Celestial Ascension (Splintered Galaxy Book 1)

by Eddie R. Hicks

  The flames subsided, and Chloe was still breathing. Opening her eyes, she saw that there were only minor burns to her arms…and blue ripples of light around her. A shield? But how? The light vanished as Gengei removed his body from on top of Chloe and turned her on her back. He was relieved to discover she was still alive.

  “How did we do?” she asked as they both got to their feet.

  “I extended my personal shields to cover you since you were close,” he explained.

  The two scanned the inferno outside, waiting for Marlo and Chang to arrive. The waiting turned to hoping. No movement was detected—they were gone. The sounds of gunfire and explosions caught their attention. The Hashmedai inside were still making their push. Chloe and Gengei moved forward, weapons drawn, following the sounds of warfare to their source.

  Bodies of marines and Hashmedai decorated the hallway. The fallen marines were decapitated, spilling liters of blood on the floors and walls. Hashmedai blood was mixed in with that, as many were packed with bullet holes or straight-up blown to bits by grenades and rockets. None of the marines fit the description of Sarah, giving Chloe hope that her last standing family member might still be breathing. As much as she hoped their parents had escaped from New York, the reports of the city and its surrounding areas being completely leveled said otherwise.

  The path of blood, death, and destruction led Chloe and Gengei to the proximity of a knight and three warriors who were aggressively pushing toward an airport waiting area. The knight, as expected, took point in that group, his shield extended forward to block all bullets. The three warriors had their hulking green-glowing swords drawn, and their eyes were set on two marines who shot from behind a boarding desk.

  “Let’s do this,” Chloe said, holding a grenade.

  Gengei crept forward, his rifle pointed out. The targeting scanner displayed an image of the back of the knight’s head. Gengei nodded to Chloe, who nodded back. The pin was pulled, and the grenade left her hands. Gengei pulled his trigger, causing three quick shots to rip through the knight’s head. Blood and brain matter sprayed across his shield. The sudden death of the knight caused the warriors to spin around and focus on their new unexpected guest, not taking note of the grenade that fell at their feet. It exploded, launching them forward sans legs.

  One warrior still showed signs of life, crawling on the floor with what little strength he had left. Chloe’s boot slammed against the crawling warrior’s head, and then she unleashed multiple shots to his back. Movement ceased after that as blood from the exit wound below leaked onto the war-battered floor. But one can never be too sure. Four more rounds went off, just for insurance.

  “Hey, hey, hey!” said Sarah, coming out from behind the desk. “Pretty sure it’s dead.”

  Chloe saw her sister and another marine, and let out a smile. “Just you two left?”

  “We got five more injured farther up. Everyone else is KIA,” Sarah explained, adjusting her helmet. “I see Radiance have joined the fight.”

  Gengei stepped forward, placing his left hand on his right shoulder. “Commander Mil Gengei—your acquaintance is recognized.”

  Sarah extended her hand. “Corporal Sarah Vaughan. Nice to meet you, and thanks for the save.” Gengei merely looked at her hand, clearly confused as to what to do. She retracted it with an awkward look.

  “Private Jeff Sanders.”The marine introduced himself.

  “Gengei, is it possible to have Odelea come back with the transport?” asked Chloe.

  He laughed and said, “Come back? She never left.” Chloe rolled her eyes at this. “She cannot fly it very well,” he said. “She only knows how to manage the shields.”

  “Then let’s get the fuck out of here,” said Sarah, pointing toward the hall. “The wounded are back this way.”

  The Radiance transport landed with its main doors open. Odelea stood out, looking at Chloe, Sarah, Gengei, and Sanders as they helped wounded marines get aboard to safety. Chloe handed off the first of the bloody and wounded to Odelea. Odelea’s small body struggled to help the last remaining wounded personnel walk over to the other refugees on board.

  Sarah exited the transport after safely guiding another wounded aboard. Her head looked to the sky. They weren’t out of this yet. “Floater!” she yelled.

  Gengei’s four eyes gazed up as well and smiled. “Hs mind is weak from too much psionic activity. We might be able to defeat him.”

