First Colony: Books 1 - 3

by Ken Lozito

  An alert came to prominence on the main holoscreen. Several large pieces had broken away from the Vemus Alpha.

  “Tactical, those are your targets. Comms, set Condition One throughout the base. Ops, commence LIDAR burst on my mark,” Colonel Hayes said.

  “Yes, Colonel, ready on your mark,” Sergeant Martinez said.

  Nathan waited for Lieutenant LaCroix, who, after a few moments, turned and said, “Firing solution ready. Hornets in the tubes and ready, Colonel.”

  “Ops, commence burst,” Nathan said.

  On the lunar surface, massive hatch doors opened and actuators pushed up a large sensor array, which sent out a sizeable scanner burst. There was no way the Vemus would miss the sudden activity. The PRADIS scope updated with targeting information.

  “Fire missiles,” Nathan ordered.

  “Yes, Colonel, missiles fired,” Lieutenant LaCroix confirmed.

  The scanners showed the Hornet missiles leaving their launch tubes, racing toward the Vemus troop carriers.

  “Ready second wave of missiles,” Nathan said.

  Finally, they were in this fight. The first wave of missiles blindsided the Vemus troop carriers, causing the ships to break apart during entry into the atmosphere.

  “Colonel, two Vemus cruisers are inbound. They’ll be in detection range within ten minutes,” Sergeant Martinez said.

  “Tactical, do we have time for one more wave of Hornets, with half of them targeting those cruisers?” Nathan asked.

  “Affirmative, Colonel,” Lieutenant LaCroix said.

  “Do it. Fire when ready,” Nathan said.

  He watched the main holoscreen as their missile tubes were reloaded with the midrange Hornets.

  “Firing third wave, Colonel,” Lieutenant LaCroix said.

  “Retract array and close all missile hatches,” Nathan said.

  Hornet missiles flew away from New Earth’s moon, some darting off toward the inbound cruisers. Nathan watched as the cruisers took out the inbound Hornet missiles. One cruiser escaped unscathed while the second cruiser took multiple direct hits along the prow of the ship, taking out its forward cannons.

  “Colonel, the last scans show that some of the bigger troop carriers got through and are heading toward the planet’s surface,” Lieutenant LaCroix said.

  “What’re their last known trajectories?” Nathan asked.

  “Their trajectories are aligned with colonial settlements. None of the remote emergency bunkers are located at any of those areas, Colonel,” Lieutenant LaCroix said.

  “That’s something, at least,” Nathan said quietly.

  “Passive scans show more ships heading our way,” Lieutenant LaCroix said.

  “Ops, I want the gun batteries hot and ready to go, but keep the hatch doors shut unless it looks like the Vemus ships are about to fire on us,” Nathan said.

  “Yes, Colonel, alerting fire teams now,” Sergeant Martinez said.

  Major Shelton glanced over at him. “How many do you think got through to the surface?”

  Nathan watched the main holoscreen grimly. “Too many. Those troop carriers can hold thousands of soldiers.”

  “Yeah, but the cities have been evacuated. Only soldiers will be there to greet them,” Major Shelton said.

  “Maybe I should have used the few HADES IV missiles we have,” Nathan said.

  “No, you were right to keep them in reserve. Now the Vemus will expend some energy trying to figure out where we are, which buys our soldiers on the ground time to deal with the immediate threat,” Major Shelton said.

  “Colonel, the last scanner burst came back with some strange detections,” Sergeant Martinez said.

  Nathan glanced at her, but the sergeant’s gaze was locked onto her screen.

  “Colonel, I think our scanners detected faint power readings from the Phoenix Station wreckage,” Sergeant Martinez said.

  “You think? I need more than that, Sergeant,” Nathan said.

  “It’s hard to tell because we had our array focused on the Vemus forces, but what we detected is at the edge of the scanner range. That area is where Phoenix Station was,” Sergeant Martinez said.

  Nathan looked at the scanner data on the main holoscreen and frowned. He didn’t want to start hoping when it was likely to be nothing. “Send in a scanner drone from our Bravo installation on the dark side of the moon.”

