Extinction (Extraterrestrial Empire Book 1)

by Tony Teora

  “Sir, I think the factory we saw below was not a factory. I think the whole thing is some kind of vessel.”

  “A vessel? You mean, like a ship. A Navy ship?”

  “No, more like a Space Navy ship. It’s an alien spacecraft, and I think it was planning to take off before we left!”

  “Jesus Christ, that underground factory is miles long.”

  “Sir, it’s like twenty miles—larger than GEN-6.”

  “What the fuck? Are you telling me we got a twenty-mile-long alien spacecraft down below, waiting to take off?”

  “Sir, I know it sounds crazy, but yes! I double-checked some of the robot’s database, that’s what they’ve been building—it’s an intergalactic spaceship!”

  “I gotta call the captain on this one.”

  ***

  Aurora orbiting Kabbalah …

  Lieutenant Brassfield monitored Kabbalah’s electromagnetic signatures and compared it to magnified visual readouts. “Captain, we’re seeing more of those explosions, and it’s around that twenty-mile fault line … wait, we’re picking up massive infrared. Something hot is moving below the explosions.”

  Karr looked at the monitor, not sure of what was going on, but whatever it was, he wanted to head back to Earth, and quickly. “How long before Archer’s shuttle’s get here?”

  “Another thirty minutes, sir. But it’s funny you mention that, because I have him calling in, and it’s tagged as urgent.”

  “Put him through.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  ***

  Archer watched the alien city on the shuttle’s viewscreen. The region was filled with dust and ash. Explosions rocked the area. In the middle of the smoke, Archer swore he saw a glimmer of light on shiny metal. Then he saw it again, and sure enough, like the historical phoenix, a massive, gold and silver craft emerged. It was a monster, round, with a perimeter of spires rising into the sky. The center was dotted with pointy objects. Those reminded Archer of the city’s laser cannon weapons, but many times larger.

  If they were laser cannons, the Aurora was toast.

  ***

  Captain Karr listened to Archer explain what he was seeing below on Kabbalah, but cut in: “I got it, Major. Get aboard the Aurora as quickly as you can. We’re gonna get the hell outta here. I can see the craft now on the main viewscreen. I’m gonna have the astrogator plot a course that’ll get the Aurora behind the third moon, Trinity, to keep it from being able to position its weapons. I’m not leaving without you, so hurry up.”

  “Go now, Captain. You have to save the ship. We’re smaller and less of a target. We can get behind the moon and meet you there. It should only add another ten minutes.”

  “Archer, you might need those ten minutes.”

  “And you might need to get under cover now, sir. You’re a big, fat target, and you’ve got data that’s vital to Earth. If you get shot down, we have no ride home.”

  “Archer, I hate to admit it, but you’re right. I’ll meet you on the dark side of Trinity. Godspeed.”

  “Thank you, Captain. Archer out.”

  Karr ordered shields on full and directed the Aurora to a position behind the moon. It would take about five minutes. He looked at the massive craft below, which seemed to be powering up systems. Lights throughout the craft lit up like a city coming back from a power outage.

  Karr knew it would be virtually impossible to take on this massive alien ship. He hoped and prayed that he could get Archer and his men aboard and then bolt out. He wondered what the ship below was planning on doing. Was it going to attack the Aurora? Was it going to another planet in the cluster? Was it a refugee craft for those that survived the nuclear destruction? Whatever it was, Karr now felt that the thermonuclear blast had hit a hornet’s nest, and like a child, he did not know the full consequences of that action.

  ***

  Archer and his soldiers were flying in Manpower’s large MV1 shuttle. There were two in his group, MV1 and MV2, and they flew in formation. As soon as they got into orbit, the pilot started looking concerned and made course adjustments. Archer looked over at the beauty of the shiny black, volcanic moon near the starboard viewpane. “How much longer?”

  Pilot Tom Lafferty answered. “Sir, in order to hook up with the Aurora, we need to curve an orbit that intersects Kabbalah’s gravity and the moon’s. Otherwise, we’ll swing across too fast. We’ll need another ten minutes.”

