1799 Planetfall

by Chogan Swan

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  The Symbiont Wars Series

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  1799 Planetfall: The Symbiont Wars Alien Invasion Series

  The hidden battles of the alien invasion of Earth across, generations, peoples and the hearts and minds of a thousand worlds.

  The alien resistance begins!

  The year is 1799 (Gregorian calendar) and no one on Earth knows the seeds of the world's destruction have just fallen from space in this story of an alternate history war.

  The Corvette Valishnu has tracked the last ship of the parasite NiaaH menace across the galactic core to prevent the rebirth of the Tyrant Empire that enslaved countless worlds for eons, but now the parasite survivors are loose on Earth. Her ship and all its technology are at the bottom of the ocean; all Tiana's symbiont partners are dead, and she is the Valishnu’s only survivor.

  If she doesn’t find mutualism with symbiont partners on Earth, she will die

  She must survive to find and eradicate the parasite NiaaH or Earth will be doomed and the galaxy plunged back into the darkness of the Symbiont Wars.

  Even though she is a warrior and hero on many worlds, on Earth she must pass as a human female. It never occurred to her that passing as a woman might be a problem. After all, warriors make their own way. They don't wait for others to allow them. So, she becomes a princess. No one argues with royalty.

  This first of the Symbiont Wars first contact novels tells the story of the first contact alien encounters in 1799 in the stunning beginning of an alternate history war. With a new twist on alien parasite fiction.

  As a principle character, Tiana is a strong female lead princess that breaks all the rules when she declares war on parasitic tyranny and alien conquest.

  What reviewers are saying:

  Verified Purchase Reviewer: A gripping, thrilling, swashbuckling scifi adventure story. Join Tiana, the beautiful alien warrior princess as she pursues an evil race of parasitic aliens from the far reaches of outer space to the high seas of planet earth. An exciting story full of romance and action that will leave you itching to read the the new book. The story continues with "Sentients in the Maze"!

  GoodReads reviewer: It was amazing! 1799 Planetfall (book one in the Symbiont Wars series) introduces Tiana the female ship captain pursuing a vicious foe and trying to prevent the alien conquest of Earth.

  The writing style makes me feel as if I am right there with her as she makes her way in an alien world. Her Interactions with the creatures of Earth, wildlife and humans show the heart and soul of what it means to live in harmony with the universe.

  I love how the author writes her character. She’s strong, smart, resourceful and courageous and makes you want to be like her. Oh, and she is sexy and a real bad ass too! The occasional humorous touches and action throughout the story balance the lush natural and historical setting. It’s not all about science and history, but the author really did some research for the details and accuracy of the world at the turn of the 19th century.

  I learned some things about symbiosis, and what a symbiont is. They aren’t all parasites. I’m looking forward to the further adventures of Tiana and what is in store for the Earth.

  Chapter 1 (Planetfall)

  Tiana gazed at the screen where the Valishnu’s computer ran its transparency simulation of what she would see if there was a window on her ship.

  Her tail twitched, but her dark-striped body was still and her breathing steady. She usually found the tunnels of foldspace soothing—the swirling interplay of the dark colors below red with the brighter shades above blue.

  Now it reminded her, over and again, that they were flying into a trap and she'd given the order.

  Sector Command had tasked them to find the fleeing NiiaH ship spotted in this system, but, when they spotted her, the NiiaH had opened a portal to foldspace.

  Tiana snarled, clenching her teeth. “Follow them,” she'd said.

  Darmien, her dymba XO, shook his mane in agreement. His minihooves rattled on the co-pilot console controls. “Locked in. Portal threshold in ten … nine….”

  Following an enemy into a portal made sure you wouldn’t lose track of them, but on the other side of the issue, during the time between when they exited and you did, there were plenty of opportunities to prepare nasty surprises for a pursuer.

  Since it was the niiaH, Tiana would bet on clusters of seeker mines at the portal exit and a full spread missile launch as soon as theValishnu showed her nose past the event horizon.

  Darmien looked up from his display. “Tiana, tunnel terminus approaching. From the way it’s twisted at the end, we’ll be coming out close to a planetary-sized gravity well.”

  Tiana pulled up a copy of his screen on her three-dimensional viewer.

  “Small, dense planetoid,” she said. “They must have scouted it in advance. At the speed we both went into the portal, we’re coming out way too close for either of us to survive impact with an atmosphere. It has to be an airless rock. They probably think we’ll try to avoid it, so instead I want our attitude to come to one point four by forty degrees and prep for full thrust. Ducking around that rock may be the way through.”

  “Acknowledged,” Darmien said. “Attitude coming to one point four by forty degrees… and terminus in thirty at …mark.”

  Her fingers flickered over the controls entering commands preparing the Valishnu. “Darmien, I want you to drop seven of the countermeasures in the tubes as soon as we clear the tunnel.”

