by Saxon Andrew
The Assassin’s Guild
Defending the Colonies
Saxon Andrew
Copyright © 2018 Saxon Andrew
All rights reserved.
This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locals, organisations, or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author.
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Contents
Introduction
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 • Chapter Nineteen • Chapter Twenty • Chapter Twenty-One
Epilogue
Books by Saxon Andrew
About Saxon Andrew
Introduction
The aliens have invaded six planets in the colonies. Their giant warships are too well armed to allow the Colony Fleet to get close enough to attack and, once they take position above a colony, it will fall under their control. Earth has avoided using a stardrive and the aliens are unaware of their fleet’s capabilities and don’t feel threatened. Earth’s scientists are working at a fever pitch to develop advanced weapon technologies to take them on.
It will take years for Earth to modernize their fleet and they can do nothing to prevent the aliens attacking the colonies. The President of the Colonial Council has ordered the remaining colonies to start sending millions of their inhabitants out to habitable planets in the Andromeda Galaxy to insure the survival of humanity and the process is picking up speed. Unfortunately, for the invaded colonies, there’s nothing that can currently be done to stop the alien’s invasions.
However, there are thousands of trained assassins on the invaded planets and the Assassin’s Guild has issued a contract to pay them for every alien killed. The assassins are the only thing standing between total conquest by the aliens and, on the surface, it looks bad for the colonies. But never underestimate a trained assassin…it could get you killed.
Chapter One
Tal walked into Admiral Montana’s office and closed the door behind him. Duncan looked up, “Tal, are you, all right?”
“No, Duncan, I’m not! The aliens killed my wife and I’m done with weeping and crying all day. I’m getting back in the fight.”
Duncan shook his head, “Tal, I’m not sure you’re up to this; you’ve suffered an immense loss. Getting over losing Sha is not something you can just decide in a moment to do. Take some time off.”
Tal’s expression turned dour, “It’s been over two months since she died, Duncan. I’ve taken all the time I intend to take. You need to worry about modernizing the fleet and build me what I need to buy you the time to do it.” Duncan’s expression tightened, and Tal leaned forward and looked him in the eyes, “What have you done to insure the aliens believe my wife’s ship was another alien civilization scouting them?”
“I’m not sure what you mean, Tal.”
Tal sat back, “You’ve learned the aliens stopped their major invasion against the colonies to find an alien civilization they believe is scouting them. Sha’s ship looked nothing like any ship they’ve ever seen on Earth or the colonies causing them to think they were being scouted, just like they’ve been scouting Earth and the colonies for years. What happens when they go flying out to the Large Magellanic Cloud and don’t find anything. How long do you think they’ll keep searching before they deduce that the odd-looking ship they destroyed must have come from Earth? They will figure out that Earth does have a stardrive and they’ll turn their attention to attacking us here. They will focus on Earth instead of the colonies because Sha was able to destroy one of their largest warships when she died. Another ship like Epy must be sent out to harass them in the LMC.”
Duncan’s eyes grew wider with each word Tal spoke. He started nodding his head, “You’re right!”
“How long will it take for you to build another ship?”
Duncan picked up his desk communicator and began speaking. Tal listened for a few moments and grew impatient, “I’ll be in the lab.” Duncan kept talking, as Tal left his office. He headed toward the giant lab deep in the building, went through the three-electronic-gates, and looked around as he walked into the lab. He spotted Ka talking with Dr. Meier across the lab and headed toward them. Dr. Meier saw him coming and stopped talking. Ka’s brow furrowed as she turned to see Tal approaching, her expression turned neutral and Tal knew she hated him for the death of her daughter. “Dr. Meier, do you have a moment,” he asked.
“Sure, what’s on your mind?”
Tal saw Ka lean back in her chair and he quickly started speaking, “I’m not a physicist and I’ve been having difficulty with understanding an issue. I can use some help.”
“Fire away,” Fire away and I’ll see if I can help,” Dr. Meier responded.
“I’ve been reading in the history files about Nordstrum Haliday and it says he developed the phase field in his laboratory in Boston. It’s my understanding that a phase field won’t function inside a planet’s gravity well. How was it then possible for him to produce one in a lab on Earth’s surface?”
“A phase field can be produced within a planet’s gravity, but it will degrade rapidly,” Dr. Meier answered.
“How rapidly?”
Chris shrugged, “Depending on the power used to produce it, anywhere from one to two seconds.”
Tal thought a moment and then asked, “How much power does it take to produce a phase field?”
“Very little,” Ka interrupted.
Tal turned to her, “How much is ‘very little’?”
Ka shrugged, “A normal household current can create a phase field. However, it will degrade within a second.”
“Would increasing the power extend the time before it degrades?” Tal asked.
