Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10
Page 1
Books by Randolph Lalonde
THE CHAOS CORE SERIES
Trapped
Cool Pursuit
Savage Stars
THE SPINWARD FRINGE SERIES
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 0: Origins
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 1 and 2: Resurrection and Awakening
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 3: Triton
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 4: Frontline
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 5: Fracture
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 6: Fragments
The Expendable Few: A Spinward Fringe Novel
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 7: Framework
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 8: Renegades
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 9: Warpath
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10: Freeground
OTHER BOOKS
Brightwill
Dark Arts
For more information, please visit:
www.RandolphLalonde.com
Spinward Fringe
Broadcast 10:
Freeground
Randolph Lalonde
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10: Freeground
Copyright © 2016 by Randolph Lalonde
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher, Randolph Lalonde.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Spinward Fringe is a Registered Trademark of Randolph Lalonde.
Thank you for supporting the author by purchasing this book. Every honest reader counts.
For more information or to meet other readers, please visit http://www.randolphlalonde.com or https://www.facebook.com/groups/spinwardfringe/
EBook ISBN: 978-1-988175-02-7
Print ISBN: 978-1-988175-03-4
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Books by Randolph Lalonde
Preamble
Prologue, The Rahgha
Chapter 1, Pride
Chapter 2, Purpose
Chapter 3, The Beast In Repose
Chapter 4, The Pursuer III
Chapter 5, The Scouting Mission
Chapter 6, New Faces, Old Questions
Chapter 7, Diving In
Chapter 8, Rearming
Chapter 9, The Cost Of Failure
Chapter 10, Rust
Chapter 11, Walls
Chapter 12, Barebone
Chapter 13, The Crowded Majority
Chapter 14, Alice Versus The Obstacle Course
Chapter 15, The People of Freeground Nation
Chapter 16, Iruuk Murlen
Chapter 17, Founder
Chapter 18, The Concord
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21, One More Test
Chapter 22, The True Leadership
Chapter 23, The Pursuer Lives
Chapter 24, Countermeasures
Chapter 25, Shuttling
Chapter 26, The New Tribe
Chapter 27, Damage Control
Chapter 28, The Past
Chapter 29, Departure
Chapter 30, Orientation
Chapter 31, Alert
Chapter 32, Admiral Dron
Chapter 33, Echoes
Chapter 34, Dock 38
Chapter 35, Suit Week
Chapter 36, Return To The Revenge
Chapter 37, The War Forge
Chapter 38, Triton
Chapter 39, The Second Half Of Suit Week
Chapter 40, Giants
Chapter 41, A Beautifully Broken Future
Preamble
Alice Valent
After undergoing a drastic transformation that removed all framework technology from her body along with all the advantages and vulnerabilities it brought, Alice Valent is preparing for the qualifier tests that will allow her to begin the intense curriculum offered through the Fleet Academy. Her mind is sharper than ever now that the filter imposed on her by the framework is gone, but with cognitive clarity comes a new emotional awareness. Alice also has to deal with being a more mature young adult while lacking the physical advantages in strength and speed the framework body she once had provided.
Jacob Valent
Near the end of his recovery from having his framework system removed in a severe emergency procedure, Jake has assumed command of a new ship: The Revenge. While the sudden loss of the Warlord and several crewmembers still weighs on him, he assists the Triton as they traverse the Iron Head Nebula.
His mind is clearer without the framework systems that he lived with for years, and he has forgiven Ayan Anderson for leaving him but still recovering from her betrayal. Reunited, they have little time to celebrate, but are finding a new harmony as they learn to work together to improve the Revenge and learn about the new ship. Concentrating on the mission at hand has never been more challenging, but he is fortified by the constant reminder that he is responsible for thousands of people on a relatively untested ship.
Ayan Anderson
After taking the surname of her father, Carl Anderson, and leaving the political entanglements of Haven Shore in his capable hands, Ayan has re-joined the Triton Fleet. As a Fleet Captain, she oversees the fitness and advancement of the vessels in the fleet as it goes to war. Her first task in her new position is to go with the Triton and the Revenge, to continue to refine the Revenge – the first truly refitted Order of Eden ship in their fleet – and to discover the secrets of their new Dimension Drive technology. The system has many layers, using several systems that manipulate space time in new ways that can become a benefit to the fleet in many ways, not simply for travel.
Distractions constantly threaten to slow her work down, as she makes her best effort to compartmentalize her warm feelings for Jacob Valent, who she has been reunited with. Her professionalism serves Ayan well, and at long last she is free to pursue her first loves – science, engineering, and her desire to discover the secrets of the universe.