  “Acknowledged,”

  Tiana activated the ship’s comm. “All hands secure for action. Darmien, I have the helm; you have the guns.”

  “Helm to you acknowledged, putting all guns on autofire for mines and missiles and supervising.”

  Crews checked in ready for action, and Darmien continued announcing ten-second intervals to terminus.

  “Amelie?” Tiana glanced over the console to her chief engineer. “Anything I should know?”

  “All systems clear and ready, Tiana.”

  Darmien opened the ship-wide communication channel. “Terminus in three… two… one….”

  The tunnel colors disappeared and the starry black of normal space flashed onto her screen. Tiana hit the thrusters, aiming the Valishnuat the horizon of the meteor-pocked planetoid to starboard.

  “Countermeasures away,” Darmien said. “Missiles incoming from short range. Flight of eight. Four are going for the countermeasures… Guns have detonated one… two –”

  “Target the mines to starboard; I’m taking evasive action,” Tiana said.

  The remaining two missiles on her scope had arced out in diverging vectors before coming back to bear on the Valishnu. She dove toward the planetoid keeping thrust on full power. Darmien directed streams of particles
to starboard, detonating mines in popping flashes of light.

  Tiana spotted a string of mountains on the surface and veered towards them, leveling out their dive.

  “We have four new countermeasures ready,” Amelie said.

  “Darmien,” Tiana said, “drop them at standard intervals as we go. Start in five.”

  “Acknowledged. Three… two… one… standard intervals.”

  Tiana stayed on course for the mountains. She glanced at her data screen for the analysis of the gravitational forces in the system while dodging now and again to nudge the pursuing missiles into a better vector. She'd need every advantage when they dodged.

  Interesting… the rocky surface below her was a moon, not a planetoid. She glanced again at the relative motion readouts on the hidden planet it was orbiting. The sensors detected an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere and liquid water.

  “Last countermeasure deployments ineffective: the missiles aren’t breaking lock from us,” Darmien said.

  “If we can get another countermeasure loaded, drop it as I duck behind those mountains. I’ll give you a count.” She checked speed and distance.

  “One in the tube,” Darmien said.

  “Four… three… two… one.”

  “Countermeasure away.”

  Tiana cut hard to port, almost clipping the rocky cliff as she tilted sideways to clear the gap. Her fingers flew over the attitude thrusters to keep them away from the surface. The mountainside disintegrated under the double missile detonation spraying them with rocky shrapnel. Valishnu shuddered under the impacts, and the console screens went dark.

  “I’ve lost them,” Darmien said. He snorted in rage and tossed his head.

  Amelie’s minihooves blurred over her controls as she tried to bring the sensor grid and consoles back online.

  “Easy, Darmien. I've got them,” Tiana said. “I still have the transparency screen working and I know where they’re going.” She raised theValishnu’s course by a degree and hammered the thrust again while feathering the side thrusters. She veered to starboard to set up their course. “This isn’t a planet; it’s a moon”

  “Where?” Darmien said.

  “The planet’s below the horizon on the port bow. I'm hoping we can get critical systems repaired before we get there. But we can count on catching them with a little help from this moon and its lovely gravitational field.”

  The console displays sputtered awake. Tiana checked the positions of the ships, the planet and the moon.

  Amelie raised mournful eyes from her console. “I don’t think we can take another hit without losing hull integrity,” she said. The console in front of her flashed with so many green warning lights they made her long muzzle glimmer with a ghastly reflection. Her minihooves sounded like a single buzz as she fought with the Valishnu’s controls in her struggle to bring backup systems online.

  “Keep working on it from in here,” Tiana said. “Don’t send anyone hullside until I can guarantee I won’t need to change course without warning while anyone is outside the inertia dampening field.”

  They were closing with the niiaH, and Tiana was using the advantage of her higher speed to harry them with missile launches. The moon’s relative motion to its planet had carried the hitchhiking Valishnu away from the niiaH. However, the boost from the gravity well had added to the Valishnu’s velocity as if she was the end runner in a crack-the-whip game.

  Since they were now coming up on the niiaH at an angle instead of trailing in their wake, the normal mine-dropping advantage of a pursued ship was not available.

  It also made the missiles they launched at the Valishnu easier to avoid. The trap at the tunnel terminus had now come back to bite the niiaH.

  Tiana flicked one eye to glance at her XO. “Darmian, the scanners have been online for a while; can you tell me about the planet?”

  “I’ve been analyzing. Atmosphere breathable—signs of a pre-electric civilization. You would have a ninety-five percent chance of long-term survival, the rest of us only five percent. Air and water are fine, but food requirements do not look suitable for dymba.”

  He hesitated. “Tiana, I’ve completed downloading the message from the drone that followed us through foldspace. Command says one of the niiaH ship’s officers is a female.”

  “A female,” Tiana snarled and leaned in to the display. “We can’t let them loose on that planet, not at any cost.”

