by Lee Guo
Earth Under Fire
Lee Guo
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Epilogue
Epilogue 2
Prologue
Garolan Battlefleet
Throneship Predator’s Claw
Bridge
High Admiral Vrgsithisisagwa sat on his command nest, gazing at the vast holographic displays that surrounded him. His fleet – his mighty fleet – was made for one clear purpose. To rid the universe of those pesky humans.
He was going to kill them all.
He hissed. He hated them.
He hated their drive, their ability to adapt, and most of all – he hated their willingness to help the other races within the arm. For as long as he had lived, the humans had been a bane in his anterior caraspace – one he couldn’t scratch and soothe, but was always there to give him and his race irritation.
Not this time.
This time, he, and with the Hive Empress’s approval, was going to wipe them out.
All of them.
He gazed at the holoscreen with anger and… a slight bit of satisfaction. The clicking of his mandibles vibrated throughout the command room, alerting to every rating and junior member that he was excited…
… With his amassed fleet of several thousand warships, he was finally going to do what his ancestors wanted to do – what they should have done, long ago -- sack the Humans’ core worlds and wipe out their production centers.
Without the humans’ fleet bases and industrial facilities, the humans wouldn’t be able to counterattack with any significant force. They wouldn’t be able to build warships to replenish their losses while Vrgsithisisagwa’s own production centers would outproduce them in warships in vast numbers. Nor would they be able to protect their outer colonies... and they definitely wouldn’t stand a chance to the massacre he intended to take place.
Yes, grinned Vrgsithisisagwa, his tongue slithering saliva down his forward caraspace -- once and for all, the humans would be wiped out to the last individual. A half century of discrete planning was finally about to unfold, and he was the master tactician that brought about the final triumph.
Yes, the time was now -- the time for vengeance and justice after centuries of conflict caused by these bothersome apes.
Continue breathing your precious air, Humans, for I am coming for you. Vrgsithisisagwa stared menacingly at the holomap in front of him.
Time to die!
Chapter 1
Interstellar Space
September 8th, Year 403 Universal Century
Earth Dominion Super Transport Rodger Young
Bridge
Freighter Captain Mark Holz calmly watched the minimap on his armpad while sipping his early morning’s coffee. It was delicious. He always loved to drink hot coffee this time of day, and he reminded himself he’d would compliment the chef later when his duty shift was over.
It was another mild day with mild things to do on the bridge. His ship, the Rodger Young, was in the middle of a transport assignment. Its cargo bays once again carried thirteen megatons of industrial equipment destined for one of the fringe worlds, in this case Epsilon Seti. In a way, Mark Holz felt gloriously dignified that he was part of the man-made machine that expanded human power among the stars.
And then… just like that, his reverie was permanently interrupted when it all hit the floor.
“Captain,” the cargo transport’s first officer yelled, “we have contacts -- lots of them!”
“Shit,” Mark muttered, accidentally spilling his coffee onto the ground. Shit, that’s good coffee! “What are you talking about, Greg? Let me see,” Mark said, getting up. He walked the distance to the first officer’s station and stared at the readouts.
He froze in shock. It was like lightning spasmed through his body. There were… over three thousand drive signatures! “What in God’s name?” Mark stammered. “Three thousand?”
It took several seconds for the news to travel among the bridge crew. People were surprised and aghast. They were in shock at the mystery fleet… it had to be called a fleet of mysterious drive signatures.
But that wasn’t the worst news, by far. By far, the worst news was that an entire one hundred of them -- one hundred drive signatures -- veered to intercept the Rodger Young.
“What the hell do they want with us?” First Officer Greg fields asked.
Several explanations and scenarios went through Captain Mark Holz’s head. One, that this was some type of clandestine military exercise and that because the Rodger Young had spotted them, they were all about to be quarantined. Two, that this was not a military exercise by the human navy and instead they were all about to go somewhere to attack something and… but that didn’t explain why they were trying to intercept a defenseless civilian transport. And three, that this was an invasion by an hostile race.
There was only one way to find out.
“Comm,” Mark said in a composed manner, “get in touch with that fleet that’s coming towards us and ask them what they want.”
“Yes, sir,” a young woman said as she began pressing buttons on her console.
Several tense seconds passed, which turned into several minutes.
Finally, she spoke. “Captain, I’m getting no answer on all T-bands. Whoever they are, they don’t want to talk.”
Shit! Captain Holz bit his lip. What the hell are they going to do to us when they get here? “Suggestions, Greg?” Mark Holz asked his first officer.
“We should run like hell,” replied Greg. “That’s probably a Garolan war fleet heading towards us -- I’m guessing that because we’re close to the Garolan border. I think it’s a surprise invasion.”
Mark thought for a moment. “Agreed,” he nodded. “Helm, get us out of here!”
“Yes, sir,” said the young blond ensign.
