One image was especially disturbing: it showed a giant crater that covered more than half the planet.

The commodore continued, “Guardians attacked my ship while I was researching their behavior. Our shields cannot resist them. More than half my crew has died as a result. I beseech the Federation to be wary of these monsters. I am retreating to safety, but I must warn you all: if you see them, flee! Abandon all hope! They are not something you can hope to defeat alone. We will need to gather our forces in order to stand a chance against these beasts of war!”

A voice in the background said, “Commodore, we’re surrounded! Our weapons and shields are still down!”

Commodore Ladestorm spun around. “They’ve chased us this far? Good god, they’re fast! Send this message out at once! The Federation must know—”

The hologram went blank.

“Is that the end of the transmission?” asked Captain Ruthers.

“Yes, sir,” replied the young ensign.

Captain Ruthers said to him, “Relay the message to headquarters. If what Ladestorm says is true—this might be worth investigating.”

“Helmsman,” Captain Ruthers ordered. “Take us on a course to sector Z-23. Let’s check up on the commodore. Maybe he’s still alive…if we’re lucky.”

CHAPTER 1

Here Lies

Darek waited quietly in the hollow trunk of a tree. The inside was tight. The wood felt rough against his skin. The tree had a few gaping holes and whenever a gust of wind seeped in, it echoed through the hollow structure, making sounds like the blowing of a flute.

Crumpled leaves floated down and landed on Darek’s short hair. Annoyed, he shook them off his head.

Darek squinted through a small crack in the bark. He noticed someone walking across the field. He could only see the person’s feet, but that was enough. As soon as he noticed that the person was looking the other way, Darek crawled up and steadily climbed out.

Creak
. The base of the tree snapped. The whole trunk fell down with a loud crash! Darek tumbled out of the log and rolled painfully over some jagged rocks.

“Ouch…” Sprawled on the rocks, he glanced over the tree and saw that the trunk had been clawed apart. His friend, Elize, must have snuck behind the tree when he wasn’t looking. He looked down at his Judge’s uniform, an embroidered tunic of dark shades of purple and gray. Seeing that it had been soiled, he brushed off the dirt.

A brawny teenaged boy approached him. It was Slade. Slade was in charge of preparing Darek to be a Judge, an assassin of justice.

“Good job, Darek. I’ll let you pass. Almost didn’t notice you there.”

Darek groaned, “Almost? That’s it? Where are the flying colors?”

Slade raised a brow. “You’re disappointed? Are you kidding me? You’ve learned more in one month than I did in half a year! Your progress is incredible! You should be proud.”

Darek shrugged. It wasn’t exactly a fair comparison. Slade had undergone the final training to be a Judge when he was only thirteen. Darek, on the other hand, was about to turn sixteen. Not only that, but Darek had already learned lots from Sorren when they were stranded on Kedaro, the planet of immortals. With all of that training and experience, Darek thought he’d breeze through the exams. But they proved more of a challenge than he had expected.

“How many more tests are left?” Darek sat up. “We’ve been doing nothing but tests for a weeks! I should be out there with the rest of the Judges! You’ve seen what I’m capable of. And didn’t I already tell you what I’ve been through in the past couple of months? I’m ready.”

“You think I enjoy this?” Slade smirked. “I want to get this over with as much as you do.
 
But this is serious stuff. Life and death. This is war. When you’re out there in the field, you’ll be fighting the worst scum the galaxy has to offer—the vilest you’ll ever meet. There are a lot of sick and twisted people out there, and they won’t play fair. We have to make sure you’re ready. Just hang in there, Darek. We’re almost to the end.”

“Are we really?” asked Darek.

“Really.” Slade nodded. “Next is spiritual control. That will be all for the basic tests.” Then Slade said darkly, “And once you pass that, you’ll be ready for the final, grueling,
deadly
trials.”

“Great. I can’t wait for
deadly
trials. Sounds fun,” said Darek, standing up. “All right. Where should we do the spiritual control test?”

“Right here is fine.” Slade held a stopwatch in his hand. “First, manifest your spirit weapon. I’m going to time you.”