  “Drone away, Colonel. Estimated arrival in ninety minutes,” Sergeant Martinez said.

  “Very well,” Nathan said and continued to watch the main holoscreen while considering their next move.

  “Colonel,” Lieutenant LaCroix said, “would you and Major Shelton come over to Tactical, please?”

  Nathan walked over to the tactical workstation where LaCroix sat with two members of his team.

  “The HADES IV-Bs were modified to improve their effectiveness against countermeasures, which made them better able to reach their targets in a long-range engagement. We only have a few of them here on base,” Lieutenant LaCroix said.

  “That’s right—only about twenty. Have you come up with a way to use them?” Nathan asked.

  “Since this isn’t a long-range engagement with the enemy, we’re proposing to consolidate the HADES IVs’ payloads, Colonel,” Lieutenant LaCroix said.

  Nathan narrowed his gaze while he considered it. “You guys came up with this?”

  Lieutenant LaCroix shook his head. “No, the idea came up from one of the engineering teams—an engineer by the name of Kara Roberts. She said—and I’m quoting here, sir, ‘I have a way to blow those SOBs out of the damn sky.’ She had a few more expletives, but you get the idea.”

  “So, you want to take twenty of the HADES IVs and combine the payloads into one single missile?” Nathan asked.

  “No, Colonel, Major Roberts is proposing that we consolidate them down to four missiles. We cap them with extra armored tips to increase their penetration effectiveness and use countdown detonators since the Vemus can block our command-and-control signals,” Lieutenant LaCroix said.

  “And you think that will be enough to destroy that ship?” Nathan asked.

  “We can’t be sure, Colonel, but it’s our best shot at doing the most damage against them,” Lieutenant LaCroix said.

  Nathan glanced at Major Shelton.

  “The idea has promise, Colonel,” Major Shelton said.

  Nathan drew in a deep breath and sighed heavily. “How long until they can be ready?”

  “According to Major Roberts, six hours, sir. They need to break down the assembly and transfer the payload to the other missiles,” Lieutenant LaCroix said.

  “Alright, tell Major Roberts she’s authorized to start,” Nathan said. “Major Shelton, I need you to go down there and supervise the effort. No use blowing ourselves up while we’re trying to save the colony.”

  “Yes, Colonel,” Major Shelton said and left the command area.

  Nathan swung his gaze toward the main holoscreen. Vemus cruisers were inbound, and they needed to hold out for over six hours.

  24

  Connor was slumped over in his chair with the straps digging into his shoulder as red flashing lights reflected from the smooth surface of the floor. He blinked several times, slowly escaping his stupor. Swallowing the coppery taste of blood in his mouth, he raised his head to look at the main holoscreen. Amidst the flashing alerts was a long list of failed systems. Connor swung his head around and saw CDF soldiers slumped in their chairs. Other soldiers were lying on the floor, their helmets broken. He couldn’t tell whether they were alive or dead. Connor unbuckled his straps, rubbed his shoulder, and stumbled to his feet. He turned and approached Major Elder, who had fallen halfway out of his chair, some of his straps having come unbuckled. Connor’s neural implants showed that Major Elder was alive. In fact, his life signs were strong.

  “John, are you okay?” Connor asked, shaking the man’s shoulder.

  Major Elder groaned as Connor pushed him upright in his chair. He opened his eyes and
looked at Connor. “I’m still here, General,” he said, wincing.

  “Just sit tight for a minute and catch your breath. I’ll get a medic up here,” Connor said.

  Major Elder pushed himself up and waved Connor off. “I’ll be fine,” he said and took in the state of the Command Center.

  “Good, let’s see where we stand,” Connor said.

  They started working their way around the command area. The soldiers that had been strapped in their chairs were alive but disoriented. There were more than a few critically injured soldiers lying on the floor, and Connor used his comlink to find Dr. Allen. Fortunately, Dr. Allen had been near the Command Center during the Vemus Alpha attack. The chief medical officer put whoever was standing around to work helping to assess the injured soldiers.

