by Saxon Andrew
“I’ve jumped away from every ship I’ve detected in subspace but too many are jumping in around us. It appears your plan has succeeded beyond your wildest dreams. Every Earth Warship had jumped here and are participating in the chase.”
Cinny was frightened, “Can they catch us?”
“I’m doing all I can to escape. The numbers are not on our side but we have an entire universe to use.”
The Nemesis jumped again far beyond any known galaxy but ten thousand scouts followed them.
• • •
Blake arrived on the bridge and Captain Hemzer said, “They have jumped an incredible distance away, Sir.”
“I DON’T CARE IF WE HAVE TO CHASE THEM TO THE END OF THE UNIVERSE! DO NOT LOSE THEM!”
• • •
Grant and Cinny felt their fatigue. The chase was entering the third week and they slept when they could but sleep eluded them most of the time and their stress was growing. “Ana?”
“Cinny, too many scouts have gotten close enough to follow our jump track. They’re getting closer with each jump and it’s just a matter of time until they catch us.”
“What about their warships?”
“Grant, the warships are given our new coordinates after each jump and they’re arriving in normal space just before we jump.”
Grant looked at Cinny and took her hand. She squeezed it and looked at him, “I’m sorry.”
Grant’s eyes softened, “We had to do it.” Cinny nodded and Grant looked up, “Ana, take us into normal space and open fire at the first ship that appears.”
“I want both of you to know that I’m so sorry for what I’ve done.”
“You only did what you thought was right. You are blameless in our eyes.”
“Thank you.”
Suddenly, normal space appeared and a moment later, a giant Earth Battleship appeared. The Nemesis fired all its inventory of missiles as well as every blaster. The giant warship exploded as another crimson colored battleship appeared and opened fire on the Nemesis. The huge blaster ripped through the Nemesis’ bridge and the top half of the front of the ship vaporized.
Grant was looking at Cinny and said, “I love you,” just before everything went black.
• • •
“Sir, I’ve hit the ship and blasted the front third into rubble. It is hanging powerless in space.”
“I want that ship searched and verified that the two Genetics were on board. Do not destroy it until that is confirmed.”
• • •
The two small Spiders came out from behind a console on the Nemesis’ bridge and ran quickly across the burning floors. One of them looked around and found what it was looking for and picked it up in its two front legs. It then rushed over and picked up an item off the floor. It looked at its companion and thought, “HURRY UP!”
The second Spider spat a small blast and pulled on the item it was trying to dislodge, “I have it!” The Spider turned and followed the first spider as they exited the bridge at their fastest speed. They ran to the landing bay and the first Spider focused and spat a blast at the landing bay door. An eight foot wide hole burned through it and just before they ran through the hole they heard a computerized voice say, “The Orion exists; I saw it.”
They paused but heard nothing else. The first spider thought, “Get moving,” as it ran and crawled through the hole and the second exited the burning ship behind him. They ran down the dark hull of the Nemesis toward the rear of the ship at their fastest speed and arrived at the rear stabilizers. They didn’t hesitate as they ran across them and leaped into space. They were moving sixty miles an hour when they jumped and they flew away from the Nemesis at a mile a minute. Both of them immediately began weaving a web around the items they were carrying. They watched the huge ship above the Nemesis and saw the lower landing bay start opening. Hundreds of other Warships began appearing around the stricken vessel and they flew between two of them. The Lead Spider touched the bracelet on its leg and pressed a button on it for an instant and immediately turned it off.
• • •
“Captain Oughten!”
Maureen Oughten lifted her communicator, “Sir, I have one of my officers leaving now to visually confirm they are on board.”
“I want to know as soon as it’s confirmed.”
“Yes Sir.”
• • •
Ensign Chan activated his suit jets and flew to the Nemesis and he came to a halt directly above the hole blasted in the top of the smaller vessel. It took him several minutes to slowly push himself to the area directly above the bridge and another three minutes to enter the blasted ship. He kept his distance from the burning walls and turned up the view on his helmet visor. “Sir, I have two bodies on the bridge wearing armor. They are blown into several pieces and one of them is still burning from a blaster hit.”
“You are confirming that there are two Human bodies on the ship?”
“Yes Sir, they are human.”
