The Vassal World (The First Exoplanet Book 2)

by T. J. Sedgwick

The fourth and final sub to arrive safely was the USS George W Bush. Thereafter, the FTL gate in the Gulf of Mexico failed, leaving USS William J. Clinton, the Jin-Tang, INS Sinduraje and HMS Ajax to remain on Earth. As USS George W Bush contacted Exelon Command, the Korgax drones reached Esperanza’s previous coordinates. They hunted for their quarry, but detected nothing within range. Eight-hundred kilometres away, the USS George W Bush, prepared to launch. With the subs concealed from orbital weapons by the sea and the darkness, the Korgax air force remained the main threat. Spies had revealed the approximate time-to-intercept of the Korgax air drones. This defined the launch window at the first jump point for the first three subs. So, the USS George W Bush jumped to the second jump-in point, frustrating the Korgax.

  With 1,450 warheads nearing their targets, the ground offensive would begin soon afterwards. The large, but dispersed forces – hundreds of thousands of human and Outcast commandos, battledroids and regular forces – would launch the global assault. Spies and agitators would instigate an uprising in cities all over Gaia. Allied forces would link up with Alpha rebels to fight a weakened Korgax military, preoccupied by both the uprising and the invasion of Earth. With the bulk of their forces committed on Earth, the timing was right for a swift victory and regime change. But would it succeed? The Alpha-Outcast government-in-waiting was ready to take the reins of state power. Now two worlds awaited news from Zeta-One patrol on Mount Hazard. The first detonation there was just minutes away.

  ***

  January 12, 2064: Mount Hazard, Large Continent, Planet Gaia

  Jonah led the way back up the ladder into the warehouse. Sorensen, Jen and Lakai followed close behind. Jonah pressed upwards on the trapdoor and pushed hard, dislodging a heavy piece of the junk pile that had fallen onto it. His head and shoulders emerged and he cleared a path through the debris pile. They made their way towards the back wall of the warehouse and the exit. Still cloaked, and with just three minutes until detonation, the four commandos dashed out of the door. They headed in darkness towards the government town at the foot of Mount Hazard. The War Council session had been still ongoing, as they had called in the strike then left. The launch confirmation had spared them from the suicidal assault on the War Council that would have been otherwise necessary.

  As Sorensen ran, his mind slipped to another time and place – his last experience of normal life on Earth. Life before they’d been sent up a certain creek without a certain wooden implement. A casual dinner date with his girlfriend, Zoe. He was still only thirty-six, but as the years had passed he’d felt the urge to settle down. Damn, it must be a powerful urge if it’s even getting to me, he laughed to himself. He wondered where she was right now, what she was doing. No doubt, yet another beautiful young woman whose life the Korgax had fucked up. Bastards had no right, and he was glad they were about to be vapourised by beautiful American-made technology. He had no close family left to miss him if he didn’t make it. He was glad of this, and felt it made him a better, less fearful soldier. If he went, he went. In Sorensen’s view, the only people death hurt was loved ones. For him, he just considered it going back to where he came from. The fact he didn’t exist before birth didn’t bother him one iota, so why should it after death?

  They traversed deserted, dark streets on the gentle slope down through the town. They’d passed many cuboidal, concrete structures. These were presumably houses, occupied mainly by government workers. They reached a larger, two-story structure, with the usual lack of architectural merit.

  “This one looks promising...in here,” said Jen.

  The well-built Sergeant Jonah Fitzroy kicked in the door and the squad piled inside the dark building. A startled Alpha came through a side entrance and stared at the broken door. He looked after the sound of footsteps, but thought better of pursuing them, instead running out of the broken door. Zeta-One patrol dashed down the steps into the cellar as the first half-megaton warhead detonated.

