by Paul Teague
Hunter and Jackson went first, crossing the open space and floating into the Raptor’s small crew compartment. Gray followed, leaving Ten and Davies at the edge of the airlock.
“After you,” said Davies, gesturing to the Raptor’s waiting door.
“No, please,” said Ten, with a slight bow, “after you.”
Then the airlock doors closed behind them, and the lamp lit to indicate a transit cycle. The Mechs were coming.
“Fucking move!” yelled Conway. Ten and Davies shared a look, then, as one, pushed themselves out into the hangar. They were halfway across the deck when the airlock doors opened, and Mechs began to stream out into the hangar, firing as they came.
“Get in there,” said Davies as he gripped the edge of the airlock and swung around, pushing Ten through the open doorway as he went. “We’re in!” he said, slapping the control to close the door as bullets left dents and scars on the hull of the Raptor.
“Roger,” acknowledged Conway. Then the Raptor spun on its axis and the nose swung around to face the airlock. The ship’s railguns spat, chewing through the airlock and ripping apart the Mechs as they tried to organise themselves.
“Hang on to something,” said Conway, “manoeuvring thrusters then main engines, we’re not hanging around.” The Raptor spun again, then shot forward towards the open hangar doors.
Seconds later, they burst out of the Sphere into the vastness of space, and the Marines breathed freely again.
“Vengeance, this is Conway. Package retrieved, on our way home.”
“Acknowledged, Conway. Happy flying.”
“Manoeuvring, then a ten-second burn,” said Conway. “We’ll be safely back on Vengeance in a few minutes.”
“Negative,” said Hunter, squeezing himself past Davies into the cockpit, “we have to finish this now, before we return.”
“Finish what?” said Ten from the crew compartment. “You want to go back?”
“That weapon, the starship destroyer,” said Hunter, “the one that did for Colossus.”
“What about it?”
“We have to deal with it, or Vengeance is toast as soon as the Mechs fix their fusion reactor.” He had removed his helmet, and now he looked at Conway. “If we don’t do this, we can’t win.” He held up his arm. “I have the data.”
“Well, shit,” said Davies. “Are you sure?” Hunter gave him a flat look, and Davies nodded. “Yeah, I guess you are.”
“How do we do this?” said Conway.
“The solution of the ages, updated for modern tech,” said Hunter. “Shoot it until it dies, railguns and missiles,” he went on when the other just stared blankly at him. “It’s the only way to be sure. Turn around, I’ll guide you in.”
Conway shook her head, but her hands flew over the controls as she changed the flight programme and span the Raptor around until it pointed back at the Sphere. The enemy ship hung in space like a vast ball of evil, its dark face rising up before them as the Raptor drifted slowly away.
“There,” said Hunter, pointing at a protrusion from the Sphere’s surface. “That’s the weapon. Hit it with everything you’ve got.”
“Will that destroy the Sphere?” asked Conway as she prepared a firing solution. “Stansfield wanted it intact.”
“Dunno,” shrugged Hunter. “Does it matter?”
Conway bobbed her head, as if the breaking of a direct order was merely a minor breach of protocol.
“Mechs,” said Davies, who was monitoring the Sphere from the crew compartment and watching for threats. “Half a dozen, maybe, on those bloody discs, heading this way.”
“Later,” said Hunter urgently as the targeting computer picked out the incoming Mechs and displayed them on the monitor with yellow highlights. To Ten, they looked like angry wasps buzzing in to attack a picnic. “If we don’t destroy that weapon, this’ll all have been for nothing.”
“Ready,” said Conway. She looked at Hunter. “You’re sure about this?” He nodded, exhausted. Conway took a deep breath and gave the order. “Firing now.”
The Raptor vibrated as the railgun battery streamed rounds toward the Sphere. With its reactor shutdown and its weapons offline, the Mechs had no response, and the railgun rounds tore through the great weapon’s components, shredding its power delivery mechanisms and delicate innards.
“And a light sprinkling of high-explosive missiles,” said Conway as the targeting computer activated the launchers. Six pairs of missiles accelerated through the void, and all struck home. The face of the Sphere seemed to ripple as the explosions tore a great hole in its side.
More explosions followed, then a gout of flame blew out from within the Sphere to spray debris into space. The few lights that had shone from the hangar went out, and the Sphere began to turn gently under the impulse from the attack.
