Shadow Emperor Chapter 1: Prologue: Cutting loose

Read chapter 1 of Shadow Emperor by StarPrince on NovelPedia.

The body hit the cliffside with a thunderous boom, rock and body armor shattering before it collapsed, four hundred pounds of furry, fanged, feline humanoid hitting the dirt with a thud. “Just for the record, are you insane?” Mira’s energetic voice sounded through the comms as I sent another of the beasts flying with a brutal elbow strike to the gut. That one had tried to cut me in half from behind. Rude. I rolled my eyes and suppressed a slight chuckle. “You’re one to talk, huh?” With a powerful leap, I launched myself straight up the entire height of the cliff, crashing straight through a nanolaminate wall, likely some portable field fortification, and right into another beast, grabbing him by the throat and slamming him into the ground in a single fluid motion. I looked up, hand still on the ground as I stared down the barrel of a mobile anti-aircraft gun that had just finished training its sights on me… only for it to be reduced to slag in a furious display by a salvo of fusion missiles from a Reaper Mk. II strike fighter from overhead. With a shrug, I threw the body off of the cliffside as Mira launched into a concerned tirade that made me glad we weren’t on an open channel, more for her sake than my own, “Xylan, there’s at least ten thousand elite Kymarans, over a dozen Kaiju grade war machines, backline intel from Esh reported a Headhunter and… what’s gotten into you?!” Despite not being face to face, I still pictured her wild dramatic gestures and expressions like she was right next to me. “Just a little taste of real tactics, Mira,” I answered as I walked past the burning wreckage and bodies, looking out into the distance. Ash filled the sky as fire and explosions dotted the landscape as if the stars in the sky were somewhere they really weren’t supposed to be instead. “You’ve been grinding front lines for half the freakin day, and unless you’ve got that experimental Mark 69 of yours here within an hour, we’ve gotta take the shipyard before whatever they’re cooking in there wakes up and decides to ruin our day. Besides…” A thunderous explosion erupted right next to me as a high caliber shell hit the ground, flames licking my left side and the ends of my hair as I continued walking. I cracked a smirk as I ran my hand through my hair, pieces of razor-sharp monofilament shrapnel falling to the ground. “Been a while since I cut loose, Praetor. Just keep reinforcing the front.” Needless to say, that didn’t work. Calm wasn’t exactly in my fiery redheaded Praetor’s vocabulary. “You’re literally in a hot grid square, Xylan! Move!” I shook my head as I stopped walking, taking a stance as emerald light flared, enveloping my body as I focused my power. “You think? Keep those guns singing, keep me updated, and stand by.” Mira’s voice audibly choked, and a second later I swore I heard a quiet giggle from her end. “Copy that, just don’t die!” That really did bring a smile to my face. I looked up to the sky as my body tensed up, power surging further. “Heh, let’s end this!” Thunder roared and rocks flew as I leapt into the air, already shattering the sound barrier at least three times over. Almost immediately, a bright bolt streaked past me and vanished into the distance, followed by more and more at a rapid pace. I turned my head to see a small, black, crescent-shaped starfighter closing in, having just barely missed its burst of weapons fire. Identifying the vessel as a Kymaran Kopis interceptor, I reached upwards, grabbing onto the ship’s wing as it flew overhead. The impact, though harsh, barely registered to me as I pulled upwards, flipping onto its cockpit and glaring at the pilot. Before he could react, my fist smashed through the reinforced transparent material and grabbed the feline humanoid by their throat. “Surprise…” With a powerful heave, I tossed the Kymaran behind me and leapt from the now pilotless craft and into the pilot, clotheslining him across the chest as I fell. With a sickening crunch and metallic squeal, I d