Free The 13th Star: An Action Adventure Sci-F Apocalyptic Novel by Adam Peled

particularly when a brave soldier returned with stories of heroism. The Kantarans were always proud of a heroic son returning home and told his life story from his childhood until his return in
     great detail and with much emotion.
***
    Coldor’s son’s room had once been very elegant and fancy. One could still see the quality of the leather armchairs despite
     the alcohol and bloodstains ruining their splendor. The heavy carved table had long ago lost its impressive appearance, marred
     by copious cigarette burns—as if it had been used as an ashtray—and wounds from broken bottles carved painfully into the wood.
    The room was full of the smell of Sinta and alcohol. Liquor bottles littered the room, rolling on the floor or on the table,
     their remnants dripping out.
    Zoron had received the room from his father, who hoped his son would be his successor. Despite Coldor’s hopes, though, Zoron
     treated it as his private playroom, his friends settling in permanently and no one feeling the need to maintain it. On the
     contrary, they had a fondness for ruin and destruction.
    Zoron’s friends were pampered, like him. All but one, Maul, took their lives for granted. They’d received certificates indicating
     their education was complete, but the lie only sprang from their parents’ ties, rather than from spending time in the halls
     of culture and education like other students. And without exception, they’d been granted permission to wear an army uniform
     with one or two badges boasting of admission into elite units and operations—every mission overseen by Coldor, who didn’t
     wish to chance Zoron’s life and allowed him to be surrounded by his pampered friends.
    The group was nothing but a bunch of hedonists—uniformed but sloppily, wearing symbols of rank, eating a lot, drinking a lot,
     and sleeping a lot. Without a goal or a purpose.
    Coldor wasn’t happy with his son and his gang, but had no power to change it. Sometimes he believed it was preferable to leave
     the situation as it was, because otherwise he wouldn’t know what to expect.
    Coldor’s presence in the room surprised the young men. Bodies stumbled to their feet in the haze of smoke and reek of alcohol,
     trying to stand erect and not fail in the attempt before the legendary Coldor, to whom they owed so much.
    Coldor made a path across the filthy hardwood floor. Sometimes he didn’t understand how he could’ve raised such a son—someone
     who wasn’t like him in the least. Some nights shame ate at him because some of the things he’d seen only in movies and in
     rebels’ burrows, he’d also seen in Zoron’s room. Looking disgustedly at the company around his son, he could understand how
     Zoron had grown up to be who he was. Rod Coldor, the most influential galactic military leader, had no influence at home and
     gave in to the whims of his only son.
    He sat with his back to the giant video screen that nobody turned off. Those seated—the ones who hadn’t been able to get up—looked
     at him, but the images on the screen drew their gazes away to the beautiful naked women behind him.
    “Someone stop this filth,” shouted Coldor. The young men looked at him silently until Zoron spoke up.
    “Dad, I want to tell you what happened in Bucha last month! You would’ve been proud of me.” Zoron’s eyes shone. “But I’m sure
     you’ve already received reports of what your son did!”
    Coldor nodded, knowing that Zoron exaggerated his stories and adopted the achievements of others: battles in which he participated
     as a leader, prisoners he took by himself, rebels he killed with his weapon. His father knew the facts and was not impressed.
     Zoron quickly changed the subject.
    “You know, I had to leave because of Laura. She can’t be alone for more than two or three days, and participation in these
     activities sometimes requires a month’s absence from home. Then there’s a scene. It’s not worth having a scene with women;
     you