by C T Glatte
Strike Force Red
The Korth Chronicles Book 1
C.T. Glatte
Contents
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
Afterword
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead or actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2019 by Chris Glatte (C.T. Glatte). All rights reserved. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials.
Created with Vellum
One
August 13th 1937
The Korth colony ship’s core power supply went critical as it entered a stable orbit of Earth over the center of the European continent. The massive ship filled the entire sky. Huge clouds formed as the heat from the ship’s powered-steel touched the edge of the atmosphere. From the ground it looked as though the world would end in moments. Lightning bolts flashed from every direction, sizzling the air.
Adolph Hitler was in the middle of a fiery speech when he was interrupted by the extra-terrestrial event. He gaped like the millions of other humans. The entire continent stopped and braced in horror at the coming destruction. The sight was so sudden and unexpected that many people’s hearts simply stopped beating and they fell over in place, with their dead eyes staring into the sky.
Inside the ship, the captain waited for engineering to signal they were stable and he could release himself from the constricting restraints holding him in place, protecting him from the violent gyrations of a ship out of control.
His mission to observe this planet on the outer edge of the galaxy without being noticed was a failure. He clacked his mandibles together in front of his rounded mouth and bared his three rows of teeth. When the ship stopped shuddering and groaning, he spoke. To a human observer the clicks and low hums wouldn’t be discernible as speech. “Engineering. Report.”
“Ship’s stable. We’re running on low power. The asteroid knocked out the main core, but we were able to contain the power left in the lines and redirect it for minimal operation. We’re butted up to Earth’s atmosphere. We can maintain this position indefinitely.”
“Damage report.”
The same engineering officer’s voice continued in his ears. “All decks are green. Biometrics show stable, no breeches.”
“Are we visible?”
“Yes, Captain. There isn’t enough power to keep the cloaking powered. It was the first system failure. We’re quite visible to the population.”
The restraints suddenly vanished back into the pod-chair, and the screen vanished around Captain Vannt. He unwound his four arms and stepped forward. Like all Korth, he was exactly eight feet tall. He wore a form fitting one-piece over his dark skin, which shimmered with each movement, making it look as though he were an apparition. There was a barely discernible line where the top of the garment ended at the Korth’s elongated neck. To someone unfamiliar, the clothes wouldn’t look like clothes at all, but skin.
He strode forward and with the three fingers of his upper right hand, skimmed the console. It came alive with his touch and his fingers moved in blurs as he worked. He studied the information streaming upward off the screen in holographic columns of glowing lines, digits and dots. The words rose and disappeared as they sensed Captain Vannt’s understanding, ready to reignite at the slightest hint of sensed recall.
The slightly glowing wall in front of him suddenly shimmered to life and showed the nearby planet. The view quickly extended through the thick layer of cloud and brought up a crystal-clear image of the world below. More walls displayed the scene until the command center was filled. The blue-green world they’d observed for five Earth years was suddenly very close.
Captain Vannt imagined what must be happening on the surface. The relatively primitive species inhabiting the world would be seeing this as an apocalypse, no doubt. He doubted they even knew how close they’d come to an actual apocalypse. The asteroid that had knocked out their power, would have extinguished most life forms and he had no indication they’d even sensed its millennia’s long approach.
The shield failure was disturbing. The asteroid was large, but the equations were precise and the shield should have deflected the asteroid easily. Instead, it penetrated and caused system failures and nearly breached the core, which would’ve ended the life of the ship along with every Korth on it. The resulting fallout onto the hapless planet would have made the asteroid impact a minor sideshow.
Captain Vannt took in the view. His mandibles clicked and scraped, a sure sign of his displeasure. His second in command, Commander Vox joined him from his pod behind his captain. “Sir,” he clicked, “The humans have nothing that can reach us, weapons or otherwise. All our scanners show nothing threatening.”
Captain Vannt, already knew that, they’d been studying them for years. He knew everything there was to know about their abilities and technology. Indeed, he knew more than they knew about themselves. He’s studied many planets with various life forms, but this was the first species he’d encountered that hadn’t unlocked their own mind’s power.
It fascinated him that their evolution had somehow never been challenged enough to unlock the deep neural pathways. As far as the Korth scientists were concerned the humans were only using their brain’s basics of survival and procreation. They scraped the surface of their true power, but failed to open the pathways which would bring them out of their low, lonely existence.
As he watched the various scenes of panic and wonder unfolding on the surface, he wondered, not for the first time if he should have simply allowed the asteroid to destroy them. Perhaps the universe was trying to do a reset; a clean slate to start from scratch. His orders, however were to deflect the asteroid and continue monitoring their species for signs of enlightenment.
