by C H Gideon
Superdreadnought 5
Superdreadnought™ Book Five
CH Gideon
Craig Martelle
Tim Marquitz
Michael Anderle
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Superdreadnought 5 (this book) is a work of fiction.
All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.
Copyright © 2019 by Craig Martelle & Michael Anderle writing as CH Gideon
Cover by Luca Oleastri, Typography by Jeff Brown
Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing
A Michael Anderle Production
LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
LMBPN Publishing
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First US edition, March 2019
The Kurtherian Gambit (and what happens within / characters / situations / worlds) are copyright © 2015-2019 by Michael T. Anderle and LMBPN Publishing.
Superdreadnought 5 Team
Thanks to our Beta Readers
James Caplan
Kelly O’Donnell
Micky Cocker
John Ashmore
Thanks to the JIT Readers
Kelly O'Donnell
John Ashmore
Charles Tillman
James Caplan
Peter Manis
Mary Morris
Diane L. Smith
Dorothy Lloyd
Jeff Goode
Jeff Eaton
If I’ve missed anyone, please let me know!
Editor
Lynne Stiegler
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
Epilogue One
Epilogue Two
Author Notes - Craig Martelle
Books by Craig Martelle
Books By Michael Anderle
Chapter One
The end was near.
After months of tracking down leads and talking to the disgruntled cultists left behind on Muultar after their defeat, Reynolds had located his target at last.
He knew where Jora’nal and the Pillar were.
An imaginary chill ran down Reynolds’ android spine as he imagined what he’d do once he got his hands on that bastard.
He chuckled as he thought about it.
This wasn’t the exact mission he’d had in mind when Bethany Anne had sent him out into the universe to hunt down Kurtherians, but he knew she’d be pleased once he reported his findings and wiped the would-be Kurtherian offshoots out of existence.
They might well only be descendants of the original scourge, but they could easily be as much of a threat, given time to better organize and prepare and spread farther across the universe.
Reynolds wasn’t going to give them that opportunity.
He and the crew of the SD Reynolds were taking the fight to Phraim-‘Eh and his minions.
“We’re Gating into the Asparian System now, Captain,” Ensign Ria Alcott reported from the helm, her voice steady and strong.
They’d come a long way since she’d joined the crew, and given all she’d experienced, she’d flourished in her role as pilot of the ship.
They had all changed a lot.
Reynolds nodded to the ensign and glanced around the bridge.
The faces staring back at him were eager and ready to finish the fight.
Asya was positioned at Reynolds’ back, overseeing the bridge operations. Jiya sat in the first officer’s spot, examining all the incoming data the scanners were pulling in. Maddox was stationed in Tactical’s spot, he and the AI personality conversing in low tones so as to not distract from the ship’s operation.
“We’re parked at the edge of the system,” Ria went on. “Gravitic shields are up and all weapons systems are charged and ready, but I’m not detecting any obvious threats nearby. Deploying long range scanners now to see if anyone’s lurking about.”
“Report,” Reynolds called. He wanted to get on with it.
There was a bug to squash. A big one.
“There’s only one habitable planet in the system,” Jiya explained, “which makes things easy. Designated as ‘Aspar,’ the planet is just as active as we were warned it would be, despite its distance from any other inhabited system.”
“This is about as far on the edge of the galaxy as you can get,” XO stated. “It’s a good thing we were informed of its location, or we’d never have found it.”
“That’s what bothers me about the whole thing,” Reynolds answered with a snarl.
“I’m picking up several dozen ships in orbital docks around the planet,” General Maddox stated. “Freighters mostly, cargo ships, but there are a number of smaller warships drifting about, although it’s clear that even the smallest of the ships are packing weapons.” Maddox tapped his console and zoomed in on the large viewscreen so everyone could see what he was looking at. “The Pillar is there, too.”
Reynolds snarled as the enemy ship came into focus.
Just seeing it pissed him off.
He wanted nothing more than to Gate right up to it and unload, blowing the piece of shit into a million motes of dust and sending Jora’nal to his master in pieces.
But he knew he couldn’t.
Not yet, at least.
“Continue scanning the planet and the ships around it,” he ordered. “I want to know everything about our surroundings before we move forward.”
Reynolds wasn’t going to let this opportunity slip away.
