Star Conqueror: An Epic Space Adventure Read online

  Star Conqueror

  Book 1

  J. A. Cipriano

  Copyright © 2018 by J. A. Cipriano

  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 written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

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  Also by J.A. Cipriano

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Thank You for reading!

  Author’s Note

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  Also by J.A. Cipriano

  The Pen is Mightier

  The Pen is Mightier: Company Ink

  Super Human

  King of the Gods

  World of Ruul

  Soulstone: Awakening

  Soulstone: The Skeleton King

  Soulstone: Oblivion

  Bug Wars

  Doomed Infinity Marine

  Doomed Infinity Marine 2

  The Legendary Builder

  The Builder’s Sword

  The Builder’s Greed

  The Builder’s Pride

  The Builder’s Wrath

  The Builder’s Throne

  The Builder’s Conquest

  Starcrossed Dragons

  Riding Lightning

  Grinding Frost

  Swallowing Fire

  Pounding Earth

  The Goddess Harem

  The Tiger’s Offer

  The Wolf’s Hunt

  Justice Squad

  Miracle’s Touch

  Her Angels

  Heaven’s Embrace

  Heaven’s A Beach

  The FBI Dragon Chronicles

  A Ritual of Fire

  A Ritual of Death

  Elements of Wrath Online

  Ring of Promise

  The Vale of Three Wolves

  Crystalfire Keep

  Kingdom of Heaven

  The Skull Throne

  Escape From Hell

  The Thrice Cursed Mage

  Cursed

  Marked

  Burned

  Seized

  Claimed

  Hellbound

  The Half-Demon Warlock

  Pound of Flesh

  Flesh and Blood

  Blood and Treasure

  The Lillim Callina Chronicles

  Wardbreaker

  Kill it with Magic

  The Hatter is Mad

  Fairy Tale

  Pursuit

  Hardboiled

  Mind Games

  Fatal Ties

  Clans of Shadow

  Heart of Gold

  Feet of Clay

  Fists of Iron

  The Spellslinger Chronicles

  Throne to the Wolves

  Prince of Blood and Thunder

  Found Magic

  May Contain Magic

  The Magic Within

  Magic for Hire

  Witching on a Starship

  Maverick

  Planet Breaker

  The Shaman Queen's Harem

  Ghosts and Grudges

  1

  To say that Star Conqueror was one of the biggest Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer shooters in the world would be an understatement. The immersive world was so in-depth that more than a few of your wackier theorists thought it was real, that aliens made it or that the government used deep-space scans to make it for some nefarious purpose. It was a space opera game of epic proportions, of daring Resistance fighters struggling to save the galaxy from the iron vise of a band of magic-wielding aliens that converted kidnapped daughters into their elite soldiers.

  It also had a final story mission that was thought to be impossible to beat, and for two years now, it had been. But what most people thought was impossible, I simply took as a personal challenge.

  So, as the final boss, the High Priestess of the Matriarchy, collapsed to the marble floor of her throne room before me, consumed by the dragonfire still licking out of my snout, I dropped my Reaver Double rifle as the moment sunk in. She had resisted every other weapon in my arsenal, but dragonfire … that did the trick. A glow erupted from the tyrant’s body as a shining crystal manifested above her before being absorbed by my suit of ultra-tech armor, even as the power of the dragon, the key ability to beating the mission, drained out of me.

  While the crystal converted into a massive pile of power credits, the key currency in Star Conqueror to purchase upgrades, powers, and weaponry, I didn’t much care. My attention was purely on three words sitting across my HUD, glowing in the center of my field of vision.

  * * *

  Congratulations

  The End

  * * *

  I’d done it. I’d fucking done it. God fucking damn. I never thought this would happen, never thought I’d actually beat the mission. Sure, I’d practiced nonstop and missed more than a few hours of sleep, but it still seemed surreal.

  I swallowed hard and read the words for the tenth time, and yet they still didn’t seem real.

  “You did it, David!” Tulip, one of my NPC squadmates cried. She was a Fertish, a race of alien feline people with innate shapeshifting powers, making her the ace of covert operations in Star Conqueror. “I knew you were amazing, but this? This is exactly what I’d hoped for, what I knew you could do!”

  As I turned to look at her coming up beside me, I nearly cried out in shock. Tulip was sloughing off her Power Suit DVXL like she was Samus Aran stepping out of an old school Metroid ending. With each step, more of the form-fitting armor hit the floor until all that was left was a golden bikini-style suit that barely covered her substantial assets. Thin black fur covered her body, shimmering in the surprisingly bright light of the High Priestess’s throne room as she turned toward me, each step a promise I wondered if she would actually keep.

