by G J Ogden
EARTH’S LAST WAR
PART FOUR OF THE CONTINGENCY WAR SERIES
G J OGDEN
Copyright © 2019 G J Ogden
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
Published by Ogden Media Ltd
Cover design by germancreative
Editing by S L Ogden
www.ogdenmedia.net
The Contingency War Series
No-one comes in peace. Every being in the galaxy wants something, and is willing to take it by force…
Read the other books in the series:
- The Contingency
- The Waystation Gambit
- Rise of Nimrod Fleet
- Earth’s Last War
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Sarah for her work assessing and editing this novel, and to those who subscribed to my newsletters and provided such valuable feedback.
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ONE
Captain Taylor Ray shuffled to the edge of the command chair and leaned forward while the Contingency One continued to press its pursuit of the enemy ship, as if this would give their scorpion-like Corvette a burst of extra speed. Casey Valera’s silver simulant eyes were immersed inside the pilot’s viewport as she wrestled with the controls, managing to coax the aging cruiser into performing maneuvers that seemed to defy the laws of physics.
“Get ready, Blakey, one enemy cruiser, coming right up!” called out Casey. She had anticipated the enemy ship’s desperate and obvious attempts to evade her and was setting it up perfectly for a volley from the ship’s forward cannons.
Blake glanced across and smiled at Casey, even though she couldn’t see him with her eyes inside the viewport, “Just line ‘em up and I’ll light ‘em up...”
A burst from the enemy cruiser’s aft turret snaked harmlessly past the Contingency One, before it made another last-ditch attempt to shake Taylor’s smaller, nimbler craft. But Casey knew exactly where it was going to end up.
“All yours...” Casey called out, pulling her eyes out of the viewport while simultaneously kicking her shamrock-green sneakers up onto the console and staring expectantly at the viewport.
Blake took over navigational control of the ship in those final seconds, letting loose with both the forward cannons and turrets, landing direct hits with every shot. “Boom!” he shouted, punching the air like Rocky Balboa after beating Ivan Drago, “Another one bites the dust! That’s ten today – a new personal best.”
“Great work, everyone,” said Taylor standing up. “End battle drill and stand down from simulated weapons. Casey, bring us to a full stop.”
“Aye, aye, Captain Taylor Ray,” said Casey, scooting her feet off the console, before spinning the ship around and pulsing the main engines to counteract their velocity.
“They’re gettin’ a lot better,” said Blake, leaning back casually in his seat, “That last one even managed to land a couple hits on us.”
“I bet that’s the most times you’ve been hit on in your life,” said Casey, tilting her head in his direction and shooting him a mischievous smile.
“It’s not his fault!” laughed Taylor. “I mean, technically, he’s less than a month old, you can’t expect him to have much game.”
Blake scowled, “Hey, leave off the new guy, will ya?”
An incoming message alert bleeped on the mission ops console and James Sonner checked it. He’d had precious little to do for the last five simulated battle drills they’d run, on account of the rookie Nimrod crews failing valiantly to deliver any significant simulated damage to the Contingency One. “It’s Commander Sonner, Captain,” said James, “she’s asking for an update.”
Taylor huffed out a laugh, “Colonel Collins is asking, more like,” he grumbled, and the others nodded knowingly. “Order Nimrods Charlie Two, Four and Five back to base and get the next two on the starting line, then put Commander Sonner through.”
“Aye, Captain,” said James, thankful of having something to do. A few moments later the image of Commander Sarah Sonner appeared on the viewport, with the silver-haired and mustachioed Colonel Chester Collins at her side.
“How’s it going up there, Captain?” asked Sonner, cheerfully, “Have any of them actually managed to shoot anywhere near you yet?”
Taylor was about to answer, but Collins cut in, and unlike Sonner there was a distinct lack of cheer in his voice, “This is hardly a joking matter, Commander,” he snapped, and unseen to him Sonner rolled her eyes. Taylor had to force his jaw shut to make sure he didn’t grin and give her away. “We’re about to send this fleet into battle, and the Hedalt Armada won’t be using simulated weapons.”
“Colonel, half of these crews are greener than Casey’s sneakers,” Taylor replied, but was then distracted as Collins appeared to be trying to check on Casey’s footwear through the viewport. Casey quickly tucked her feet underneath the pilot’s console and smiled back innocently. “Considering how recently we assembled these crews, they’re doing far better than I’d expect.”
“Then your expectations are too low!” Collins hit back. “This is not a game, there are real lives at stake.”
