First Strike (Hammer's War Book 3)

by James McEwan

  “An hour, maybe a hour and a half,” Bernard replied.

  “You have ten minutes to load whatever you can then we’re out of here, got it?” Thad said.

  “I’m on it,” Bernard said as he pulled a tablet from a bag that was hanging off his work belt. His fingers went to work as he ran off towards the supplies.

  Foster stood there feeling a little out of place, “What can I do?”

  Thad looked at the young medic, “You can help me find some paint and a paint brush.”

  Up above things were not going well for the Damocles and her crew. She was racing at full speed towards the massive ship, while Drake stood on the Bridge watching. “Does he really think that he’ll do anything more than scratch the paint?” Drake said more as a rhetorical statement than a question.

  “Sir, damage projections if the Damocles is successful in ramming us,” a bridge officer handed him a tablet with the information on it.

  Drake quickly scanned the projected report. It was more than just a scratch, but not enough damage to make much of a difference. “Well I guess he better not be successful then, should he?” Drake said with hint of annoyance in his tone. “Do whatever it takes to blow that damn ship out of the black! Is that understood?” He paused and looked over at the tactical officer. “I want you to send that traitor straight to Hell!” Drake sat down in the command chair to watch.

  Being larger than any of the earlier ship designs, the Damocles was not that nimble, however compared to the Vault of Souls she was a ballet dancer. So far the pilots, with the help of the ship’s AI, had managed to keep the Damocles out of the way of the big guns. The problem was all the small weapon systems, and the Vault of Souls had plenty of them. The lasers were boring holes in the Damocles like termites in wood. However, as a credit to her designers she took the beating and kept on sailing.

  On the Eden, things were much better, with the remaining StarGuard ships holding open a small corridor. Eve piloted the Eden right through the opening in the blockade with the expertise of a seamstress threading a needle. Once she hit open space she initiated a space fold and jumped.

  Ten minutes later Thad had just finished painting Gemini on the starboard side of the ship in bold red paint. He looked at his slightly runny paint job and nodded his head. “Don’t worry ladies, I’m coming for you,” He said softly to himself.

  Thad dropped the paintbrush into the can of paint and wiped his hands on a rag. He tossed the rag and hurried up the ramp. He was about to close the airlock when he heard a panicked voice from below, “Hey! Wait for me!”

  Thad could see the young ensign who had helped them running up the ramp toward him. “Good to see you got the message and were able to join us Cory.”

  Cory took a few calming breaths, “Me too,” he replied. “Thought I was going to miss my ride.”

  Once they were both on board Thad closed the airlock and raised the ramp. “Eve, we’re all on board, let’s get out of here.”

  “The Eden jumped for Earth. Do you want me to set course to follow?” Eve asked, her voice clear in his mind thanks to the comm implant.

  “No, we’re going after the twins. Set a course for any human planet near the Ralnai boarder,” he replied.

  “Alright honey, I’m on it,” Eve said.

  Thad wanted to check on the supply situation. He walked down to the cargo hold and much to his surprise it was full. Bernard had just driven the last few crates on with a forklift. Thad walked down the stairs to the hold as the cargo doors closed with a loud boom. “Bernard I’m amazed, how on Earth did you get all this loaded in ten minutes?”

  Bernard beamed with a wide smile, “Well they don’t call me Bernard the miracle worker for nothing.”

  “Yeah, but come on… how did you do it?” Thad asked as he scratched his head, trying to figure it out.

  “The estimate I gave you was based on my normal loading crew loading everything into its proper place. However, to get things loaded in the time frame I had, I first had to load everything into the cargo bay and not worry about putting things away. Second, I ordered up every bot that could walk, wheel, or carry cargo. That gave me a small army, and with that I was able to load everything. Just don’t ask me were the cookies are because I have no idea. The load order was kind of blown to Hell,” Bernard said.

  Thad laughed, “I think we can live without cookies for a few days. Good work Bernard.” They felt the rumble of the engines as the deck plates vibrated slightly, and the newly christened Gemini lifted off the planet’s surface for the first and probably last time.

