Liberation (Delta Squad Book 9)

Book summary

The Delta Squad, presumed dead after their last encounter with the New God, finds themselves in a new world on the brink of chaos. Caught between two alien races at war and facing a genocidal enemy, the team uncovers hidden truths about the conflict. Their mission: to save both worlds from destruction.

Excerpt from Liberation (Delta Squad Book 9)

Chapter 1

It had been a month since the last battle on Blackfire Island. Erin was on her couch, flipping through television channels, looking for something interesting to watch. Ever since the destruction had been stopped and the Crusaders had disbanded, life was getting back to normal in the world.

Society was getting back on its feet, and for the first time in a long time, there was no sign of any looming world-ending threats.

The news had plenty to talk about. Every channel had a different angle—from the real reason Shane declared war on the squad to all the insane theories of how it all went down. No one had any answers, and anyone who did wasn’t talking.

Just like all the other times, the powers that be called for radio silence, but the news was entertaining, to say the least.

The internet, on the other hand, was filled with websites and videos trying to give the top ten reasons why the Crusaders were right. Anything for clicks in this day and age.

There wasn’t anything good on television anymore.

Then something caught her attention.

A literal trainwreck. Some kind of toxic chemical spill that had happened hours ago. She shifted on the couch a little bit and couldn’t help but wonder if it was an elaborate distraction to try and kill the memories of the Crusader invasion.

She flipped to another news channel. Same story. And the next.

“Mission accomplished,” she said to herself as she watched. She didn’t feel good about the disaster, but at least it proved that people could move on. Time healed all wounds, she supposed.

Erin took a drink of water.

“Feeling pretty good about life right about now, I imagine.” A voice from behind said. It didn’t startle her. It took way more than random voices out of nowhere to do that. This whole month, the quiet was worse. The emptiness ate away at her. Out of all the enemies to fight in her life, this one was the worst by far.

She never expected it to be this hard. The voice made her smile.

“In a sense. I do miss them. They were good, but it’s all over now, and the world is better off with them not in it,” she said with a heavy sigh.

“Yeah, they were good. I’m surprised they did so much to save so many. It was more than a job to them, even if they’d never admit it,” he replied to her and sat down on the couch beside her.

Erin had a thought.

“Hey, they’re dead. Have you seen them anywhere? Since you, well, you know, exist, and there is an afterlife, how are they doing?” she asked him. She’d wanted to for a while now.

Lucifer moved closer to her, then pulled her close, putting his arm around her. She always forgot how warm he was.

“Funny you should ask. The thing about that is that I haven’t seen them. I looked for them, but they aren’t anywhere. Knowing the Abyss and Theron, there is no telling where their souls went. Likely got sent to Rhydin, knowing those two. They would like it there,” he said to her.

“What the hell is that? Rhydin?” she asked, making sure she said it right.

“Yeah. It’s the center of the Omniverse, generally. The nexus flows there, and the place is a chaotic mess of races and powers, always something going down there, a fight usually. They’d fit right in a place like that,” Lucifer said and laughed a bit.

Erin tried to imagine it, but nothing came to mind.

“Good times. Bob likes it there. Theron does too. It’s where Darius’s mother is from, too,” he said and paused.

“Getting there is tough, even for me. Going to check, well, I’d be gone for too long. The Sentinels need a leader and all that, but that’s the only place I can think of they’d be. Wherever they are, I’m sure they are having fun.”

Erin took some comfort in the angel’s words and pushed up against him.

“Don’t feel too bad. Now that my dad is paying attention to things again, life should be better for everyone,” he said with a smile.

“It took the destruction of Heaven to get him to look down here again, no biggie,” she said and laughed about it, the insanity of it all. Even saying something like that was challenging for the imagination to understand. She was only human, after all. Lucifer shrugged. “Yeah, such a small thing.”

The two of them rarely got to spend time like this together anymore. Hell was a busy place, after all—since the demons got a chance to taste free air, they were more fired up than ever to get out again, keeping the Sentinels extremely busy all the time.

He was often worn out and tired when he came here. Neither of them knew what the future was going to hold.

“I miss you, you know?” He looked at her. “You do? It’d take a whole lot to keep me away from you,” she replied.

“Same.”

“Is there anything you’d like to watch?” He thought about it.

“You pick. I’m good with anything you want. I’m way more interested in you anyway,” he replied. “Oh, the pizza is on the way,” he finished.

“My favorite,” she said with a smile. Right now, everything was right in her world, and she didn’t want to be anywhere else.

Chapter 2

The portal opened up in the air fifty feet above the ground. The five of them hit at about the same time.

“Ow,” Dustin said with a groan and only had the energy to roll over onto his back. He looked into the sky for a while, and something about it was off. For starters, it was green.