  “How do you know that?” Sarah asked.

  “Because we are still talking.”

  Sarah ran to a nearby downed helicopter. The floater spotted her, and his arms glowed orange. “Sarah, what the fuck are you doing?” yelled Chloe, but Sarah continued to run. “Ah, fuck. Sarah get back!”

  Chloe sprinted toward Sarah. White fireballs launched down, one impacting just in front of Chloe and the other exploding behind the helicopter Sarah had just run behind. Chloe continued forth, sidestepping the explosion. Bodies of marines were scattered around the helicopter, all charred with smoke still rising up. Most were killed while trying to evac, a fate that awaited this group as well unless they got out now. Chloe heard the sounds of Gengei’s rifle behind her. Good, he’s giving the floater something else to think of.

  Chloe neared Sarah and found her picking up an FIM-92 Stinger rocket launcher from the body of a downed marine. “Back to the transport now! That’s an order!” yelled Chloe.

  “That floater took out my whole unit,” Sarah said, running back toward her. The Stinger was firmly rested on her shoulder. “You and I are going to make him bleed.”

  Chloe and Sarah narrowly made it back to the transport as the floater launched a barrage of smaller yet devastating white fireballs toward them. His aim was ultimately marred by Gengei’s suppressing fire from below. With no time to waste, Gengei leaped into the main seat of the cockpit and quickly moved his fingers across the controls. The transport took to the sky while its reactivated shields rippled blue from white fireballs slamming and exploding against it.

  Gengei kept the door open during their ascent. The burning sight of O’Hare below and Chicago ahead quickly became smaller and smaller as they went up. Sarah knelt down, aiming the FIM-92 toward the open transport entrance. Chloe stood next to her, scanning the sky for their prey.

  “Private, get everyone as far back as possible,” Chloe ordered.

  “Yes, ma’am!” Sanders replied, turning to push the wounded and refugees back.

  Gengei said, “I will have to manually iris the shields so your projectile will pass.” The transport rocked, taking shots from the floater. “Please let me know when you are going to fire. Should that rocket hit the shields—”

  “Yeah, probably bad for everyone’s health and life expectancy,” said Sarah.

  Chloe’s hunter’s gaze caught sight of the floater as it came into view from the open door. The two made direct eye contact. “There he is. Keep us still, Gengei.”

  Sarah interacted with the controls of the FIM-92 and got a lock. “I’m ready to fire. Drop the shields!” Without warning, the floater extended his hands forward to release multiple small white fireballs. They traveled toward the open door of the transport. “Cancel that! Get the shields up! Get the shields up!” yelled Sarah.

  “Oh, shit!” Chloe saw the white flames approaching at high speeds. Bright light filled the interior of the transport as the fire impacted on the shields. Chloe’s arm protected her eyes from the flash of the explosions outside.

  “Shields at seventy-three percent,” Gengei reported.

  “Gengei, he’s too close. Back us off a bit,” Chloe requested.

  The floater vanished from sight as the transport turned and accelerated forward. Seconds later a full stop was made. Puzzled, Chloe asked, “Why did we stop?”

  “I have an idea,” he answered. The transport rocked with more rumbling, this time from behind. “Yes, he is doing that.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “We stopped moving, so he is in a trance, charging for
a massive attack. I am going to turn the ship for you two to face him. Hit him quickly while he is still focusing on his attack.”

  The transport made a perfect ninety-degree turn. This was it, now or never.

  “Ready!” Sarah said.

  “Irising shields!” Gengei yelled back.

  A single stinger missile from the FIM-92 propelled forward, leaving behind it a trail of white exhaust. Sarah and Chloe watched in anticipation as the rocket raced toward its target. The floater’s eyes were closed for his trance, resulting in his not knowing what hit him. The rocket shattered his shields and exploded, shredding his body into pieces. The remains of his body burst into flames, tumbling and spiraling to the ground.

