The Resistance- The Complete Series

by Nathan Hystad

  Oliv answered, “My father stayed behind with my mother and brother.”

  “And they let you leave?” Serina asked, looking dubious.

  “Not exactly,” Oliv replied.

  “I would have liked his mind around. We have a lot of work to do. First, how many ships do you have?” Serina asked.

  Heather glanced over at Flint for a moment before answering. “What’s happening over here? The war, it’s still ongoing?”

  “They came through, sending us reeling. Ace, you told me to retreat, and it was the best thing anyone ever did for us. We survived that day because of it. Jish Karn stayed behind, taking down two of their warships with her self-sacrifice.” Serina poured some water from a pitcher and drank deeply.

  Ace was surprised to hear the news about Karn. From the moment he’d met her, he suspected she was invincible, too headstrong to let herself be killed.

  “What happened next?” Wren asked, speaking for the first time. Charles sat beside her, reminiscent of his old self. His eyes glowed brightly as he listened to Serina’s story.

  “Jarden’s ship left – followed by Ace in the fighter, I guess – and another twenty warships crossed the Rift before it closed. Each carried at least sixty fighters and various other vessels. Drop ships for planetary attacks and numerous supplies,” Serina said.

  Flint let out a low whistle. “That’s a lot of firepower.”

  Serina nodded slowly. “More than we knew what to do with. With the Grand Admiral gone, we were in disarray. My mother took the helm, leading us as best she could. They invaded the Moons first. Some people got off during the first evacuation run, but most of them were killed during the initial onslaught. The Invaders were patient. They wanted a home base to operate from and happily took Europa as that spot, likely because it was large enough to house them, and it had a big enough station and dock for their smaller ships.

  “Earth was a mess. Terrorist groups stole what they could, hiding out from us. They ended up taking Mercury, including the prison there, for supplies. It took a while to get them to work with us. Even now, we only have a limited amount of support from a few groups. The largest is still out there in hiding.”

  Ace sensed there was a long story there, but no one pried. They knew information would come in order of importance.

  Serina was wearing an earpiece, and her finger flew to it as it shone red. “Go ahead.” She nodded, standing up and walking to the 3D map. The disabled warship suddenly appeared on the map, where it hadn’t been a moment ago. “Well, send another EMP, Adams.”

  “Trouble?” Captain Barkley asked.

  “Nothing we can’t handle,” Serina said.

  Ace wondered something. “Why didn’t you destroy the ship when you had the chance?”

  Serina turned to look him in the eyes. “We salvage anything we can. This war has depleted our supplies, and warships are hard to come by. We can either refit them to accommodate our own Fleet or we strip them down, using parts to build our own ships. These vessels have a lot of great gadgets in them. Half our fleet is now comprised of welded-together boxes. If our Fleet ancestors saw what we were working with, they’d roll around in their graves.”

  She tapped her earpiece again. “What do you mean, it failed? Damn it. Check again, Adams.”

  “Should we be concerned?” Flint asked, leaning his elbows against the table.

  “The EMPs have always worked. It cuts their power, and eventually, they suffocate. We drag the craft to safety and wait it out. When we’re sure they’re all dead, we head aboard and do our work. Easy.”

  Ace imagined a ship full of asphyxiated massive aliens, and wasn’t sure he’d want to be on a boarding party.

  “If they’re failing, the Watchers from the other side must have a newer technology. Their weapons have been disabled, but they might be able to self-destruct. We’d better move away from them just in case,” Serina said.

  Ace settled in, wishing for a coffee. His eyes were tired after the initial rush was over. He also wanted a few minutes alone with Serina, to check on her, but watching the now-Grand Admiral, she hardly seemed like the same girl he used to know. To her, he’d seem like a little kid playing dress-up.

  Flint stood and joined Serina at the other end of the table. “We’re sure the engines are down along with the weapons?”

  She nodded. “For the time being. They could be repairing now.”

