by John Walker
Darkest Hour
Liberation War
Book 1
John Walker
Copyright © 2019 John Walker
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
DISCLAIMER
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, business, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. This story contains explicit language and violence.
Blurb
A massive sphere appears near Earth, defying all attempts to communicate or understand its purpose. Power outages plague key cities and military bases, causing wide spread panic and chaos. Only the Space Agency seems to have a grasp on the situation but with all their combined resources, they’re baffled.
Captain Warren Miller races to join his colleagues in the Agency headquarters, hoping to convince his superiors to launch their latest space craft, the battlecruiser Leviathan, which may be able to defy this intruder. In the absence of communication, he hopes a little intimidation might bring about a conversation.
But then smaller objects descend upon the Earth, grabbing up people from all over the globe. Captain Miller never makes it back to base, forcing the Agency to scramble for a response. With the weight of an expectant world beating down on them and the alien threat looming above, they have no choice but to engage the enemy or simply witness history in the making.
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Epilogue
Prologue
“Breaking news!” Dirk Reidel always wanted to be a news anchor, to deliver stories to millions of people. He never imagined he would be the voice of the world, bringing to light one of the most important events in human history. His first reaction was to feel honored but fear replaced it quickly enough.
“We have received reports of some sort of object entering our solar system.” Dirk fought not to clear his throat, struggled with the fact he’d gone dry. He’d never sipped water while on camera but this time, he made an exception. The cool water soothed him enough to go on. “We’ll have some photos to show you shortly but at this time, we don’t know what it is.”
He quickly read over the next portion of his report and directed his gaze at the camera. “Several parts of the world are reporting power outages in metropolitan areas. If you’re listening to this on a radio, please know that crews are working on the problem. It may seem logical to blame the object but we do not have evidence of its involvement at this time.”
One of the assistants stepped on camera and handed him a new stack of papers. Dirk nodded a thanks to them and looked down, reading as quickly as he could. His eyes widened, despite the fact he’d been trained not to react to information on a page. He couldn’t help it. Every new detail that came in was more and more shocking.
“I’ve received an update,” Dirk said, “the object is described as round, too smooth to be a naturally occurring rock or asteroid. Sources say it is stationary, sitting halfway between Earth and the moon. We are waiting on a press conference with our Space Agency officials. I’m sure I can speak for the world in saying, I hope they can provide us with some answers.
“At this time, people are being asked to stay in their homes and to not panic. We do not have enough information to make sense of what we’re seeing or if it may even be a concern. Authorities urge everyone to remain calm. They are working quickly to make sense of this—wait. We’re cutting to the press conference now with Wyman Jacks, Space Agency Administrator.”
Dirk turned to watch the screen to his left. An image of an older man appeared standing behind a podium. His dark hair was gray on the sides and a craggy face made him look harsh and uncompromising. The navy-blue suit looked out of place on him. He was the type of man that looked at home in a military uniform.
The Space Agency did call in a lot of military people, Dirk thought. They’re almost as mysterious as this damn object!
“Good afternoon,” Jacks said, his voice firm and unafraid. Dirk admired him, especially when he hadn’t been able to pull that off himself. “Less than an hour ago, an as of yet unidentified object was discovered near Earth. We are actively investigating to determine threat level and where it may have come from.
“Unfortunately, at this time we know very little. It does not appear to be of natural origin for several reasons. One, it is not moving at all. An asteroid or meteor would be in some form of orbital motion. Second, our initial scans have indicated the surface is perfectly smooth and made of a form of tempered metal.
“All that said, we do not want to jump to any conclusions and will provide updates as we have them. There is no cause for panic. Our top minds are unraveling the mystery. As you know, we are multinational organization and have the full support of our governments to conduct this investigation. Any questions?”
A string of people began shouting, news reporters that somehow arrived at the event quickly enough to participate. Dirk felt grateful to not be among them. He hated having to vie for the attention of the speaker, shouting louder than the person next to him to be heard. Worse, he was quite certain those events were rigged anyway.
The people who got to ask questions were predetermined.
Acting as an anchorman appealed to him far more than any other form of journalism.
Jacks pointed at someone. “Yes, go ahead.”
“Mister Jacks,” a man’s voice asked the question. He sounded like he might be from Boston. “The Space Agency has been quite private in the past about … well, everything. Should we assume that this press conference means we’re looking at a dangerous event? What has brought you out today?”
“You are right, we don’t offer many updates. Most of our work is incremental and not particularly interesting on its own. We have a few major projects we would love to talk about but they were simply not ready. That said, we are in the best position to investigate this particular event and that’s why I’m here today.”