Nothing more happened for a few seconds; then Ten, leaning into the cockpit with his helmet off, sniffed loudly.
“That ought to slow them down a little,” he said softly. “Home, Conway, and don’t spare the horses.”
“Report,” barked Stansfield as he stood alone on the bridge of Vengeance. The bridge crew had taken the chance to exact their revenge on the Mechs with relish, and had barrelled out across the main deck with a bloodthirsty aggression that had swept away the remaining Mechs.
“Just cleaning up now, sir,” said Vernon. “I’m on deck two with Mason and Kearney. Sergeants Smith and Weston are taking the remnants of their squads to deck three, but it’s all over. The Mechs aren’t putting up any sort of resistance.”
“Good work, Commander. Keep it going, I want my ship back.”
“Ay, sir, it’ll be a pleasure.”
Stansfield switched his attention to a monitor that showed the view from the hangar on deck three, where Conway’s Raptor was landing. He watched with no small degree of satisfaction as six figures disembarked and pressed forward, shooting Mechs as they went. In moments, the hangar was free of the enemy, and Charlie Team had moved on.
“Most satisfactory,” murmured Stansfield, flicking through the camera feeds from the rest of the ship and watching as his diminished crew methodically cleared the Mechs and re-established control.
“Vengeance, this is Kingdom 10,” said a voice. “Thought you’d like to know that we’re deploying the first of your reinforcements as we speak.”
“This is Stansfield. Acknowledged, Kingdom 10, looking forward to meeting them.”
“Roger, Kingdom 10 out.”
“Better late than never, I suppose,” muttered Stansfield, “but a win is a win.”
“Did we do it?” Davies asked as he dropped into an empty seat.
“It isn’t over,” said Jackson as he sadly shook his head. “I can feel it in my bones.”
The team had completed their sweep of Vengeance, and now they waited in the mess on deck one for Kearney and Mason, who were coming via the armoury on the sound principle that a break in the fighting was the best time to restock.
“Nonsense,” said Ten, grinning at the morose Marine. “Time for a hot wet, and then home for medals and promotions.” He paused, head cocked to one side. “Medals and promotions for you lot, at least. I might get a reduction in sentence, unless I’m lucky.”
They all looked at him as if he’d gone mad, and he shook his head.
Stansfield’s voice came over the ship’s address system, as steady as it had been throughout the crisis. “I can confirm the Mechs that boarded Vengeance have been eliminated. The ship is secure.”
“See?” said Ten, arms spread wide. “What could possibly go wrong now?”
Epilogue
Fernandez whistled tunelessly under his breath as he worked. The Mech was dead, of that he was sure, but there was little else he knew for certain, and he had so many questions.
“Why a cyborg?” he muttered under his breath. “Why not just grow a new body, or build a full robot?”
He lifted out a panel that had covered the Mech’s abdomen and peered into a mixed mes
s of human intestines and artificial processors of some sort.
“And why not just replace all the internal systems? What sort of deranged mind comes up with a mess like this?” He teased aside a coil of purple innards and paused as something blinked at him from deep inside the Mech.
“Well, hello there,” he murmured, frowning and leaning closer. “What have we got here, then?”
There was a soft plunk noise from the Mech’s skull, and Fernandez’s head whipped toward the noise. Then the top of the Mech’s head began to move.
Fernandez took a step away from the corpse, his skin crawling at the sight before him.
“Oh, shit.”
If you enjoyed Incursion, you can pre-order Armada, Book 2 of By Strength and Guile, now.
Armada will launch on Dec 31st 2019 and Book 3 - Devastation - will launch at the end of January 2020.
Thank you for Reading
Thank you for reading Incursion Book 1 of By Strength and Guile, set in the Royal Marine Space Commandos universe.
We hope you enjoyed the book and that you’re looking forward to the next entry in the series, Armada.
It would help us immensely if you would leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads, or even tell a friend you think would enjoy the series, about the books.
Incursion is the first book in By Strength & Guile, a series with our new co-author, Paul Teague. Paul is the author of many books, including the popular series The Secret Bunker & The Grid.
We think you’ll love this trilogy that opens the door into the world of special forces operations in our Royal Marine Space Commandos universe.
Armada (Book 2) is available for pre-order now and launches on Dec 31st. Devastation (Book 3) will conclude the trilogy on Jan 31st.
