The Originator Wars: Explorations: A Lost Fleet Novel

by Raymond L. Weil

  Bose stepped over beside Evans, peering toward the two disk-shaped assault ships. “Those things normally contain several hundred heavily armed conscripts. I wonder where they are?” Bose scanned the entire area with his sensors but could detect no movement. The spaceport looked as if it had been evacuated.

  Looking back behind him, he saw the rest of the Marines moving up toward the wall. Lieutenant Adams was in the center along with Sergeant Styles. Bose shifted his heavy assault rifle in his arms. This particular rifle fired explosive shells and armor penetrating rounds. It was not unusual for them to be engaged by Kleese conscripts wearing their own battlesuits. Bose was about to say something when he felt a sharp pain in his left arm and just about fell over backward in his suit. The suit’s automatic servos kept him upright though a blinking red light in his HUD indicated damage to his suit. Looking at his left arm, he saw a large dent near his shoulder. “Damn, someone’s shooting at us!” He stepped back behind the wall, examining his shoulder closer. The round hadn’t penetrated though he knew he would have a painful bruise from the impact. The suit automatically injected a painkiller and the throbbing pain quickly went away.

  “You think?” replied Evans sarcastically as he fired several energy beams bursts toward where he thought the round had come from. There were a series of large hangers between them and the spaceport tower. The firing from the hangers suddenly increased as numerous rounds slammed into the wall, some going all the way through.

  -

  Lieutenant Adams had taken cover behind a large tree near the edge of the spaceport. Around her other Marines were seeking whatever cover they could find. Occasionally a small explosion would throw up dirt and debris around them. Somewhere a Kleese conscript was firing a grenade launcher at the advancing Marines. Adjusting the sensors in her helmet, she studied the two assault ships sitting on the blastcrete. There was no movement around them and all the hatches seemed to be shut. Activating her comm unit, she sent a message to Captain Avery who was in charge of this mission. He was in orbit on the Marine assault ship Victory.

  “Sir, I’m requesting an orbital strike on the two assault ships sitting near the spaceport tower. I’m concerned they may turn their weapons on us if we move out onto the spaceport blastcrete.”

  “Just a moment,” replied Captain Avery. “I need to speak to Commander Brannon.”

  A few minutes passed and then Captain Avery spoke again. “The fire order has been approved. The Victory will initiate a kinetic strike in five minutes. Make sure all of your Marines are under cover.”

  Sue drew in a deep breath. She had seen numerous kinetic strikes over her career and knew full well how violent they could be. “All Marines, take cover! I’ve called in a kinetic strike against the two Kleese assault ships.”

  -

  Privates Evans and Bose both took cover behind the wall hoping it would give them sufficient protection.

  “I hope the tactical officer hits the targets,” muttered Bose. “I was on Hawkins World when a KEW round went awry. The damn thing took out twelve Marines.”

  Looking upward Bose could see several brilliant streaks that looked like meteors. “Here they come!”

  Moments later the ground shook violently and a powerful blast wave struck the wall, causing parts of it to collapse.

  Private Bose looked back around the corner of the wall to see two pillars of fire and smoke where the assault ships once were. One of the hangers was burning and two others had been leveled. The control tower seemed to be undamaged though Bose doubted if any windows in it had survived.

  Evans joined him and nodded in satisfaction. “Nothing left but two holes in the ground. That probably took care of whoever was shooting at us as well.”

  “That was some good targeting,” replied Bose, sounding pleased. “At least they missed us.”

  “All Marines, advance!” ordered Lieutenant Adams over the comm. “Staggered formation and watch out for pop-ups.”

  “Let’s go,” said Evans as he stepped onto the blastcrete of the spaceport. “Keep your eyes and sensors watching for pop-ups and whoever’s been shooting at us.” The firing had stopped when the two KEW rounds struck the assault ships.

  -

  The Marines rose from their covered positions and began advancing across the blastcrete. They had no sooner stepped onto the spaceport when dozens of pop-up weapons rose from the blastcrete and began firing. Some were energy weapons and others were firing armor penetrating rounds.