  Chapter 18

  The Russian government—what remained of it—had had enough. Nearly a quarter of the country was burning at the hands of the Hashmedai. Like the United States and other nations around the world, the Russians quickly discovered that the shields protecting Hashmedai ships could be taken down only by multiple units unloading everything they had. And even then, this applied only to Hashmedaian fighters. Larger ships had yet to have their shields taken down—there just was not enough firepower from fighter jets to pull that off. There was, however, one option no other country had used—nuclear weapons.

  Humanity had grown so fearful of nuclear weapons wiping them out that they were hesitant to use them against alien invaders, who were clearly technologically more advanced and hell-bent on wiping the planet out themselves.

  The United States had gone down in history as the first nation to use them in warfare—and the Russian Federation would go down in history as the first nation to use them against alien forces as they launched two R-36 ICBM warheads toward an unsuspecting stratosphere frigate far north of Russia.

  The first ICBM released its payload of ten warheads, all focused at the aft section of the frigate. Almost instantaneously, one by one all ten slammed into the shields of the frigate, generating a blinding flash of light and intense heat. Fires broke out all along the hull of the frigate, its fighters that were flying alongside utterly obliterated. The second R-36 came down upon the frigate using the same technique—ten warheads, one frigate—this time with no shields.

  The burning fuselage of the ship crashed into the North Pole. The impact sent waves of water and ice into the sky, creating a thunderous roar that echoed throughout the region. And screams of victory roared across the world—the human race’s first major victory in this war. Nuclear weapons could destroy Hashmedai ships, period. If this world was going to die, may it be at the hands of the human forces that live there—not the Hashmedaian invaders unleashing the wrath of their empress.

  Phylarlie and Whigli stood on the frozen waters of the North Pole. The duo watched as the frigate came to its sudden end, unfazed at the sight. “Took them long enough,” said Whigli. “I’m surprised the Hashmedai even let those missiles get close.”

  “They most likely ignored it, thinking with certainty that human weapons can’t take down capital ships.” Phylarlie reasoned.

  “Jerut will place the ships on high alert now,” Whigli said. “If humans plan to win this with nuclear weapons, they need to act right now.”

  The two had been talking about contacting the recon team just before the blast had gone off. Phylarlie revisited the conversation. “So what I was going to say before the spectacular interruption—”

  “Ah, yes, it worked—not very well, but it worked. My mind did connect with Chidorli’s,” he reported.

  “What’s their status?” she asked.

  “On the run in a human vehicle, trying to stay ahead of the devastation from the east that’s slowly making its way west.”

  “Let us meet up with them.”

  “Are you done here?” he asked.

  Phylarlie took in the last sights of the cold white Arctic north and the flaming ship in the distance. “Yes.”

  ………

  “Eject, eject, eject!” were the last words transmitted to Gavin as his F-15 lost control and burned. Alarms inside the cockpit blared, indicating critical system failures. Of course, the “eject” plea was more than enough information to go on.

  The ejection seat triggered, launching him out of the doomed craft and toward the desert below as his parachute deployed. His safe landing wasn't exactly a smooth one, as he fell backward to the ground. But the last few hours for Gavin had gone from hopeful to hopeless way too quickly.

  Word spread quickly across the world—well, what was left of it—of Russia’s recent victory. President Steward fully made all nukes hot, giving permission to commanding officers across the globe to fire nuclear weapons at Hashmedaian stratosphere frigates at their discretion. Gavin’s mission was to escort a group from Nellis Air Force Base loaded with nukes to send a welcome-to-Earth message to a frigate that had recently attacked cities in Nevada.

  As many expected, however, the Russian victory only made the Hashmedai much more aggressive. Gavin’s squadron was shot down, and given the fact that the night sky had yet to light up from a nuclear blast, it was safe to assume the others didn’t make it.

  Just as that thought crossed his mind, another pilot with a deployed parachute slammed into the ground next to him. Gavin got to his feet after cutting himself loose from his parachute and approached the pilot.

  His belly erupted with laughter after realizing who it was. “James, you lying son of a bitch.” Gavin extended a hand to help pull him up.

  “What did I do this time?”

