The Artemis Trap
Page 1
The Artemis Trap
The Trellon Adventures - Book Two
By
DN Farrell
www.dnfarrell.com
© 2018 and beyond Dermot Noel Farrell
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including scanning, photocopying, or otherwise without prior written permission of the copyright holder.
Disclaimer and Terms of Use: The Author and Publisher has strived to be as accurate and complete as possible in the creation of this book, notwithstanding the fact that he does not warrant or represent at any time that the contents within are accurate due to the rapidly changing nature of the Internet. While all attempts have been made to verify information provided in this publication, the Author and Publisher assumes no responsibility for errors, omissions, or contrary interpretation of the subject matter herein. Any perceived slights of specific persons, peoples, or organizations are unintentional. In practical advice books, like anything else in life, there are no guarantees of income made. This book is not intended for use as a source of legal, business, accounting or financial advice. All readers are advised to seek services of competent professionals in legal, business, accounting, and finance field.
First Printing, 2018
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
Free Book
Recap
Prologue
The Bryant – Bridge
Chapter One – Exugenes Here We Come!
Landing Craft/Landing Zone Aplha/ Planet Exugenes
The Chief Ministers Office, Civic Buildings, City of kal
Down the Street from the Civic Buildings, City of kal
The Chief Ministers Office, Civic Buildings, City of kal
Chapter Two – The Planet Artemis 11
The Bridge
Briefing Room 2
Teleportation Room- 0800 Hours
Chapter Three – The Court of King Kegimon III
Artemis 11 Reception Area
The Court of King Kegimon III
The Great Hall
Chapter Four– The Princess
Chapter Five – Under Suspicion
Chapter Five – Ransom
The Treasury
The March
Chapter Six – Double Cross
Chapter Seven – Diplomacy
Chapter Eight – The Murcu
Chapter nine – Emergency Plans
Chapter Ten – The King of the Murcu
Chapter Eleven – Reunion
The Castle Storeroom
The Dungeons
Chapter Twelve – The Stress of Being a King
The Court Room of the King
Chapter Thirteen – The Trap is Set
Briefing Room A – The Bryant
The Chambers of the Chief Minister
Chapter Fourteen – Confrontation
Dungeon System – The Kings Castle – Artemis 11
The Court of the King
The Castle Courtyard
Briefing Room A
Preview to Death at Dusk
Prologue
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Authors Technical Notes
About the Author
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Recap
Hi welcome to book two of the Trellon Adventures. Just in case you missed out on book one (Book one is the Lost Marine and you can download a free copy here), here's a sixty second recap. In book one Colonel Henry Kell, head marine of the Kolatian Quadrant Expeditionary Force, had been sent down to the planet Exugenes, in order to free it from the clutches of the Vis Yar rebels. Apparently the rebels were supposed to be poorly organized and under resourced and a quick attack force would easily reclaim the planet Exugenes, in a couple of days.
However the best plans of mice and man often fail, so Colonel Henry Kell was to find to his surprise, that the rebels were very well resourced and possessed full Intel regarding the activities of the expeditionary force’s attack plans. Kell and his marines walked into a trap, with kell narrowly escaping only to end up stuck on the planet Exocon.
Kell used his ingenuity and daring to escape the planet Exocon and then he managed to reconnect with some of his marines in the process, before an exciting space pursuit which ended finally with Kell and his marines been picked up by the Bryant, a Super Space Cruiser of the Galactic Federation of Autonomous Species (GFAS).
In the opening scenes of this book, we meet a pissed off Kell, as he is debriefed by the captain of the Byrant, Captain Artelius Jobi and his commander Jack Trellon, before they launch a counter attack on the planet Exugenes...
Prologue
The Bryant – Bridge
"Captain."
"Yes Colonel kell?" Captain Jobi said without looking back over at the bridge lift doors, which had just slid open and the burly figure of Colonel kell, had strode out with a stressed expression on his face. Then walking past Commander Jack Trellon, he stood in front of the captain, blocking of his view of the Holo Tube in the process.
"Well Artelius what happened back there?"
"I should be asking you this question Henry." Replied the aged and bald headed Captain Jobi, as he looked up at the hulking figure of Colonel Kell.
"With all due respect sir, I just lost all but three of my men." Kell retorted with a very genuine and forlorn expression on his broad face.
"I know Kell, we've been tricked," said the captain as he looked Kell in the eye and then he added, "the Trigerius and the Virgil were sent in to take back Exugenes from the rebels on the understanding that resistance would be light..."
"Light my ass captain." An angry Colonel kell declared, as he continued to stand in front of the captain.
"Kell take a seat." The captain spoke plainly, while indicating with his left hand for Colonel kell to sit down in the chair, to the left of Captain Jobi. Then looking over at Kell he said, "Kell we lost the Virgil!"
"I heard that already captain, what about my men and Bravo, Charlie and Delta Battalions?" Asked Colonel kell, while he stared at the planet Exugenes, as it came into view on the Holo Tube.