  As soon as they cleared the shipyard, Eve punched it and they rocketed towards space. Eve sat in the command chair overseeing the human pilots. She could easily have flown the ship by herself. However, she wanted to give the humans something to do. She still kept control of the computer just in case they were not what they said they were. This was strange for her, the idea of trust. Once more she was dealing with a new emotion, something she could actually feel, and she didn’t trust these two. At least not yet.

  The Gemini was fast and cleared the atmosphere in just a few minutes. As soon as they were clear they slipped into hyperspace with no one the wiser. Thad joined the others on the bridge. He looked at the empty space in front of him and whispered under his breath, “Hang on ladies, I’m coming for you.”

  On the Damocles Captain Wesson sat in his chair, his jaw set hard and his face a mask of unshakable resolve. Their screens had failed and most of the ship’s armor had been burned away. The Damocles herself looked more like a block of Swiss cheese than a battle ship. Yet somehow she still had the willpower to fight. It was as if nothing could stop her. They had closed the distance between the two ships to a point where it was too late to change course. Captain Wesson had no intention of doing so anyway.

  The Damocles was so close now that most of the Vault of Souls guns couldn’t fire. They had proximity safeguards that kept them from firing when something was so close that it could cause a bounce back or feedback resulting in damage to the gun.

  At what seemed like the last second, Wesson ordered the helm to open a hyperspace window. The helm officer didn’t understand why the Captain wanted to do it, but he didn’t question the order.

  Now normally when a ship enters hyperspace the ship’s engines use a directed energy beam to cut a hole in the fabric of space. The ship then inters the hole and it closes behind them. Once in hyperspace the computer is programed with the time and distance calculations and at the right time the process is repeated and the ship enters normal space, hopefully where they wanted to be. Yet this time Wesson had not entered in any such commands into the navigation computer. He had instead overwritten the safeguards and set the hyperspace engines to max. They didn’t just cut a little hole for the ship to slide into. No, the Damocles sent out a massive energy pulse that ripped open hyperspace.

  The problem for the Vault of Souls was that the hole the Damocles tore in space was right in the middle of the ship. The crew of the Vault of Souls unfortunate enough to be in areas of the ship affected by the hyperspace tear were instantly atomized, their atoms sucked into hyperspace. The Damocles didn’t ram the Vault of Souls; instead she ripped it in half.

  The Damocles passed through the Vault of Souls and into hyperspace. As soon as she was gone, the hole collapsed leaving the Vault of Souls in two large pieces. There were several large explosions on board that pushed the two halves in different directions. The front half fell towards the planet, while the other half was pushed backward towards deep space.

  One the bridge of the Vault of Souls Drake was being helped off the floor, his right arm broken and twisted in an unnatural way. “What in the Hell just happened!” he yelled out, but no one could tell him as they didn’t know.

  The front half of the massive spacecraft hit the atmosphere of Isis and burned. As it passed through to the lower levels it broke apart. The burning wreckage hit the planet’s dark side with enough force to alter the planet’s orbit. Half of
the planet looked as if it had been nuked. Dust, ash, and debris were flung so far that it exited the planet’s atmosphere and was shot out into space. Within a few hours the rest of the planet was thrown into darkness as the dust clouds consumed it.

  The last of the defenders were forced to withdraw from combat and those ships too damaged to jump into hyperspace were quickly hunted down and destroyed. The blockade around the planet was restored and as for the people who didn’t escape that day, no one else ever did. Billions died when the wreckage of the Vault of Souls slammed into the planet’s surface. However, given the fate that awaited them it was a small mercy.

  Drake took a shuttle off the damaged ship and landed at Fleet headquarters. His shuttle was met by Seven who was wearing a full mask and his long hooded cloak. His hood was drawn up over his head. The air was full of ash raining down so thick it looked like snow. With Seven was a squad of Necromorph soldiers.

  Drake was placed in mag-cuffs and escorted into the office of the Lord Emperor. Inside standing being the custom-made desk was the Lord Emperor, and he did not look pleased.

  “My Lord, please forgive me,” Drake fell to the floor and prostrated himself.

  This seemed to only feed the Emperor’s rage as he bellowed, “Forgive you!?!” His gigantic hands smashed down on the center of the desk. The wood gave way to the massive force and the desk buckled in the middle, crashing to the floor in two pieces.

