Andrew sighed. “Guess I’ll see if Alexis is still dating the same boy. I met him last time I was home. I promised the girls I would have a cookout and invited him over.”
“To lay down the rules?”
“That was my original thought, but the kid surprised me. He was very polite and respectful, not what I was expecting.”
Kurt looked at the viewscreen on his desk, showing Newton. The blue-white world was his home and where someday he would raise his children. Keera was probably getting impatient for him to leave the Star Cross. When he did, the two of them had a few things to discuss, but he didn’t think there would be any problems among him, Keera, and Mara. Mara really needed Keera’s friendship right now after the loss of the Aurelia. He was a little nervous about telling Keera about him and Mara, but she had asked him to tell her if anything happened. He would also wait a few days before inviting Mara over to the house.
“I’m done. I imagine we have a couple women anxious for us to show up.”
Andrew grinned. “If the Vorn pull out of the galaxy for a while, we may finally get some peace and can stay around Newton. I know Emily and Alexis would like that.”
“We all would. Now let’s go home. I think the war for us, at least for a while, is over.”
The End
The Star Cross: The Vorn! (Book Five) coming in September or October of 2017. This will be the exciting conclusion to the series.
Huge battles break out across the galaxy as High Prince Brollen returns with a massive warfleet of Vorn ships. Fleet Admiral Vickers is pulled into the conflict as he fights to keep Newton, Earth, and their Alliance safe against impossible odds.
On Kubitz, Grantz plots to end High Profiteer Creed’s life, but the appearance of the Vorn may end the empire before he can reach the High Profiteer.
The Lakiam Alliance is under intense pressure from the advancing Vorn. Battles rage across Lakiam Alliance space as they try to push back the Vorn. Fleet Commodore Dreen and Captain Waelt use every ship under their command to try to stop the Destroyers of Worlds.
On the Dyson Sphere, Valan and other councilors plead for the council to vote to attack the Vorn. The fate of the galaxy rests with a council, where most do not want to become involved in war.
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Turn the page for an introduction to Earth Fall: Invasion a new military science fiction series that will be starting later this year.
Earth Fall: Invasion
Major Mark Dolan crawled painfully to the top of the small brush-covered hill he’d been behind for the last several hours. His uniform was ragged and filthy; blood ran from a shallow, jagged cut on his forehead, the result of a splinter grenade falling too close to his position. Only by throwing himself to the ground upon realizing what was about to happen had Dolan survived at all. The private who had been with him lay dead, his body torn apart by the grenade.
Around Dolan, dead bodies and burned-out vehicles were everywhere. Unfortunately most of the bodies were human and not Trellixian. The aliens were nearly unstoppable, their vehicles protected by energy shields and possessing weapons much more powerful than the humans’. The enemy could be killed with great effort, but normally the attacking humans died in the attempt. However, the humans were fighting for their world, and there was never a shortage of volunteers to attempt the almost impossible.
In the distance Dolan could hear the heavy explosions of powerful warp missiles and more splinter grenades blasting away at the weakening human defenses. The Trellixians were rapidly pushing back the meager remnants of Earth’s military toward the bunker complex that housed their last-known active base. For nearly twelve hours, Mark and his handpicked squad had been watching the battle. Their job was to stay on the outskirts, undetected, and report back to their superiors the results of the battle. Several times Mark had been tempted to join in the fighting when a Trellixian passed within weapons range, but his orders were very explicit. No contact with the enemy! Observe and report back!
“Major, this is Captain Reynolds. I’m in position,” a female voice said over his earpiece.
Everyone in his squad wore a small communications earpiece, set to a frequency they didn’t think the enemy would be monitoring, so they could stay in contact with one another. It was a risk, but one that was necessary if they wanted to complete their mission.
Captain Lisa Reynolds was two hundred meters to his west on another small ridge, which provided a good view of the ongoing battle. She had two other soldiers with her, assigned to keep her safe. Reynolds was a military analyst sent on this mission to gather data on Trellixian battle techniques. Mark wasn’t sure what good that would do if the mountain base and its bunker complex were destroyed. As far as Mark knew, resistance across the planet had been smashed, and this was the last major surviving military installation still fighting back.
“Make sure you record everything,” ordered Mark, as his gaze swept across the embattled human defensive lines. Several massive explosions struck the human lines, blasting deep smoking holes in the ground. Mark thought he could see soldiers pulling back from the besieged positions. “Keep messages to a minimum. We don’t want to tip off the enemy we’re here.”
“Yes, sir,” Reynolds replied. “We’ve got my equipment set up and are recording the battle.”
“Don’t take any unnecessary risks,” Mark instructed. “I want us all to get back safely.”
Removing his battle helmet and enhanced vision goggles, he wiped the sweat from his brow and cautiously rose up to better see what lay on the other side of the small hill. A blackened ruin of blasted earth, burned-out trees, destroyed vehicles and dead bodies lay as far as his trained eyes could see. Several kilometers to the north, close to the mountains, he could see the fighting still raged, the meager Earth forces battling desperately to hold on to the last bastion of hope against a fearless, overpowering enemy who knew no mercy.