Dr. Meier looked at Ka and saw her thinking about the question. He turned back to Tal and tilted his head, “If you raise the voltage to 1,200 volts, it might add another half-second.” Tal’s jerked his head back in surprise. “Tal, the energy needed to raise the power of a phase field is logarithmic inside an intense gravity field. If we used all the energy available on Earth, it would probably only last ten seconds before it degraded.”
Tal nodded, and his eyes revealed he was thinking furiously about what Dr. Meier had just stated. Ka watched him and then asked, “Why are you interested in this?”
Tal considered her question and then turned back to Dr. Meier, “Just one more question. If a ship was inside a phase field that only lasted two seconds, and it fired its thrusters the moment it formed, what speed would it be moving when the field degraded and disappeared?”
Dr. Meier stared at Tal with a blank expression before answering, “I have no idea, but I suspect it would be moving at its maximum-normal-speed, once the phase field disappeared.”
“It would depend on the power used by the thrusters, Tal,” Ka interjected. “However, once the phase field degraded, the ship would be moving at the speed the thrusters would be pushing
it at if it were in normal space, even if it was moving much faster than the speed of light inside the phase field.”
“What would happen to the ship if it were moving a lot faster than lightspeed and the phase field degraded?” Tal asked her.
“The ship would instantly decelerate to the speed the thrusters would be pushing at it without the phase field,” Ka replied.
“Would the deceleration be dangerous, Ka?”
“No. I’ve read stories in the colonies where a ship’s phase field shutdown; the ship was traveling hundreds of times the speed-of-light when it happened, and neither the occupants not the ship were harmed. There is no inertia or gravity operating on the ship inside the phase field and, as the field degrades, inertia and gravity smoothly takes over as the field disappears, or relatively smooth. That is to say, that what little inertia that is experienced would, however, cause anyone not buckled in to be thrown off their feet. Again, why are you asking this?”
“I’ve been thinking about our current missile technology.”
“What does that have to do with your questions?” she pressed.
Tal smiled, “Does E equal MC squared still apply to moving objects?”
Ka stared at him with raised eyebrows, “It applies to conversion of mass to Energy,” Ka answered.”
“Then what formula applies to mass moving at high speeds hitting another object.”
“You’re talking about the kinetic energy produced when one moving object hits another,” Dr. Meier responded. “That is a form of mechanical energy. The faster the impacting object, the higher kinetic energy produced. The formula is mass times velocity.”
“That’s what I’m talking about, Doctor.”
“Why?”
Tal looked around and saw an empty chair at the table next to them. He walked over, picked it up, and walked back to them. As he took a seat and said, “I’ve read about a giant crater in what was once called Arizona. It’s nearly a mile in diameter and more than five hundred feet deep. Scientists say that crater was caused by a meteor that was about sixty-yards wide traveling at 40 miles-per-second.”
“That meteor produced a huge amount of kinetic energy, Tal.”
“I agree. Let’s say the meteor weighed ten tons and was moving 40 miles-per-second. Is that reasonable?”
Meier shrugged, “Give or take a few tons, it is.”
“Now, for comparison’s sake; what about an object that weighs one ton traveling at four-hundred-miles-per-second. Would it strike with the same force?”
Dr. Meier thought about the question in silence and Ka said, “No, it wouldn’t be close.” Tal’s frown was instant until Ka added, “It would hit with more than a hundred times the energy.”
Tal’s frown turned upside down, “That’s what this has to do with my questions. If our missiles could hit their target moving that fast, I suspect the destruction would be rather catastrophic.” Ka and Dr. Meier stared at Tal and their expressions showed their shock. “What’s wrong?” Tal asked.
“Where do I begin?” Ka asked. “If you accelerate a missile inside a phase field to 400-miles a second, it would hit faster than you could imagine. Most phase fields are only thirty or forty-miles wide and I suspect if you were within fifty or sixty miles of the target, the blast’s shockwave would probably vaporize the ship that fired it.” Ka paused for a moment, and then continued, “Tal, think about it for a moment. What is the range of our missile’s tracking system?”
“They can lock on at a hundred miles”
Ka tipped her head to him, “And once they left the phase field, they would hit the target in less than a half-a-second. Even at two-hundred-miles-per-second they would hit in less than a second. There would be no time to maneuver and if the missile’s tracking was off a tiny margin, it would blow right by the target.”
“You also have to consider that if the target’s phase field is still active, the missile would just pass through it and not hit it,” Chris added.
Tal listened and turned toward Dr. Meer, “So we experiment with the thrust level used by the missile inside the phase field and have it leave the field at a-hundred-miles-a-second. It would take one second to hit and that would allow the missile time to use its thrusters to correct its course. Would a ton moving at that speed make a large impact, Ka?”