The use of the phrase, ‘real lives’ hadn’t been lost on Taylor; the Colonel had made no attempt to hide his misgivings about himself, Casey and Blake. Taylor did have some sympathy for his predicament, though. That the Colonel struggled to trust three simulants that were formerly under the control of the Hedalt Empire wasn’t in itself all that surprising. Simulants had been instrumental in Earth Fleet losing the war, so Taylor had never expected to be welcomed into the fold with open arms. And, in truth, Collins hadn’t be the only one to eye them with a palpable degree of suspicion and mistrust; many of the other Earth Fleet officers and crew were also wary of them. But that Taylor’s actions and the actions of his crew, and even Collins’ own direct interactions with him, had not further informed his views was surprising. It demonstrated how intransigent – or, as Sonner had put it, ‘arrogant, pig-headed and blinkered’ – their new Commander was. Taylor may have been less harsh in his own description, but there was no doubt that Colonel Collins was inflexible and incapable of adapting to the new reality he’d been confronted with after waking from hibernation.
Part of that new reality was that not all simulants were the enemy, but in general the situation on the ground was radically removed from what anyone at Earth Fleet had anticipated at the time the Contingency was put into action. Commander Sarah Sonner was the only one to survive the failure of the hibernation systems on the main Contingency base, and the cobbled-together remains of humanity, recovered from the asteroid repair base and the reserve base, had found themselves three centuries furt
her into the future than planned. These inexperienced crews and the ninety-nine Nimrod-class cruisers were hopelessly outmatched and outgunned by the sophisticated and far larger Hedalt ships that had been deployed since. But Collins had been adamant that they should stick to the original Contingency battle plans; plans that Sonner and Taylor agreed were now completely outdated and irrelevant. And this made Colonel Collins just as dangerous as an armada of Hedalt War Frigates.
“We’re running live and simulated battle scenarios around the clock, Colonel,” Taylor replied, a hint of exasperation creeping into his voice. “Unless you know of another hidden base with a few hundred battle-hardened captains in stasis inside, we’re doing all we can.”
“It’s not enough,” Collins retorted, “you must train harder.”
Sonner then added her voice in support of Taylor, “Look, Colonel, the only way these crews will get significantly better is with time – time that was factored in to the original Contingency timeline. Delay the attack. Give us the time we need to get these crews up to speed, and come up with a new battle plan.”
“We don’t have time to delay, Commander,” barked Collins, “Surprise is our best weapon, and the longer we wait, the more we risk losing this vital element.”
It was a tired argument that Sonner knew she wouldn’t win, but Collins’ stubborn refusal to see reason irked her enough that she was still unable to let it go. She was about to argue back when an alert sounded on the bridge.
James was on it like a flash, “Jump signature detected...” he said, anxiously waiting for the initial analysis to flash up on the screen. Then he looked at Taylor, eyes wide. “Captain, a Hedalt ship has just entered the system!”
TWO
James Sonner’s unexpected report acted like a whetstone, sharpening the senses of everyone on the bridge. Taylor’s simulant frame spared him from the fight-or-flight flutters that had suddenly crippled James, allowing him to remain focused. He knew exactly what to do – he just didn’t know for sure if it would work.
“Commander, an enemy ship just jumped in,” Taylor announced to the startled faces of Sonner and Collins on the viewport. “Deactivate the transmitter on the moon’s surface. Do it right now!” He then turned back to James, “Shut down the transmission, do it fast!”
Despite the sudden rush of dizziness and nausea that James experienced, he managed to cut the link to the transmitter on the moon’s surface, removing the shocked faces of Collins and Sonner from the viewport. Taylor’s simulant eyes detected the young officer’s trembling hands and flushed face, but now more than ever he needed him to have a clear head; their survival depended on it. Taylor rushed to James’ side and dropped a hand on his shoulder, which acted like an anchor that steadied him both physically and emotionally. Then, calmly, as if the situation was nothing more serious than a drill, he added, “Cut main power and run silent, James. Do it as quick as you can. And reduce life support to minimum.”
“Aye, Captain,” James replied, initiating the emergency shutdown process to rig the ship for silent running. He was grateful for the weight of Taylor’s hand on his shoulder, keeping him grounded and counteracting the lightness in his head that threatened to float him off the chair.
The omnipresent hum of energy conduits started to diminish and Taylor heard the fans that circulated air and heat around the ship spin down. He patted James’ shoulder, “Sorry, Technical Specialist, but it might get a little chilly in here for a time.”
“Aye, Captain, I’ll manage,” James answered, keeping a brave face, though his voice wobbled ever so slightly.
“Order the four Nimrod captains to run silent too, alpha priority,” Taylor continued. “Use radio waves and encode as text only, full encryption. Keep the transmission power to the absolute minimum you can get away with. With any luck, whatever that ship is out there, they won’t be listening for something as archaic as VHF radio.”
The lights on the bridge shut off so that the only illumination was from photo-luminescent emergency lighting strips and the soft glow of the critical computer consoles that remained active.
“Engines down, reactor to minimal output, Captain,” said Casey. “We’re as quiet as any spaceship could be, without becoming an icicle.”
“Message received by the Nimrods,” James added. “Local heat and EM signatures are dropping off significantly, so I think they heard us. But there’s no way that we can completely hide the fact we’re out here.”