  The airburst detonation happened a hundred metres from the side of Mount Hazard, adjacent to the War Council. It vapourised the adjacent mountainside; rock, buildings and Korgax alike were reduced to atoms in the flash of the nuclear bloom. The War Council and its warmongering members were not spared, their protective dome no match for the human device. The second warhead flew through the mushroom cloud of the first, melting the heart of Mount Hazard, and sending seismic shockwaves through the ground. Nothing survived as the remaining warheads pummelled the mountain to atoms.

  ***

  January 15, 2064: Earth

  Colonel Satish Kaur surveyed the oncoming Korgax forces through his night vision. More like hordes, he thought, as he considered the dead alien he’d seen earlier by the side of the road. Weird and ugly with their scaly skin and black eyes. Horrifically mutilated too, by some unknown humans, probably soldiers, he thought. He couldn’t blame them after what these freaks had done. The losses to his beloved army were shocking. They’d been on the run most of the time, trying to do what they could to disrupt the enemy advances. His command post had already shifted twice since the invasion started three days ago. It was over thirty-six hours ago now that the First, Second and Fourth regiments had gone offline. He’d presumed they’d been largely destroyed as a fighting force. Since then, ragtag elements of the once proud armoured formations had confirmed as much. Before the jamming stopped, Colonel Kaur thought his Regiment – the Third – was going the same way. The Korgax were a formidable foe – largely due to technological superiority and air-space dominance. The Challenger III Main Battle Tank was simply not designed for warfare against plasma weapons and particle beams. The continuous jamming had taken its toll as well. Only point-to-point laser comms seemed to be effective during the jamming. They’d even resorted to using runners as they had way back in World War I, 150 years before. But the jamming had stopped a short while ago – the first time since before the invasion started. He had also noticed some other changes in the last half an hour. Not only had the particle ray strikes from orbit stopped, but the now ground fighting seemed to have died down too. Colonel Kaur got down from the heavily camouflaged tank and walked briskly into the small command tent among the bushes and trees.

  “Corporal, what have you got for me?” asked Kaur sternly to one of the men monitoring the radio waves.

  “Ah, sir, there you are. I was just about to send for you. We received this radio transmission. It seems it came in across a wide spectrum. I recorded it, but I’ve got the feeling they’ll repeat it...”

  The young corporal touched the display and played the recorded transmission. There was some static, then a chillingly familiar synthetic rendition of a translated alien voice. The last time they’d heard this had been the Korgax ultimatum all those months ago. “This is Fleet Admiral Jarvax, now in command of Alpha forces around Earth. One Earth day ago, we received word that the Korgax regime has fallen. The new government of Gaia and her colonies has ordered an immediate end to hostilities with humans and Outcasts.”

  There was a pause and more static.

  “Could be a trick, sir...” said the Corporal before a new voice came on. A human voice...

  “Fellow humans, this is United States President, Stephen Powell, speaking to you from the Avendano system. With the help of our Alpha and Outcast allies, the brave men and women of Earth’s armed forces have brought down the Korgax regime on Gaia. Fleet Admiral Jarvax represents the Transitional Government in the Sol system. The Alphas are no longer our enemies, although there may still be some hardcore regime supporters that need to be dealt with. Please allow the Alphas to deal with these Korgax extremists. Also, please observe the cease-fire to allow the orderly withdrawal of Alpha troops from Earth. For the sake of future good relations, use only reasonable defensive force and allow the Alphas to deal with any resistance where possible. They will start the withdrawal immediately, but it is expected to take a number of days. I am aware that many millions have been lost and the sacrifice has been huge. Nevertheless, this is the opportunity for a
new beginning for the people of Earth and Gaia. So with these words I wish you Godspeed and a prosperous future wherever you are.”

  “Yes, Corporal, it could be a trick, but I hardly think they need one. They were one or two days from total victory against our conventional forces. No, we must just watch and wait and see if they are true to their word.”