  Darmien thrummed agreement.

  “Amelie, get whoever has a digit free to prep a pod with a drop kit for me,” Tiana said. “From their trajectory, it looks like they are going for planetfall. If our last launch doesn’t end them, I’ll follow them down. Darmien, you’ll need to swing back up into orbit so Amelie can finish repairs. You can pick me up when the mission is over.”

  Tiana watched her console, trying to will the missiles to their target. When a hit registered on the enemy ship, she fought down elation and studied the information on the display.

  Her lips peeled back to show her teeth. “One missile made it through their defense. They still have hull integrity, but their weapons are disabled. We’ll need to follow them into the atmosphere. We can hope they won’t be close to a populated area when I shoot them down,” she said.

  Amelie’s voice box thrummed with regret. “Entering the atmosphere will be risky unless we make more repairs to the exterior first,” she said. “What we managed on the transit to the planet still doesn't give us a safety margin.”

  Tiana pulled up Amelie’s readouts on her own display and weighed the risk of further damage to the hull compared to the consequences of letting their prey escape. They would need to dip into the atmosphere to launch; the missiles could only function inside an atmosphere if prepped for it—they couldn’t make the transition from vacuum into the atmospheric envelope without detonating too soon.

  No good options.

  She couldn’t let the niiaH escape into another ecosystem. There was a sentient species on the planet; the damage would be catastrophic, with a female, they would breed. The beautiful blue and green globe spinning below them would become another niiaH charnel house.

  “We go now. Maybe we can get them before they land.” She shifted back to her primary display.

  Amelie and Darmien thrummed in chorus.

  Tiana entered a course that would intersect the niiaH ship. She wanted to be close enough to be sure.

  “We’ve done everything we can without going outside again, Tiana,” Amelie said. “The atmospheric density will reach at least grade three before we can launch inside the envelope. We've no projections for maintaining hull integrity that long and there’s no time to set up a simulation.”

  “It doesn’t matter, Amelie. It wouldn’t change anything.”

  “I know.”

  The hum of the Valishnu’s drive vibrating through the superstructure and the rattle of Amelie’s minihooves on her console were the only sounds as they raced the niiaH down the gravity well.

  When they entered the outer atmosphere, the Valishnu bucked, protesting the alien environment on its skin. The inertia dampeners caught most of it, but the vibration and shaking was punishing; the ship jerked in directions the dampeners weren’t designed to cushion.

  Tiana started the countdown. “Hot launch in four… three… two…one…. Missiles away.”

  The Valishnu shook when the missiles fired. Tiana had launched them hot out of the tubes rather than dropping before igniting their drives, even though it could be dangerous. She wanted to do all she could to increase missile speed and the chance of a hit.

  “Backblast damage to starboard missile nacelle,” Amelie said. “Deteriorating… Nacelle ejection failure. Hull breach.”

  The Valishnu shuddered as the starboard nacelle peeled off, ripping an opening in the fuselage. Tiana fought for control as the ship slewed to port. She felt the tug against her suit as the air supply streamed out of the ship before the sealant system could finish the patch.

  At last, she regained a shaky
control of the helm and glanced with one eye at the display that was tracking the missiles in time to see both detonate close to the enemy ship. The niiaH spun out of control, parts flying off it in a spray of debris. Tiana swerved to avoid the wreckage.

  Three escape pods separated from it, but one smashed into the niiaH drive nacelle and disintegrated. The other two made it clear.

  Tiana brought the particle cannon to bear on the rearmost pod’s projected flightpath and sent bursts of charged ions racing after it.

  A secondary explosion from another section of the niiaH ship threw debris into her path. She jerked the ship’s controls to avoid the larger pieces, but a chunk slammed into the Valishnu, knocking her into a downward spiral. By the time Tiana pulled out, the sensors had lost track of the pods. She glanced at the forward display. They had dropped below the cloud cover over a vast span of water.

  “System status updates,” Amelie said, “Inertia dampeners at ten percent, fuel leaking, sealing system malfunctioning. Two minutes of thrust capability. I've shut down all non-flight-related systems to save power. Our personal rebreathers are the only life support remaining.”

  “I’ve turned us toward the closest land mass,” Tiana said. “I'm stretching our glide path as much as I can, but there’s no way we’ll make it all the way there. Keep me updated on fuel so I’ll have thrust to bring us down easy when we go in.”

  “Tiana…,” Darmien said on the general communication channel, “I know I speak for all of us when I say, it has been an honor serving with you. You must survive. Risk nothing for us to prolong the time the herd has left.”

  One by one, the rest of the crew signed on the general channel and voiced agreement.

  Tiana continued optimizing the flight path while Amelie kept her updated on fuel reserves. When the crew finished, Tiana said, “I hope we have more time together before we part, but if not, I pray you all find rich pasture and clean water in the eternal.”