Return to Haven (Empire Rising Book 3)

by D. J. Holmes

  It seemed the limited artificial intelligence on two of the nearest drones had come to the same conclusion as they altered course to investigate. As soon as they came into the general area of Mallory’s drone he activated a second and then five minutes later a third.

  Fifty minutes after Mallory had activated the first drone, the time it took for the drones to send their sensor data to the patrolling warships and for new orders to be sent back, ten of the drones broke off their search patterns and began a more intensive search in the area of Mallory’s first drone. Then, in quick succession, a number of revisions to the drones’ orders obviously came in as the drones began to move back and forth across the space around Endeavour, frantically trying to check out all the contacts they were picking up.

  “It’s working,” Mallory said.

  “Yes, now let’s see if they take the bait,” James replied.

  For another forty minutes Endeavour moved silently into the outer system. All the while the patrol craft continued to approach the general area Endeavour had to be in. Then, as James watched, the formation of over sixteen patrol craft shifted as they came onto a new heading.

  “Activate the rest of the drones,” James ordered.

  “Done,” Mallory said. In response to his order six drones gave off signals that mimicked Endeavour in one fashion or another.

  “Some of the recon drones are diverting to investigate our latest drones,” Malik said. “The patrol ships are staying on their courses though.

  “Perfect,” James said. Mallory had carefully activated his drones in a manner that would slowly pull the Indian search towards one end of the large bubble that represented the area of space Endeavour could have got to in stealth mode. It had taken a while for the pattern to become recognizable, but the Indian Admiral had finally seen it. Just as James had wanted. Now the Indian Admiral was directing all their ships into the area where it looked like James had been trying to hide Endeavour.

  In reality though, Endeavour was right in the middle of the area the Indian drones were searching. It had been a big risk to take. Yet, it now meant that Endeavour would pass by the outer edge of the Indian patrol ships’ formation and, with luck, avoid detection by their much more powerful search radars.

  For another forty minutes the Indian drones buzzed around Endeavour but none came close enough for their radar to overload her stealth coating. Then it came time to pass by the outer edge of the Indian formation. Everyone on the bridge watched Becket’s readout of the levels of radar radiation hitting the hull slowly increase. More than one sigh of relief was heard when they passed by the Indian formation and the radar levels decreased.

  “Take us into a low orbit around the gas giant,” James ordered once they were well clear of the Indian ships. Haven’s eighth planet had been his target all along. “I want to enter its upper atmosphere. That should hide us from any ships that might pass by looking for us. We’ll lie low until we get a signal from Major Johnston. The mission rests on his shoulders now.”

  Chapter 14 – The Natives

  At times I have thought the description ‘Earth like planet’ has been used far too generously. Even the most Earth like planets have required generations of toil and struggle to turn them into places where the human race can thrive.

  -Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD

  26th April 2467 AD, edge of Haven’s atmosphere.

  Major Johnston stood in the stealth shuttle, holding onto one of the ceiling rails with as firm a grip as his combat armor would allow. Every bone in his body felt like it had already been rattled into pieces as the shuttle bucked up and down. Apart from the two special forces marines in the pilot chairs, the other members of his team were bouncing up and down as they stood beside Johnston holding on for dear life. Despite his armor’s heat regulating system Johnston was working up a sweat as the shuttle absorbed all the heat its plummet through Haven’s atmosphere generated.

  “No one told me it was going to be like standing in a furnace,” he growled over the shuttle’s COM.

  “We did say it was going to get hot,” Lieutenant Moony said.

  “Yeah, hot, not boiling. How much more can the shuttle take?”

  “Another thirty seconds and we will be through the upper atmosphere, we are beginning to slow now,” Moony said. “If the shuttle wasn’t absorbing all our heat from reentry we would be lighting up every Indian sensor in the system.”

  “I know, I know,” Johnston said. “It doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

  Just as Moony said, the rattling died down within thirty seconds as the shuttle stopped being buffeted about so much. As they descended, Johnston checked the external temperature reading on his combat armor. It said the temperature was falling, but he couldn’t feel it yet.

  When the shuttle landed and the external door opened, the cool air that hit them was like a welcome embrace. Despite the combat armor that his body was encased in, Johnston still found himself letting out a satisfied sigh along with the rest of the marines.

  “I’ve never felt something so nice in my armor before,” one of the marines said.

  “And you won’t ever again if I have my way,” Lieutenant Moony said. “Now get your ass out of the shuttle and check the perimeter,” he ordered.

  By the time Johnston and Moony walked down the shuttle’s ramp half of the squad’s eight marines had disappeared into the forest to scout their surroundings. The other four already had one of the shuttle’s side pods open and were removing the camouflage netting. The shuttle’s design and stealth coating made it almost impossible to detect from orbit. However, the shuttle had set down in a small clearing in one of Haven’s thick forests and from above the black shuttle stood out among the multicolored foliage.

