SpaceFed StarShips Series
A Novel by Gerry A. Saunders
Book 6
The Garoden War
‘Into the Fire’
Cover art by Gerry A. Saunders
© Copyright 2015 Gerry A. Saunders
No part of this publication can be copied, transmitted in any form, without the authorization in writing by the author.
An exciting, action-packed follow-on story that sees the Earth’s Space Navy finally in action.
Other SpaceFed books by this Author
SpaceFed StarShips Trilogy.
Book 1. Battles at Zeta Reticuli.
Book 2. Battle for Delta Pavonis.
Book 3. An Alliance at Kepler.
You can follow on with the story in these next books.
SpaceFed StarShips Series.
Book 4. Death of Time.
Book 5. Acarea. A Triumph or Disaster?
Book 6. The Garoden War. ‘Into the Fire.’
Book 7. The Garoden War. Pt 2. ‘Military Gamble.’(Early 2017)
http://www.spacefedbooks.com
Contents
Book 6
Other SpaceFed books by this Author
Contents
Prologue
Who’s Survival Pod?
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Epilogue
.
A sample of Book 7.
The Garoden War. Part 2.
About the Author
Acknowledgements
Prologue
For those of you who haven’t read Book 5 in the series, and may not realize the significance of this Survival Pod.
Who’s Survival Pod?
Stardate: 2169.
Acarea’s crash-landing site.
Location: Planet: DPav4.
Delta Pavonis. 19.2 Light years out from Sol.
The buggy leapt forward, and they headed down, and into the excavation site. Then came to a halt close to Nick’s earthmover. As they approached, Nick and Lukas exited the digger and greeted them.
“We cleared around the thing getting as close as we dared without knowing if it was radioactive or not,” Nick informed them, his voice sounding worried.
Then Joe walked slowly around the object, checking the radiation levels, as he went.
“No, it’s definitely not Hot. The highest reading is less than two Rem.”
Lukas then joined in. “Steven bumped it earlier with the digger, Captain. Then we suffered a complete power failure. Even the digger’s power cells stopped working for about five minutes.”
“And now?”
“Everything seems to be back to normal. Except for that,” Lukas said, pointing at the egg-shaped object.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, look at the surface of that thing. I’m sure that crazing effect wasn’t there ten minutes ago.”
Just then, Steven came over.
“I’m all for us getting out of here, right now,” he told them.
“Why?”
“Come on, follow me. I want you to see the other side of this thing,” he said and started walking off.
They all followed him, round to the other side. “Look, there,” he said pointing at the object. “Can you see what I mean?”
The five of them carefully looked the object over.
“Do you mean the yellowish glow, in this area here?” John finally asked, pointing at it.
“Yes, exactly,” Steven replied. The rest of them looked at the object again, then realized that yes, there was definitely a soft yellow glow on that side.
“When I checked it earlier, it felt as if the surface was pulsating. But only slightly,” Steven nervously remarked.
On hearing that, John stepped a little closer and put his hand on the object. At first, it seemed as if nothing was going to happen. Then, he realized it was warm, and he could feel a faint vibration. He hurriedly stepped back. He was sure the thing was going to do something, soon. And he knew they weren’t going to like it.
“You three. Get in the diggers and move them away from here, now,” he ordered. “Get them as far away as possible,” he added.
“Come on, Peter, Joe. Let’s go back to the buggy. Quickly. We’re not safe here,” John ordered.
In less than eight minutes, the earthmovers had reached the outer limit of the site, nearly a half a kilometer away. While the buggy was only just climbing up over the brow of the depression.
They all carried on, with Steven, Nick and Lukas finally stopping their diggers next to the prefabricated hut they had assembled as a temporary shelter a couple of days ago.
Then they waited while the buggy caught up with them. By the time the other three reached the shelter, they were all breathing heavily, and feeling anxious.
Then all of them got out of their vehicles and took cover under the hut’s overhanging roof.
After a few moments, curiosity got the better of them, and all five looked back. Only to see that the object wasn’t sat on the ground anymore. It was slowly rising into the sky.
They saw it pause, for a moment, as if it was taking bearings.
Then they were all bathed in a greenish light for a split second. The light having been emitted from the object.