"Bravo Battalion went down with the Virgil, Delta battalion was more or less decimated, just like Alpha battalion, while Charlie Battalion never got a chance to leave the Trigerius, they took some casualties, but most of them are still alive." Said the captain, who went on to add, "of course there are probably a remnant of marines still alive on the planet and some are drifting in space, but we can't pick up the remnants of Alpha and Delta Battalions, until we clean up this planet."
"What's the low down captain?"
"Well kell we have a Dreadnought orbiting the planet. We have to take it out and then re-invade the planet." Replied the Captain.
"We got marines?"
"We have five hundred on this ship and another one hundred are present in each of the three destroyers, who are flying in formation with us. We have the Aldabaran, the Poseidon and the Obdurant tagging along with us."
"Got it captain, let me get my posse together while you and the other naval craft take out the Dreadnought." Said Kell, while staring intently at the Holo Tube in front of him.
"Good idea kell." Replied the captain, while Kell got up to go. However, Commander Trellon leaned forward and grabbed him by his right leg, as he walked by. As he did so Kell looked down with a sad expression on his face and Trellon exclaimed, "Good to see you in one piece buddy!" To this kell just gave Commander Trellons right shoulder a firm squeeze and with that he was gone.
"Commander have you finished with your algorithm?" The Captain now asked Commander Tre
llon, while looking over in his direction.
"Just finishing the final stages captain, we'll be ready in five minutes."
The captain just nodded at the commander and then looking over at his navigator, he asked about an ETA to the planet.
"Captain we're moving at Pulse 1.0, we'll be within five million kilometers of the planet within seven minutes." Replied Navigator Emily Costar.
"Good Costar, Pylor put me through to the captains comms on the other three ships in our formation please." Grunted the captain as his eyes flickered back and forth between the reading tab, which lay on his lap, the Holo Tube and the naval personnel who sat in front of him, on the bridge.
"Will do captain." Replied Communications Officer Pylor, a red haired Oldanian. Seconds later the Holo Tube lit up with the holograms of the faces of the captains of the other three ships, in the attack formation. The three captains were Captain Sarah Santare of the Poseidon, Captain Henrietta Hartnell of the Obdurant and Captain Jenoke, a green colored tentacle headed Alorian, who captained the Aldebaran.
"Ladies, gentleman, Commander Trellon is finishing of his algorithm and we should be good to go within five minutes. The only way we can take on the Dreadnought is by staying in formation, which will strengthen our shielding exponentially and then taking on the Dreadnought, while under Trellons algorithm. Once the Dreadnought is taking care of, position your ships according to the model which was initially rolled out with the Trigerius and the Virgil. Captain Santare you will join us in the same position as the Trigerius, while Captain's Jenoke and Hartnell you will take up the position of the Virgil, any questions?"
"No", "no","no", came the communal reply, to which the captain simply nodded and then turning over towards Pylor, he gave Pylor a quick look and Pylor, who knew his Captain only too well cut the feed.
"Plylor put me through to the ships comms please." Said the captain and Plyor touched some controls and then looked over towards the captain, suggesting that he was now live.
"Hi this is your captain speaking, all crew members be prepared, we are about to engage a Dreadnought. We will take it out in formation with three battleships, then we shall re-launch an attack on the surface of the planet, using our weapons to take out major obstacles, before sending down the marines. Expect things to get a little jumpy and make sure you're force protection is engaged at all times, out."
A quiet atmosphere settled into the bridge, a feeling of peace before the storm. In the quietness Captain Jobi could clearly hear a faint low level hum in the bridge. He noted to himself that the hum was always there, but usually he never noticed it. Also as the ship aligned itself up for attack, there was the odd grinding and groaning sound heard now and again, as the hull of the ship flexed microscopically under the tensions of the ships movement through space.
"We're coming up on the Dreadnought sir." Navigator Costar stated nonchalantly.
"Algorithm engaged." Trellon piped up, and with that the four ships, which had been travelling within a few kilometers of each other, came together, now only fifty meters from each other, with the three destroyers huddled around the super cruiser. Once in position, the shields of each ship came online, thus providing an exponentially powerful shielding system.
"Sir the Dreadnought is engaging shielding and there's a build-up of energy in its weapons systems." Weapons Officer Fizoo, a blue haired Erasian apeman called out.
"Okay people we're going in." Jobi added and all was quiet again, they would now have to rely upon Commander Trellons algorithm and see how things would work out.
Several long seconds passed by before the Dreadnought engaged with the attack formation.
"Dreadnought weapons system engaged!" Exclaimed Weapons Officer Fizoo.
Several seconds later there was a sudden thump, as the Dreadnoughts large electro-magnetic weapon unleashed itself upon the attack formation.
"Ships shields down to 89% sir." Stated Fizoo excitedly.