  “Get this covered ASAP,” Moony said to the marines nearby. He stepped away from Johnston and opened a COM channel to the other marines and spoke to them about what they had discovered so far.

  Major Johnston took a deep breath and looked around him. The Haven forests were certainly impressive. Somewhat similar to trees from Earth, they were covered in thick branches all the way down to where their trunks met the ground. Their leaves were much wider and thicker than any Johnston had seen on Earth and they sparkled with shades of pink, red and violet. They would have been beautiful if Johnston didn’t know how much effort it took to trek through them.

  Absentmindedly he detached the plasma lance from his armor. Thumbing the activation button brought the familiar snap hiss of the blade as it powered up. Johnston swung it round and round, watching the green glow of the lance trace out shapes in front of him. The plasma lance had belonged to Sergeant Harkin and had come in very useful the last time Johnston had been on Haven. Sadly, Harkin had been killed on Vestar. Johnston had kept the plasma lance when he had gone through Harkin’s personal effects. He hoped it would come in useful again, though he couldn’t use it so close to the shuttle. If he carved a path through the thick under canopy someone might stumble across it and follow it back to the shuttle.

  Sighing, he thumbed the plasma lance off and brought a map of the continent they had landed on up on his HUD. Liberty, Haven’s capital, was more than four hundred kilometers to the north. Endeavour’s optical scanners had already identified a large military base a few kilometers outside the city, as well as what looked like a number of fortified outposts within the city. Any attempt to retake Haven from the Indians would need to quickly neutralize all the Indian hard points. It was his intention to scout as many of them as possible.

  “Ready to move out?” Johnston asked Lieutenant Moony once he had checked their route on his HUD. By his estimate it would take more than a day to carefully cover the kilometers to Liberty and he wanted to get going. He knew Endeavour couldn’t stay nearby forever.

  “Yes Sir,” Moony replied. “Samuels and McFarland have already taken point.”

  “Lead on then,” Johnston said.

  *

  Five hours of tiresome hiking through the thick foliage foun
d Johnston, Moony and the rest of the special forces marines, sat on a number of boulders taking some weight off their feet. With only a couple of spare energy packs each for their combat armor suits they were having to operate their equipment at only fifty percent of its full capacity. That meant the marines were using a significant amount of their own strength to move the heavy armor around. For normal marines such a feat would be impossible but special forces marines were a special group. Selected from the top one percent of normal marines, special forces marines then underwent a series of genetic and biomechanical alterations, the specifics of which were a tightly guarded secret. Those that survived the process had almost superhuman strength, speed and healing abilities. Even so, they were all finding it hard going in Haven’s forests.

  Johnston looked up when Private Samuels appeared through the foliage. She had been scouting the next section of their journey while the rest of the team rested. “I stumbled across a small village up ahead. It looks like they widened a natural clearing in the forest to build a few houses and grow some crops.”

  Johnston wasn’t surprised. The vast majority of Haven’s landmass was covered in the thick forests they had been trekking through. In a bid to produce enough food the early Haven settlers had spread out to take advantage of whatever clear ground they could find.

  “We’ll have to take a wide detour round it then,” Moony said. “If the locals spot us and word gets out they will have the Indians breathing down their necks. That will add more time to our journey.”

  “You may want to investigate the village instead,” Samuels said. “Or at least come and have a look for yourself. It looks abandoned. My guess is that there was a fight there a week or two ago. I think the Indians have already become a problem for whoever lived there.”

  “Any sign of survivors?” Johnston asked.

  “No,” Samuels replied. “The place looks well beat up.”

  “Well then, we will get some good images to send back to Earth at least,” Johnston said. “Let’s take a look.”

  Fifteen minutes later Johnston found himself standing in the middle of a primitive looking village. His guess had been right. The settlement had probably been built by the first generation of settlers. It looked like no one had bothered to improve it or expand it after it had been first set up. Well, at least what is left of it hasn’t been updated, Johnston thought. Almost half of the buildings had been destroyed outright or had large holes blasted in them. From the look of the damage, some heavy caliber plasma cannons had ploughed their way through the village.

  “Spread out,” Johnston said. “Turn on your visual recording devices. The people back home will want to see just what Indian rule looks like.”

  “You heard him,” Moony said to the other marines.

  Switching on his own recording device, Johnston made for the nearest building. It had a large hole blasted in one of its sides and even with his combat armor on he was able to walk straight in. What he saw inside tugged at his heart and sent his mind back to his life before the Void War. He had walked into what looked like the living room of the settler’s house, not too different from the house he had shared with his wife.