Concentrating, Darek raised his hands and stared at them with intense eyes. His hands began emanating a white glow. Then splotches of black stretched across his fingers and down his hands…until his hands were completely covered. Then the glow disappeared and all that remained were black gloves on his hands.

Slade clicked the button. “Ten seconds. Congratulations, you just made the bare minimum. But you should really practice on speeding it up. Try to get it under five. Every second counts.”

Wiping the sweat off his forehead, Darek huffed, “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“And for the next part of the test…” Slade picked up an elongated board and handed it over. The sides of the board were coated in a glossy sheen. The top was wrapped in a thin layer of sandy material. Underneath, the board had several grooves with strange green metal strips running across.

Darek flipped it around, studying it. “What’s this?”

“Hover board,” said Slade.

“Hover board?” said Darek incredulously. “B-but there’s no engine.” He paused. “Whoa. Talk about déjà vu. I feel like I’ve said something like that before...”

“Just step on it,” said Slade.

Darek did as instructed. He had a nostalgic feeling about doing so. Then he remembered why. He had never used a real hover board, but he remembered the time when Jenson gave him a wooden board to use for teleportation. At that time, he had actually ridden across space on a piece of wood. He wondered if this would be similar.

With his feet buckled to the board, Darek hopped around. Nothing happened. He felt really silly. “Okay…is that it?”

“You haven’t even used your spirit yet,” said Slade. “Darek, tell me what kind of test is this again?”

Darek shrugged. “I forgot.”

Slade chuckled. “Wow, I know these tests are tedious, but come on. Pay attention. We need to get through this.”

Darek thought for a moment. “Oh, wait, I think…spiritual control?”

“That’s right. Spiritual control. I need to see if you can put your spirit into inanimate objects.”

Darek raised a brow. “Put my spirit into inanimate objects?”

“You sound surprised,” said Slade. “Did you forget already? I could go over it—”

“No, I can handle it,” said Darek.

Darek looked down at the board. He stared at it for a while. Maybe he had to just force out his spirit. Darek tensed his muscles, even his stomach muscles. He grunted and groaned as he tried to force his spirit out. Veins popped out along his forehead. His face turned bright red. He looked constipated.

I don’t think you’re doing it right
, said a voice in his head.

The voice belonged to Chrovel, a Guardian spirit that was living inside Darek’s body.

How do you know?
Darek replied.
I bet you’ve never done this before.

I’m just saying that you can just ask Slade for help, you know
, said Chrovel.

I can figure this out myself. The less help I get, the more I prove I’m ready!

But what if you’re not ready?
Chrovel asked.

Darek ignored him. His fists clenched, Darek mustered all of his might. But even after a few minutes of constant groaning, nothing happened. Darek was frustrated but he tried not to let it show. He had hoped to do this without Slade’s help. But Darek could tell Slade was already getting impatient.

After a long period of silence, Darek said softly, “I-I still don’t get it. How does this work? Am I supposed to think about something or what?”

Slade grinned. “So you did forget. We did only go over it once. I’ll guide you through it again. Relax your body. Close your eyes.”

Darek took a deep breath and then closed his eyes. He let his frustrations fade.

“Good,” said Slade. “Now concentrate. Try to reach that same feeling you get when you manifest your spirit in those gloves. This is key.”

Even though Darek couldn’t see anything with his eyes shut, a yellow glow made its way into his thoughts.

“Keep concentrating,” said Slade. “Don’t think about anything else. Just feel it.”

“I can…feel it,” said Darek, surprised. “I can feel it.”

“Good. Now you’re going to subconsciously move that spirit into your hands. That’s because it’s easiest to use spirit powers through the hands. But we don’t want that. You have to overcome that habit. Focus, Darek. Focus your spirit back into your chest.”

“Focus,” Darek repeated. “I have to focus.”

The yellow glow in the dark recesses of his mind grew into a blinding light. A burst of spirit flowed into Darek’s feet and then outward. The hover board quaked as it lifted off the ground; the strange markings on the bottom of the board glowed red. Hot sparks flew out.

Before Darek could understand what was going on, he rocketed forward.

“WHOA!” Heading straight for a tree, Darek lifted his front foot and the board went upward. The bottom of the board skimmed the treetop.

His jaw dropped. He was actually flying in the air!