by DN Farrell
The Mark IV saucer was now faced with the rebel ship, as it fired head to head from just over a million kilometers away, which sounds like a long way, but a laser cannon could slice through this distance in just over three seconds. Kell continued on with his zig zagging manoeuvring, while Kolkalka got back to his laser cannon fire, which once again forced the rebel ship to also start zig zagging, as although it was well equipped with weapons, it had no shielding.
Both ships where now heading towards each other at 0.25 Pulse power, each approximately, meaning that the huge distance was covered within a little over ten seconds, with no shots impacting either ship. Kells ship blasted past the rebel ship and now the rebel ship was forced to decelerate and carry out a u-turn, before once again beginning the pursuit.
Accelerating hard, the rebel ship started to close the distance between it and kells ship. Blast after blast of plasma shots exploded in space just kilometers from the Mark IV saucer causing vibrations, which made the ship wobble and bounce around. Kell just kept his face in a grimace, while Kolkalka was content to growl, shout and scream, while he kept firing the laser cannon. "Losers, scumbags, rebel filth, go and die the lot of you!" he exclaimed; it didn't help Kolkalka get a hit on the enemy ship, but it certainly made him feel better.
At last kell was out of luck, when a plasma shot made a direct hit on the starboard aft side of the saucer, blowing a big hole in the ship, which made everyone inside bounce around, but at least they were strapped into their seats, so they managed to stay in one place.
Both Kell and Kolkalka screamed and yelled as they bounced back and forth like rag dolls. Downstairs in level two, the sudden hole in the ship, had damaged the ships electromagnetic engine which was used to power the Pulse engine, so the engines cut out and the ship was now powerless in space. Luckily, however, the hole in the ship had just about missed both the sick bay, where Regares and Ceres where staying, and the rec room, where the Incenotopians where gathered. Kell called down to Regares and Ceres, who survived miraculously, but who now had a picturesque view of space and the rebel ship chasing them, where the doorway used to be in the sick bay.
But the air supply in all but the rec room, were the Incenotopians were housed, rapidly got sucked out into space and the ship momentarily lost gravity control. Kell regained his composure and now found himself floating in his seat. "Kolkalka keep the gun going, you might get lucky!" He shouted and then fiddling with the gravitron engine control, he managed to get the gravity back, which felt reassuring.
Sitting there heading in a forward direction at 0.25 Pulse, but incapable of engaging the engines, kell was only left with the option of reengaging warp drive, which would take several minutes and the rebel ship was only a few hundred thousand kilometers away and would cover this distance within a few seconds.
Kolkalka kept on firing furiously, while the rebel ship zig and zagged defensively, but still it kept on firing, but thankfully missing the Mark IV saucer, which continued moving forward at Pulse 0.25 speed, thanks to momentum. But there was no engine power there to manoeuvre the ship, speed it up or slow it down.
The seconds ticked by and the rebel ship came closer and closer. Kell tried to work out some options and was even considering ordering the marines to abandon ship, but that would put everyone back in the same boat, which they had already been in. "Think, think Kell, you got to think!" He rattled off his thoughts, but nothing came to mind.
Quickly the rebel ship was upon them and had slowed down, so as to be in tandem speed with the Mark IV saucer. However it kept flying by the ship, coming from starboard to port, then a few seconds later it would fly by port to starboard, firing plasma bursts and laser cannon fire as it went, while trying to avoid laser cannon fire from Kolkalka. It was only a matter of seconds before they took out the ship.
Then suddenly "Boom", went a large explosion and now the ship received another direct hit, this time in the aft section of the ship, ripping out a big hole in the bottom of it. The ship jumped upward and changed its trajectory, as a consequence of the violence of the blast. Once again everyone was thrown around, but still miraculously no one was hurt. Everything continued on as before, with Kolkalka continually firing the laser cannon, without even a second's intermission. It was his single minded determination to get a hit on the rebel ship, which had prolonged all of their lives so far.
"Who knows maybe he will get a lucky shot in." Kell thought to himself and with that there was a sudden large explosion in space. The occupants of the Mark IV saucer reeled, as the shock waves bounced of the hull, but a few seconds later all was peaceful again. Kell looked down at the controls and the rebel ship was gone, blown to smithereens! Could Kokalka have been that lucky with his laser cannon? Well they wouldn't have long to find out.
Kell looked at the Holo Tube and directly above them was the super cruiser, the Byrant!
They must have seen the dogfight and recognizing the rebel ship for what it was, they decided to take it out. They probably presumed that the Mark IV saucer was just an unlucky scavenger, but kell wasn't go to let the Byrant just slip away. He immediately hailed the ship and a voice came through the ships comms unit into his helmet comms, where he had redirected it, thanks to the lack of an atmosphere in the command module.
The voice came across the ether. "Communications Officer Pylor here, identify yourself please."
Kell replied "Colonel Kell here of Alpha Battalion, boy are we glad to see you!"
There was a sudden furor of activity in the background, and then the communications officer came back on line, "Colonel Kell Captain Jobi wants to talk to you by Holo Tube." And with that the Holo Tube clicked on and before him kell saw Captain Artelius Jobi, clearly shocked by the sudden sight of Kell in his armored battle suit, sitting there at the helm of the Mark IV saucer.
"Colonel kell." He said politely, while sitting to his right hand side, was Commander Jack Trellon, who declared excitedly, "Wow I can't believe it, we all thought you were dead!"
"Well your dead wrong commander, I'm alive and kicking and I've got three other marines with me."
The captain nodded and then said "Well I guess it's a hell of a tale colonel, I take it you want to come on board?"