  “Return fire!” ordered Lieutenant Evans over her comm as she raised her assault rifle and fired an energy beam toward the nearest pop-up. She missed but two others hit the weapon, turning it into a twisted pile of smoking metal. Checking her HUD, she saw with anguish four more of her Marine icons were now showing red and six more amber. Amber meant their suits were damaged or worse. They had walked into a trap and were paying a deadly price for it.

  Explosions began to detonate on the blastcrete as some of her Marines switched to using explosive rounds. More of the pop-ups were destroyed and soon the firing died back down and then stopped. The blastcrete on the spaceport nearest them was now full of smoking and ruined pop-ups and numerous small craters where explosive rounds had struck. Once again the firing came to a stop.

  “Privates Bose and Evans, get your asses moving,” ordered Adams, feeling anger at the loss of more Marines. Some of them she had known and trained with for months. Over the years the Kleese had made the pop-ups more dangerous. “I want to know if there are any armed conscripts waiting for us and how many. Move out!”

  -

  Bose looked over at Evans. “I was hoping she’d forgotten about us.”

  “Are you kidding?” Evans said. “You know you’re her favorite. Who pulls all the extra duty all the time?”

  Bose didn’t reply but began walking across the blastcrete toward the row of hangers. If there were any conscripts here that’s where they would be hiding. The tall hangers or what was left of them would give the enemy some protection as well as the ability to fire down toward the advancing Marines. With a dejected sigh, Bose changed his rifle over to fire explosive rounds. He realized he needed to change his attitude or one of these days he was going to be sent on a mission and wouldn’t return. However, he had always had a hard time keeping his mouth shut.

  -

  Lieutenant Adams watched Privates Bose and Evans move across the blastcrete. She didn’t hate Private Bose; on the contrary he was one of her most dependable Marines. His biggest problem was his cockiness and not knowing when to keep his mouth shut. It reminded her of others she had commanded in the past. Most of them had moved on to become officers.

  -

  In space, aboard the Marine assault ship Victory Captain Marcus Avery watched the viewscreens showing the fighting on the planet. There were four spaceports under siege by Marines. So far two of them had fallen and the other two should shortly.

  “Any contacts on the sensors?” asked Avery, looking over at Commander Brannon who was in charge of the Victory.

  Brannon shook his head. “No, our battlecruisers have destroyed all twelve of the Kleese assault ships in the system and we’re jamming communications. The Alliance invasion fleet should be arriving in another two hours.”

  Avery turned his attention to the large tactical display to his left. It hung from the ceiling and showed the disposition of the fleet accompanying the Victory. There were two other Marine assault ships. The Lexington and the Terra. In addition there were four heavy battlecruisers, six standard battlecruisers, twelve light cruisers, and twenty assault ships with the fleet. For the time being they had control of the system until the Alliance fleet arrived and could take over.

  For the last thirty years Earth and the Alliance had been fighting the Kleese Empire, steadily freeing the worlds the Kleese held under its power. As worlds were freed most tended to join the Alliance, making it even stronger. In his last briefing back on Centerpoint Station, Avery had been informed it appeared the Kleese were ab
andoning the outer sections of their Empire plus strengthening the defenses around their core worlds and the planets they controlled in that region of space. Captain Avery knew there were still years of fighting ahead of them. There were many older conscript races who knew no other way than that taught to them by the Kleese. With some of those races, it would take the Alliance years to bring them back into the fold of civilization.

  Those worlds would have to be conquered and shown the way of the Kleese was not that of a civilized world. Shifting his gaze back to the main viewscreen, he could barely see the spaceport where the kinetic strikes had just gone in. Heavy smoke was covering many of the buildings and the control tower in particular. If there were any Kleese on the planet that’s where they would be. It was the only spaceport where disk assault ships had been spotted and now destroyed.

  -

  The Marines had made it to the hangers. After a quick search, they found all six of the still intact buildings to be empty other than a few small freighters there to be serviced.

