by Jay Allan
The defenders were well trained, but were also young, with no real combat experience. Major Rand’s force outnumbered them, and had enough of the battle hardened older Marines to tip the scales in their favor.
When the fighting was over, Milburn stepped out into the corridor and breathed a sigh of relief. The young Marines had been injured, but none had been killed. Major Rand had stayed true to his word.
“Fire in the hole!” one of the Marines shouted as the doors to the bridge were blown open.
Milburn raised his weapon, and stormed the bridge alongside the Marines. They quickly took control of the room, disarming the mutineers, and taking key positions. Milburn only had one thought in mind, and made a bee line toward Commander Johansen, weapon pointed at his head.
“Well done, Captain,” said Johansen. “But it won’t do you any good.”
“Shut your mouth,” Milburn barked, closing the distance between them until his weapon was mere inches away from Johansen’s forehead.
“All of this could have been avoided, if you had just listened to reason.”
“Reason? That’s what you call this? The aliens are not enough? We have to turn on each other too? What the hell happened to you?”
“I want a future. That’s what happened.”
“We have a future. In the colonies.”
“No, Captain. That is not a future. It’s a death sentence.”
“That is your opinion, and your opinion doesn’t count for anything anymore. Take him away.”
The ship shuddered violently to the surprise of everyone on the bridge. “Report!” shouted Milburn, fearing the worst. “What just happened?”
“That is the FTL engine, Captain,” said Johansen, a calm grin spreading across his face.
“The FTL engine?” said Milburn, realization dawning on him. “What did you do?”
“You think you’ve won, Captain. But I never expected to hold the ship indefinitely. I knew Major Rand and others would remain loyal to you, and help you regain command. You see, command wasn’t what I wanted. What I want is a future for my grandchildren. And their best hope for one is here, in this system. So, I rigged the FTL engine with explosives.”
“You destroyed our FTL engine?” Milburn said in disbelief.
“Yes, Sir. I did. Like it or not, we are staying in this system.”
Chapter 10
Captain Milburn stood by the window in his ready room on the Invincible, looking down on the habitation domes below. They had accomplished much in the last few years, and most of his crew now lived down on the asteroids. Another generation was being born down there. The second generation after the fall of Sol.
He himself remained on board the Invincible. The old bird still needed a Captain, and a crew. While the crew rotated between the ship and the colony, he stayed aboard full time. This was his home, and moving down to the colony felt too much like defeat. Besides, he had not been beaten yet.
“How long do you think it will take?” he said. “How long until all memory of Earth is lost?”
“I don’t know, Sir,” said Major Rand, who like him chose to live aboard the ship full time. “It might not be forgotten. Maybe the idea of Earth will become a legend one day?”
Milburn turned from the window. “That will be a sad day.”
“Agreed.”
“How’s the training going?”
“Good. They’ll be ready when the time comes.”
Milburn nodded. “Engineering is making progress. They say they will have low light speeds soon.”
“Hopefully it will be enough.”
“It will,” said Milburn. “The intelligence our drones have gathered over the last few years has been invaluable. We know the Kemmar trade routes, and how frequently they send out patrols into the area. The freighters are not fast, and have few defenses, if any. We shouldn’t have much difficulty catching one.”
“My team will be ready to board them when we do,” said Rand. “With any luck, we’ll find what we’re looking for.”
“We will. Sooner or later, we’ll fill Engineering’s shopping list. And when we do, we can finally head for the colonies.”
“It’ll be hard to convince them to leave.”
“I know. And the longer it takes, the harder it will be. But we must try. This is no life for Earth’s descendants.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“We’ll make it to the colonies, Major. Until then, we’ll have to be Reivers.”
“Reivers?”
Milburn smiled. “An old story my grandmother used to tell me. ‘We are Reivers,’ she used to say. Apparently, she traced her ancestry back to the Border Reivers. They lived along the border, between England and Scotland, from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century. They were raiders. There’s no evidence, but I’m sure they were descendants of the Vikings. Anyway, they would cross the border and raid the farms and towns there, and then cross back with their plunder.”
“And we’ll be just like them when we cross through the gate, and board the Kemmar freighters.”
“Yes, we will.”
“Reivers,” said Rand. “I like the sound of it.”
About the Author, G.P. Hudson
G.P. Hudson is the author of the hit space opera, The Pike Chronicles. He writes fast paced military science fiction, with an emphasis on world building, vast galactic empires, and power struggles. The Pike Chronicles is an epic science fiction adventure spanning the galaxy.
G.P. has been writing stories since childhood, and is a lifelong reader of science fiction. His study of history provides limitless inspiration for his stories. This story takes place five hundred years before the events of the Pike Chronicles. When the Reivers appeared in the Pike Chronicles, no one could figure out how a colony of humans ended up in an asteroid field two-hundred-and-fifty light years from Earth. Even the Reivers had no idea how they got there. Hopefully this story sheds some light on their origins, and how they turned out into the race of warriors found in the Pike Chronicles.