  “No, we did it,” I said, swallowing hard as I tried to make my mind work. No matter what happened next, I needed to remember the look of gratitude and almost awe-struck joy on her face as she looked up at me. Also, well, this was the most skin she’d ever shown, and real or not, it was truly a sight to behold. Her large breasts barely restrained, taut stomach and defined waist, and sultry hips made for a perfect hourglass figure, while the sleek fur and swishing tail added an unearthly exoticness.

  Her face was both feline and feminine, arousing a xenophilia I couldn’t have known I had before I’d started playing Star Conqueror. While I’d thought she’d been hot as hell before, nothing could compare to the way she looked at me right now. It was like I was her whole world. L
ike she was seeing me for the first time. Really seeing me. Only that was impossible … right?

  “You’ve saved us all, David,” the catwoman said softly, fervently as she leaned in close. Turner, the massive Bolderian NPC demolitions expert, coughed and turned away, giving us some privacy. “You are the hero we needed, the hero we’ve been looking for.” Tulip put her hands around my neck, eyes raking over me as she pulled me toward her mouth. “And now it’s time for your reward.”

  The moment we kissed was unlike anything I’d ever felt before, even with the VR gear’s imperfect tactile responses, and as we broke apart, she met my eyes and for the first time, I saw real intelligence there, something beyond the rote AI systems of an NPC.

  “We can do more when we meet again, David.” She smiled at me and dragged one finger down the chest plate of my power armor. “I promise.”

  As the words left her lips, everything went black, and for a second, I wondered if my VR equipment was on the fritz again. Cursing, I moved my hand to log off so I could restart the game when white words appeared in the blackness that engulfed me.

  * * *

  Connection established. Transmission initiating.

  * * *

  As the words faded, I was standing in what I immediately recognized as the bridge of a Resistance ship. Steely grey deck plating went into the thick bulkheads, as multiple crew stations with holographic displays dotted the room. It was intimately familiar, but at the same time, it was totally alien. It was, well, not perfect enough. There were smudges of dirt, a forgotten rifle sitting in a corner, a strangely Earth-like plastic trash bin sitting on the engineering station filled with crumpled junk food wrappers, both alien and terrestrial.

  Almost as importantly, there was almost no crew at their stations. There wasn’t even any crew running about, none of the usual half-dozen NPCs I’d expect on a bridge this size. I didn’t even have my usual HUD readouts or menu prompts visible. The only thing that was reassuring in any way was Tulip at the science station, looking up suddenly from the holographic display of some program I could never identify in a million years.

  But this Tulip, like the room itself, wasn’t … perfect enough. Not in appearance, God no, she was every bit as beautiful as I remembered from a mere moment ago. But her black mane of hair was mussed, there were beads of sweat in her thin fur, and she was dressed, well, casually. Cut-off shorts that looked a lot like good old denim hugged her hips as she stood, and a white-and-blue cut-off jersey shirt barely constrained her breasts, leaving her taut stomach bare. There was some alien writing along with a logo that looked like any Earth sports team, but for a sport that certainly wasn’t from our end of the Milky Way.

  I was speechless, trying to process what I was seeing, when Tulip spoke up, relief clear in her voice as she wiped the sweat from her brow. “Great Felinus, it worked. Thank the gods!” She gave me a closer look. “You never know with those avatars, but … you’re David Briggs, correct?”

  “Yes, you know me, Tulip,” I said as I snapped out of it. She sounded both the same and different, the voice identical but the way she spoke … it was far more natural. “What’s going on?” I moved closer to her, and she eyed me curiously, then flushed scarlet.

  “What’s going on is now that I’ve found you, I need to come and get you.” She smiled at me, revealing just a hint of sharp teeth that sent my heart pounding in my chest. “That is, if you’ll come with me.”

  She held a hand over her chest, moving closer to me. As she stepped up, she opened her arms to embrace me and I went along with it, my heart pounding as I pulled her close. Her warmth against me felt so much more real than anything I had experienced in the game before, and everything in me wished this moment was as real as that warmth.

  “You do want to come with me, right?” she purred softly.

  “Yes,” I breathed. “More than anything.”

  “Good, we have your location.” Tulip pulled back a space, rubbing the back of my hand as she reached over to pluck a tablet off the crew station she had been sitting at. “3299 Albright Rd, the Inetect Corp offices. We are inbound to you now.”