Engineering’s voice emerged in his ears again. There was a tinge of panic in the normally machine like voice. “Captain, we’ve lost communication with Base-1.”
This news brought Vannt out of his thoughts immediately. “That’s impossible. Run diagnostics again.”
“I’ve done it three times already with the same result, sir.” A slight pause, “running it again, now.” Seconds later Engineering Officer Gron spoke again. “It’s offline, sir. We can still send over primitive radio waves, but …”
His voice faded as Captain Vannt finished for him, “would take hundreds of earth years.” He looked at his second in command and with a quick thought allowed him to access the information just given to him. Commander Vox’s mandibles clicked with displeasure and worry. Vannt spoke to his lead engineering officer. “Keep working on the problem. Perhaps a power surge disrupted all our units and they’re resetting.”
“Yes, sir. We’ll keep you informed.” Vannt could hear the doubt in Gron’s voice but he had to say something.
Commander Vox clicked and hummed, “Now our mission’s blown. What now?”
Captain Vannt considered. “The humans are entering a time of war. The section known as Germany is being led by a gifted orator. He’s already led his weak minded follo
wers to commit crimes against one another that surpass cruelty. I was rather enjoying watching it unfold. Now, that will undoubtedly end as all eyes are turned upward. I don’t know how long the pause will last, but I think it prudent to act while we’re still fresh in their minds.”
“Act? Act how?”
“Gather the leads to all sections and bring them to the meeting chambers in one hour. I need to know our situation exactly.”
Commander Vox braced at the order, “Yes, sir.” His wide black eyes dimmed for an instant as he sent the order. “All section leaders responded affirmative, sir.”
Captain Vannt nodded and strode toward the back wall. As he approached, the wall simply disappeared, showing a blue-lit hallway. With long strides he disappeared around the corner and the wall reappeared.
TR Cinter stepped beside Commander Vox. “What do you think he’s up to?”
Vox answered the political officer. TR Cinter was in male form. Commander Vox liked him better as a female. “I don’t know. Now our mission’s failed and we’re out of contact with Base-1, we’re in uncharted territory.”
Cinter’s long mandibles, the hallmark of a changer, clicked and hummed. “Base-1 mandates are clear. Observe only.”
The top of Vox’s deep-red head pulsed forward, a nod. “Yes, but that’s impossible now.”
Captain Vannt stood at the head of the elongated table holding each section leader. Fifty officers stood facing him. There was clicking and humming as private conversations filled the high-ceilinged room. Floating droids delivered what amounted to drinks and snacks. If a human saw what they carried, drinks and snacks would not be their first guess, for they were moving and alive, squiggling in the Korth’s sticky fingers as they popped them into their round mouths and closed around them with their rows of pin-like teeth. Even the drink, which was more gelatinous, was filled with writhing creatures with short and long tails.
Captain Vannt raised his top arms above his head. The arms extending from his hips rose slightly as the thin membrane of dark batwing-like skin stretched until it was nearly transparent. The motion brought the room instantly quiet and the droids floated into compartments that appeared in various spots in the shimmering wall.
“Our mission to observe this planet and its odd human inhabitants without being noticed, has failed. I have directed Engineering Officer Gron to mount a full investigation into why our shields failed. All our calculations were accurate and in their current form, should not have failed. I have no answers as to what happened, which is why I have Gron working the problem.” He watched the section leaders for any signs of uncomfortable behavior. He probed their thoughts without being too obtrusive, but came away with nothing incriminating. He knew he wouldn’t. He had no idea who would want to sabotage the ship but that was the only explanation he could come up with for the breech. He hoped Gron would find some other system failure, but he didn’t think it likely.
“Our current situation is unprecedented. However, I’ve looked into the sealed alternate orders from Base-1. There is a procedure in case of discovery, however it’s based upon an individual being discovered. For instance, if a scientist was found out on the surface. The protocol,” His eyes found TR Cinter staring back at him, “is to eliminate all humans who saw or even suspected they saw something.” He paused and scanned the room. “There is no protocol for the entire ship being seen.” TR Cinter clicked and hummed but low and to the other changer beside him. Captain Vannt couldn’t penetrate the thought shield surrounding them without giving himself away. The changers knew he was telling the truth though, or the capsule implanted deep in his brain would immediately kill him. As far as they know, he thought.
He continued. “We are exposed, but in no immediate danger. As you all know, their tech isn’t advanced enough to allow them to reach us with either weapons, or aircraft. Indeed, even if they could, they’d never penetrate our active-armor with their explosive based weapons.” He eyed Engineering Officer Gron. “What’s your progress on repairs?”