  “Let’s destroy them. Count this one as a win with a lost opportunity,” Flint said.

  Serina’s gaze remained locked on the warship on the map. “No. We haven’t snagged a ship like this in too long, and this one might have fresh supplies. Have you tasted their food yet?”

  Ace hoped that was a joke.

  “It’s not bad in a pinch, which we seem to find ourselves in far too often. One of the meats reminds me of chicken,” Serina said, getting a chuckle from Oliv.

  “I’m serious. I don’t want to hang around here waiting for that ship to fix its weapons and then hit us when we aren’t expecting it. The Pilgrim needs repairs and to get somewhere with backup. What’s the nearest safe zone?” Flint asked.

  Serina grimaced, reminding Ace of his old friend. “Far. At least a week out for that old girl. We’ll escort her as soon as we’re towing this warship.”

  Flint appeared ready to make a snappy reply, but Barkley held a hand up, stopping him. “Fine. What do we have to do?”

  “They might still have fighters on board, waiting for an opportunity. We need to manually shut down their life support.” Serina looked across the table at Ace, the 3D map glowing softly against her hardened face. “Without them knowing.”

  “Jeeze, how about something difficult?” Ace asked, hoping they caught on to his sarcasm. He laid it on thick.

  “By what means do we do that?” Wren asked.

  “They’ll have life sensors active, but we’ve done this before, using an android,” Serina said, and Ace noticed Charles shifting in his seat uncomfortably. “We Shift close, as close as we can without impact, and latch on near the underbelly. That’s where their support system is powered. They’ve since moved them to the interior of the ships, after we completed a few successful sabotages. The Watchers are brutes, but they’re smart. Smarter than we gave them credit for, the first couple of years.”

  Ace couldn’t imagine having been there through it all. Their whole race was in a never-ending battle against invasion. Maybe Benson’s idea of working with them hadn’t been such a bad consideration. But like true predators, the Watchers hadn’t wanted to parlay. They were bent on destruction.

  Charles stuck his hand in the air. “I’d like to offer my services.”

  Before Ace or anyone else could interject, Serina took over. Barkley seemed like she wanted to argue with Charles about his suggestion, but they were back home now. Serina was the leader of what was left of the Earth Fleet, and Captain Barkley fell under her jurisdiction, even if Jarden hadn’t considered himself Fleet any longer.

  “Good. Here’s what we do.” She started talking about Recon fighters and magnetic landing gear, and Ace wished they could just get a day off. He was here now, and he guessed there wouldn’t be many relaxing days until the threat was gone – or the humans were.

  2

  Wren

  “This is insane,” Wren said as the rest of the room scattered. It was just her and Flint left in the meeting room, and the pilot shrugged without saying anything.

  Wren poked him in the stomach with her index finger. “That’s it? An indifferent shrug?”

  “I’m not saying it’s smart, but she’s still alive. Thirty years of running and hiding from these monsters? Can you imagine? She’s a hard woman, and I think she’s growing on me,” Flint said.

  Wren rolled her eyes. Of course the new tough-as-nails Grand Admiral would impress Flint. He liked people who took action and protected others. It was the main reason he hated the Fleet so much in the first place. With someone along his own thought process in power, he’d
buy in like it was an overpriced hand of poker. She just hoped they were playing with a fair deck.

  “Am I the only one here who feels like we’re missing something? How has no one won this war yet? It’s been three decades,” Wren said.

  “There have been a lot of overextended wars in our own past, and some of those were with neighboring countries. Imagine the vastness of space. The logistics of battle, the force needed to attack and win against the Fleet defending Earth. I don’t know. It kind of makes sense to me. It’s a giant game of chess, and neither side is willing to expose their queen.” Flint must have thought he was being smart, because he flashed her one of those smug grins he couldn’t stop doing.

  “Maybe. Even with the Shift drives, though? They can hop in and out, picking off our defenses.” Wren didn’t want them all to go in blindly, following a woman who seemed a little off her own rocker.