  “Ops, I need a situation report. What shape are we in, Lieutenant?” Connor said.

  Lieutenant Rawn rubbed his eyes and peered at his personal holoscreen. “General, I’m showing that sections four, five, and seven are completely offline and aren’t attached to us anymore. We have critical failures in section six, but the bulkhead doors have sealed and are holding. Maneuvering thrusters are offline. Weapons systems are offline. We have life support and artificial gravity but we’re tumbling out of control. We’re leaking atmosphere from multiple impact points. Honestly, sir, I don’t know how we’re still together,” Lieutenant Rawn said, his eyes going wide.

  “Well let’s not start counting our blessings just yet,” Connor said.

  They had life support for the moment. They needed to get the station stabilized so they could figure out where they were and then figure out where the Vemus Alpha had gone. He glanced up at the main holoscreen, which kept flickering due to power surges.

  “Ops, try to reach someone from Engineering. I need to know what the state of our reactor is or whether we’re on backup generators. Tactical, is our scanner array intact?” Connor asked.

  Captain Thorne raced back to his workstation and opened his console. “Scanners are offline, General. The logs don’t show that it was damaged, but with all the systems offline, I’m not sure we still even have the array.”

  They needed to restore main power and get those systems back online. “Understood, Captain. See if any repair crews can check it out. We’re blind until we can get access to that array,” Connor said.

  Major Elder came back to Connor. “We still have people checking in, but preliminary reports indicate that we’re missing a substantial portion of this subsection. Davis, down in Engineering, believes the Vemus Alpha’s primary weapon cut right through our armor. The fact that we were out of control and spinning may be the only reason we’re still alive.”

  Connor nodded. “Lieutenant Daniels, do we have any comms capabilities?”

  Lieutenant Daniels had a cut on her forehead that one of the medics had just patched up. She peered at her console. “We have short-range comms capabilities, General.”

  “See if you can detect Bravo or Charlie stations. Don’t broadcast right now, but see if you can connect to their systems that are online,” Connor said.

  “We saw them get destroyed, sir,” Major Elder said quietly.

  “We saw them go offline. There was so much going on that we don’t have confirmation that they’re gone. We shouldn’t be here, and I won’t count anyone out just yet,” Connor said.

  Major Elder nodded, considering. “There could be other sections with survivors, but they might not have any way to reach us.”

  “That might be a blessing because the last thing we need is to start broadcasting our position. The Vemus Alpha might’ve passed us by, thinking we were dead,” Connor said.

  Major Elder frowned. “Why wouldn’t they just finish us off?”

  Connor shook his head. “I’m not sure. My best guess is that they thought we were no longer a threat, which means they could send a ship back to finish the job or capture survivors.”

  Major Elder’s face became grim. “Not the best position to be in. General, I’d like to assess the damage firsthand.”

  “That’s a good idea. We’ll split up. Send me an update via the comlink. We need critical systems back online. Hopefully a few maneuvering thrusters made it so we can at least stabilize our position,” Connor said.

  “I’ll make that my first stop, General,” Major Elder said.

  They spent the next few hours doing damage assessments, and Connor started to put together casualty reports, as well as lists of CDF soldiers that were simply missing. Connor divided his remaining soldiers into search parties to look for survivors and check ship systems. He left the Command Center to lead one of the search teams. They were still alive but far from out of the woods. For the moment they were on borrowed time.

  25

  The only people left in Sierra were the ones who were going to fight and those supporting them. The last transport to Sanctuary had left over an hour earlier. Sean’s mother had been on it and he was told she was none too thrilled about it. His father had stuck with him ever since they’d learned the fate of Phoenix Station, but Sean was so focused on what he had to do that most of the time he forgot his father was there. They didn’t have enough AR-71s to distribute to the militia, but they did the best they could. Some of them were armed with a CAR-74 semiautomatic hunting rifle, and Sean wasn’t sure how effective they’d be against the Vemus. Certainly, the smaller Vemus soldiers would be vulnerable to the civilian rifle but definitely not the Vemus Alpha troops. Sean had seen those rise after being torn apart by incendiary rounds from an AR-71. The only time they stayed dead was when there was nothing left to come back to life. Even that wasn’t right. The Vemus had remarkable healing capabilities that New Earth scientists were at a loss to fully understand.

