Claim of Eon - Anna Hackett Page 0,1

rescue an Eon Medical Commander and a Terran space marine who’d been on a mission to save stolen helians from the Kantos. Airen kept her expression unchanged, but inside, she felt renewed horror at knowing the Kantos were trying desperately to find a way to disrupt an Eon warrior’s bond with their helian.

She’d been bonded with her helian as a child, and couldn’t imagine life without it. Helians gave warriors the ability to form armor and weapons at will, enhanced their bodies, healed their injuries. Her helian had been the only living thing she’d ever been able to depend on.

Medical Commander Aydin Kann-Ath from the Desteron and Lieutenant Jamie Park had barely survived with their lives, but they had recovered the helians the Kantos had stolen. And they’d fallen in love and ended up mated.

“Look,” Donovan said with a frown. “One of the smaller ships has broken away from the group. Port side. He’s getting too close.”

Get your focus back on the problem in front of you, Airen. “Sabin.”

“I see it.” Sabin spun and barked orders to his security team.

“Security Commander!” another warrior cried. “Someone’s attempting to hack the Rengard’s systems.”

Cren. “Block them!” Airen yelled.

Pirates were not known for their high-tech abilities. Her muscles tensed. The Rengard had a lot of experimental helian technology built into the ship, including a new high-tech and top-secret cloaking ability. They couldn’t afford for anyone to get data on it.

“Do pirates usually take on warships?” Donovan asked.

She glanced his way. “No. They usually pick on easy prey.”

“So this isn’t usual behavior?”

“No.” She pivoted. “Dayne, make sure—”

“They got in, Second Commander!”

Airen raced over to an empty comm station. “Get them out!”

“I’m trying,” the young warrior said. “This is…not like any system attack I’ve seen before.”

“They’re copying data,” Sabin growled.

“Sassy,” Airen barked.

A second later, a confident female voice came out of the comp station. “You rang, Second Commander?”

“Pirates have accessed our system.”

“What?” Sassy squawked.

Sassy was a helian that was bonded with some Terran technology, creating a sentient semi-artificial intelligence. One that had a unique personality all of her own.

“There!” Sassy cried seconds later. “I managed to push them out.”

On-screen, the pirate ships started to retreat. Airen released the breath she was holding.

“Bring us around,” Donovan said. “Go after the main ship. That’ll stop whoever’s giving them orders.”

It was a good idea. Airen nodded. “Do it.”

A second later, Sabin bombarded the main pirate ship with laser fire. One hit to their engines and the ship exploded.

“Second Commander,” Sassy drawled. “I’m sorry to say this, but the pirates got some data. Several quads of data. It looks like it’s a portion of our information on helian research.”

Cren. This was a disaster. Airen met Donovan’s gold-brown gaze. They both knew this was no simple pirate attack.

“Take them out,” Airen ordered.

There were several barrages of laser fire from the Rengard. More ships disintegrated.

But one small ship raced toward the nearby planet.

“The data is on that ship,” Sassy said.

“Cren,” Sabin bit out. “The ship’s out of range and in the planet’s atmosphere.”

Airen straightened. They couldn’t let the pirates get away with the data.

“Let me update Malax, then I’m going down. Sabin, you’re with me. Bring one of your security team.”

The security commander nodded.

Donovan grabbed her arm and she felt the zing all the way to her shoulder. “I’m coming, too.”

Donovan Lennox pulled his laser rifle out, checked it, then slung it over his shoulder. Next, he slid his laser pistol into the holster attached to his thigh. He was currently decked out in Space Corps’ most high-tech, black-and-white spacesuit.

“All right, let’s move,” Airen called out.

He turned. Damn. Looking at Airen Kann-Felis was never a hardship, but covered in her black-scale, helian armor, with her brown hair in a neat braid, looking ready to take down any badass stupid enough to get in her way, made his pulse kick up a notch. Or three.

She had the most incredible eyes. Like all Eon warriors, they were black, with strands of color through them. Her strands were green—a pale turquoise color.

Sabin Solann-Ath, and a huge warrior called Matton, followed her into the shuttle hangar. Donovan brought up the rear.

He’d been aboard the Rengard for almost two weeks. The Eon warship was the best ship he’d ever seen, although he missed his small, scrappy ship. The Divergent was full of experimental tech, and the pride of the Space Corps fleet.

Still, as much as he missed his ship, his crew, and his captain and friend, Allie Borden, he was learning a lot from the Eon warriors.

And