  “So can we. Serina said almost their entire Fleet has been modified to Shift now. It’s like an arm wrestle where neither opponent can push through and slam a hand down,” Flint said.

  “Enough with your insufferable metaphors. You should get some rest before anything happens,” Wren said, hating that she sounded so overprotective.

  “What about you?” he asked.

  “I’m going to talk to Charles, then do the same,” Wren replied.

  “You know he’s not going to change his mind, right? He’s still not quite himself, and doing this will help him feel like part of the team again. He thinks he has something to prove, and maybe he does, but mostly to himself,” Flint said.

  Wren looked at the man beside her and laughed. “Sometimes you surprise me, Lancaster. Now let’s get out of here.”

  “Fine, but when this is over, you owe me a date. We missed our standing meeting at the cafeteria last night.” Flint winked, and that got her moving toward the door faster.

  “In your dreams, flyboy. In your dreams.” Wren didn’t take a second glance as she left the room.

  They went their separate ways, and Wren tried to track down Charles. He wouldn’t respond to her communication, and eventually, she found herself at the cafeteria, hoping someone had seen him. The Eureka was on high alert, and a soft alarm rang through the corridors, a red light flashing every ten seconds.

  No one inside had seen her friend, so she wandered to the bridge. Junior Lieutenant Mark Foggle sat in the pilot’s seat, and weapons officer Harry Tsang was perched at the edge of the counter, watching his console with deep concentration.

  Wren made her way to his side, stepping loudly enough to not startle him. “Harry, have you seen Charles?”

  The man didn’t break his stare from the console screen, where he surveyed for any incoming vessels. “He’s already gone.”

  “Gone? Already?” Wren was surprised. “He wasn’t supposed to go for another two hours.”

  “The Grand Admiral changed her mind. See, his Recon fighter is here.” Harry tapped a glowing icon beside the Eureka.

  Wren remained beside the weapons officer and silently wished Charles luck.

  Charles

  He sat in the ship, running a thorough diagnostic check of the vessel. It belonged to the Grand Admiral, and he wasn’t as familiar with the model as he was others, but everything came back within reasonable parameters. Charles considered running a check on himself but disregarded his concern. He was fine, running at optimal precision.

  He’d started to feel more like his old self, as if his destruction and rebirth had allowed him some time for contemplation and refocus. Sure, Benson had lied to him and tricked his programming. But if the man hadn’t done so, Wren would still be in prison, and if the rumors were true, she’d be dead alongside the rest of the two thousand or so inmates they’d left behind under Caliban’s surface.

  The job sounded easy enough. Shift to the warship, which by all accounts was dead in space. Flint’s concern it might recover did sit in his mind, worrying him as he keyed in the Shift coordinates. He understood his friend’s points about destroying the vessel, but if they could keep it intact, Charles was excited to learn more about the Watchers. Serina had already told him they had database after database, pulled from different enemy vessels, and promised he’d have first look at them when the mission was done. Charles had a hunger to devour any knowledge of the Watchers, and if helping the Fleet obtain this warship would expedite that, he was all for it.

  “I’m activating the drive,” he told the Grand Admiral’s carrier communication line.

  “Very well. You know what to do. Godspeed,” Serina said. Charles was proud that the leader of the entire resistance against the Watchers took the time to offer him well-wishes.

  Ace had offered to escort Charles to the warship’s belly, ready to fight any enemy ships, should they emerge from the Watchers’ hangar bays. The Grand Admiral had shot the suggestion down, stating it would be more dangerous to send two ships. Charles didn’t know if that was true, but he could understand both points of view.

  He engaged the drive and, in a split second, found himself underneath the huge warship, right where he needed to be. The Recon ship was designed to attach to other vessels, and had all the tools necessary to gain entrance onto a crewed ship. Arms shot out from the ship on his command, and he felt the Recon fighter lock into place, directly under their life-support hub. Charles scanned the file that described the process of dismantling their system, and immediately after inputting the data into his mind, he followed the instructions.