"Sure sir, but what about the Trigerius ?" Kell queried and then asked the Captain, "And you brought more ships this time?"
The captain just smiled and then said, "The Trigerius was badly damaged and has been forced to head back to Space Station Alpha for repairs."
Then Commander Trellon added that, "We've got half the fleet Kell along with us, we're going to kick some ass, do you want to join us?"
"Sure thing Trell," replied Kell, " but we've got a bunch of Incenotopians on board, so we'll have to take them along for the ride, I guess."
The captain nodded, smiled some more and asked "Incenotopians, so I guess that's where you got the ship?"
"Yes captain." Retorted kell, "But I don't think they'll be too happy about the state it's now in."
"Well that's what they get for hanging around a war zone!" Exclaimed Commander Trellon.
"We'll drop them off at the nearest friendly planet and they can find their own way home." Replied the captain.
Kell just smiled back and then looking over at Kolkalka and smiling, he flicked on the unit comms and said "Guys we're going home, the Byrant has been our cavalry today." And with that the four marines and their Incenotopian guests, prepared for teleportation back to the Byrant.
Once on the Byrant, Kell looked back out of one of the Plexiglass viewing windows, he looked back at the shattered hull of the Mark IV saucer and reaching down to the crucifix which sat on a gold chain around his neck, he kissed it then quietly thanked God for letting himself and at least three other marines, still be in one piece, after what could only be described as a hell of a week!
Preview of The Artemis Trap
Wonder what happens next?
Well take a look at the prelude from the next book in the Trellon Adventures series, "The Artemis T
rap."
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 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, while Charlie and Delta Battalions 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 Battalion, 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 on 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 Trellon's right shoulder a firm squeeze and with that he was gone.
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About the Author
Hi
My name is Dermot Farrell (DN Farrell) and I hail from Dublin, the capital city of the Irish Republic. I have a somewhat eclectic background, having worked in just about every job imaginable and also I have a varied educational background, which has covered such diverse subjects as Psychoanalysis, Hypnosis and Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Presently I am living in India with my wife and son and I have set up this website as a reference point to my science fiction writings.
www.dnfarrell.com
Also I am always eager to get feedback from my readers, in order to improve on my writing and my overall publishing process. I’m an INDY author, so I have to do everything for myself, from writing to editing, formatting,uploading my books and cover art.
So if you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to email me at [email protected] and if you wish to leave a review, they are always welcome and you can do so by clicking on my authors page, by typing in DN Farrell into the Amazon search bar.
Why military science fiction?
Well I was raised on the original Star Trek TV show and on the "Next Generation". Also living in Ireland I was exposed to popular British Sci-Fi shows, such as Doctor Who (in particular Jon Pertwee, Tom baker (my personal favorite) and Peter Davison). Another great influence, at that time, was the political dissident sci-fi show, "Blake's Seven", which was a wonderfully despotic show by sci-fi standards.
Another great influence was 2000AD comic, which I picked up on with the release of the fourth edition back in 1977 and I kept on buying them weekly over the next ten years. Such great characters as "Judge Dredd", "Mack Man", "Strontium Dog" and "Sam Slade" AKA "Robo Hunter" sucked me into the sci-fi world. The comic strips had a long lasting effect on me and my writing style, once again like "Blake's Seven", being British sci-fi, the tone was always somewhat dark and despotic, but I always loved the characters and how iconic they were in their own ways!
And of course I was fortunate enough to see "Star Wars" in the cinema and of course "Superman", back in the day when these were the first large scale sci-fi movies ever released, so there's no comparison as to the effect of such movies on young children like myself at that time!
So militaristic sci-fi feels like a pretty relevant genre for me to write in. I have put a lot of work into creating what I like to call the Trellonverse, regarding the books which serialize the adventures of Commander Jack Trellon and other members of the Galactic Federation of Autonomous Species (GFAS) and their efforts to contain a three hundred year old war between two empires (The Analusian Alliance and the Galbraggian Empire), within a quadrant of space known as the Kolatian quadrant.
The Kolatian Quadrant is based in an actual part of our Galaxy, which is known as the Scutum Centaurus spiral arm of our galaxy, which is about ten thousand light years from here! The stories are set in the thirty fifth century and in my writings I focus upon the members of the GFAS having to maintain the peace treaty of San Orora and the difficulties which they have, in being a peace keeping force, in a part of space which is overrun by rebel forces, which are being manipulated by both the Analusians and the Galbraggians.
It all sounds complicated, but it's all good fun and at the same time I try to write from the perspective of the difficulties faced by the GFAS peace keeping force, in difficult circumstances, as are all peace keeping forces on earth at this present time.
So I've been happy putting the Trellonverse together and hope you will enjoy the journey along with me.
Table of Contents
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Day One
Chapter One – Planet Fall
Marine Landing craft Number Twenty Three– En Route to Exugenes
Chapter Two – The First Obstacle
The Planet Exugenes Landing Site Alpha
Chapter Three – Bad News
Chapter Four – The Retreat
Chapter Five – MECH Crazy!!!
Chapter Six – Extraction
Chapter Seven – Chaos in Outer Space
Day Two
Chapter Eight – Colonel Kells New Home
Chapter Nine – Housemates
Day Three
Chapter Ten – Bandits
Chapter Twelve – Bon Voyage The Planet Exocon!
Day Four
Chapter Thirteen – Brothers in Arms
Day Five
Chapter Fourteen- Uninvited Guests
Chapter Fifteen – Escape
Preview of The Artemis Trap
Prologue
The Bryant – Bridge
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About the Author
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