“As we’d heard, this is clearly a haven for less than legal pursuits,” Asya jumped in.
“A pirate sanctuary,” Tactical clarified, adding a snarled, “Arrrrr.”
“A well-defended one, too,” Jiya stated. “The planet has a powerful defense system in place, with a clear equal-opportunity mindset.” She zoomed the screen in on the system. “There are hundreds of obvious railgun emplacements along the docking struts, and scanners are picking up energized weaponry hidden from sight within the frame. That’s not counting the dozens of weaponized satellites in orbit around the planet. The
system is set up to defend both against outside aggression and the ships in dock.”
“The best defense is a bunch of guns shoved in your face,” Tactical muttered. “They don’t want anyone stirring up shit here.”
“Means we can’t just stroll up behind the Pillar and start putting holes in it without consequences,” Maddox stated.
“This is the type of place that would protect its own from any sort of outside aggression,” Asya agreed. “We wouldn’t just be fighting the Asparian defense grid, but every damn pirate craft parked there, too. We can’t just go in swinging, or we’ll trigger a full-on war with us at the center of it.”
Reynolds nodded as he examined the information spilling across the screen, confirming what his crew was reporting.
“That’s why they brought us here,” the AI noted.
“You still think it’s a trap?” Jiya asked, bringing up a conversation they’d had before leaving the Quadrain System.
Reynolds shrugged. “I think we were handed this location too easily, despite the circumstances,” he admitted. “Sure, we defeated the cultists soundly and left them little choice but to cooperate, but they were too quick to give up the Pillar. You’d think having a master who fancies himself a god would make the help more reluctant to spew sensitive information as fast as they did.”
The captive cultists had started spilling their guts immediately after the battle ended, a number of key Phraim-‘Eh disciples disclosing everything they knew about Jora’nal and the Pillar. They’d apparently known little to nothing about Phraim-‘Eh himself, though.
The information seemed suspect, but it was the only real lead they had.
“Maybe they’re more afraid of you than Phraim-‘Eh,” Maddox suggested. “You did park a superdreadnought above their homes and threaten to blow their asses to oblivion.” He chuckled. “It was damn intimidating.”
“Maybe,” Reynolds answered with a nod, but he had his doubts.
Not that those doubts changed anything.
He’d come to deliver an ass-kicking to Jora’nal and follow the prick back to his master, and nothing was going to keep him from doing just that.
If it were a trap, however, it would change how Reynolds approached the Pillar and its captain. Reynolds wasn’t leaving anything to chance.
“Lots of traffic in and out of the system, Captain,” Ria warned. “We’re outside the standard travel lanes, it appears, since none of the ships are swinging our way, but we’ve been pinged a number of times since we arrived. We’re not invisible, even this far out.”
Reynolds hadn’t expected to be. “Any movement at the Pillar?” he asked.
“No, sir,” Ensign Alcott replied. “She remains docked, shields and weapons at rest, and I’m not seeing any ships going to or away from the other superdreadnought.”
Which only reinforced Reynolds’ belief that they were being lured into something.
Jora’nal wanted them in close; wanted them in a position where the Reynolds would effectively be surrounded by the armada of pirate ships above the planet as well as within range of the Asparian defense system.
“No hails?” Reynolds questioned.
Ria shook her head. “None so far.”
“This isn’t the type of place that’d throw out a welcome beyond an automated warning to keep traffic in check,” XO stated. “They’ll want to keep the system decentralized and neutral to avoid turning the planetary leadership into a target.”
“Hence the reason I was asking,” Reynolds explained. “I was hoping to catch the locals in some sort of collusion to clarify whether or not we were walking into something. Guess they’re not going to make it that easy, huh?”
“Looks that way,” XO replied.
“Your orders, Captain?” Ria asked.
Reynolds hesitated before answering, not because he was conflicted, but because he wanted to be sure he factored in every possible outcome before he decided on a course of action.
Once they were committed, there was no turning back.
“Bring us in closer and angle us around the planet, so we’re within strike range of the Pillar and as far out of range of the planetary defenses as possible,” he relayed. “If this is a trap, I’m not walking us all the way into it.”
“Just dipping our toes in.” Tactical laughed.
“Yes, sir,” Ria answered, plotting the Reynolds’ course. “Bringing us in.”