Gron’s four arms converged on his face and his fingers rubbed and stuck to his skin in sloppy slurps. “Our situation is not good. The core’s casing is damaged. The secondary skin activated when it sensed the breach, but the core’s power, our power to run the entire ship, indeed even to move, is severely limited. Systems are on minimum power as you no doubt noticed.” The flat part of his head sucked inward, acting as a head shake. “The core cannot be fixed with what we have on-board. The casing is breached. We could create another casing here on the ship but only by using extreme amounts of power. It would require every ounce, which would shut down our life support and even our ability to stay parked on the edge of this planet’s atmosphere. The ship would fall and break up because our shield would be useless. We’d not only cease to exist, but so would this world.”
Absolute quiet filled the room. Captain Vannt let them simmer, then said. “Tell them the other option.”
The flat on Gron’s head extended in a nod. “This planet’s core has the material we need to repair our casing and get it up and running again.” There was clicking and humming until Captain Vannt held his hands up for quiet. Gron continued. “Without the ship’s power supplying us, we’d be relatively defenseless on the surface of Earth. Our weapons won’t work, our flex armor won’t work.” There was silence. “We can be killed with the weapons the humans have developed. We’d be like them while on the surface.”
Captain Vannt spoke. “Thank you EO Gron.” Gron stepped back into his slot. Vannt continued. “We’d be exposed, but we also have far superior knowledge of physics, metallurgy and every other thing needed to build better weapons for ourselves from their own raw materials. It would only be a matter of time until we far out-gunned them.” He paced in front of the section leaders. “And, we have something else. Their awe. We are coming from space. To them, we are all powerful and we won’t allow them to think otherwise. We will smash any resistance instantly and without mercy. We will occupy and supplant their leadership with our own. Indeed, we’ll use them against one another. They are a warlike species. We’ve observed this for years. Their violence toward one another is systemic and endemic, in the very makeup of their DNA. Once we have control, we’ll start our work getting to the planet’s core. It won’t happen overnight and once we’re on the surface we’ll have a better idea on our timeline, but I don’t think we’ll be here longer than one of their decades.”
Captain Vannt watched his section leaders. They clicked and hummed. Most heads expanded and rounded with agreement. He concentrated on the section leads of the changers. They were huddled together, keeping a stout thought barrier around them. He leaned toward Commander Vox. “What do you think, Commander? Ready to take over a world?”
Vox’s mandibles extended and his mouth opened exposing rows of long needle teeth. A series of deep chirps erupted as he laughed and his flat head rounded in approval.
Two
Jimmy Crandall cringed as he watched MaryAnn raise her hand. He leaned forward and slapped his pal, Hank on the shoulder and whispered, “She’s gonna make us late for practice again.”
Hank nodded slowly, “Probably, but I sure like how her shirt stretches over her tits when she does that.”
Jimmy couldn’t contain the sudden laugh that escaped and he leaned low in his school desk chair and covered his mouth.
Mr. Thornton looked over his bifocal glasses and glared his direction, then called on MaryAnn. “Question, Miss Larkin?”
MaryAnn dropped her hand and straightened her back. “Yes. Why haven’t the aliens invaded us?”
Jimmy lurched forward and sneered just loud enough to be heard, “Cause they knew they’d get their asses kicked.” There was a titter of laughter and he looked around appreciatively, noting who laughed and who didn’t.
MaryAnn glared at him and he gave her his best smile. She furrowed her brow and turned away when he blew her a kiss. She focused on Mr. Thornton. “We can’t know for sure. We simply don’t know as much a
bout them as we’d like.” He paced the front of the room. “Since landing, all contact’s been lost with our allies in Europe. We don’t know why they only landed in Europe but there’s speculation that they didn’t actually mean to land on Earth at all.”
Jimmy went back to slouching in his seat, “You mean they crashed?” He shook his head, “Come on, they’re aliens. They’ve got all sorts of advanced technology. Aliens don’t crash-land.”
Mr. Thornton looked over his bifocals and shrugged. “And you know this, how? If you have some insight into their workings? I’m sure the government would love to pick your brain.” The class giggled and Jimmy scanned his classmates, glaring at those who did. Mr. Thornton looked at the clock. “The bell’s about to ring. This topic isn’t really what I intended to talk about in social studies class, but if there’s this much interest,” he scanned the room seeing interested eyes focused on him. “Here’s a new assignment.” A collective groan erupted but he continued. “I want a one-page paper single-spaced on why you think the aliens haven’t come across the sea.” He continued to pace, watching his students scribbling the assignment in notebooks. “Due by this time next week. That’s plenty of time to get it done.” The bell rang and as one, the students shot from their seats and moved to the door. Mr Thornton raised his voice above the din. “Good luck tonight all you baseball players. Go Cougars.”
Jimmy lifted his chin as he passed his social studies teacher, “Thanks, Mr. Thornton. Are you coming to the game?”