“Can you tell us if this object has anything to do with the power outages throughout the world? Are you planning a response?”
“We have not detected any signals coming from the ship,” Jacks said. “But it stands to reason that it’s somehow involved. This is at the top of our research list and we hope to have an answer soon. If it did cause these power interruptions, it did so in a way that we don’t know how to detect yet but we should not make assumptions. Facts are coming soon and yes, we have a plan for a response.”
“Mister Jacks! Mister Jacks!” A woman rang out over all the others and was called upon. “Do you think this may be an alien intelligence? Are we making any attempt to communicate with it and what is your opinion on their hostility?”
Jacks smiled. “I believe I said something about jumping to conclusions before.” His comment drew some nervous laughs from the audience. “That’s not an assumption we’re willing to make right now. When we learn more, I’ll be back to tell you. As we approach the object, we’ll gather
as much data as we can. However, I do need to return to my duties. Thank you.”
Dirk turned away from the screen as the various reports shouted, begging for one final question. He looked directly at the camera. “There you have it. The Space Agency has their work cut out for them today, that’s for sure.” Another set of pages was set on his desk. “I’ve just been handed some more information, this time about the Space Agency.
“Five years ago, seemingly as a sign of good faith between the countries of the world, the multinational Space Agency was formed. Taking from the top minds of NASA, Roscosmos, the CNSA and others, they set out to explore our solar system with the eventual goal of pressing beyond to other parts of the galaxy.
“They have released a number of photographs to the public as well as some videos. While many have considered them unnecessarily secretive, others have praised their advances. With the resources of the world behind them, they have found success no single organization has been able to achieve.
“I, for one, am confident that their involvement means we will get to the bottom of this event quickly. If anyone on Earth has a chance, it will be them. Now, we would like to show you what we already know and if you’re just joining us, we’ll bring you the recorded press conference of Wyman Jacks, Space Agency administrator.”
***
Doctor Alexander Meyers sat at his terminal, sweat making his shirt cling to his chest and back. He wiped his forehead with a paper towel that long since became too saturated to do much good but it was all he had. Staring down at his personal screen, he watched as the two experimental ships cruised toward the invading object.
God, I hope this is a good idea. Each craft had a crew of fifteen. They were two prototypes, essentially the same type of ship with a few modifications so they could test different defensive scenarios. They were both armed with missiles and guns but also carried decent scanning equipment, the kind Meyers hoped would garner some additional information about the invader.
As they drifted closer, he watched from multiple cameras. One sat on an orbiting satellite, providing a distant view of the situation. Others occupied the hulls of the ships themselves, granting a sort of first-person perspective of the operation. Communications remained steady, uninterrupted by static or interference.
If these were invaders, they weren’t bothering to jam their communicators.
Meyers already measured the invading vehicle, putting it at thirty-eight kilometers. Massive, but not devastatingly so. It gave him some mild amount of confidence in the Earth ships on their way to meet the thing. What should they expect? Violence? Or would it ignore them? Once it arrived near the moon, it simply stopped moving, expelling little radiation and no detectible signals.
Maybe it was on an automated course and upon arrival, the crew had to wake up. Meyers wrote several papers on traveling to other star systems, with and without the benefit of faster than light travel. Cryogenic stasis topped the list of his theories, allowing a crew to go vast distances without suffering the effects of age and time.
It stood to reason they may not have heard from their visitors for this very reason. After all, what intelligent life would travel a vast distance just to sit on someone’s doorstep and remain quiet? The very idea didn’t make any sense to him. The explorer in him found it insulting to imagine Earth’s first contact would be hostile.
He hoped an advanced race would’ve learned from past mistakes, just as he hoped humanity had from their interactions with indigenous life in the early days of European exploration. Of course, a nagging voice in his head reminded him of something many people the world over probably considered. Superior technology did not necessarily equate to a higher sense of morality.
“Ground Control, this is Demeter One.” The voice came from Lieutenant Commander Walter Garrit. He’d been helming his particular ship since the first test run. “We are nearing the object now. Still no response to our presence.”
Meyers leaned close to his microphone. “Maintain course and heading.” He checked their feed from the satellites. No signals left the object. Nothing changed from the moment they detected it to the approach of their two vessels. “Are you picking anything up on your scanners?” Their sensors were minimal, meant for maneuvering more than anything else so he didn’t expect much.
“Negative. No radiation or anything else.”