  Platoon Sergeant Adam Webb looked at a weapons screen. “Major, I think the alien craft is charging its laser cannons. They look similar to the lasers built on GEN-6, but bigger. With our current orbit to sling around the planet, we’ll be in firing range in less than five minutes. They’ll blow us out of the sky, sir.”

  “Fuck!” said Archer. “Navigator, is there any way to get us behind the moon any quicker?”

  “Well, we could go directly in toward the moon using full speed thrusters, and coupled with the moon’s gravity, we’d come in like a bullet—and then, at the last minute, use what fuel’s left for side thrusters to skip into orbit, or actually do a bullet slingshot out. There’s no atmosphere, and we’d have to activate the thrusters on a dime, but we’d surely miss the rendezvous point with the Aurora. And we’d be mostly out of fuel, sir.”

  “And we’d be out of range of those laser cannons and we won’t be dead. Is that right?”

  “Yes, with the planet’s orbit and our slingshot out and away, I think they’d need to move their ship out of orbit to get a new lock. It’d take some time, especially with a ship that big.”

  “Okay, start the slingshot maneuver and have the NavCom plot our new course, wherever that may be. Maybe the Aurora can intersect us somewhere before we get blown to bits by those laser cannons.”

  The pilot nodded. “Yes, sir, I’ll dock MV1 and MV1 as one ship and control both from here.” Lafferty hit a few buttons to engage the shuttle auto-connect. Then the two shuttles approached and, via computer controls, one wing each retracting, they connected along their sides with a clanking sound.

  “We connected, engaging slingshot … now!”

  Controlling both shuttles, the pilot quickly banked left with the crew holding on to whatever, or whomever, was nearby. Thrust was set to full and both shuttles picked up speed. The moon was rapidly filling the front viewscreen.

  “How are those cannons doing?” asked Ace to the weapons station.

  “They had to track another twenty-five degrees since we banked. But they’re turning the ship to compensate. We have about two minutes, sir, before they can start firing.”

  “How much time, Lafferty? We’re gonna get smoked here soon. You heard the sergeant.”

  “Engaging thrusters in two minutes, sir.”

  “Two minutes? Didn’t you hear the sergeant? That damn ship will be firing in two minutes. You gotta skip earlier.”

  “I’m sorry, sir, but if we do, we’ll be visible to the alien ship after the skip. I calculated the planets rotation, and we have to wait two minutes to get out of shooting range. I think I can cut a second or two off, though.”

  A second or two? Archer and the command crew watched on one screen as the thruster time clicked down. On the other screen was the orbiting alien ship, directing its laser cannons. The estimated angle before firing was counting down: thirty-five degrees, thirty degrees, twenty-five degrees … at zero degrees, it would have a clear shot, and at the speed of light, no maneuver could get out of its blast range.

  On the front screen, time ticked down to ten seconds. The laser degree was at fifteen degrees. It would be close. Five seconds, four, three, two … only five degrees! One second left, then BLAST! The thrusters hit full, the shuttles swung wildly, and a laser blast blanketed both ships. Fire shot up from the moon below. Lights shot through the dark space.

  ***

  “What the hell was that?” asked Karr, looking at view from an Aurora satellite orbiting Trinity.

  “It looks like that alien ship has some kind of massive laser cannon online, and
it shot one hell of a blast at the shuttles.”

  “Are Archer and the men okay?”

  “I don’t know. They had to use a slingshot maneuver to get out quick, but it looks like the cannons hit them right when they were slinging out. Their NavCom said they would approach at vector delta seven. We can’t scan that area, but they should be able to call into SAT-3 if they got through the blast.”

  Crazy Archer, sling-shotting into space. “Change course to new coordinates. Scan new estimated trajectory, and let’s pray they made it. And give me an ETA.”

  “ETA to vector delta seven is three minutes, sir.”

  That intelligent creatures exist in outer space is proven by the fact that as soon as we opened up a channel they tuned to a new frequency.

  — Professor Snikerstein, Alpa Research Station 2041

  24

  _________

  Warning! Warning! Engine Overload!