  Lieutenant Adams stood between two of the hangers staring at the tall control tower. It seemed to be solidly constructed and she could see only two entrances. There were a number of windows as well as the main spaceport observation windows at the top of the structure. All were broken and shattered glass lay everywhere. She wished she could order a kinetic strike to destroy it but there was a high probability there were civilians inside as well as Kleese so they would have to do it the hard way.

  Turning around in her battlesuit, she looked at Sergeant Styles standing next to her. “What do you think, Sergeant?”

  “I don’t like it,” he replied as he checked out the surrounding area. “Where are the conscripts? If there are Kleese inside that tower there should be large numbers of conscripts somewhere. Other than the pop-ups, the fighting’s been relatively light.”

  Adams pursed her lips. She knew Styles was right. Something wasn’t adding up. Could they be walking into a trap?

  “Everyone keep your eyes open,” she ordered. “Watch your sensors for any signs of movement.”

  Suddenly weapons fire erupted from the windows of the control tower and a ring of pop-up weapons pushed up from the blastcrete.

  “Return fire!” shouted Lieutenant Adams as she threw herself to the ground to avoid the incoming fire. The damn Kleese were using more pop-up weapons in every major battle. They were cheap to build and could be controlled remotely.

  Explosions rocked the base of the tower as a number of Marines used explosive rounds to take out the pop-ups. Others were firing energy beams and armor piercing rounds at the windows where the weapons fire was coming from. Occasionally Adams could hear a Marine cry out in pain from a weapons hit. Several more icons on her HUD turned red and even more glowed amber.

  After a few minutes of heavy fire it died down and came to a stop. Adams took some time to study the control tower. She could detect no movement with the advanced sensors in her suit.

  “Sergeant Pepper, take your platoon in,” ordered Lieutenant Adams. “Search that tower floor by floor. Sergeant Styles, secure the perimeter to ensure no armed conscripts can get to us. I still feel they have to be around here somewhere.”

  Immediately Sergeant Pepper and his platoon drew their energy lances and headed toward the two doors leading into the tower. The energy lances put out a bluish color and were capable of penetrating any known metal. These new and more deadly lances were an improvement over the older ones which could not penetrate some substances.

  -

  Privates Evans and Bose were the first ones through the shattered doors of the tower. Going inside they found the bottom floor full of smoke and the bodies of several Promar Five inhabitants. The people of Promar Five resembled Humans but were thinner with very little hair on their heads. They had no eyebrows and their noses were wider.

  “Conscripts,” said Bose, shoving one with his armored foot to make sure the being was dead. All had been armed with energy rifles.

  “We’ve got some dead conscripts in here,” Private Evans reported over the comm as more Marines came in through the doors and began spreading out.

  Sergeant Pepper came over and examined several of the bodies. “No sign of any Kleese. They’re probably on one of the top floors.”

  Private Bose swung his energy lance in front of him and gestured toward a wide set of stairs. “Let’s go up and see what’s there.”

  “I’m sending a squad with you,” said Sergeant Pepper. “If you encounter any resistance contact me and I’ll send up another squad.”

  “And if we encounter any Kleese?” asked Bose still brandishing his energy lance.

  “Kill them,” answered Sergeant Pepper coldly. “We don’t take any Kleese captive.”

  Private Bose nodded. He had killed a few Kleese in previous missions. He would enjoy killing a few more after what they had done to the Human race in the past. There was no love lost between Humans and Kleese. There never had been and there never would be. “Let’s go,” said Bose, heading up the stairs.

  Evans followed close behind followed by Corporal Stokes and six more Marines.

  The group slowly made their way upward searching each floor as they went. All they found were dead conscripts lying near the windows where they had died. Reaching the top two floors they prepared themselves, expecting to finally come across some Kleese. Blowing the heavy doors open with explosives they rushed in with energy lances raised ready to strike. With surprise they stopped and looked around. There were only a few dead conscripts and no Kleese.

  “Where are they?” said Private Bose, his voice tinged with disappointment.