Maureen looked over her shoulder at her Weapons Officer and nodded. Every blaster on the giant battleships was trained on the Nemesis. The other ships that had jumped in had moved in closer and also trained their blasters on the ship. The Weapons Officer pushed a button on his console and every blaster on the Earth Battleships opened fire simultaneously. The Nemesis exploded into vapor.
• • •
One of the blaster operators looked at his Commander, “It’s not right what was done to Chan.”
The Command sighed and said, “If you think about it, you’ll know it had to be done.”
The crewman stared at him and, after a moment, nodded.
• • •
Captain Oughten lifted her communicator, “I want every inch of space around that ship scanned down to the molecular level and any particle you see will be forwarded to the blaster crews. I want nothing to survive!”
The two Spiders were now ten miles away from Earth’s ships and the items were fully enclosed in a web. They watched as the blasters on the crimson ships began blasting space. One narrowly missed them but the heat actually made them feel good. It took two hours of constant blasting but by then, the spiders were more than a hundred miles from the scene. They were invisible to the warship’s scanners.
• • •
“Sir, there is no particle remaining from that ship’s destruction.”
“Are you certain about that, Captain?”
“I am, Sir.”
• • •
Suddenly Blake heard, “Sir, I have a small vessel that just appeared in space and destroyed six of our battleships.”
“WHERE!?!”
“It jumped away but the scouts are on its track.”
“Don’t lose that ship!”
“Yes Sir.”
Blake couldn’t believe his good fortune. That small vessel had to be flown by the Animals. Could he possibly remove them as well? He lifted his communicator, “DO NOT LOSE THEM!”
• • •
The Scouts chased the small ship through forty-seven jumps before it arrived above an uninhabited planet. The Scouts sent a feed back to Admiral Blake and he stared it. “How many shuttles did the Animals use against the Raiders?”
“They never reported more than two, Sir.”
Blake stared at the feed and saw two shuttles holding station above the planet. He lifted his communicator, “Do you see anything on the planet?”
“Our scanners do not report anything but we can visually see about a hundred and fifty life forms located in one small area on the surface. They are invisible to our scanners.”
Blake pressed a button and his two junior admirals appeared on his panel, “I want both of your fleets to jump in on that planet and destroy those two ships above it. Once they’re destroyed, I want the planet burned down to bedrock.”
They disappeared from his console and two hours later, all of Earth’s warships appeared above the planet and opened fire. Blake was stunned by what followed. The two shuttles covered by the
creatures blasted more than six thousand of his ships before they were finally destroyed. He ignored the destruction of the planet as he viewed the blasted hulls of his ships. He shook his head at the destructive capacity of the animals and he order the planet blasted again. He fell back in his chair and knew that if those Animals had more ships… He took a deep breath and blew it slowly out. He pressed a button and Admiral Hall appeared on his console, “Sir, we’ve destroyed the two Genetics as well as the Animals.”
“Are you certain about that, Admiral?”
“Yes Sir, I am. I lost six thousand warships to the Animals before we were able to defeat them.”
Admiral Hall looked at the recordings and after finishing them he looked up, “Admiral, leave a fleet of ships at that planet until you’re certain no life survived.”
“Yes Sir.”
“You may now start the third phase of the operation. I might suggest that planet you were on be the first one you start with.”
Blake smiled, “Yes Sir.”
“I will send the first ship load of colonists there as soon as you pacify it.”
The screen went dark and Blake looked up, “Is my ship repaired?”
“Repairs are still ongoing, Sir.”
“Let me know when they’re completed. Until then, this will be my Flagship.” He looked at his Executive Officer, “Start issuing the orders.”
“Yes Sir.”
• • •
The Government Leaders on Lovely were discussing what they had heard over the Human’s communicator. “Do you think there’s any truth to what we heard?”
“He didn’t deny it.”
“He was rather occupied at the time.”
An orderly rushed in and said, “Councilor, a thousand of those red warships have appeared above our planet.”
The Leaders looked at each other and the main wall monitor illuminated. They saw the Human who had been on their planet. “You will order all your warships to report to me immediately.”
The First Councilor’s eyes narrowed, “Why would we do that?”
“Because if you don’t, I will destroy them where they are.”
“We need them for protection.”
“Not anymore. I will make sure you are not attacked by any outside force in the future,”
The leaders looked at each other and the Leader said, “Thank you.”
Blake smiled, “There will be a price for the peace we bring you.”
“What is that?”
“Oh, some metals and land on your planet for my people.”
“And if we refuse to pay?”