Terry Ozark McPatrick (Oz)
Admiral and commander of the great ship Triton, Oz is driven to lead the small military force of two – his ship and the Revenge – to Freeground Alpha then bring it back to the Rega Gain system. With the help of a being made to mind the Triton, Hausgiest, who speaks with him telepathically, Oz worries that they have recruited too many new crewmembers man their ships. Left with little choice, they didn’t have much time to have the new crewmembers vetted, and were forced to take people based on qualifications and experience. He worries that their mission could lead to disaster if their crews are pushed too hard, and is on constant watch for traitors in their midst.
With little time for personal pursuits, Oz takes his new position as Admiral seriously, and is eager to save Freeground, even if it only scarcely resembles the home he left behind.
Finn & Agameg Price
Serving as co-Chief Engineers aboard the Revenge, they are doing their best to conduct the last phases of construction aboard the warship, while monitoring its condition after a damaging encounter with Order of Eden forces. Glad to be partnered, they spend as much time learning about the hybrid Earth, Lorander and Regent Galactic systems as bleeding edge technology improves their method of travel and could change how other things are accomplished in space.
While Finn does his best to keep up, Agameg forestalls rest in order to keep work on track, and uses his spare time to try to find a life partner for his best friend, who he perceives as a lonely human.
Liara Erron
New to the Triton Fleet, Liara is an experienced lawyer and communications expert who believes she is in a position to make a difference to thousands of lives. She fills a gap left by Jason Everin, an admirable communications officer and programmer who she never met, but secretly strives to surpass in terms of competence and accomplishments. Just as important to her is the similarity she recognizes between his legacy and herself. Liara, like Jason, is prone to Input Addiction, so she cannot use a mind to computer interface like a brain bud or implant on a constant basis. Instead, she depends on efficiency and her own memory.
There is a lot to learn aboard the Revenge, but her senior officers are worth looking up to, and she finds many of the people she is working with inspiring. Liara watches for opportunities to prove that she’s much more than the girl who minds the radio.
Minh-Chu Buu & Ashley Lamport
No two people in the Fleet want peace more, and they are willing to join their friends in fighting for it. Ashley, the lead Helmswoman for the Revenge, is slowly getting used to the more cramped and feature lacking accommodations while dedicating herself to piloting the ship responsibly. The confidence of her captain, her old friend Stephanie Vega, and the happiness that Minh-Chu’s companionship brings her are essential to her.
Minh-Chu Buu, or Ronin as he’s called by his Samurai Fighter Squadron, is finally settling into his role as their Wing Commander. After losing a wingman in a do-or-die dogfight, he has refocused his attention on maintaining the welfare of those under his command and increasing their combat effectiveness. Thanks to a little guidance from his girlfriend, Ashley, he has come to realize that his pilots admire and trust him. Her encouragement and ability to show him things from another perspective have become an important constant in his life.
At This Very Moment…
The Triton and Revenge have found Freeground Alpha. The Freeground Fleet surrounding the massive remnant of the formerly great station is battered and worn. Every sign points to a desperate situation, with the station in the centre providing a large target for the Order of Eden.
Knowing that the station could be discovered at any time, a small delegation from the Revenge goes to meet the leadership of Freeground Alpha so they can quickly establish a relationship with them then begin moving them out of the Iron Head Nebula.
Meanwhile, in Haven Shore, Jacob Valent’s daughter, Alice, begins to adjust to her new framework free body as well as a range of perception that she is experiencing without the restrictions of that technology for the first time. Her time is not idle, as she prepares to take the test for Fleet’s Advanced Officer Training – the most intense program the new Academy will be offering.
All the while, the Order of Eden is moving into the Iron Head Nebula. After learning that the group of issyrians Clark Patterson – the Beast Overlord of the Order of Eden Fleet – tried to save are survived by only one member, he is eager to take revenge on the founders of Haven Shore. Freeground Alpha is just as important to him, as it represents the government that took everything else from him: his sister, and the love of his life. He leads a new fleet of base ships through the nebula on a frantic search with the assistance of a new commander, Fleet Admiral Dron.
Prologue
The Rahgha
Order of Eden fighters swarmed between the ships of the Iduoi Tribe convoy, hatefully blasting the most heavily armed ships before Woone’s young eyes. An itch had been burning on the top of her dark furred snout, but she was a Nafalli warrior, and her hands were steady on the turret controls.
“Shoot anything coming for your turret first, we need to keep our gunners safe,” came the order over the comm stick she had pinned into the fur next to her ear. The order came from her father, the Captain, and she thought it was cowardly. Woone was sure she should fire at the enemy ships that were causing the most damage to the least well defended, but she followed orders.