  Corporal Stokes stepped forward and looked out the shattered windows. “They were never here,” he said. “If they were, they must have escaped in an assault ship when the fleet first arrived. Or they could have been in the two assault ships hit with the kinetic strikes.”

  “What now?” asked Evans as he turned off his energy lance and placed it back in its holder at his waist.

  “We go back downstairs and make our report. The Alliance fleet will be here shortly and pacifying the rest of this world will be up to them. Our part in this is finished.”

  All the other Marines turned off their energy lances. Anytime there was possible hand-to-hand combat with the Kleese, the energy lances were the preferred weapon.

  -

  Lieutenant Adams listened to the reports coming in. There were no Kleese in the control tower and a careful search of the other buildings and ships on the spaceport had come up empty as well. It was disappointing in one way and a relief in another. Normally when Kleese were involved there were large numbers of conscripts and the fighting would have been much heavier. The absence of Kleese explained why there had been so few conscripts protecting the spaceport. When the Kleese left they most likely took their conscripts with them for protection.

  “So, now what?” asked Sergeant Styles. He had just returned from supervising the search of a number of cargo ships sitting on the blastcrete. They were empty with no crews on board.

  Lieutenant Adams looked upward. She knew the fleet was orbiting the planet. “We wait for the Alliance forces to arrive. They’ll take over and contact the planetary government or whoever seems to be in charge now that the Kleese are gone. Some cargo ships with the fleet will place defensive satellites in orbit. Hopefully in a year or two Promar Five will join the Alliance.” Adams knew it was not as simple as that. After years of indoctrination and living in fear of the Kleese, it would take great effort on the part of the Alliance to bring the planet around. Promar Five was a very advanced world and could play an important role in the Alliance someday.

  Sergeant Styles looked over where two Marines were examining a destroyed pop-up weapon. “I guess we return home now?”

  Lieutenant Adams nodded. “That’s the plan. We’re to be rotated out with another Marine company. We’ve served our time for now. It’s time to go back home and get some well deserved rest.” Lieutenant Adams�
� Marines had been involved in combat on seven worlds. Nearly thirty percent of her Marines had been lost in the battles. The price of removing the Kleese and their conscripts from planets was always expensive.

  -

  Captain Avery listened as reports from the surface continued to come in. So far no Kleese had been found. Lieutenant Adams believed they had fled in an assault ship when the Human fleet was first detected.

  “It appears the Kleese have escaped us,” Avery said to Commander Brannon. “All ground units report no contact with any of the enemy.”

  Commander Brannon frowned at hearing this. “There’s a large Kleese trading station about two hundred light years distant. No doubt they have fled there.”

  “Out of our reach,” replied Avery’, feeling frustrated the Kleese had escaped. In recent years the Kleese had heavily armed all of their remaining trading stations and they were protected by large fleets of warships. To attack one would involve losses the Alliance could ill afford. “All resistance on the planet should be over in another few hours. Once the Alliance ships start to land we can recall our people and head back to the Solar System.”

  Commander Brannon nodded. “When we return another assault fleet will be sent out. I believe the Alliance has located four more star systems they want to free from the Kleese before the year’s out.”

  This didn’t surprise Captain Avery. There was considerable concern about what the Kleese might be building in their core worlds. For nearly thirty years now the Alliance along with Earth had steadily been pushing the Kleese back from the outer fringes of their Empire. The members of the Alliance felt they needed to expand as rapidly as possible before the Kleese brought sufficient forces to bear to stop them. Many member worlds were surprised it hadn’t happened already.

  “Rear Admiral Haden plans on us leaving late tomorrow,” added Brannon. “He wants to make sure the Alliance has a firm hand on everything before our fleet withdraws.”

  This pleased Captain Avery. It had been nearly seven months since any of his Marines had been home. He was curious to see what Earth looked like. For the last few years the planet had been undergoing terraforming using some of the advanced science from the Alliance worlds. When Avery had been at Centerpoint Station last he had actually seen gaps in the heavy cloud layer over the planet. Someday the Human race might just be able to resettle their home world.