“I know, James,” Taylor replied, again ensuring his tone was as warm and reassuring as it could be, given the circumstances. But he wasn’t about to feed him false hope either. “We’ve done our jobs well, so all we can do now is hope that the Hedalt’s attention is focused elsewhere.”
The phrase ‘silent running’ was something of a misnomer when it came to starships, since there was no way to completely mask their signature. But it was also a big star system and the Hedalt vessel would need some time to calibrate its scanners after jumping in. So long as they had acted quickly enough, there was a good chance of remaining undetected, providing the enemy ship wasn’t specifically looking for them.
An eerie silence crept over the bridge, which only served to highlight just how much noise the hundreds of different ship’s systems actually made. Without them, Taylor could hear the creak of metal and even the sound of James Sonner’s breathing, rapid and shallow. To distract himself, Taylor studied the data displayed on the single console screen that had remained functioning on the mission ops station. It was showing all the passive sensor data they had collected before shutting down, including the limited information that James had managed to compile about their intruder. He was perfectly capable of interpreting the information himself, but he also knew that giving Sonner a task would help to keep his mind off their dangerous situation.
“Talk to me, Mr. Sonner, who is our new friend out there?”
James brought up the limited tactical scan data on the console screen. “There’s not much to say, Captain, but it’s definitely Hedalt,” he began, rubbing his hands together; the bridge was already starting to get colder. “It’s small, less than half the size of the Contingency One. Assuming it remains on course, its last know trajectory would put it heading towards the far side of the fourth planet in the system, relative to our position.”
“What, the same planet this miserable, dusty rock’s orbitin’?” said Blake appearing just behind Taylor with Casey alongside. James Sonner nodded and Blake folded his arms, “Damn, that’s a little too close for comfort. What’s there that it could want? It’s just another dead rock, ain’t it?”
“Yes, it is...” said Taylor idly, though he was thinking hard. The far side of the planet?... Of all the planets in the galaxy, why would a Hedalt scout go there? Then he remembered, and he snapped his fingers, as if it was a eureka moment. “The crashed Nimrod... They’re returning to the crash site.”
“The crashed what-now?” said Blake, dipping his chin and cocking his head ever so slightly to the side in disapproval. If he’d had eyebrows, they would have been raised all the way up.
“When Commander Sonner and I first left the Contingency base, we crashed a Nimrod on the surface to act as a decoy, should the Hedalt ever come looking for their missing Hunter Corvette,” Taylor explained. “We took the transceiver from the Contingency One and put it on the Nimrod, so that it would look like a crashed Hedalt ship to anyone in orbit.”
“Smart,” said Blake, with genuine appreciation. “So if the Hedalt found it, they’d just think you had some kinda simulant brain-fart that caused you to crash, an’ not bother to go snoopin’ ‘round the rest of the system.”
Casey leaned in towards Blake with a disgusted look on her face, and whispered to him, “Brain fart?” but Blake just waved her off.
“That was the idea,” said Taylor, suppressing a smile to remain serious, even though it was great to see that Casey and Blake’s playful interactions were a feature of bridge life once again. “But we have to assume that the
ir arrival now isn’t a co-incidence, not after everything that happened at the Hedalt breaking yard. If they discover the crashed ship is actually a Nimrod then they’ll run a fine-toothed comb through this star system until they eventually find us.”
“So, what do we do, Cap?” asked Casey.
Taylor stroked the smooth synthetic skin on his chin, weighing up their options, but it soon became apparent to him that they had very few available to them. “For now, we wait for that ship to leave.”
“And then?” Blake pressed.
“Then, as much as I hate to agree with Collins, we have to get the fleet underway as soon as possible. We can’t risk being discovered while the fleet is still underground; they’d be sitting ducks.” There were audible exhalations, from human and simulant alike. “But... that doesn’t mean we have to go into battle unprepared.”
Casey smiled, “Ooh, I like this rebellious new Captain Taylor Ray!”
“It certainly makes a change!” Blake laughed, slapping Taylor on the shoulder a little harder than he had planned, “I take it you have some genius an’ prob’ly slightly dumb plan?”
Taylor didn’t relish what he had to do next, especially considering the last time he had entered the Fabric, he nearly didn’t make it back out alive. And this time, there would be no Sarah Sonner to pull him out if things went south. But if the fleet was going to jump back to Earth, they needed to know exactly what they were dealing with. He met each of their eyes in turn and then said, “I wouldn’t say it’s a genius plan, and it’s certainly a little dumb, but I do have an idea. And it involves me taking a little space walk.”
THREE
Provost Adra had been waiting outside the tribunal hearing room in Warfare Command headquarters for over two hours. Her patience was wearing thin. Ever since she had been ordered to return to the Hedalt home world – the core world they had seized from the Masters and adopted as their own – all she had done was wait.