After sliding his goggles and helmet back on, he adjusted the sights to allow him a close-up view of the fighting. Trellixian hover tanks were moving steadily forward, their large cannons firing round after round of heavy blaster fire into the entrenched human troops. Side launchers on the hover tanks fired a seemingly unending supply of splinter grenades into the human positions. Occasionally an Earth heavy missile would strike one of the tanks, stressing its shield but having very little effect. Mark let out a deep, guttural sigh of frustration. If they could only find a way around the Trellixians’ energy shields, the battle would be more even.
Thousands of Trellixian troops in nearly impenetrable battle armor followed closely behind the tanks, mopping up straggling pockets of defenders. Occasionally short-range missiles and shells from heavy artillery exploded among the advancing Trellixian troops, but a direct hit was necessary to penetrate the battle armor. Scanning the dead, Dolan noticed a few Trellixians scattered among the human casualties, but not many.
Above the ground fighting, Trellixian wedge-shaped attack craft swooped and dove at the fragile human defensive positions, trying to crack open the human lines by firing small warp missiles which impacted the ground in towering explosions of flame and dirt. The warp missiles made a high-pitched screaming noise as they came down.
Human aircraft had been cleared from the skies weeks earlier. Defensive missiles and occasional blaster fire from the main base itself were now directed heatedly toward the attacking Trellixian aircraft as they came within range, in a futile attempt to turn the tide of the battle. Only recently had human scientists reverse engineered a captured hover tank, enabling them to create energy cannons similar to the enemy’s.
Mark almost stood up in elation as several beams of white energy converged on one of the Trellixian craft, cracking through its energy shield and causing the ship to explode in
a bright orange fireball, spilling out its flaming parts over the fighting below. If the humans had only had more energy cannons, they might’ve had a chance to turn the tide of the battle. From what he could see, only about a dozen of the powerful weapons were being used by the defenders.
As Mark watched, a large and ominous shadow passed over him. Looking up, he sucked in his breath as he recognized one of the Trellixians’ space battlecruisers plodding through the Earth’s heavy atmosphere toward the human military base. In moments, the massive cylinder came to a stop, its defensive shields lighting up as the base focused all its firepower on the massive vessel in a last-stand effort. Heavy missiles and energy blasters smashed futilely against the powerful energy shield, which erupted in bright cascades of color as it shrugged off the ineffective attack. The outside of the huge vessel was dotted with antennae, communication dishes, and offensive and defensive weaponry—designed for war.
Huge beams of incandescent energy leaped from the nose of the vessel, plowing up the earth along and through the human troops’ defensive lines. Smoke and fire burst into the air as the ground was burned. Whenever the beam touched a human soldier or vehicle, they were turned instantly into smoldering ashes under the tremendous destructive power being unleashed. For long minutes the deadly beams moved up and down the human lines, until the defensive firing lessened and then stopped.
Mark felt intense anger at what he had just witnessed. He gripped his assault rifle tightly in his hands, wanting to rush forward and fire it at the Trellixians. However, he knew to do so would be suicide and against his orders. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to lie still and continued to observe the battle. He greatly feared it was nearing its end. He desperately looked for any signs that the embattled soldiers could regroup, but there were none.
The enemy spacecraft continued to move forward, now focusing its powerful energy beams on the mountain and the underground base it sheltered. However, the base was buried deep beneath several thousand meters of bedrock and protected by reinforced steel beams with thick concrete walls. It was fortified with all the defensive and offensive weapons the human race had been able to throw together in the short time since the Trellixians had invaded Earth and embarked on their genocidal war. The base was protected by a rudimentary energy shield cobbled together by some of Earth’s greatest remaining scientists, who had taken shelter in the base.
The shield strained as the Trellixian beams tried to penetrate to the base below. Great streams of energy seemed to be erupting from the mountain, and the shield persevered. Mark held his breath. The Trellixians seemed to have been stopped for the first time. Their energy beams ceased firing, and for several long minutes silence came over the battlefield.
Mark refocused his enhanced-vision optics on the ground immediately in front of the base. The Trellixian hover tanks and their armored troops were pouring through the smashed human lines. Little to no resistance was encountered, as most of the defenders were dead. Mark tried not to think of the thousands of human soldiers who had lost their lives in this battle.
As the Trellixian hover tanks came within range of the base, heavy energy weapons hidden among the rocks opened up, tearing through the tanks’ shields like a knife through butter. These weapons operated off the base’s fusion power plant, and their energy output was nearly off the scale. Unfortunately they burned out after firing one shot, as they could not handle the torrents of energy passing through the barrels. The Trellixian hover tanks couldn’t stand up to such energy. Tank after tank fell to the ground, split open by the powerful energy beams. Loud explosions reverberated across the valley, and smoke filled the air. The few surviving troops cheered loudly, seeing the nearly indestructible tanks stopped and feeling a brief rise of hope.
Mark could barely hear the distant cheering and looked up to see what the Trellixian battlecruiser was doing. It still hovered above in a threatening manner, still under fire from the base’s weapons.