“Hey, guys. If you’re not dead, turn over and tell me, is the sky really green, or do I have a really bad hangover?” Dustin could never trust what he was seeing.

“Yep. It’s green,” Wyatt replied as if it were normal.

“Wait, since when has the sky ever been green?” Blake asked, and they all started to stand up.

“I don’t think we’re on Earth anymore,” Josh said, trying to get his bearings, looking around, seeing nothing that he recognized.

“Yeah, but where in the hell are we? We still have our powers, so we must be in the same universe we belonged to, but this isn’t home. Bob screwed us over again. I swear I am going to kill him someday,” Cody said grimly, looking around, examining his hands as the impact wounds closed up on their own.

“Seriously, I’d like to see you try it, but I didn’t screw you over this time. Amazingly, I messed up. I put you down on the wrong planet. Step this way to go home,” Bob said.

Cody glared, but didn’t feel bad about what he said or nervous. Outsider’s power or not, he’d find a way to end this thing once and for all.

“We’ll have our day someday, Cody,” Bob replied.

“Can’t wait,” he replied.

“Anyway, enough yapping. One-way ticket back to Earth, right here,” Bob said and snapped his fingers.

The red portal opened in front of them, however, trusting Bob was a problem. It was nearly impossible to do that.

Bob was smiling that same stupid smile he always had as he stood beside the red door of energy. “Well, what are you waiting for? You died on Earth. I’ll make it even better. I’ll cast an illusion spell on you. No one will ever know it’s you, not even your best friends. You can live in peace, for as long as you live. Come on. It’s a great deal. You earned a retirement package. A life of ease, right here.”

They really wanted to go home and get on with their lives, try to have a life they felt like they deserved after all this time.

Cody was about to talk when an explosion sounded in the distance, purple light from the blast. Cody closed his eyes and knew he shouldn’t look.

“Oh my, I wonder what that is. Oh well, nothing serious I’m sure, right this way,” Bob said, that smile never wavering.

Everything in Cody’s mind told him he should take a few more steps, leave whatever mess there was behind him, and go home. He looked at Bob, who was smiling. It was a terrible thing when he smiled, and it was something he always seemed to do.

Cody turned to look at the violence against his better judgment, and the others did as well. They had no idea what they were looking at, but military tactics were always easy to see.

Someone was being attacked—a strategy they recognized, a war tactic that was clearly human and designed by the Syndicate. The fighters on both sides were not human. One side they had seen before, the other was new—some kind of reptile person.

“The Valimen are invading the peaceful planet of Bula. Aliens, as you’d call them, are generally not warlike. Nothing compared to you. Once in a while, this happens. Don’t worry about it. It doesn’t matter what happens here. Your precious little planet won’t be affected either way. Neither of these two races will try to attack you, not the Valimen especially,” Bob said.

The Squad knew that name. They had tried to invade Earth once before in the past, but it didn’t work. They saw to that.

They must have studied up on some tactics while they were there, however.

“In a way, we are kind of responsible for this,” Cody said, and the others looked at him.

“Say what now?” Wyatt said, confused. The others were too.

“Look, remember those aliens, the silver ones? We showed them how to fight when we fought them. Now they are using what they learned to take over this planet.” Cody came to this conclusion by what he could see.

“Dude. No. We don’t know anything. They could be at war. Maybe those lizard guys are the bad ones. These kinds of things are complicated. Maybe we should go home and pretend none of this ever happened,” Dustin said, but the sight of the lizard people was stirring an old memory.

Josh stared at the aliens who were under attack. They reminded him of his own people from the distant past.

“We could do that. Remember what Theron said? Humanity is considered the most violent race in this universe, maybe the worst one. Maybe we could find out what is going on and help whatever side is being invaded. Show them that we’re not all monsters, that we’re the best the planet has to offer,” Cody said, sounding strangely hopeful about all of this.

As if he had something to prove.

“Did I hit you too hard?” Dustin asked. “Knock those brains around a bit too much? That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” he finished.

Cody looked at him, was going to say something, but decided against it.

“Dude, whatever you’re smoking, I want some too. We need to go home because if we get involved here, there may never be a way out of it. We need to leave,” Blake said, trying to be the voice of reason.

“We’re the Delta Squad. We should help these people out. They are using human tactics. This is our fault,” Cody said.

“Damn it,” Wyatt said, seeing his point.

“They remind me of my people,” Josh replied. “I can’t help them, but maybe we can do some good.”

“When the hell did we become heroes? Did I miss the team meeting? I feel like I missed something,” Dustin said.

Blake threw up his hands. “This is stupid and I hate it, but if you want to stay, I’m not about to leave you idiots without cover fire,” he replied.

Bob snapped his fingers, and the portal disappeared.