  Chairs and a center table were knocked over or covered in large burn marks. Holo pictures were arrayed around what was left of the room’s walls. Their images were still clearly visible as their power packs hadn’t yet run out. In one corner of the room on a small seat there were a number of stuffed toys all neatly arrayed. What struck Johnston was how normal the room looked. Despite all the damage it still looked like a welcoming space where people had enjoyed a normal home life. Something Johnston hadn’t experienced since he had been called back into the marines.

  In another corner of the room a collection of children’s toys was strewn across the floor and Johnston’s mind was once again sent back to his wife. They had dreamed of starting a family together before the war. They had even started picking out a few toys that they thought their children would one day like. Johnston tried to force the memories away. He had a job to focus on. That dream could no longer be a reality, Noelle was dead. Killed by the Chinese. His anger had nearly cost him a dear friend the last time he had been on Haven. He had to move on.

  Allowing himself just a few more seconds to think of his wife, Johnston turned sharply and walked out of the damaged building. When he got back into daylight Lieutenant Moony waved him over, “We have found two survivors Sir.”

  Johnston picked up his pace and strode across the settlement to where Moony stood. As he got closer an older couple came into view from behind Moony’s combat armor. They both looked terrified and as Johnston got close enough he could see the wife’s eyes darting back and forth from Moony’s armored head to his plasma rifle.

  Johnston knew what the problem was. Whoever they were, the only other soldiers they had seen in combat armor had been the ones who had destroyed their village. With a flick of his thumb he disengaged his combat armor. Back sections of the armor slid up and to the sides and within a couple of seconds he was able to take a step backwards and place his feet on solid ground. He stepped around his now lifeless armor and held out his hand to the old man.

  “My name is Samuel Johnston. I am a Major in the British Marines stationed on the HMS Endeavour,” he said.

  At first the man looked at him warily but as Johnston had hoped, at the mention of Endeavour his face changed.

  “The Endeavour?” the man asked.

  “There is only one,” Johnston replied, nodding. “We have come to see what the Indians are up to.”

  “Oh thank goodness,” the man’s wife broke in. “You have come to save us. Just like you did when the Vestarians attacked.”

  “That is our aim,” Johnston said. “We are just an advance force though. We are here to scout the Indian ground positions in preparation for an eventual attack. However, I can’t make any promises about when that will be. You may have to live with the Indians for a while. How are your people bearing up under the Indian occupation? What exactly happened here?”

  “I can’t speak for the rest of our planet,” the old man began. “And I hope you don’t mind if I don’t tell you my name. If you are captured, I don’t want you leading the Indians back to what’s left of my village.”

  Without waiting for a reply, he began to tell his story. “It began just over a week ago. We heard all about the Indian invasion of course. But apart from some planet wide broadcasts from the Indians we hadn’t seen or heard from them. That all changed when a small band of troops showed up in our village demanding that we turn over a percentage of our crops. They said it was for the people in the cities. The problem was we had already sold our surplus before the Indians arrived.

  “When we refused to just give the food over the soldiers insisted it was a legal tax they were imposing on everyone. When we still refused they left. Then the next day they returned with a shuttle full of soldiers in the same kind of armor your men are wearing. Many of the young farmers and settlers had been expecting something and they had armed themselves.”

  “They tried to take on soldiers in combat armor?” Moony asked in surprise.

  “They tried,” the old man said, nodding sadly. “One or two of the farmers had large mass driver rifles for taking down some of the bigger creatures in the forest. They managed to get one of the soldiers before they were both killed. Some of the other settlers had improvised a number of explosive devices that took out another two.

  “After the initial shots, the soldiers retreated back into the forest. For a few moments we thought we had won. Then a shuttle swooped in and blasted our settlement. Just as we were picking ourselves up off the floor, the soldiers were back and moving amongst us like lightening. Almost everyone with anything resembling a weapon was killed on the spot. It was a bloodbath.

  “The soldiers rounded the rest of us up and forced whoever was uninjured to help them load the shuttle up with most of our food stores. They said they were taking more than what they had initially asked
for as punishment for our resistance. Then they lifted off and we haven’t seen sight nor sound of them since.”

  “I’m very sorry,” Johnston said. “Where are the rest of the settlers now?”

  “They moved on,” the old man answered.

  “There was no food for them here and it will be another six months before the next harvest is ready to be taken in. Most have gone to nearby settlements in the hopes of being taken in by friends or family. Others have headed for Liberty.”

  “Liberty?” Johnston prodded.

  “Yes, there are rumors of fighting in the city,” the old man said. “At least one of the Councilors is still alive and putting up a fight against the Indian soldiers. I don’t know if that is true or if they are having any success, but many of the young men wanted to fight after what happened to us. They set out for Liberty to try and find whoever is still fighting.”