A trio of Order of Eden ships rose up from behind the Elloo, one of their oldest vessels. The round edged, long vessel was already losing power to most of its critical systems, she feared for the thousands of Nafalli aboard. The enemy trio took a sweeping turn, and she opened fire with her quad cannon, scoring hits by the time they were facing her.
Enemy bolts of particle weapon bursts started peppering the shields protecting her emplacement, flashing blinding light across the front of her turret. Gritting her teeth, she concentrated on what her visor was showing, three dots with the speed, distance, shield strengths, and operational status of each fighter in simple codes. “These pilots are so stupid,” she grunted as she set her four cannons to fire at maximum power.
Her fingers were going numb from holding the triggers down for so long. These would be the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth kills she made in less than fifteen minutes. The energy shield protecting her turret was slowly depleting, the trio were trying to take her out, and she hoped that the bolts of contained super-hot plasma her quad cannons were spewing would take them out first. Their assault was so brazen, Woone was positive they would be slag before they got her.
The middle fighter’s shields dropped suddenly, and Woone aimed for the sweet spot, right above and behind the narrow fighter’s canopy there was a thin armour panel, and behind that was some kind of fuel cell. The middle fighter exploded violently, sending the one to its port side spinning sideways.
Small shards and chunks of the exploding fighter collided with her shield like droplets of hot metal rain as she aimed for the other fighter, tearing into it at such a high rate that the barrels of her turrets were turning red. Woone activated the coolant gas to slow the heating down, making sure she didn’t release so much that it would damage her turret. The white plume of the coolant entering the heated space around the barrels filled her view, so she completely relied on her tactical visor, ignoring the obstructed view outside.
The second fighter was about to break off when its shields failed, and she ripped into the side of the ship. The third was regaining control, turning and flying away, and she blasted the vessel from behind. “Your shields were set to cover your nose, weren’t they?” she growled to her enemy, even though they couldn’t hear her. “No running, you little bug.”
The shields covering the aft side of the enemy fighter winked out, and the pilot didn’t get a chance to spin their ship before several high speed plasma bolts tore through the thin armour. “Burn!” she shouted as the ship’s interior let a jet of atmosphere out then exploded as one of her shots struck a fuel capsule.
That explosion was followed by a much larger blast that lit up the dark corner of the nebula they tried to hide in for several seconds. Large chunks of hardened hull plating drifted across her view. She recognized the shape of one of the large sections, it looked like someone had reached out to their enemy with a fiery hand and ripped a large portion of an Order of Eden carrier’s fore section off. It was foolish for the Order to believe that one carrier with a few smaller destroyers could take on the might of their fleet.
The Iduoi Tribe were running, their ships were damaged, but they had tens of thousands of real warriors. The humans of the Order may as well have been worms. She wished she could spit on the massive shreds of hull plating from their carrier, or make trophies of a few of the crewmembers who still clung to hope inside sealed compartments like her ancestors would have. They knew how to make examples of their foes.
There were a few fighters in range, all flying away. Woone squeezed a few rounds off at the closest ones for good measure, striking sporadically and fairly ineffectively. “Better run,” she muttered as the last of them made it out of her range. “Prepare for an emergency short distance jump,” came the announcement through her communicator. It wasn’t her father, but her uncle Rikin speaking.
The lights in the rear section of the Elloo lit back up, and their main thrusters fired despite the terrible damage the large ship sustained. To her relief, a wormhole split the space in front of it and the ship slid inside, accelerating out of sight within seconds. Woone took a
moment to secure her post so the weapon couldn’t go off by mistake, and to scratch the itch on top of her nose. The relief she felt at seeing the Elloo get away safely was so intense she felt she could cry. While most of her immediate family was on the Rahgha, their largest carrier, she had over a hundred cousins on the Elloo, and there were children aboard because it had a heavily armoured core. Their entire tribe was set on breeding back to full numbers, and she was left out because there were so few males left to couple with, not that she liked her choices over the past year. That meant she could concentrate on being a warrior, a passion of hers since she learned to track at a very early age, and that she could visit the Elloo whenever she had time and be surrounded by baby Nafalli without having to take care of any of them after leaving. Truly, the best of both worlds.
Their ship shuddered as it crossed into a wormhole, something that had never happened before. The alarm went up and the flexible panels of her containment suit closed. “Emergency, reactor three has failed,” announced Rikin. “We are not going to be able to jump again. The convoy will be going dark as soon as we arrive at our destination. If there is anyone near Primary Junction Twenty-Eight, please prepare to deactivate the power flow to the rest of the ship.”
That wasn’t good. It meant that enough of their convoy was so damaged that they had to go dark in order to hide from sensors. Dead dark, no systems running, scary dark. All so they could hide and make essential repairs. With a start, Woone realized that she was close to Junction Twenty-Eight, it was only a few strides behind her turret door.