Ka began pressing keys on her computer and commented, “You still haven’t answered the issue of the target’s phase field.” She continued entering data and, after a moment, she looked up, “Tal, I don’t believe fifty feet of chronide would survive that impact. No ship could stand up to that much kinetic force. It may just blow through the ship and leave a hole behind it.”
“Not if it has an explosive warhead, Ka.” Tal quipped.
“Why are you so focused on a phase field inside a gravity well?” Dr. Meier inquired.
“That’s where the alien’s giant warships are located, Doctor. They surround a planet and getting close enough to attack them is a real problem. Their beam weapons and missiles will take out most warships long before they can move into range to take a shot. The missiles we’re discussing can be fired outside the range of their weapons, drop the phase field a hundred miles out and hit before the aliens could even start to track it.”
“Better not miss!” Ka added to the conversation.
Tal turned to her, “What?”
“If one of those missiles miss the target, what do you think it will do to the planet’s surface if it hits?”
Tal’s eyes widened, “I didn’t think about that.”
Dr. Meier raised his shoulders, “A couple of them hitting could be real planet killers!”
Tal thought a moment and shook his head, “They’ll just have to be fired at an angle to where the planet isn’t behind the target. Besides, when we find where the alien civilization is located, these missiles will be a good tool to take them out.”
“You’re talking about mass genocide!” Dr. Meier exclaimed.
“Is there any other kind?” Tal asked. “If someone has a gun at your head, would you hesitate to do anything possible to defend yourself?”
Ka sat up straight, “So what you’re really looking for is a way to accelerate our missiles to their maximum-speed, where they can be launched from a safe distance?” The corner of Tal’s mouth pulled to the side and, after a moment, he nodded. “You know these missiles won’t work against a ship inside a phase field,” Ka added.
“We’ll just have to come up with a way where they can. I think the method used currently is for the warship to hit an enemy’s phase field with a pulse cannon degrading it and then fire missiles to finish the job.”
“How close would you have to be to fire a pulse cannon to remove a phase field?” Dr. Meier asked.
“I don’t know,” Tal answered with a shrug.
“Could you possibly have to be inside the alien’s warship’s firing range to open fire?”
“I don’t know, Ka.”
“Would the missile be too close to control at that range?” Dr. Meier added.
Tal looked at them and pursed his lips as he answered, “If these missiles only take out the giant alien warships surrounding the colonies, then they’re worth building. Using them for other purposes will have to be figured out. Can you develop a low-power phase field that a missile can use to instantly accelerate to a hundred, three-hundred, or four-hundred-miles-a-second while inside it?”
Dr. Meier and Ka looked at each other and then turned back to Tal. Ka raised her hands and spread her fingers, “I believe we can. Do you want it installed inside our current missile?”
“Yes, if that’s doable.”
“We’ll take a look and see,” Dr. Meier replied. “Get back to us in a couple of weeks.”
Tal nodded, stood up, took the chair back to the table and turned to leave.
Ka stopped him, “Jee and Jan are working here in the lab. I think you should stop by and say hello.”
Tal’s head dropped, as he sighed and turned around, “Where ar
e they?”
“Jee is at Allison Ander’s cubicle learning how to input data. Jan is working with the force field project scientists.”
Tal looked across the lab and saw Jee inputting data as Allison stood looking over his shoulder. “Do you think this is a good idea, Ka.”
“Ste told me to take care of his children and I intend to do just that; they need closure. Go talk to them.” Tal turned and headed toward Allison’s cubicle. He glanced at the force field scientists and saw Jan watching him and he motioned her over to join him. She stood up and walked quickly across the lab to catch up.
Tal was impressed with Ste’s son and daughter. Jee was a younger version of Ste, tall, dark, and handsome; Tal was jealous of his appearance. Jan was a blonde and was six inches shorter than her brother…but she was also a looker! Not on the same level as Ka or Sha, but she held her own with anyone. Her blue eyes looked right through you. She caught up to him before he arrived at Allison’s desk and put her arms around his waist, “Thank you for saving us, Tal.”
Tal stopped walking, “I didn’t. Your father is the one that removed you from Have in time to save you.”
Jan hugged him tightly and smiled, “Dad told us that you had to warn the colonies of the aliens, but you told him to go and pick us up first. You didn’t have to do that and I’m thankful you did.”
Jee saw them and rushed over to them. He embraced Tal and Tal held up his hands, “Hey, hey, hey! I don’t deserve this!”
Jee smiled, “Why don’t you let us decide about that.”
Tal lowered his head, “I’m so sorry about the loss of your father. I might have been able to…”
Jan quickly interrupted, “Woulda, shoda, or couldas are not responsible for what happened to Sha and our Father, Tal. If ten warships were sent with him, they might have prevented his death. But that couldn’t happen without revealing Earth has a stardrive.”
Tal stared at them and smiled slightly, “You remind me so much of your father. Do you have time to take a break?”