  “Didn’t you say, ‘The black guy is going to die first,’ just before we headed off to our first encounter?” said Gavin.

  They laughed, and James said, “Even pissed-off aliens can’t take me out.”

  “You think anyone else made it?” Gavin said looking up at the night sky.

  “I don't see any chutes man,” James said as his eyes scanned the sky, devoid of any jets. “I think it's just us. Damn, Hendrix , Nelson and the rest gone...”

  Green balls of plasma raced across the sky, vanishing beyond the horizon. An explosion was heard seconds later. The two looked to the sky in awe, knowing a city had just gotten glassed that very moment. That meant destroyers were in orbit directly above Nevada, so time was running out. “We should get back to Nellis,” suggested Gavin.

  “Pretty sure the whole damn area around Vegas is going to be turned to glass soon,” said James.

  “Got a better idea?”

  “Fuck, no. Let’s get moving.”

  ………

  Rina finished off the last drop of hot coffee. She needed to stay alert for the next several hours as she drove her car south on Interstate 15. Word was quickly spreading that the aliens were advancing on Nevada. It seemed only a matter of time until Vegas was either razed or turned into a glass crater. Both scenarios played out in her mind—with her not being anywhere remotely close when it happened.

  The backseat of her car didn’t have much in it, unlike the vehicles of many other folks evacuating. She hadn’t set aside a whole lot of time to pack. She knew the highways would be jam-packed. Best just to grab and go. Her purse contained a hidden pistol, cigarettes, snacks, and bottled water—an on-the-fly alien invasion survival kit.

  The car radio was turned down. She didn’t want to hear the emergency notifications of impending doom. It was bad enough the darkened highway through the desert creeped her out. Who knows what might be out here in the middle of nowhere?

  She released a dejected sigh and said, “Please, God, let me get to LA alive.”

  ………

  Jerut entered Himton’s quarters onboard the command ship. The room was small, with a bed in one corner and a computer terminal next to the main entrance. Nothing major, he thought. But living conditions onboard a command ship weren’t great to start with—captain’s quarters onboard carriers and destroyers were much better.

  He floated to the small metallic box hovering underneath the bed. He pulled it up toward him, grinning at the sight of it
before activating a holographic display. Telinei’s face appeared. “I have it,” Jerut said, facing the hologram.

  Telinei replied in the Hashmedai language, “Good. I’m uploading our findings to you now. You’re going to need Whigli to unlock the gem’s power.”

  “Whigli is currently missing in action,” said Jerut.

  “That’s most unfortunate. No matter—any psionic could do it, but…it needs to be someone trustworthy,” Telinei explained.

  “I’ll take care of it.”

  “Please do. We can’t risk anyone else knowing about what we now have,” Telinei continued. “Oh, and one last thing—we need to start moving test subjects off the planet.”

  “Yes, I will inform the fleet to clear out from key parts of the planet’s orbit,” said Jerut, opening the box.

  “The presence of the Hashmedai fleet is the only thing preventing the Abyssal Explorer from coming back into orbit. Make them…feel safe,” said Telinei.

  Jerut had one request. “Just keep them off my ships.”

  “They won’t attack. This I guarantee, my friend.”

  The communication terminated, and Jerut established another connection, one with a bridge psionic. He requested him to come down to Himton’s quarters for a “performance review.” A new holographic projection appeared, displaying information Telinei had just uploaded to Jerut. The text was written in the Hashmedai language and roughly translated by Telinei. At the end of the document was an image of a large red gem the size of his hand. The very same gem floated out of the metallic box he had just opened.

  Several minutes later, the door chimed. Tengur, a young psionic male with red hair and pale skin entered, and Jerut shut and locked the door behind him. “Yes, sir, you want to review me?” Tengur asked.

  Jerut used his hand to command the holographic display to spin, allowing Tengur to read its contents. “Read this,” he said and then offered the red gem to the psionic. The gem slowly left Jerut’s hands, floating toward the psionic. “After you’ve read it, do exactly what it says.”

  “Is this a test?” Tengur asked.