Suddenly, the gravity fields of the transport changed. Mark knew that at best speed, his freighter could max out at about 200Gs of acceleration. But it became immediately apparent that that was not enough. The mystery ships with mysterious drive fields chasing them were going at about 300 Gs. Mark did some simple calculations and realized that the Rodger Young would be overtaken in less than thirty minutes.
He did not want to be here to find out what those strange ships were going to do to him when time ran out.
“Helm, accelerate to 150% maximum safe speed.”
“Sir,” said the young man, “that will put the reactors on overdrive. We could damage the reactors and put them out of commission!”
Mark though about it for a while, then he repeated. “It doesn’t matter, Danny. If we get caught -- I don’t want to find out what will happen to us if we get caught -- we’ll be screwed. Our only chance is to increase our acceleration so it’s faster than theirs. Having our reactors damaged and getting caught up while maintaining normal max acceleration is the same thing.”
A moment passed. “Yes, sir,” Helm said. “Increasing to 300 Gs. Hold on, everybody.”
The gravity field changed once more. The sound of the hull bending due to the extreme gravitational forces could be heard even in the command deck. Mark held his breathe and sat ice cold on his captain’s seat, his hands gripping the armrests tensely.
And then… two minutes later… a loud bang sounded throughout the hull of the Rodger
Young. Then another. Bang! Bang!
“What happened, Greg?” the captain yelled.
The Helmsman answered. “Sir, that was our reactor! It just went out! It’s the energy intake pumps, sir! The reactor’s gone! We don’t have main power to power our drive fields, anymore!”
“Shit!” Mark yelled. “How much acceleration can you give me?”
“I said the reactor’s out, sir. None!” replied Danny.
“Shit!” Mark stammered. He gazed at the map on his armrest. With quick calculations, it would take less than ten minutes for the mysterious ships to reach him and his Rodger Young. He started thinking hard, harder than ever. What did the mysterious ships want? He gazed at their fields on his minimap. There were over a hundred of them heading towards him. What did they want? If they were truly Insectoid warships and if humanity and Insectoids were truly at war, then the mysterious ships must want to destroy human shipping. If they wanted to do that, then Mark’s only option, if he wanted to save his crew, was to call for abandon ship and get everyone in the escape pods. Surely, the warships wouldn’t kill civilian targets that made no different to the war effort, right? Surely, they’d leave the escape pods, alone?
“Greg,” the captain asked, “how sure are you that they’re Garolans?”
“I’m pretty sure, sir,” his first officer answered immediately. “Those drive fields don’t match any human starship or warship. And being this close to the Insectoid border… it has to be the Garolans, sir.”
“Ok,” Mark said. “All crews abandon ship. Let’s get out of here and hope they leave the escape pods, alone. Announce it on the shipwide intercom, April.”
“Yes, sir,” the pretty young woman said. “All crews abandon ship. The captain orders all crews to abandon ship.”
Mark got out of his seat, and followed everyone to the exit leading to the escape pods.
***
It took five full minutes to get into the escape pods, but once everyone was in, Mark ordered the escape pod to jettison into space. He saw the dwindling shape of the Rodger Young’s hull as it became smaller in the escape pod’s rear view screen. He saw dozens of other escape pods from other areas of the ship also jettison into space. Each escape pod held about twenty people.
“Is the emergency beacon on?” Mark asked.
“Yes, sir,” Greg replied. “We’re transmitting on all T-bands.”
“Turn it off,” Mark said. “I don’t want to help the Garolans to know where all the escape pods are.”
“Yes… yes, sir.”
The minutes passed by slowly. Each escape pod had a maximum acceleration speed of forty Gs. It was nothing compared to the Rodger Young when the ship operated normally, but anything was better than nothing. Slowly, the escape pods created a distance between them and the Rodger Young, which fell slowly behind.
More minutes passed. Mark watched bleakly on the sensor screen as the mysterious ships entered firing range of the Rodger Young.
And… the bad guys fired their lasers!
The Rodger Young was armorless and shieldless. Captain Mark watched as his ship for the past ten years was pummeled by scores of laser hits. Seconds later, a massive white-hot explosion typical of an antimatter containment failure ignited the Rodger Young into a gigantic multi-megaton fireball of flame and plasma. And then, it was no more.
On the sensor screen, Mark watched in terror as the alien ships accelerated past the Rodger Young and went on an intercept course with all the escape pods.
“They’re still accelerating, sir!” yelled April.
For the next most frightful minutes of his life, Mark the Captain watched as one by one, the escape pods were taken out by laser hits -- their armorless hulls converted into plasma.
Shit! Why are they firing on civilian escape pods?
There was crying on the net. People everywhere were calling out in panic. Even inside the escape pod Mark was in, crewmembers were shouting in fear.
After several seconds, there was only a couple pods left, including the escape pod Mark was on.
I’m going to die. I’m really going to die.
“Goodbye, everyone,” the captain announced to his frightened bridge crew. “I guess this is it.”
“Good bye, Captain,” a few replied.
Goodbye, April, thought Mark.