Captain Jobi looked over at Fizoo and thought to himself that the four ships combined shielding, in the attack formation, meant that the ships shielding would increase exponentially, making the four ships impenetrable to any known weapons system. But an eleven percent drop in power, meant that if the Bryant had taken the hit on its own, that the shields would probably have been taking out instantly.
Jobi felt like disengaging the algorithm and attacking the Dreadnought manually, but this would be a really bad idea. From experience, however, he knew that the only way to defeat a Dreadnought was under an algorithmically organized attack formation.
Looking over now at the Holo Tube, came up a full visual of the Dreadnought, as they came closer to it. They were now three million kilometers away from the Dreadnought and at three thousand times magnification, the Dreadnought appeared to be a great big cylindrical ship. Graphics which lined up besides the ship on the Holo Tube, revealed a ship which was two kilometers in diameter and another three kilometres from the flattened top to the flattened bottom of the ship. The Dreadnought looked like a giant grey coloured cylinder. It lacked any sort of aesthetic appeal and instead it looked muscular; a great big metallic ship, without any windows or decorations, just plain grey in colour, without any markings, the only thing of prominence been a huge weapons array system, which was housed on top of the ship.
"Captain?" Kell came through the Captains comms unit.
"Go ahead Kell." Replied the captain, without taking his eyes of off the huge ship on the screen.
"That thing out there looks like a giant can of beans, if you ask me!" Declared Colonel Kell over the comms unit.
The captain smirked a little and replied, "Yes Kell, well you get your men together, while we look around for a suitably big tin opener and we shall see about opening it."
"Attack formation releasing an array of plasma cannon fire and laser fire sir." Fizoo suddenly spoke up as the algorithm engaged the weapons system of the four ships, in the attack formation, in tandem. This broke the captains distracted thought and looking over at the Holo Tube, the Dreadnought did not attempt any evasive actions, instead it simply floated there and awaited the burst of fire, with the lasers hitting first, followed several seconds later by the plasma cannon fire. There was a burst of multiple explosions all over the Dreadnoughts outer shielding, but once the explosions cleared, it was obvious that it had not been damaged in any way.
"Dreadnought shields down to ninety four percent." Fizoo said, and this made Captain Jobi look over at Commander Trellon, where the two men shared a knowing glance at each other; four ships fired on the Dreadnought and its shield power hardly flinched, this wasn't good enough and seconds later they would be reminded as to why.
"Another strike from the Dreadnought sir, impact in three seconds." Fizoo declared, but this time the algorithm made some tactical evasive manoeuvres, which allowed all four ships to move away, as the electromagnetic weapons discharged itself, missing their force shields by only a few hundred meters.
"Attack formation firing again, this time the Triberian Bolt Gun captain." Fizoo stated as a sudden scattering of electrical like discharge emitted from the four ships and covered the big cylinder within seconds, the charge continuing on and on for a good fifteen seconds, while the cylinder simply sat there without moving. The discharge was invisible as it travelled through space, but once it hit its target like a series of lightning bolts, it was all over the cylinder within a fraction of a second, but to no avail.
"Captain shields still at ninety four percent power!" Fizoo exclaimed excitedly, as the Triberian Bolt Gun would normally fry all of the electronics on even the biggest ships within a few seconds of exposure; four ships and a fifteen second blast and nothing!
"Incoming!" Fizoo exclaimed once more, as now only a million kilometers away from the Dreadnought, her electromagnetic weapon discharged almost directly on them. This time the thump was bigger and everyone got thrown around in their seats a bit, while held in place thanks to the force protection system, which was built into their seats.
"Shields at seventy eight percent power captain." Fizoo called out.
Turning to look directly at Commander Trellon, the captain stated with a touch of anger in his voice, "Trellon I thought your algorithm would whoop this thing, but so far we are the one's taking a whopping!"
"It's a self-learning algorithm captain, two million lines of code, don't worry it will work." Trellon replied and just a he finished his sentence, the attack formation released a blast of the Garagarian Tripod Exploders, directed right on top of the cylinder, near the magnetic weapons systems assembly, resulting in a sudden bluish coloured explosion and then straight on the back of it, it released another fifteen second blast of the Triberian Bolt Gun, once again directed towards the magnetic weapons assembly system.
"Dreadnought shield power down to eighty percent, but local shield power near the weapons assembly down to sixty six." Fizoo said.
Captain Jobi and Commander Trellon once again shared a quick bit of eye contact, as each man knew what was coming up.
The attack formation released both the Geragarian Tripod Exploders and the Tiberian Bolt Gun more or less simultaneously, which resulted in an enormous shower of sparks and bluish coloured explosions, which were made all that much more spectacular, when the Dreadnoughts magnetic weapon assembly, discharged once again through a satellite dish like object, on the top of the ship. Now at three hundred thousand kilometers, the attack group were virtually on top of the Dreadnought. A huge bubble of iridescent white light came out of the Dreadnought, enveloping the attack formation and this time the thump was a really whallop, as at such close range, the magnetic weapon was particularly powerful.