The Originator Wars:
Search for the Lost
A Lost Fleet Novel
(The Originator Wars, Book 2)
By
Raymond L. Weil
USA Today Best Selling Author
Books in The Originator Wars Series
The Originator Wars: Universe in Danger (Book 1)
The Originator Wars: Search for the Lost (Book 2)
Website: http://raymondlweil.com/
Copyright © July 2017 by Raymond L. Weil
All Rights Reserved
Cover Design by Humblenations.com
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the author.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Epilogue
The Originator Wars:
Search for the Lost
A Lost Fleet Novel
Chapter One
The battle was fierce and Grayseth grunted as the Warrior’s Pride shook violently. The Eternals were projecting an energy field that was preventing the fleet from escaping into hyperspace. The fleet had fallen into a trap and was under heavy attack by the Eternal warfleet that had been hiding behind a stealth field. Over two hundred of the deadly four-kilometer-long ships were attacking the Originator fleet. Fleet Admiral Strong had ordered the fleet to deploy its defense globes in an attempt to hold off the enemy battlecruisers.
“We’ve lost the dreadnoughts Excalibur and Princeton,” reported Makeb as the reports came in at Communications.
On one of the viewscreens, two fields of glowing debris marked the locations where the ships had been destroyed.
“How soon before we can jump?” Grayseth was fearful if they didn’t jump soon the entire fleet might be lost. The Eternals were like no enemy they had faced before. They were projecting some type of field, which was preventing the fleet from jumping into hyperspace.
“Ariel says Aaliss and Talmorr are working on disrupting the energy field but it’s going to be another few minutes,” Makeb replied.
“The hunt will continue,’ roared Grayseth as the battleship fired its ion cannon at a nearby Eternal warship, freezing the ship’s shield so it couldn’t modulate thus making the vessel more vulnerable to weapons fire.
“Firing gravitonic cannons,” reported Lasall from Tactical as he pressed several icons on his computer screen.
On the main viewscreen, the twin beams struck the Eternal warship, penetrating its energy shield and gouging out two massive holes in the hull of the vessel. However, the ship was four kilometers in length and it shrugged off the damage, turning its full fury upon the Warrior’s Pride.
“We’re starting to take a lot of damage,” warned Ganlon, the ship’s second in command. “Our energy shield can only withstand those beams for a short time. I’ve never seen beams of that type with that kind of power.”
“What of the Avenger?” demanded Grayseth as the Warrior’s Pride seemed to keel over and the sound of tearing metal could be heard in the Command Center. Several consoles exploded, sending showers of sparks across the room.
“Energy beam penetrated the screen,” reported the damage control officer. “We have a number of compartments open to space. Repair robots are enroute.” The ship had a far smaller crew than normal and was reliant on the small and versatile robots for many duties a Carethian would normally carry out.
“The Avenger’s been hit multiple times but is still fighting,” Ganlon replied as he held on to a console to stop from being knocked to the floor. The Warrior’s Pride was still being pounded by the approaching Eternal vessel.
“Firing particle beam cannons and a Devastator Three missile,” Lasall said as he pressed a number of different icons on his computer screen.
On the ship’s main viewscreen, a pair of particle beams leaped from the bow of the Warrior’s Pride and smashed through the energy screen of the Eternal vessel, carving out huge rents in the hull of the enemy ship. Moments later a Devastator Three missile arrived and the one-hundred-megaton warhead annihilated the bow of the Eternal vessel, destroying nearly one-third of the ship.
Grayseth felt relief as the Eternal warship turned and retreated from the battle. However, on the main tactical display too many ships of the fleet were being destroyed. The hunt was not going well.
“More enemy ships are dropping out of hyperspace,” warned Shantor from his sensor console. “Over three hundred.”
“If we can’t jump out shortly the hunt will end for all of us,” said Ganlon, his large eyes focused worriedly on Grayseth. “The enemy have us far outnumbered and their weapons are too powerful.”
The ship shook more violently and then suddenly seemed to be shoved to one side as if hit by a giant hammer. The lights brightened, then died, finally coming back on as the emergency lighting activated.
“What happened?” demanded Grayseth, his eyes showing concern for his ship and crew.
Ganlon checked his console and then turned toward Grayseth shaking his head. “Engineering took a direct hit from an energy beam and an antimatter missile struck us. Hyperdrive has been destroyed, but the gravity drive is still partially operational. We’re shunting all power to the energy shield.”
“Weapons are nonfunctional,” reported Lasall as the power for the weapons was diverted to the ship’s shield. “We are no longer in the hunt.”
“We have numerous decks open to space. There is a hole in the hull over two hundred meters in length and penetrating down through twenty decks. Emergency bulkheads have been activated throughout the ship,” Ganlon informed Grayseth as he listened to incoming damage reports. “We have fires burning in a number of compartments. Fire suppression is down due to a lack of power.” Ganlon took a deep breath. “We’re losing the ship.”