“What the?”
“Captain, do you think we’ve just been scanned?” Lukas asked as he felt his body tingle.
“I wouldn’t know, Lukas. How could we possibly know what that might feel like?”
The object continued rising until it was just over a kilometer above the planet’s surface. Then, stopped again.
“Now what’s it doing?” Nick queried.
“Probably transmitting,” John answered.
A couple of seconds later, they could see what looked like a black curving slit-like shape, appear in the lower atmosphere. The extreme end of the curve seemed to catch the edge of the object, which caused it to sparkle.
They kept watching, and to their astonishment, the object started falling apart.
Then came a flash, as the object vaporised in the atmosphere.
“Geeze,” Peter gasped, “Quick, go and get back to the shelter,” he yelled, and John, looking back, saw Nick and Steven run and jump into their Diggers, with Lukas following close behind. Then saw their cab doors close, just in time, as a powdery substance floated to the ground.
The material continued falling for a g
ood fifteen minutes before Joe was able to check the radiation levels.
“Radiation level still seems okay, Captain.”
“Alright, everyone back to the buggy. Joe, you’d better keep checking as we go back into the site.”
“Will do, Captain.”
On reached the excavation level, they saw that everything seemed exactly as it had been.
Except, as expected, the shiny object was gone.
Chapter 1
The Jefferson
Stardate: 2310.
Commodore Christopher Winton gripped the command chair’s arms so tightly that his knuckles turned white, as the alien ships purple-blue particle beams hit their defense force field, and his Battleship, the Jefferson, violently jerked sideways, ending up well over a hundred meters from its original position.
Then the ship’s protective screen crackled with raw energy, causing the local area to contract.
This contraction, combined with the alien's particle beams, caused some of the field emitters to overload.
This, in turn, contributing to the generation of a plasma ball that made contact with and penetrated Jefferson’s hull.
He saw wisps of plasma and smoke drift out of small cracks in the bridge’s walls. Then, it suddenly stopped, and the plasma slowly cleared.
“Damage to section twenty-seven,” the ship’s AI informed Winton. “Decompressing, but the inner door is holding and secure,” the AI added.
Winton was stunned as he looked at his primary screen, and saw that the location markers of the three enemy ships had vanished.
“They've jumped again, Commodore,” his ship’s captain, Ted Garret, exclaimed in disbelief.
“Why didn’t they press home their attack?” Lieutenant Gort, asked, albeit sounding relieved. “They must have realized that we’re in bad shape, and going nowhere,” his weapon’s officer grimly added.
“Commodore, you shouldn’t have tried to protect the Cruiser, Fathom,” the AI said, as it attempted to reproach Commodore Winton.
Winton sensed Lieutenant Gort’s amusement at the AI’s remark. Which made him feel like turning the AI off altogether.
He swore under his breath as he realized that Tactical was dangerously sluggish in updating his pad.
“Damage control?” He snapped, and Ensign Blake hurriedly checked the ship’s status.
“Hull integrity good, apart from sections twenty-seven and forty-eight. Repairs to forty-eight and the Skipper drive sequencer are ongoing Commodore. But twenty-seven is still Hot,” the Ensign reported, as he brought the ‘floating’ tactical display around for Commodore Winton to see. Then transferred the ship’s updated status to both Captain Garret, and Commodore Winton's own consoles.
“H’m… Let’s hope they give us time to lick our wounds and run repairs.” Captain Garret remarked as he studied the stats.
“Commodore. We should use our thrusters and move closer to the Fathom,” Garrett then advised.
“And do what, Garret? Fathom’s virtually dead, as are we.”
“It just seems to make sense to me, that’s all,” he snapped back.
“Uh oh, that’s bad,” Ensign Blake muttered to himself as he continued assessing the damage.
“What’s bad?” Garret called out.
“Section twenty-seven,” the AI broke in as the live monitoring appeared on Winton and Garret’s screens.
Commodore Winton’s gaze went straight to the one-meter diameter hole in the hull. Its rim, still red-hot and glowing as the fused metal slowly cooled. Looking again, he could already see frost forming as the room continued cooling.
He knew that there would have been four engineers working the Antimatter generation unit in section twenty-seven. Now, there was only one man in the room. But he was dead and jammed between the Antimatter containment vessel and the breeder unit.