There were several quiet moments on the bridge as the ship drew closer to the planet. Reynolds split his focus between the viewscreen and his monitor, his eyes locked on the Pillar as he processed the continuous intel feed provided by the scanners.
The enemy ship remained in place, showing no reaction to the appearance of the Reynolds.
“You think they know we’re here?” Jiya asked the AI.
“I’d be surprised if they didn’t,” Reynolds replied. “They’re counting on the Asparian defense system and the pirate code of conduct to keep us from doing something overt.”
“If we go after them without obvious provocation on the Pillar’s end, we’ll end up fighting every ship in the system, whether this is a trap or not,” Asya explained.
“We can take them,” Tactical growled.
Reynolds chuckled. He felt much the same as Tactical did. He wanted nothing more than to open fire on the Pillar, but there was too much of a risk to the crew to go off and do something so audacious.
Besides, they still needed to locate Phraim-’Eh, and Jora’nal and the Pillar were the keys to that.
“There’s that automated hail you were expecting, XO,” Comm announced. He put it on the speakers so they could all hear it.
“Greetings, traveler,” a mechanical-sounding voice called, the strange language being translated individually by the crew’s chips. “Welcome to Aspar. We are a neutrally-aligned conglomerate of trade organizations bound by the tenets of cooperation and mutual profit. We are designated as a safe zone in the Asparian System and will tolerate no hostile action within our boundaries. We expect your acknowledgment and agreement of our terms. Any violation will result in your immediate destruction.”
“Straight to the point,” Tactical admired. “Gotta like that.”
Reynolds motioned to Comm’s position. “Acknowledge the warning and accept their terms,” he ordered.
“Done,” Comm answered a few seconds later. “They’re providing us with docking instructions, but I’ve declined the berth, informing them that we’ll be entering orbit rather than docking.” Comm paused a moment before speaking again. “We have permission to remain as long as we abide by the terms.”
“We have their attention, that’s for sure,” XO commented. “The defense system has allocated a substantial amount of its resources to keeping us honest. There have to be three dozen weapons zeroing in on us as we advance.”
“Can you blame them?” Reynolds asked with a laugh.
He understood the kind of threat a ship like him posed to the planet, and it was clear the Asparian defense coordinators did, too.
“Lower the shields to the minimum defense requirements against the elements to show we’re not spoiling for a fight, but I want combat readiness at all stations the entire time we’re here, folks,” Reynolds called. “We didn’t come all this way to get sucker-punched by these assholes. Stay alert, no matter what.”
The crew acknowledged the order.
“We’re in position,” Ria announced several moments later as the SD Reynolds settled itself into orbit around Aspar.
Reynolds acknowledged her report with a nod before triggering the comm. “Takal!” he said, speaking to the inventor, who was squirreled away in his lab deep in the bowels of the Reynolds. “Are all systems functional?”
“That they are,” the old scientist’s voice came back. “The Gulg technology teleportation technology has integrated seamlessly, with Xyxl’s help, and everything is up and ready to go.”
Reynolds grinned at hearing that.
They’d been caugh
t off-guard initially by the Pillar’s tenacity and ferociousness, and their technology had been far more advanced than anything Reynolds had ever encountered. But now, knowing what to expect, and having the benefit of the Gulg tech bolstering his systems, Reynolds knew it would be the cultists who would be surprised when they crossed swords again.
“The Pillar’s gearing up,” Ria reported. “Nothing blatant, but their weapon systems are coming online, and their shields are rising to defensive levels.”
“Match them, but keep below the security thresholds so we don’t trigger the planetary defenses,” the AI commanded.
Geroux’s voice came across the comm. “I’ve hacked the transportation records of the docking system,” she told them. “Reports show that several shuttles were dispatched from the Pillar and made their way to the planet.”
“Any way to know if Jora’nal was on one of them?” Reynolds asked.
“Given the questionable nature of the planet’s operations, they didn’t demand specific traveler or load information, of course, but they were made to pass through a security checkpoint. I’ve dug a little deeper into the systems, and have pulled up video of their arrival. Onscreen.”
An image of the dock’s exterior appeared, security cameras following the Pillar’s shuttles into position. Once the shuttles were docked, the image shifted to the inside of the dock as the shuttles discharged their passengers to meet the security forces.