  Another shock went through my system, eyes widening. That was exactly where I was right that moment. “What? How can you know where—”

  Tulip cut me off with a squeeze of my hand. “David Briggs of Earth, you have completed the dragon integration program, the first person ever to do it! This has triggered the first step of the great prophecy, something we were starting to think would never happen. Thank goodness we were nearby. We could use you now more than ever.” She smiled at me again and leaned in close, so I could feel her breath on my lips as she spoke. “I look forward to meeting you in the flesh.”

  “What do you mean?” I stared at her for a long moment, trying to put everything she’d said together. Dragon integration program? Prophecy? See her in the flesh? What the actual fuck was going on?

  “Exactly what I said,” Tulip said with a purring giggle. “You’ve taken the first steps to integrate with a dragon.” Her fingers drifted up my arm, leaving trails of warmth in their wake. “With your power, we have a chance to rebuild the Resistance. You may be our only hope.”

  “Your only hope?” It was only the first of a million questions racing through my head as my heart pounded harder, but something cut me off before I could say another word.

  * * *

  Power Loss. Device shutdown initiated.

  * * *

  I blinked as the bright, fluorescent lights of reality hit me like a wrecking ball, setting off a throbbing headache in my forehead. The familiar smells of the Inetect breakroom, a mixture of burnt popcorn and lost dreams, crashed into me as I sucked in a quick breath, still trying to orient myself to, well, reality.

  As I blinked my eyes, trying to get them to adjust to the light, my supervisor Phil stood over me with my VR goggles in his hand, and I realized what had happened. That son of a bitch had yanked them off my fucking head.

  Phil stood there, a look of smug satisfaction mixed with disgust on his stupid face. He had a suit on with a blazing red tie and black blazer. His black hair was slicked back, and the ensemble might have made him look tough if I gave two fucks about what he thought of me. I’d never liked the man, and as of late, he’d taken an extreme disliking of me. So, in a way, I guess the feeling was mutual.

  “What the hell, Phil?” I reached for the VR gear, but Phil stepped back, out of my reach. “Why did you unplug me? VR backlash can cause brain damage, man! Is the building on fire?” I looked around as my headache began to fade. “Because I sure as hell don’t hear any alarms.”

  I glanced around the room to see Jerry was still plugged in at one of the other VR stations in the break room and Janet sat at a lunch table, absently stabbing at her salad as she adjusted her shawl. Or at least she had been because when Phil grunted, she turned toward us. Her eyes went wide, and she gripped the edges of her shawl tightly like she wanted to pull it over her head and hide.

  “Well? Why did you yank me out?” I took a deep breath, trying to keep calm. I wanted to get back into the game right away. I needed to find out what Tulip was talking about. Even if I hadn’t felt some deep, intimate connection I had never had with her before, there were too many unanswered questions. It had been too real at the end, and that made me think of those conspiracy nuts about the game. Hell, she had even known where I was since she’d recited the company address. It was nothing a good program couldn’t figure out, sure, but I wanted to get back into Star Conqueror to hear the rest and find out the truth.

  Besides, I had just done the impossible. I had beaten Star Conqueror. I had a reward coming to me.

  Phil loomed over me, smug superiority etched on his face. “You’re in violation of company policy, playing games while at work.”

  “I’m on lunch break, Phil.” I shook my head. “That means I can do whatever I want. That’s how a lunch break works.”

  “You’re using company bandwidth without permission,” he reto
rted, the smug look not faltering one inch.

  I rolled my eyes. “Look, Phil, I have permission to use it. Jeff Trencher issued it, and you know it.” Just to back my point, I pulled out my phone to bring up the email Jeff had sent me.

  “You did,” Phil said with a condescending nod, “but he revoked that permission, effective immediately.”

  “What?” I said as I brought up the emails on my phone. Damn Phil, there was a new one labeled Company Policy Change. The time stamp on it was what pissed me off. 11:59 am, one minute before I logged into Star Conqueror. I skimmed it to see that my, and only my, bandwidth privilege had been revoked.

  Phil might have been about the worst IT supervisor a guy could ask for, but he was good at manipulating the bureaucracy. I had no idea what he had done to convince Jeff, the office manager, to do this but …

  I didn’t need to be told this was a hack job targeting me directly, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to stand for it. “Look, Phil, maybe we should talk in your office.”

  2

  Phil seemed to consider my very reasonable offer to discuss his petty bullshit in his office, but I could tell the anger in him outweighed the logic. “I want everyone to see this. They need to know the punishment for breaking the rules.”