  Aboard the Aurora, Navigator Sanpello adjusted his internal optical 3-D eye sensors and then patched the view onto the overhead viewscreen vector map. The holo image popped up like a large soap bubble and adjusted color, putting up images of the Aurora, Kabbalah, her moons, and white ghost images of where the landing vehicles should be located. “We’re in range, sir, trying to patch into MLV1 and MLV2.”

  Karr looked out into the black space surrounding the outer edges of the map. The twinkling stars that speckled the periphery reminded Karr of women. The beauty, challenge, and sometimes even danger, were all packaged into one sweet entity. Men would sacrifice their lives for the right woman—and now, Karr felt mankind was sacrificing maybe its own existence for this new venture into space.

  But Karr knew that if mankind wanted to rise to new heights, she had to take a path that reached up to the stars, even if she got some hits in the process. Those lessons were essential for mankind to evolve into her new position in the galaxy. What that new position would be was unknown, but he was sure it was part of mankind’s DNA to evolve, to touch the hands of the Great Architect of the Universe, to travel to the New Worlds, and find her place among the stars.

  Karr looked solemnly at the Aurora Comm Station. “Lieutenant, any response yet?”

  “No, sir. We sent out a call, but nothing.”

  “Any distress beacons?”

  “No beacons, nothing, sir.”

  Karr looked out at the cold, dark space and shining stars, thinking if space was a woman, then a witch had taken over this part of the Universe. “Keep trying and see if we can find them on a full sweep. We should be able to calculate their position from their earlier trajectory, can’t we?”

  Navigator Sanpello replied. “I’m on it now, sir.”

  ***

  “What the hell happened, Lafferty?” asked Archer, looking at the viewscreen.

  “We overshot, and it looks like the laser cannons skinned us. They caught our tail, sir, and that changed our course somewhat.”

  “Patch me into SATCOM-1.”

  “I can’t. It looks like the laser burnt out the radio antenna.”

  Major Archer knew that if the course was off, the Aurora would have a hard time finding them. Also, with communications out, and the explosion on the planet recorded by SATCOM-2, it would appear they were dead. He had to find a way to show his position. “Lafferty, is there any way we can communicate with the Aurora? Anything?”

  “Not really, sir. All comm systems are offline, and even though these ships are huge, we’re way off course and there are lots of metallic asteroids. We’d need a light show for them to see us all the way out here.”

  Ivan looked at Yogi, nodded in agreement, and walked over to Ace. “Yogi love fireworks. We have lots of firestorm charges in cargo bay … nice early Fourth of July.”

  Ace nodded. “So Lafferty—light show, you say? Hey, what about our ammo bay? If we send a container of ammo out of the space dock and blow it up, that would be a pretty good light show, wouldn’t it?”

  “Ah … yes, sir, actually it would.”

  Archer pulled out a cigar and started chewing it for a few seconds before putting it back in his front shirt pocket. He recently picked up the habit from Ivan and found it to be relaxing in times of stress. It was better than the empty bullet cases Ivan chewed on—and required less dental work.

  He looked at Jimbo. He knew it was the only chance of discovery. “I want you and Ivan to load out a container of ammo with a thirty-second trigger, on the double”

  “Yes, sir,” said Jimbo.

  ***

  “There’s nothing, Captain,” said Lieutenant Brassfield. “Nothing coming in from SATCOM-1, and the pictures on SATCOM-2 show a bright flash at about the same time they were to slingshot out. I hate to say it, sir, but I think they were hit. Plus, it looks like that saucer ship—or mother ship, or whatever it is—is slowly starting to move out of orbit. And it looks like it’s heading this way.”

  “How long before the saucer gets in range to get a visual on us?”

  “It’s a large ship, but moving quickly. We have maybe ten minutes, max, sir. Also, sir, keep in mind it’ll take three minutes to engage the Wormhole engines if we want to quantum jump out.”

  “Lieutenant, I’m fully aware of the specs of this ship.”

  “I’m sorry, sir.”

  “I don’t want to leave until I’m absolutely sure our men didn’t make it. Move the Aurora toward the calculated quadrant of where the shuttles should have been. On the bounce, lieutenant!”