Blake smiled, “You won’t!”
• • •
The Orderly came back in and said, “Councilor, there are thousands of transports landing in our cities and armored warriors are moving out taking control of the government.” The Councilors looked at the face on the monitor and saw it smile, “Just do as you’re told and there won’t be any loss of life. I would hate to see what will happen if you don’t.”
• • •
More than ten thousand civilized planets looked up and saw the Crimson Colored Warships of Earth above them. This was the first wave of conquests. The next wave was even larger.
• • •
Several months later, Admiral Blake’s Flagship appeared just outside the Choten-Zan’s planetary system. The moment his ship entered normal space he activated his communicator and said, “I wish to communicate with you.”
The High Priest appeared on his monitor, “I trust you know that we don’t believe anything you might tell us.”
“I feel it is important that you understand our motives in what we’re doing.”
“Your motives are clear.”
“The time in my world’s past where civilizations flourished was when one civilization conquered the known world. The Romans conquered and ruled with an iron fist but they brought peace to a world that was dangerous. That Roman Peace lasted for hundreds of years and my species flourished under it. We are going to end war among the stars and force peace on all civilizations.”
“You also eliminate freedom.”
“Freedom is highly overrated when you add up the countless lives lost to war.”
“You can do that without enslaving all intelligent life.”
“Peace comes at a price.”
“It appears you and I have a fundamental difference of opinion about this.”
“You need look no further than the Raiders and the deaths they caused.”
“Most of that was due to your attack on their colony.”
“What?”
“Discuss that with your leaders. I am not here to educate those that lack wisdom.”
Blake’s monitor went dark and he looked at his XO, “What attack is he referring to?”
The XO shook his head, “I have no idea.”
• • •
• • •
The High Priest looked at Pazan bowing in front of him, “What do you think now, my child?”
“My two trainees delayed this from happening. I see now that they would not be able to stop it.”
“You are developing wisdom.”
Pazan looked up, “Your Holiness, we can’t allow this to happen to all life.” The High Priest shook his head and Pazan said, “Pardon my error; all intelligent life.”
“It is not within our destiny to stop it.”
“If not us, then who?”
“The ones who provided our defenses can stop it.” Pazan looked at the High Priest with confusion and he said, “This is only the beginning and that is when things look darkest. This is far from over and what happens after the darkest moments?”
Pazan stared at the High Priest and said, “Things begin to get brighter?”
The High Priest stood up and clapped him on the back, “Indeed they do, my child. Indeed they do.
Pazan looked up at the giant monitors on the walls and saw millions of red armored warriors dropping on thousands of planets. He didn’t see how there was any way that things wouldn’t just get darker.
Book two
Nemesis
The Search for Orion
Excerpt
There’s no way we can stop them with the technology we have.”
“Then we’ll just have to acquire what we need.”
“Are you out of your mind?”
“Perhaps. However, it might not be as hard as you think.”
“Now I know you’re crazy.”
The Queen Mother began telling them her plan and, after she finished, Tricky looked at Slippy and smiled.
Books by Saxon Andrew
The Annihilation Series:
Love Conquers All
The Power of a Queen
A Rose Grows in Weeds
Tommy’s Tale
Searcher
Demon’s Sacrifice
Finding Keepers
Prequel-Psychic Beginnings
Searching for a Hero
Dahlia’s Deception
Ashes of the Realm:
Juliette’s Dream
Greyson’s Revenge
Death of an Empire
The Return of the Realm
Lens of Time:
The Pyramid Builders
Planet Predators
Pray for the Prey
The End of Time
Star Rover-The Worst of Time
Star Rover-Running Out of Time
Lens of Time-Chosen To Die
The Fight for Creation
Life Warrior
Scout Warrior
Ultimate Warrior
Star Chase
The Lost Prince
Nowhere to Run
Nowhere to Hide
Probe Predators
Jesse’s Starship
Mike’s War—Sequel to Jesse’s Starship
Trapped in Time
The Time Takers
Taming A Planet
Coming Soon
The third book in Jessie’s Starship
Joshua’s Walls
Also an audiobook at Audible.com
The Lost Prince
Love Conquers All
The Power of a Queen
A Rose Grows in weeds
Copyright © 2014 by Saxon Andrew. All rights reserved. Screen Writers Guild no. VQEA3E380432.
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 entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the author or publisher.
First Electronic Edition: October 2014