Jon Evans & James Evans
Author Note from Paul Teague
I had a fabulous time thinking up and writing the trilogy that includes the books Incursion, Armada and Devastation – and it all came about because of a podcast.
I have been the host of a writing podcast at self-publishing-journeys.com since 2016 and I met Jon Evans at a writing conference in the UK as a consequence of him listening to my weekly ramblings.
I invited Jon onto the show for an author interview and, at that time, he hadn’t begun publishing his military sci-fi series with his brother Jon.
We chatted in our interview at self-publishing-journeys.com/episode-125-jon-evans about our mutual love of sci-fi and Jon outlined the details of his new universe during our chat.
At the time, I was very resistant to the thought of collaborations, and when he suggested the idea to me in our post-interview chat, I was very non-committal.
However, I loved the sound of the universe that he and his brother were creating.
I can’t remember what made me change my mind about co-writing these books, but we ended up agreeing on an initial series of three stories, to be set in the same universe but promising a completely new off-shoot into different worlds and adventures.
I read Commando, Guerrilla and Ascendant very quickly whilst staying in Spain over Christmas and New Year 2018 (yes, those books were read in the glorious Spanish sunshine) and hastily began plotting out three adventures for my new crew.
I’m a huge consumer of sci-fi and have been since I was a kid; I’m old enough to have seen the original Star Wars in the cinema the first time it came out, and no, it wasn’t a silent movie in black and white, don’t be rude!
That movie was ground-breaking – even as a kid I remember what a game-changer it was in terms of story-telling and special effects.
My sci-fi influences are many and numerous.
I bought the first ever edition of 2000AD as a twelve-year old in 1977 and immediately loved characters such as Judge Dredd, Harlem Heroes, M.A.C.H. 1 and Flesh.
I grew up hiding behind the sofa watching Doctor Who with Jon Pertwee (my favourite doctor) and Tom Baker. My favourite season is The Day of the Daleks (1972), in which the Ogrons featured heavily.
Whatever happened to the brilliant Ogrons?
I always loved the original Star Trek, as well as seventies classics such as Space 1999 (I still have my Dinky Eagle toy), Blakes 7, UFO, Survivors and Logan’s Run but not the original series of Battlestar Galactica.
However, skip forward several years, and you’d have found me watching Babylon 5, Star Trek: The Next Generation, the updated Battlestar Galactica and any movie that was set in space or which portrayed a dystopian future.
My first seven sci-fi books were inspired by the likes of The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, the Divergent series, The Giver, The Running Man and The Terminator, to name just a few.
The worlds portrayed in these books are decaying or have been destroyed already, their plots depict dark forces and deadly plots.
Working with Jon and James has given me the opportunity to shoot my stories into space, spinning off their much-loved and well-established universe in a completely new direction.
Of course, my trilogy had to include Ten, he was an obvious choice for a cameo role in a spin-off series, and I had great fun finding increasingly threatening scenarios to throw at him and put him through his paces.
The trilogy has a strong theme running throughout it too, culminating in the third book and the introduction of that story’s super baddie.
I was keen to examine the concept of what makes us human.
As we replace more and more body parts with mechanical or synthetic substitutes, at what point do we cease to be human?
That might sound all a bit deep so worry not, I love a good space battle, exploding ships, a crew set against the odds, and some super tense, high-octane scenarios and those are never in short supply in this series of books.
This first trilogy is set up so that we can explore the story further in the future.
No plot spoilers here, but there’s a promise of joining Ten for a drink sometime in the future.
If there’s a chance of a free drink, there’s no way the ship’s crew aren’t fighting their way through whatever horrors lie ahead just to make sure Ten can buy them that pint!
It’s been great fun being allowed to play in Jon and James’ universe, and I hope you like these stories enough for me to pay another visit in future.
I loved creating this crew, and I can’t wait to deploy them on another set of adventures deep in space.
If you liked this trilogy, you'd find more of the same sort of sci-fi shenanigans in my other two series.
All seven books are linked, I’d suggest starting with The Secret Bunker Trilogy, then reading Phase 6, and finally moving on to The Grid.
And if you enjoy reading thrillers, I’ve got another thirteen books written as Paul J. Teague.
My thrillers have plots which are just as fast and furious as these books – you just won’t see any laser guns or aliens there