-
On the Trellixian battlecruiser, its captain saw the ground assault on the humans’ last redoubt had failed as well. He was taller than an average human with dark green skin, due to his Saurian ancestry. The captain had a large head with sharp tearing teeth and eyes twice the size of a human’s. He gazed in anger at the ship’s main viewscreen, which showed the surface below. The humans were proving to be a more formidable opponent than originally expected. The Trellixian High Command had felt it would take less than four weeks to subdue the planet; they were now into their twelfth week of heavy fighting, and losses had been eight times higher than projected. Nodding to his communications officer, he ordered all ground troops to pull back, as the battlecruiser slowly edged higher into the air. Its heavy energy shield glowed brightly as human energy weapons and missiles impacted the shield, trying to crack it open to bring to Earth the mighty ship of space.
High Command was also alarmed by how rapidly the humans had been able to come up with their own energy weapons. Cascading waves of energy from the human weapons bit and clawed at the powerful Trellixian shield. This world was needed for living space for the Trellixian race, and the fighting had delayed the first of hundreds of colonization transports.
“Shield is holding at eighty-two percent,” reported the tactical officer. “Our energy weapons are incapable of penetrating the shield the humans have placed around the mountain.”
“I would suggest we deploy a Malken missile,” suggested the ship’s second officer. “Our sensors are indicating the humans’ base is deep beneath the mountain.”
“A Malken missile will penetrate deeply enough,” confirmed the tactical officer.
The captain nodded. The Malken missile was the most powerful and deadly weapon in their arsenal. Not even the humans’ energy shield would be able to resist the deadly antimatter missile. They were also very difficult to produce, so each battlecruiser was only equipped with one. Its use had to be authorized by the council.
The captain turned toward the communications officer. “Send a request to the High Council, requesting authorization to deploy a Malken missile. Inform them it’s the only viable option for destroying the human military base. Once this base is annihilated, the planet will be ours, and the colonization transports can be sent.” The ship possessed an FTL transmitter, and it wouldn’t take long to get a response.
-
On the ground, several minutes passed as Mark watched the ship continue to gain altitude. At last it came to a stop, high above the base, just out of range of the human weapons which had been impacting its energy shield. With foreboding, Mark saw a single small black dot fall away from the belly of the ship. “Everyone take cover!” Mark yelled over his comm. With apprehension, Mark flung himself behind the small hill as brilliant light and overpowering noise crashed down upon him, driving him into unconsciousness.
Sometime later Mark awoke, realizing he had been out for quite some time. After staggering back to the top of the hill, he stood, looking with shock and despair at what had once been the strongest base the human race had constructed to stop the Trellixians. A jagged, smoking hole lay where the mountain had been. Trees had been knocked over, and a number of fires raged in the forest. The sky was obscured by dark smoke, and a lot of ash floated in the air. The base was gone!
Trellixian hover tanks moved about the smoking ruins, searching for human survivors. Troops in dark battle armor also combed the rocks and defiles, looking for scattered human defenders who might have survived. From the lack of firing, Mark guessed none or very few were being found. Over sixty thousand troops had begun the defense of the valley, with another twenty thousand soldiers, technicians, scientists, and politicians taking shelter inside the base. With growing despair, Mark knew it was over. The base was gone; everything was destroyed! Earth’s last hope was a jagged, smoking hole in the ground.
With anguish Mark slid back behind the cover of the hill, his head down, eyes clenched shut. It was over; the human race had lost! Mark doubted whether any humans would survive more
than a year upon the surface if the Trellixian genocidal campaign continued with the civilian population. Already all the major cities had been destroyed. Dams, power stations, nearly all the infrastructure built up over hundreds of years had been ruthlessly annihilated.
Mark stood, realizing he needed to get to his squad’s rendezvous coordinates. He was hesitant to use his comm, as it might alert the Trellixians to his presence. The rendezvous point was only a few kilometers away in thick, concealing forest near another mountain. He hoped the others in his squad had survived the blast.
Forcing himself to walk, Mark retraced his steps, taking a roundabout course into the surrounding mountains toward his destination. He carried a small pack, an assault rifle, and a pistol, as well as several flash grenades. He almost wished a Trellixian would step out in front of him, so he could vent his rage after witnessing the recent disaster. Mark’s immediate commander had believed the base would be able to stand up to the Trellixian attack.
The missile the aliens had used at the end had penetrated the base’s fusion energy shield as if it didn’t even exist. The human scientists hadn’t expected anything like this. That final weapon was unbelievable, and Mark wondered why the Trellixians hadn’t used it earlier in the battle. What good his report would do now, he had no idea. The humans had nothing left to fight back with; his information would be of little value to the few surviving troops and scientists his commander had indicated were being held in reserve.
-
Mark carefully approached the rendezvous coordinates. In the last several hours, he’d encountered no one. He’d heard a Trellixian attack craft fly over once, but it had continued on to some unknown destination. Keeping under the canopy formed by the thick growth of trees, he hoped he would remain undetected.
The Star Cross: The Forever War Page 33