  “I take full responsibility for…” he didn’t get to finish his statement as the Emperor gripped the two sides of the broken desk and flung them in opposite directions as if they were mere toys. Then he took a step, bringing his massive booted foot down on Drake’s head, and all his weight with it. It popped as if it were a grape and the Emperor a polar bear.

  The giant looked at Seven with his glowing red eyes, “It appears you’ve been promoted. Don’t fail me as your predecessor did.”

  “Never my Lord,” Seven said as he bowed.

  Chapter 42

  Lightyears from the battle on Isis Fiona woke and found herself lying on a metal floor, a strange collar around her neck, and at least a hundred other women around her. Some were sitting, some standing, and a few were lying on the floor.

  She reached up and grabbed the collar with all the strength she could muster, and pulled. She heard her sisters voice, “Wait Fie, don’t!” It was too late. She received a painful shock that took her breath away and made her fall back to the floor and flop like fish out of water until it stopped.

  Freya helped her up and hugged her, “I already tired that. It seems that our new fashion accessory has an anti-tamper feature.”

  Fiona rubbed her sore neck, “I see. Where are we?”

  “Looks like a Ralnai slave ship. The best I can tell you is we’re not in Kanas anymore Toto,” Freya said, using one of Thad’s movie quotes.

  Just then the door to the cell opened and two large nasty looking Ralnai entered with sonic rifles pointed at the group of human women. Following the Ralnai, two human male slaves entered carrying a metal box between them. They set it down and stood beside the Ralnai. Then a Short fat greasy looking human man entered and stood on the box.

  “Welcome ladies to the first day of the rest of your life. Now to some of you this may be a step up while to others, well… let’s just say I’m sure you’re not going to like it much. Too bad! Whatever you may have been in your former life, you can forget it right now. I don’t care how much money you had, or who your father is. I don’t care if you were a street rat or a senator’s wife. As of this moment, you’re a breeder for the glory of the great Ralnai clans. At this moment you are being transported to the slave markets of Qoelara where you will be sold to a Ralnai family for the sole purpose of birthing many strong slaves. If you behave on the way to Qoelara than I might just recommend you for the reserve stock. Misbehave and well… many of you have already figured out that your new neck attire gives quite a nasty shock. It’s set only to pacify you now, but mark my words it can be cranked up enough to kill. Let me demonstrate,” the fat man said.

  He then took a small box with some knobs and buttons on it. He looked around and pointed to a woman who was standing near the twins. She was plain, probably one of the least attractive woman in the group. The two slaves who had carried the box in came over and grabbed her by the arms and drug her forward. She kicked and pleaded, but they didn’t stop. At the front, one of them read off the number on her collar. He punched in the number into the little box then twisted one knob all the way to the right.

  “Now observe,” he said as he pushed a button. The woman was still trying to plead for her life when she suddenly stiffened. Her body went into convulsions and she fell like a board to the deck. She continued to convulse on the floor. At first she screamed, but soon it was nothing more than a soft moan. Smoke and the smell of sizzling flesh filled their nostrils as they watched the light go out of her eyes. Finally, the fat man took his finger off the button. “Now that you all understand the seriousness of your situation, I take it we’ll be having a quiet and uneventful trip.”

  Fiona leaned in close to her sister, “I can’t wait to see the look on that asshole’s face when Thad gets a hold of him.”

  “Thad nothing! I’m going to kill that the son of a bitch myself,” Freya responded with hatred burning in her eyes.

  The fat slaver noticed them talking, “Have something you wish to say dearie?”

  Not wishing to draw any undue attention toward the two of them Fiona thought fast and asked, “I was just wondering what the reserve stock was all about.”

  “Oh yes, the reserve stock. It’s a select few who are reserved for the upper class clans. They are sold at a private sale. If you are lucky enough to be purchased by one of the elite clans then you will have the distinction of serving some of the greatest Ralnai of our time. Now if there are no other questions, I will leave you ladies to enjoy the ride,” he said with a leering smile. He then stepped down and left the room. The two slaves picked up the body of the dead woman, laid her over the box and drug the box from the room. Finally the two Ralnai backed out of the cell, locking it behind them.

  Fiona put her arm around her twin, “This should prove to be interesting.”

  To be continued………………….