  “Yes, sir,” said Brassfield, knowing this might put the Aurora into the saucer’s visual. Brassfield also knew telling the captain that fact would be pointless, so he just entered the coordinates. The Aurora bolted out from the cover of the Trinity moon, going further away from Kabbalah. Brassfield prayed that the saucer needed to stop in order to direct its laser cannons. Otherwise, things could get really hot. Infernally hot.

  ***

  “We’re at the estimated location of MLV1 and MLV2, Captain. We’re not receiving any distress calls. The radar sweeps got over four thousand hits of metallic objects, two hundred and forty-two that match size—but we’re in some kind of asteroid belt. Finding the shuttle in this mess will be like trying to find a needle in a haystack, sir.”

  Karr looked at all the debris. The lieutenant was probably right. The shuttles were most likely destroyed, and if he didn’t fire up the quantum drive, he’d put the Aurora and the rest of the crew at risk.

  As Karr looked once again at the beautiful girl in space, knowing that in this part of space she was a cold, nasty witch, he saw a display of fireworks on the screen. It was near a group of icy asteroids. “What’s that, Brassfield?’

  “Give me a sec, sir, while I do a deep scan of that area … oh my God, sir! It’s a perfect match. It’s the shuttles. I have a confirmed hit! They must have exploded some cargo.”

  Karr could see the faces of the men and women on the bridge. They were all smiles and signs of relief. “Get to our men on the double and load them onboard. Engineering, get ready to start the quantum drive. We’re getting out of here!”

  ***

  Thirty minutes later, Major Archer, Ivan, and Captain Karr sit next to each other on the Aurora command section …

  Archer sipped his black JoJo and spoke. “Sir, I really appreciate you snooping around and looking for us. I was told by Lafferty that the SATCOM-2 data basically showed us destroyed and with no confirmation communication on SATCOM-1, you should have assumed we were dead and gotten the hell out of here.”

  Karr looked at the magnified, massive saucer. The asteroid belt, although dangerous, seemed to keep the saucer at bay. The asteroids were giving the Aurora some trouble, too, as it needed to exit out of the other side to launch the quantum drive. “Archer, I may be Space Navy and not a Big Gun Marine, but like the Marines, we never leave our men behind. I think you know that.”

  “I do, sir. It’s just that, if we’d gotten hit by that laser cannon, there’d be nothing to take back except space dust. And most wo
uld have assumed we were dead. You took a big risk, sir.”

  “Somehow, Major, I had this feeling that if anyone could get through this mess, it’d be you and your Big Gun team.” Karr looked over to the astrogator. “What’s our ETA for the quantum jump?”

  “The engines are primed. We should be able to jump in about a minute … but I do have some bad news.”

  “Is there any other kind, Lieutenant? What’s up?”

  “The saucer has moved into a position to launch laser cannons, and although there’s a lot of asteroids giving us cover … I think they’re in firing position.”

  “Our shields are up full, correct?”

  “Yes, sir, but I’m not sure how much they’ll help. That cannon’s much more powerful than the one on the planet. We’ll be vulnerable for ten seconds or so, and the saucer is getting closer each second, sir.”

  “We’ll have to take the risk. Try to find some large asteroids that can give us temporary cover.”

  “Will do, sir, but this belt is getting a little crazy. We got rocks all over the place and the men are having a hard time exploding intercepts.”

  “Understood, but just find a large one for protection. There’s gotta be a few of those nearby.”

  “I got a stable one. It’ll take about two minutes, sir.”

  Shit, thought Karr. If the laser cannons didn’t get them, an asteroid might wipe them out. He trusted his men and women and looked at the mess in space. As the Aurora slowly maneuvered into position, Ace continued to explain the troubles the team had faced.

  “And sir, that Boss robot—Hiro put in some kind of Japanese sex gaming chip to get it working.”

  “Sex chip? Where’d he get that?”

  “I didn’t want to ask, sir. I think Ivan knows.”

  “He got it from one of his sex dolls, sir,” said Ivan, smiling. “Good doll, Russian-built,” he added, proudly.