  ***

  January 18, 2064: Earth

  The message was authentic and by the eighteenth, all former-Korgax forces had left Earth. Millions of people had died – mainly in the Tropics where the invasion had taken place. With worldwide jamming stopped, the media frenzy started. Some were already calling it the Third World War. Others spoke of it as The First Interstellar War. Zara Hart – Chip’s wife – didn’t like the latter. It implied there would be further interstellar wars. Looking at some of the first footage from India, she wasn’t sure humanity could sustain much more devastation. Revenge attacks on captured alien troops were still common. Although she could understand the feelings behind such attacks, they did not bode well for future relations with the Alphas. Chip had told her similar stories from past conflicts – it seemed that it was normal behaviour in war zones. It wasn’t just the Tropics that were suffering, so the news told her. Russia had been hard hit. They hadn’t been attacked directly, but most of their leadership – both political and military – had been affected by those scary mind-control implants. This story had surfaced only a day ago and was still developing. It seemed the Korgax had only perfected it recently and had not managed to roll it out on a large scale; except for in Russia, for some reason. It was said that the Korgax fanatics that fought on were mainly mind-controlled units. She shuddered to think what would have happened had they implanted their whole military. And what would have happened to humanity if they’d done that? The scenario seemed so otherworldly that she found it difficult to imagine. But the reality was that they all could have succumbed had the Korgax deployed mind-control fully.

  Things were starting to find a semblance of normality again in Hereford, England. Zara and her two young sons had left the bunker downstairs two days ago. That morning she’d even ordered food after the supermarket’s website cheerfully declared business as usual. The selection was less than half of what it used to be – many imported foodstuffs were no longer available. The delivery drone was three hours late, but at least there was still food. The Police and Army had done a good job of securing supplies and preventing looting. It was too cold to play outside and would be getting dark soon any way. The boys were just happy to have their bedrooms full of toys back and be out of the stark, cramped confines of the bunker.

  But not all was well. As she sat watching the rolling TV news footage for the umpteenth time, her mind turned to her husband. She’d heard nothing from him since he’d left Earth on New Year’s Eve, three weeks ago. The place was so empty without him. The boys missed their dad terribly and cried sometimes – especially at bedtime where his storytelling was a regular feature of their day. She’d been in this situation many times before, but it seemed different this time – worse and more foreboding. Perhaps, because she had seen the ferocity and power of the alien enemy. Maybe it was the distance. Or maybe the fact he was probably in another damned star system! She needed to be strong for the boys and think up some better things to say than she had been when they asked after him. Don’t know could only go on for so long...One more day, and if I hear nothing I’ll get on the phone to General Hadley, she decided. Then there was that blasted asteroid still worrying the hell out of her and everyone else. In parts of the world where they actually had clear skies in January, they could now see it with the naked eye at night. Sure, it was still just a speck, but the experts were split on what was happening. They all said it was still heading for Earth impact on its current path; if it stayed like that, they had precisely twenty-six days to live. There were a lot of rumours and counter-rumours floating around the media. Some experts said there was no way to get the Thrusters on the asteroid working. Some sources had said the Korgax had sabotaged them. Other sources informed that nothing of the sort had happened and they just hadn’t gotten around to diverting the asteroid yet. Zara just didn’t know what to believe.

  ***

  January 20, 2064: Asteroid 375 Nemesis

  “Wake up, Chip. Wake up!” called Motor through the battlesuit headset.

  Chip heard the second request, but still felt drowsy. He’d fallen asleep five hours ago after Motor had taken over the watch. Sarai and Takai were still sleeping; or, at least, in the trance-like state that was Outcast-sleep.

  “Yeah, what is it? It’s still another hour ‘til my watch, Motor,” moaned Chip.

  “Take a look at the fibre probe feed,” said Motor.