“Fleet Admiral Strong is ordering us to abandon the Warrior’s Pride,” reported Makeb.
Suddenly on the viewscreen, bright explosions began going off in the Eternal fleet formation, destroying a number of vessels.
“What are those?” asked Grayseth mystified by the explosions.
“Admiral Strong detonated the remaining defense globes. They took out forty-seven Eternal ships,” reported Shantor. Shantor gazed at his console and then his face seemed to pale. “There’s an Eternal warship on a collision course with the Avenger!”
“Activate our gravity drive, aim us at that ship!” roared Grayseth, his eyes showing fury at the Eternals. “I will not allow our clan brother to die. He is needed to lead this war.”
“Gravity drive activated,” reported Ganlon calmly. “To the hunt!”
“To the hunt,” replied Grayseth as the massive Eternal vessel grew on the single still operating viewscreen. “It has been an honor my clan brothers.” Grayseth knew his death was upon him.
“An honor,” several replied.
They stood ready to sacrifice their lives for their clan and their clan brother.
Grayseth felt the ship shake again and again as it was struck by Eternal energy beams, but the Warrior’s Pride was committed and there was nothing the Eternals could do to turn her away. All of her remaining power was being funneled to the energy screen and the sputtering gravity drive. On the damage control console, light after light was turning red. Grayseth knew the ship was beginning to come apart around them. All it needed to do was hold together for another few seconds and it would be over.
Grayseth activated the ship-to-ship communicator so he could say farewell to his clan brother.
“The glory of the hunt is now yours,” Grayseth said solemnly to Jeremy. “Tell my clan and my people we died in the hunt and for the glory of all Carethians.”
“Grayseth, get off that ship!” Jeremy cried out.
“No, my friend. My life is ending. It is the way of the hunt. Goodbye, my clan brother.”
Grayseth closed his eyes as the Warrior’s Pride slammed into the Eternal vessel. His last thoughts were of Marille, his chosen mate. He wished he could have told her goodbye.
-
In a tumultuous explosion the two ships collided, vanishing in a fiery blast and sending flaming debris in all directions. A large piece of glowing debris was sent flying away from the conflagration, a jagged piece of wreckage nearly sixty meters in diameter. After a few moments the space around the object seemed to shimmer and then the object faded away from view.
-
On board the Avenger, Fleet Admiral Jeremy Strong stared in disbelief at the viewscreen. He had just watched the Warrior’s Pride explode as it rammed the Eternal vessel. The Avenger shook violently from the nearness of the explosion. Several pieces of wreckage slammed into the energy shield.
“Hyperdrive online,” shouted Aaliss as she sent a mental message to the ship’s main computer.
“Ships are jumping,” reported Ariel as she sent the program to all the surviving ships in the fleet.
In front of the Avenger, a blue-white vortex opened and Ariel sent the dreadnought flying forward on its gravity drive. Just as the ship entered the vortex, Ariel fired all the ship’s dark matter missiles to the locations where Originator dreadnoughts had died, setting them to explode to remove all traces of wreckage.
Jeremy sat in his command chair too shocked to even speak. One of his oldest friends had just died sacrificing his life so Jeremy and the Avenger might live. It was hard for Jeremy to imagine existence without Grayseth. The Bear’s booming voice had become a vital part of Jeremy’s life.
The Avenger made the transition into hyperspace. The command crew was silent as they recognized what had been lost. Unlike Rear Admiral Barnes, who had come back from the dead, they all knew Grayseth would not be returning from this.
-
Grayseth’s eyes fluttered open. He was lying on the deck in his Command Center. Smoke was heavy in the air and the life support systems seemed to be nonfunctional. Coughing heavily he stood up and nearly fell. His right leg had a jagged cut and was bleeding profusely.
“Sit down,” ordered Ganlon as he rushed over with a first aid kit and began administering to the wound. “I’ll have you patched up in a few moments.”
“What happened?” asked Grayseth, feeling confused. “Why aren’t we dead?”
“The Command Center and a small part of the ship around it apparently survived the collision,” Ganlon answered as he wrapped a bandage around Grayseth’s leg. “The area around the Command Center is enclosed in a thick layer of Originator battle armor and even has an emergency energy shield.”
“The rest of the fleet and the Avenger?”
“Unknown,” replied Ganlon as he finished applying the bandage. “We only have a limited amount of power and most of the ship’s systems are nonfunctional. I never lost consciousness. From what I can determine, the stealth shield operated for nearly a minute and then it switched to the more powerful energy shield. We were struck by some type of blast and I greatly feared we were going to be destroyed. It was almost as bad as the collision with the Eternal vessel. When the blast died down I made my way over to you.”
“The rest of the crew?”
“Some are still alive. I’m not sure how many.”