  “Charles, something is happening over there. Lights are coming on. It appears their drive is activating!” The Grand Admiral sounded worried, perhaps even a little panicked.

  “What should I do?” he asked.

  “Keep working!”

  Charles did, but he hurried along, snipping and cutting at the underbelly of the ship.

  Another voice carried over now. It was Flint. “Charles, the ship is going to leave. Damn it, Serina, just shoot them down. Charles, get away from there.”

  Charles considered this when Serina spoke again. “Get off my line. Charles, we will not destroy this ship. Cut the support. Even if they leave, we’ll follow. Eventually, we’ll find them all dead inside, and we can commandeer the ship.”

  The conflicting orders spun through him, but he kept working. His ship rumbled as the warship vibrated with energy. There wasn’t much time. Charles had a new plan. He pulled an external transponder off the Recon fighter with one of the mechanical arms, quickly welding it five meters away. His ship began to float from the warship, and he fired a quick series of shots under it, targeting a square meter where he’d been unable to finish his task.

  Minor explosions rapidly blew out as the lack of oxygen took over. The life support system would be destroyed. As the warship began to depart, he tapped the Shifter, heading for the side of the Fleet carrier.

  The enemy warship disappeared.

  Flint

  “Now what did that get us?” Flint was shouting, trying to keep his calm but finding it impossible.

  “It got us a ship, in due time. You pilots are always so filled with the need for instant gratification, aren’t you?” Serina asked, striking another nerve. “We have to be patient. Patience has kept us alive this long, and will keep us going still.”

  The bridge was one Flint was familiar with, only this carrier was old and abused. The staff were quiet, not comfortable with speaking out against the Fleet leader, and he was getting some dirty looks for saying what was on his mind. One of the Grand Admiral’s guards cracked his knuckles, and Flint decided it might be time to shut up.

  “How will you track it? There’s no way to follow a Shift.” Flint shuffled from foot to foot, feeling an energy he couldn’t burn off by standing and talking.

  The bridge door opened, revealing Charles.

  “Did you finish the job, android?” Serina asked him.

  Flint cringed at the casual way she addressed his friend. Charles took it on the chin and kept his calm demeanor. “I didn’t have ti
me to do it the way the manual stated, so I fired at the support system, rendering it useless.”

  “I hope that worked. I wish you’d have stuck to the book,” Serina said.

  “Then I’d still be stuck to the underbelly,” Charles said, and by the look on Serina’s face, Flint didn’t think she’d have cared if that was the outcome, as long as the task was completed. He got the feeling self-sacrifice had become part of the Earth Fleet mission statement over the last thirty years.

  “Adams, let’s map out the locations where we think they may have gone. They have a pattern, if we watch closely enough. Let’s reconvene…”

  She was cut off as Charles stuck his hand up. “Grand Admiral, I don’t think you’ll need to go to all that trouble.”

  “And why is that?” Serina asked, a bite to her voice.

  “Because I removed the transponder from the Recon vessel and welded it to their hull at the last minute. Key in that Recon fighter’s ID codes, and you should be able to see where they went,” Charles said without a hint of gloating.

  Flint could have hugged the metal man right then and there, just for the satisfaction of catching the Grand Admiral off her game.

  “Adams. Key it in,” she said softly.

  Adams spoke up, a wide smile on his face. “Got them. They’re not too far either.”

  “Good. They’ll have ways to stay alive, but if you destroyed the support system, they’ll likely be unable to repair it in time. We’ll wait three days, then make our move.” Serina left the bridge, leaving the crew busy at their consoles.

  Flint and Charles nodded at each other before making a move to exit the space.

  “Good work out there today. You got a point for our side,” Flint said.

  Charles didn’t seem to understand. “Aren’t we on the same side as these people?”

  How could Flint explain it? “We are, but… you know… we’re different. They’ve been through some serious stuff, and so have we.” Maybe Charles was right. He couldn’t even convince himself.