The other three crewmembers had no-doubt been sucked out through the hole and on into Space during the room’s decompression, he decided.
“There’s still a small amount of Antimatter in the storage chamber, Commodore,” the AI pointed out. “But, as we speak, the containment field’s power supply is collapsing. I recommend we jettison the containment vessel, now.”
“Ensign Blake, Captain Garret. Do it now,” Winton ordered.
Captain Garret grimaced at hearing Winton’s order, knowing that even though Commodore Winton was ranked higher than him. It wasn’t Winton’s ship, or his right, to order a warp containment chamber to be jettisoned.
Nevertheless, both Garret and Blake reacted immediately to the command and simultaneously placed their thumbs on the ejection pad’s scanner. Once their identities were confirmed, four explosive bolts immediately fired to jettison the hull panel that was linked to the Antimatter containment vessel. All of them watched as the hull door blew outwards, taking the antimatter container, and the dead person, out with it.
Then, without speaking another word, everyone turned their attention back to what they had been doing.
Commodore Winton, knowing there was nothing else he could do at present, sat back in his chair and thought about what had happened since their ambush by the aliens, just fourteen hours earlier.
There was the fact that the Jefferson’s AI seemed reluctant, or unable, to obtain any practical information about the alien’s ships from Jefferson’s sensors.
And, even though he knew the Jefferson was one point five kilometers long. He had no real information on the size of the alien ships. All he knew was that they were deadly.
Another thing that puzzled him was that they appeared fuzzy, almost as if they weren’t quite there. If that was their attempt at Stealth, he thought to himself, then it was certainly a wasted effort.
Then his thoughts turned to thinking about Captain Richardson’s one-kilometer long StarShip, the Andromeda.
That StarShip was something else. What I’d give for an AI with her ability and organic feel, instead of this Jefferson’s suspect AI.
Then there was her speed of communication. Here, on the Jefferson, there was no instantaneous communication with the crew at all. Just, tap a pad. Throw a switch. Even so, he decided, I’m not sure I’d like a transceiver implant in my brain.
“They’re back Commodore,” Captain Garret called out, jolting him from his reminiscing.
Then they saw a mighty flash burst out from the escort cruiser, Fathom.
“Their shield’s totally collapsed,” the AI confirmed, without a hint of compassion sounding in its voice.
Winton watched, helpless, as the Fathom was ripped apart in a flurry of particle beams. Finally realizing that things weren’t working out as he expected. And, worst of all, he’d run out of things to try.
“Geeze,” was all that Ensign Blake could croak.
Commodore Winton knew there was nothing they could have done for the Fathom. But his AI was really annoying him, now. He’d heard that Andromeda’s AI was able to show emotions. While their AI’s definitely lacked the ability to be compassionate. So he couldn’t help wondering why on earth the designers had reverted to an earlier version of the AI’s for the newer ships. A bad move on their part, he decided.
“They’re coming after us. All three of their damn ships.” Blake suddenly shouted, momentarily startling Winton.
“Blake,” Winton called out. Ignoring the AI and Captain Garret.
“Where’s my Skipper drive? Where are my particle beam weapons? Come on, damn you. Anything. Or we’ll end up just like the Fathom.”
Ensign Blake’s fingers moved rapidly tapping back and forth on his console’s screen. As he checked, then reported the status of their weapons back to the Commodore.
“Twenty-three minutes for Skipper drive reactivation. Still no power to the weapons. The force field is down to forty-six percent…, um… Outside repair droids are back in Commodore. And our repair personnel are working flat out.”
“Lieutenant Gort?”
“Agreed, Sir… No power to the weapons and only forty-six percent fi
eld strength.”
“Then, that’s it, Winton. We’re as good as dead,” Captain Garret interrupted, stating the obvious.
“Incoming,” the AI informed. As the three alien ships moved into a triangular formation, then swung in fast, and headed towards the Jefferson, releasing a barrage of Particle Beams as they came closer.
The Garoden War. (SpaceFed StarShips Series) Book 6. An action-packed follow-on story that sees the Earth's Space Navy in action.: ‘Into the Fire.’ Page 1