Meyers saw it long before they did. He turned his attention to the cameras again, eyes wide. The larger vessel seemed to throb at the center, the globe bulging. It expanded, smaller parts breaking free from the whole. Dozens of them, perhaps a hundred, flew free and began a descent toward Earth. “Demeter One, are you seeing this?”
“Affirmative, Ground Control,” Garrit said. “Please advise.”
Meyers didn’t know what to do, or exactly how to proceed. Attacking them seemed out of place. They didn’t know if they were hostile. Then the decision was made for him.
A beam of energy lanced out from the larger vessel, striking Demeter Two. The ship throbbed twice, lights flickering before they went out completely.
“We have been attacked!” Garrit called. “We are engaging.”
“Wait!” Meyers shouted, but it was too late. Demeter One opened fire, blasting away at the enemy ship. A translucent, green octagon stuttered into existence. It faded away after the last of the projectiles made contact.
Demeter One veered off, hitting their thrusters to buy some distance. Another energy beam burst from the larger vessel, narrowly missing their target. Meyers shouted for them to hurry, to get away from the alien craft but something must have been wrong with their communicator. Garrit swung the ship around and made another attack run.
Again, the strange octagonal energy appeared and faded but this time, the energy beam fired again. It caught Demeter One dead center. Electricity danced over the hull, crackling like a weather vortex before fading away along with the power on the ship. Communications went down and the two ships began to drift.
“My God …” Meyers stood up, staring at the screen. “Contact Colonel Jacks. Tell him to get in here right away. We have a huge problem.”
Chapter 1
They have to get me up there. Captain Warren Miller struggled to remain calm as he sat in a terrible traffic jam behind countless civilian vehicles. They were all desperate to leave the city but none so hungry for it as he was. If he could get to the Space Agency base, arrive in enough time to make a difference, he had a solution for their current problem.
Dirk Reidel’s voice filled the radio, rambling on about what they knew and what they thought they knew. Most of it was bullshit guesses. They read far too much into Colonel Jacks’s comments but that was probably the point. It kept them fixating on the larger object that was impossible to hide.
The smaller ones, those were a concern. Space Agency people knew about the object for the better part of a day. It arrived near Saturn and moved directly to the Earth, pausing in its current position by the moon. A research buoy picked up and conveyed a great deal of information back to base.
That’s how they knew about the tempered metal, the shape and the fact it was definitely not naturally occurring. All attempts to communicate had been met with silence but additional efforts were underway. They called in every department head, putting them to task on finding some way to speak to the object.
If anything caused the power outages, it was likely those smaller things coming down, masking their presence perhaps. Or, it may have been a side effective of them entering the atmosphere. Warren didn’t believe that or it would’ve impacted greater areas. Power dropped in targeted places.
Warren had been on leave and joined the secure conference line after Jacks contacted him. It didn’t take long before he got in the truck and floored the gas … then promptly found himself stuck. People threw out theories but the one that concerned Warren the most was the idea that they might be dealing with an unmanned device, a robot sent to observe.
Another person took that theory to the next logical
conclusion: that they might be dealing with a hostile device which could cause untold destruction. Had it crashed into the Earth, the sheer size of it would’ve been enough to cause unimaginable destruction.
Jacks stated early in the call that the men who discovered the item initially believed the Earth was doomed. Considering the speed at which the device approached the planet, there was no time to react, no way to intercept it before it made contact. When it stopped, a collective sigh of relief washed through the Space Agency headquarters.
I have to get our ship up there and confront this thing. Warren didn’t want to bring it up on the call. He needed to have a private conversation with Jacks, to bring the point home in person. They had the ship for the job. A battleship that definitely held the punch required to put some hurt on an invading vessel.
It would take time to prep and launch, however. To that end, he contacted Lieutenant Commander Carlos Delgado, his chief engineer and had him go about getting everything online. By the time Warren arrived and spoke to Jacks, they should be about ready to take off. Providing he got the rest of the crew in place … and clearance.
Jacks terminated the call, bringing everyone into a room at the Agency headquarters. Warren was asked to join them the moment he arrived just before they killed the line. Damn it, Jacks. You couldn’t wait, huh? The council must’ve pushed for some heightened security.
The Space Agency hadn’t socialized the construction of a battleship to the general population, not yet. They were going to address it during their maiden voyage, turning it into a big spectacle, a celebration of the accomplishment. The citizens of the world needed to see where their money went.
Anonymous polls went out to the world, attempting to gauge their biggest concerns and interests in regard to space. Questions were meant to determine what they cared about most whether it be resource acquisition, exploration, scientific discovery or threats from beyond the solar system.