Find G.P. online: Facebook | Twitter | Amazon | Website
Books by G.P. Hudson
The Pike Chronicles
BATTLE BEYOND EARTH: LIBERTY
By Nick S. Thomas
Prologue
The year is 2513. War has come to the Alliance after hundreds of years of peace, a war like no other. An ancient enemy that had long been forgotten has returned. Bolormaa, the scourge of the universe, a brutal Queen who rules with an iron fist and claims to be immortal; a fact that so far appears to be true.
The call to arms was answered by many throughout the Alliance, including resurrected and ancient champion of Earth – Mitch Taylor. A United States Marine Corps officer who rose up to not only lead Earth to victory against the Krys hundreds of years ago, but a man who personally defeated their leader in combat. Now the Krys people fight alongside humanity against this ancient enemy. Bolormaa and her kind, the Morohtans.
One such Krys is Babacan. An officer in Mitch Taylor’s unit, Babacan was one of the strongest and bravest representatives of his people. Like all Krys, he towered over the humans, enabling him to pursue paths most men would not dare to tread. A fearless and irreplaceable asset to Taylor, he was badly wounded during their last mission together. A disastrous operation to rescue fellow Alliance marines and soldiers, an operation that nearly cost Babacan his life. Now he is recovering from his wounds on the Liberty 3 station. A remote medical facility and lay up location for many of the Alliance forces. Babacan has yet to regain consciousness from his near-death experience.
Chapter 1
Babacan’s eyes shot open. Gleaming white and in deep contrast to his deep, dark blue skin. He had no idea where he was or how he’d got there. Except he was lying in a hospital bed in a well-lit and sterile room. It smelt of bleach and similar cleaning fluids. He remembered being in a gunfight, protected by a mighty armoured and powered suit, but it was like a dream. He didn’t recall how he got from there to this bed, assuming his mind wasn
’t playing tricks on him. He did remember whom he’d been facing. Humans, and for whatever reason, they had been his enemy. The door seal opened, and he lay back, pretending to once more be unconscious.
Two sets of footsteps rang out, and by the lightness of their tread he could tell they were not his kind.
“The patient continues to recover well,” said one.
“It is a miracle he is even alive,” replied the other.
He felt a touch on his neck, and his right-hand clenched into a fist. He tried to stay calm, with no idea what he was facing. A moment later he felt a needle prod into his collar. That was enough. He shot bolt upright and backhanded the man who had stuck him with the needle. His strength knocked the man off his feet, and he crashed against the door he had just used to enter. Babacan leapt off the bed, ripped out the needle, and stared at it with disgust before tossing it away.
“Uhh…I…please,” stammered the man who still remained standing.
He looked terrified, but Babacan wasn’t interested in his feelings. As far as he was concerned, he was one of his captors. The human backed up against the wall and looked at a nearby panic button, considering whether to press it. Babacan rushed forward, grabbed him, and hurled him across the room. He smashed into the far wall and fell to the floor, unconscious. He peered out of the door, checking to see if he was indeed in a hospital ward, and saw two guards approaching, no doubt to investigate the ruckus he’d created. He looked around for some sign to indicate his location, but found nothing. Only medical patients, and all were human, as were the staff.
Something thumped the button on the wall behind him. The man he’d struck had reached the alarm, and he thought to strike him again, but it was already too late. A siren wailed, its strident tones echoing around the ward.
“Hey, you, don’t move!” yelled a guard.
He darted out of the door, turned away from the guards, and ran. He burst out of the hospital and into a hexagonal shaped corridor. It looked like the interior of a large star ship. Crewmembers were walking back and forth, ignoring him as if seeing him was of no surprise at all.
“Halt! Stop right there!”
The guards were chasing him, and he raced away as fast as he could run. He rounded a bend and found himself face-to-face with another guard, but the weapon he carried was merely a stun baton. Babacan thrust his hand up between the weapon and the man’s head before he could use it, and locked his arm. Yanked him around and shoved him face first into the wall. The man let go his weapon and relinquished it to Babacan, who carried on running.
He didn’t recognise anyone he passed. All he could think of was to get back to Colonel Taylor and the other familiar faces. He needed to find his unit, and he couldn’t trust anyone until he had found them. He held the stun baton ready to strike, expecting some of those he encountered to challenge him, but no shouts of alarm rang out. Nobody viewed him as a threat, nobody tried to stop him, and that struck him as strange. Instead, they moved out the way, merely surprised he was in such a hurry. He repeatedly glanced over his shoulder, as if expecting to be shot in the back by at least one of the humans he’d passed. Yet no shots came.
He was searching for a sign, a way he could get out of whatever and wherever this place was. A landing pad or docking bay, something, anything, but as he rounded another bend, he came face-to-face with a man armed with an assault rifle. The first proper weapon he had seen yet. He stopped and waited.
“Hey, take it easy. We aren’t here to hurt you,” said the man.
Babacan was suspicious and had no idea how he should react.
“My name is Captain Alex Woods, Marine detail to the Liberty 3 Station.”
He waited for him to go on.
“Do you remember your name? Or how you got here?”
Still he would give nothing away, and he stayed silent.
“Babacan, that’s your name. Do you remember what happened?”