Seconds later, everything exploded. And then there was nothing.
Imperial Palace, Earth
September 9th, Year 403 U.C.
Vin awoke from a nightmare of his family’s death exactly two years ago. He got out of his bed and washed his trembling body with hot water. It was soothing to him, to let the memories of his father, the King of Earth, drain away. At times while he was dreaming, he dreamed of him still alive. Sometimes, Vin thought his father wasn’t gone, that instead his father was on a trip, a very long trip, and was about to return soon.
It was an unconscious phenomenon he knew all too well.
After he stepped out of the shower, he heard a noise.
His communicator was beeping. Who could it be at this time of the day? wondered Vin.
He walked to his communicator near his bed and opened it up to answer the call.
He expected to see his assistant’s face, but instead he saw the holographic projection of a Earth Dominion Fleet Admiral. The Fleet Admiral… calling him at this hour?
“My Majesty,” Fleet Admiral Hayet said, “there’s been a crisis.”
“What happened?” Vin said calmly.
“There’s no other way to say this,” the Fleet Admiral looked steadily at him. “There’s been an invasion. Your presence is needed right away, sir.”
Vin blinked. It took several seconds for him to take it in, and then he muttered, “I’ll be at CNC right away.”
***
Vin walked into the Palace’s Command and Control Room. The first person he noticed was the graying Fleet Admiral staring back at him. “Please take a seat, sir,” said Hayet. “You’re not going to like what you’re about to see.”
Vin took a seat at the head of the table and watched as Hayet turned on the news networks. Suddenly, a dozen news channels appeared holographically in front of Vin. The information that followed came so fast, it was like drinking water from a firehose. He saw thousands of people die on the streets of some border planet in some fringe system. He saw weapons being fired into the surface of these planets -- multi gigaton weapons that blew the surface into glass. He saw people screaming as their bodies burned or, worse, were turned into plasma. He saw the terror in the population’s eyes as news broadcasters explained what was happening to the worlds that this alien warfleet had come across. He saw the invasion as it happened by the second.
Vin took it all in like the emotionally controlled man he was. “How many ships?” he asked, crossing his legs.
“About three thousand enemy warships, your Majesty,” Hayet replied.
“Where do you intend to assembled the defense starfleet?” Vin asked.
“At Vega gathering point,” Hayet said.
“What are your plans on dealing with this crisis? Have you spoken with your staff, Admiral?”
“I’ve collaborated with my staff and we agree on the next course of action.”
“Which is?”
“We’re going to take 2% of our total combined fleet and scout the enemy to see how well advanced their weaponry tech and defense tech are. And then we’ll make a decision after that.”
“I see,” Vin said. “What do you think is our chances of defeating this invasion?”
“Honestly, I don’t know, your Majesty. In terms of numbers, the Garolans outnumber our starforce by an extra 1300 warships. To make an estimate of how well we’ll fight them, we’ll need to know more data such as how advanced their technology is -- the qualitative aspect of their warships, in other words. That’s why we’re to engage them with scouts first. There’s too much we don’t know, right now.”
Vin nodded. “I’m quite shocked that this all happened so fast
. Why are the Garolans invading? What are their demands?”
Fleet Admiral Hayet was quick to answer that. “I can easily explain that, based on the enemy’s actions. In previous wars, they often followed galactic rules of warfare, no killing of civilians. This time, they’re destroying everything they come across. I imagine that this time, their war is a war of annihilation. And to do that, I believe that by analyzing their trajectory as they move through our space, it seems they’re heading on a direct course towards Vega, Earth, and Proxima Centauri -- in other words, they’re heading straight for our warship production centers.”
“Why?” Vin asked. “We haven’t conflicted in anything with them for the past five years.”
“I don’t know, sir. But every diplomatic envoy we’ve sent to them has been destroyed without even an ounce of negotiation. They’re not here to negotiate, my Majesty. They’re here to kill.”
“I see…” Vin stroke his chin. In a way, it all made sense. The Garolans had always been fighting Earth, long before Vin came in power – even before Vin’s Parchant Dynasty came to power hundreds of years ago, the Garolans had had numerous wars with humanity. It looked like finally, the Garolans intended to settle the fight once and for all, by taking their secret fleet and sending it to destroy Earth and its neighboring production stars. But what exactly did the Garolans intend to do after they had sacked Earth’s neighboring production jugular? Did they intend to destroy the Human Kingdom entirely? Or did they intend to go even further… to exterminate all humans from the galaxy? “Then we will have to do what is necessary to defend ourselves, “ Vin announced. “I will contact the Prime Minister as well as the Minister of Defense and get our war economy functioning. I will also contact KAL to see if he can get our allies to send us aid both in terms of warships as well as other essentials. Fleet Admiral, may I ask one more thing?”
“Yes?” Hayet said.
“I want to be with you when you engage that fleet.”
“Why, sir? It’ll be dangerous. Your the king, sir. If you die, we lose our highest form of leadership.”