Grayseth stood up and hobbled over to his command chair, sitting down. “Let’s see if we can get life support operating. We need to clear the smoke out of this room. We also need to find out how much of the ship survived and how many of us are still alive.”
“There is a small emergency generator in this section,” Antolth reported. Antolth was an assistant engineer assigned to the Command Center. “It should have activated automatically. Right now, we’re running off battery power and from the amount of energy the energy shield has been using it’s not going to last much longer. I’ve sent several repair robots to check on the generator.”
Grayseth looked around the Command Center. Most of the crew were back at their stations though a few were still receiving medical attention from a med tech.
The Command Center hatch swung open and a Carethian came through. His arm was in a sling and if this was a Human ship, the Carethian would be considered a Marine. He looked around the room and then turned his attention to Grayseth.
“We’re in a section of the ship approximately sixty meters across,” he reported, coming to a stop in front of the clan leader. “From what I can determine we have twenty-eight survivors and that’s including everyone in here. The section we’re in seems to be airtight and every emergency bulkhead is closed.”
The lights suddenly flickered and brightened. At the same time the life support systems kicked in and the smoke in the Command Center began to clear.
Grayseth felt jolted. There had been over five hundred Carethians on board the Warrior’s Pride as it was the flagship of the Carethian fleet. He felt a great loss for those who had died.
“They have gone on the Great Hunt,” said Ganlon softly. “They served their clan bravely and with honor.”
“With honor,” responded Grayseth. Many of those who died had been part of his crew for years, since fighting the Hocklyns above Careth.
“Shantor, where are we?”
“I have the sensors operating in passive mode so we won’t be picked up by the Eternals. Our fleet is gone and from all appearances dark matter missiles were used to eliminate all traces of our destroyed ships. The Eternals are still here and they’re searching the debris field, though from my sensor readings there’s not much there, only small pieces of twisted wreckage and some fields of plasma.”
“Why weren’t we destroyed by the dark matter explosion? The vessel we collided with and the Warrior’s Pride should have been targeted.” Grayseth knew Jeremy wanted all evidence of his ships eliminated so the Eternals could not gather any useful information.
“I’m certain we were,” Shantor answered. “When we collided with the Eternal vessel the resulting explosion hurled the Command Center away from the scene of the collision at a high speed. The computer would have activated the stealth field almost instantly. I’m sure when it detected the dark matter explosion it activated our regular energy shield. We were very fortunate to survive the explosion. When the wavefront hit, it propelled us even further away from the combat area. Right now we’re over two million kilometers away and falling inward toward the system’s sun.”
“That’s not good,” said Ganlon with concern, his eyes narrowing. “How soon before we reach the star?”
“Several weeks,” Shantor answered evenly. “If the Eternals don’t find us first.”
Grayseth called up a schematic of the Command Center and the area immediately surrounding it. “There’s an arms locker two decks above us. Hawthorn, take two crewmembers and see if you can reach it. It should contain some low yield tactical nuclear charges. I want them set to destroy this section of the Warrior’s Pride if the Eternals find us. I will not allow what is left of our ship to fall into their hands.”
Hawthorn nodded and left the Command Center.
Grayseth turned toward Ganlon. “We have two weeks to figure out what to do. Isn’t there a habitable planet in this system?” Grayseth seemed to remember that from when they first arrived in the system before setting out for the star cluster.
Ganlon nodded. “Marginally. We could survive on the surface but we would need to use breathing masks. We only did a cursory survey when we first arrived in the system. The planet is similar to how Careth was hundreds of millions of years ago.”
Grayseth looked over at Belmar, the damage control officer. “Are there escape pods in this section?” Grayseth couldn’t imagine with all the effort put into making sure the Command Center survived there wasn’t some way to leave it.
“Yes,” Belmar replied. “I’ve been checking. There are eight surviving escape pods each capable of holding four crewmembers. There is also a small command cutter that can hold eight.”
“Get the surviving crew busy loading them up with all the supplies we can find. I also want all the weapons from the arms locker loaded as well.”
“So we’re going to try for the planet?” asked Ganlon. “It will be highly dangerous on its surface. The fauna on the planet will make survival nearly impossible.”
“Yes,” Grayseth replied. “Once Fleet Admiral Strong realizes the Command Center of the Warrior’s Pride survived, he will return to rescue us. We can hide on the planet and signal him when he returns. Our hunt is going to be much longer than we originally thought. We’ll have modern weapons and our hunting skills which should allow us to survive.”
“That might be a long while,” pointed out Ganlon. “Our fleet was nearly destroyed by the Eternals. Fleet Admiral Strong will need to bring a much larger fleet if and when he returns. The losses to rescue us may not be worth the attempt.”
“He is my clan brother,” Grayseth replied confidently. “When he realizes we survived, there is nothing the Eternals can do which will stop him from coming. We only have to make sure we survive until that day.”
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