  Sean knew that fighting the Vemus would be like facing his worst nightmare, except this time he didn’t get to escape in a ship. This time the Vemus wouldn’t go away. The fighting would be close and he needed them to come into the city. There were only a select few who knew his plan in its entirety. He’d expected more resistance than he’d gotten, but it was no secret that Sean was amongst the foremost experts in dealing with this particular enemy. He didn’t feel like an expert—not by a long shot, which was what this whole mission was turning out to be.

  Sean powered off the small holoscreen in front of him and stepped away from the comms station. He’d established command units throughout the city so he wouldn’t be tied down to one place. His M-Viper sniper rifle rested against the wall beside him. He was one of the best shots in the entire Colonial Defense Force.

  Lieutenant Compton shifted his feet and looked at Sean as he turned around. “They’re as ready as they’ll ever be,” he said.

  “I just told Delphi and New Haven that they’re essentially on their own. I don’t know how Connor dealt with this every day for the past seven years,” Sean said with a sigh. He felt as if his head was going to burst.

  Lieutenant Compton nodded. “It’s one thing to take orders and it’s quite another to be giving them and making all the decisions. But I’m sure Majors Winters and Roberts will do their jobs.”

  “They’ll hold their respective cities as long as they can,” Sean said.

  They stood on one of the taller buildings in Sierra, which gave them a bird’s-eye view of the city. It was a few hours after sunrise and the Vemus Alpha was in geosynchronous orbit around New Earth. The ship had been there for hours, and Sean presumed it was identifying targets.

  “Major,” Lieutenant Owens called out to him. “My scope just lit up with a bunch of bogies, sir. We’ve got incoming.”

  Air raid alarms began blaring throughout the city and Sean opened a broadcast channel to his gun batteries. “Hold your fire until we have visual confirmation of the enemy. Conserve your ammo as much as you can.”

  Multiple cracks of thunder boomed throughout the clear sky and Sean peered up, along with everyone else. He felt his brows push forward as he squinted. The sky was full of large, fiery ships that must have co
me from the Vemus Alpha. The invasion had begun. Behind the ships were several large explosions that tore through the enemy vessels.

  “What is that?” Lieutenant Compton asked.

  Sean smiled. “That has to be from Lunar Base. Colonel Hayes must’ve authorized the attack, but he won’t be able to attack for long.”

  “Why not?” Lieutenant Compton asked.

  “He’s just lending us some support and reminding the Vemus that they’re not entirely unopposed. And now they’ll have to expend resources in order to investigate where that attack came from—” Sean said and was cut off by the loud sonic booms of enemy ships clearing Lunar Base’s attack.

  Hundreds of enemy ships streaked down toward Sierra, and the rail-cannon gun batteries began rapidly firing on the approaching ships. Sean watched as the heavy rail-cannons tore into the enemy ships. The high-velocity projectiles were made from a sixth-generation alien alloy they’d found in the abandoned alien ruins on the planet. The components to make the hardened alloy were plentiful and were comparable to what the NA Alliance military would have used.

  Some of the enemy ships began to lose control, slamming into each other as they veered off course.

  “Owens, start broadcasting the Vemus control signal,” Sean said.

  “Yes, Major. Broadcasting Vemus disruption signal now,” Lieutenant Owens said.

  Sean watched as hundreds of ships approached Sierra. They stayed in formation, which meant the Vemus disruption signal was no longer effective.

  “Shall I keep the signal going, Major?” Lieutenant Owens asked.

  “Yes, keep it going just in case, Lieutenant,” Sean said.

  The Vemus landing craft never returned fire. They just kept coming despite the damage the rail-cannon batteries were doing. At first, they crashed outside the city, but they were drawing steadily closer.