  Chip brought up the video feed from the fibre probe they’d poked above the metre of gravel and dust that was now concealing them. They’d evaded the Korgax hunting parties and their mobile nano-particle detectors. The evasion had lasted three days before the hunters found the Foxbat craft. They’d escaped just in time and found their current home of the last five days. They had air for just two more days. After that, it was the age-old choice of death or surrender. In one way, Chip was glad it was a 10km-wide asteroid on its way to Earth – with a surface area of over 300km2 it didn’t make the enemy hunt a foregone conclusion. The numerous relief features and hiding places presented plenty of cover from the streams of nano-particles from the enemy detectors.

  The EQP transceiver had stopped working, cutting their link with Command. The two Outcast techs had tried to fix it, but to no avail. Chip was always wary of trialling new tech on missions – tried-and-tested gave comfort and reliability; new tech added a wildcard. Now their view of the outside world had shrunk to a face full of grey gravel and the video feed on their HUDs.

  Chip looked at the feed from Motor’s fibre probe. “More of the buggers? Jeez, talk about overkill…”

  Inside, his heart was sinking at the sight of three more destroyers joining the first. He took it to mean only one thing: the war had been lost and now they were reinforcing the asteroid escort. But in preparation for what exactly? Another round of hunt-the-humans?

  “I don’t know,” replied Motor, tentatively. He watched every movement like a hawk, seeking a sign of their purpose.

  The three-hundred metre long destroyers were still at least double the distance away as the escort was – around ten-kilometres. They were approaching from a spread of angles with thirty degrees difference in heading. Motor saw this and it gave him hope.

  “Chip, they’re fanned out around the escort…they’re not moving either…”

  “So, what are you saying? They’re on our side?”

  “Don’t know yet…” Motor replied absently, still watching.

  “Surely they would have zapped it from a stand-off position. Wouldn’t they?” said Chip.

  “Could be demanding surrender...”

  ***

  Two hours passed; they watched and they waited. Something was playing out, but they didn’t know what. Then a shuttle left the escort and made its way to the middle destroyer of the three.

  With Takai now awake, Motor said to him, “Takai, I’ve been scanning for radio signals and I just found this...It’s unencrypted – see if you know what the hell they’re saying.” He fed the audio through to his three colleagues’ battlesuits.

  “That is Alpha language – the language of the Korgax and other Alphas,” Takai informed.

  “Well, you can understand it…can’t you?” asked Motor.

  “Yes…It is a message to the troops they have on the asteroid – the ones hunting for us…” Takai revealed. “They are recalling them…they say all four ships are now under the command of the rebel Alphas…”

  “Well that’s great!” exclaimed a delighted Chip.

  “It also says…the Korgax Government has fallen!”

  Chapter Sixteen

  February 14, 2064: New York

  That morning was the first clear day for
over a week. The wonderful crisp blue sky over Manhattan cast sharp shadows and gleaming reflections from glass and steel. But for some of the people gathered around United Nations Plaza it was all the more scary for the clear skies. The asteroid only seemed to grow minute-by-minute and was now half the size of a full moon. Its ten kilometres would stretch from Battery Park to Harlem were it to hit Manhattan. No one was freaking out though. Impact Day was today, but most experts now agreed there would be no impact, merely a close pass.

  The craft approached as a tiny white speck from the southeast, dropping down lower over the New York Bight. It turned northwards, glinting in the rays of Earth’s sun as it descended further. Its speed was twice that of an ordinary airliner, but it was not of human construction. For those old enough, it evoked distant memories of the events they called 9/11. A different enemy, generations ago. Details could now be made out on the dome-fronted alien shuttle. Like the enormous fish, it had a tail fin and its body tapered in breadth towards the aft. A pair of stubby delta wings protruded from halfway along its body. It was heading straight for the UN Headquarters building, the glow of its engines now visible. It flew low over the East River, passing the Williamsburg Bridge, before it started decelerating to a car-like speed. It looped around the UN building, and then hovered forwards slowly towards the rotunda as faces from the crowd tracked its every move. The four leg-stalks grew from the seemingly joinless underbelly.