He shook his head.
“You were hurt, hurt real bad. You are here to recover.”
He heard someone closing in fast from behind, and he started to move.
“No, wait!” Woods yelled.
Too late. The woman was coming at him with another stun baton. He pushed her aside and hit her with his own weapon. Light fizzled from the head as it struck her, and she went down, spasming as the power surged through her body. Another man came at him, and Babacan grabbed hold of him. He threw him at the Captain, who collapsed under the weight of the body. Babacan recovered fast, and began moving away before they could recover.
Light showed up ahead, and his hopes of getting away surged, but as he drew nearer, it was nothing more than a viewing port looking out into space. Several Alliance ships lay docked nearby, so the Captain had spoken the truth, they were indeed aboard a space station. He didn’t know if it was Liberty 3, as he’d never seen it before. He was mesmerised by the view, trying to establish it were real. Or merely a projection to trick him.
“Do you believe me now?” Captain Woods asked.
Babacan whirled, surprised he’d caught up with him, and even more surprised he hadn’t heard him coming. Woods held his rifle low as if he had no intention of using it.
He decided to speak. “The last thing I remember I was fighting people like you.”
“But you were also fighting alongside humans, isn’t that correct? You are one of Colonel Taylor’s unit.”
“Yes, I realize that,” he replied at last. Offended they’d even asked him what was so obvious, “Tell me, why am I here?”
“I told you. You were badly wounded, and you have been here recovering ever since.”
“Where is Taylor?”
“Hell, I don’t know. He’s probably chasing Bolormaa.”
Babacan turned to face the Captain.
“Chasing Bolormaa? I think you will find it is the other way around.”
He shrugged. “Either way, there is no reason for you to run. It’s great to see you up and about, but you aren’t ready to go back into the line, not just yet.”
Babacan grimaced. “What would you know about such things? What action have you ever seen out here?”
“More than I care to recall.”
“How can I know what you say or any of this is true?”
He sighed. “I was informed you might be like this.”
“Your orders were to keep me under control?”
“Yes.”
“You could just as easily be the enemy tricking me,” he said spitefully, “How would I know otherwise?”
“I promise you I am not. What can I do to convince you?”
“Let me leave this place. Allow me get back to Taylor.”
“And we will, just as soon as the doctors confirm you fit for duty.”
He was already shaking his head.
“I am fit, and I am not going back to that hospital bed.”
“Then let the docs at least have a quick look over you, to make sure you have recovered. They have taken great care of you up to this point. I assure you, you are lucky to be alive.”
They both fell silent, as neither seemed to be getting the response they wanted. Abruptly, a light flashed on the datapad on the Captain’s arm, and a siren echoed around the ship.
“Damn, what is this?” he muttered to himself, as he hurried to check the information on the screen.
“What is it?” Babacan asked.
“Our sensors read unknown energy signatures. Someone is jumping in, and they don’t have Alliance transponder codes.”
Lights flashed beyond the viewing window. Jump gates opened, and four large warships burst out; flat, black shadow-like objects that could only mean one thing. Crab shaped ships, with talon like protrusions on the hulls. Two craft opened fire on an Alliance frigate waiting in orbit over the station. A beam of light pierced the vessel, carved it in two, and it burst into flames.
“Morohtans,” said Woods in disbelief.
Chapter 2
“Wait!” Captain Woods shouted.
/> Babacan was already moving, even quicker than before. The calm atmosphere inside the station had gone. Alarm sirens clamoured, and the crew hurried to man their stations. Their faces wore morbid, frightened expressions, as though they were going to their deaths, and there was nothing they could do to prevent it. Harsh vibrations shook the deck beneath his feet as the station weapons batteries opened fire. No hesitation, no negotiation. Not with this enemy. They’d long ago learnt the lesson. It was kill or be killed.
Massive gunfire slammed into the hull, violently rocking the entire station, and a direct hit exploded close behind him. He heard a cry of pain. For a moment he kept on running and didn’t look back, but soon he stopped. Maybe Woods was legit. Maybe he was an ally, and Babacan would never leave an ally behind. He heard a violent coughing, and went back to find the Captain beneath a pile of debris that had descended from the roof. The officer was stunned and trying to push the fallen material off him. Babacan lifted it with ease and hauled him to his feet. His rifle was on the ground, and he picked it up, too, thrusting it into the Captain’s arms. Woods looked surprised.
Babacan addressed him firmly. “If you want to live, you’ll leave now.”
“I can’t leave.”
“Then you’ll die.”
Woods coughed as he tried to clear his throat and recover his senses. Babacan propped him up and helped him to a small bench where he could rest.
“I am leaving here. I have to go back. There is somewhere I need to be,” said Babacan.
“You can help us here.”
“Help you? Do you have a few hundred well equipped marines, and the support of a fleet to back them up?”
Woods shook his head.
“Then there is nothing to be done here. Good luck, Captain.”
Gunfire echoed down the corridor. Which meant the breach was a boarding action, more than just gunfire. The enemy was here, and Babacan knew his time was running out. He turned back to Woods.
