by Saxon Andrew
The Death Filament
Some Places
Should Be Avoided
Contents
Books by Saxon Andrew
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 • Chapter Twenty-two • Chapter Twenty-three • Chapter Twenty-four • Chapter Twenty-five • Chapter Twenty-six
Excerpt: DEATH NEVER LEAVES A CALLING CARD
Copyright
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
(The Seven books above are audio books at Audible.com)
Prequel-Psychic Beginnings
Searching for a Hero
Dahlia’s Deception
Annihilation-The Complete Series Box Set
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
(An audio book at Audible.com)
Nowhere to Run
Nowhere to Hide
Probe Predators
Jesse’s Starship
Mike’s War
Joshua’s Walls
Nemesis
Revenge is Best Served Hot
The Search for Orion
Trapped in Time
The Time Takers
Taming A Planet
Exinction
Escape to Earth
Running From Fate
Fighting for Space
Defending Holy Ground
The Legacy of a Conqueror
Living Legends
Defending Earth
The Sequel Series to Escape to Earth
Searching for Death Feeders
Discovery Means Death
The Death Prophecies
The Coming of the Prophet
The Eyes of the Prophet
The Unknown Enemy Will Kill You
No Technology Is Invincible
Survival is Never Free
The Last Prophecy
Stories from the Filament Universe
Gregor’s Run
A Pirate’s Tale
Soul of the Swords
Jimmy’s Dreams
The Death Filament
Coming soon
Death Never Leaves a Calling Card
Introduction
Leonidas looked at the long-range scanner’s wall monitor and softly exhaled. He was worried that his ship was going to be detected and looked at Barney, who had his hands on the force field and booster controls. Barney saw his expression and said, “The odds of them seeing us this far out is remote, Leo.”
Leo looked at Desiree and she nodded. She was probably right. The Thermopylae had been painted in non-reflective pitch black paint before it left Bellingham. The paint would disappear the moment a blaster beam hit it but so far that had not come close to happening. The Thermopylae stayed well outside the Tronan Warships’ scanning range.
The ship’s computer announced, “Captain, there is another Tronan Major Fleet moving in on the filament behind our current position.”
“Barney, change course and evade that incoming fleet,” Leo ordered. Barney used the bow thrusters to turn the bow of the Thermopylae vertical to its current position and lightly tapped the boosters. The large vessel accelerated away and began coasting out of the path of the approaching fleet. “How long before they move into scanner range, Computer?”
“Our ship will be out of the range of their scanners before they arrive, Captain.”
Leo nodded as he stared at the large wall monitor. “Computer, how many fleets does that make in this galaxy?”
“That is the tenth Tronan Fleet we’ve detected in this spiral arm.”
Leo sat back in his command chair and stared at the monitor in silence. Desiree put her hand on his arm, “Tell me what you’re thinking, Leo.”
Leo looked at her with a scowl and said, “I expected there to be a large number of their ships present but nothing like this. Every galaxy we’ve scouted since we arrived in their territory is saturated with their fleets. We are so far behind them in numbers of warships that we’re not even in the game. They could attack every warship we have with a hundred warships and still have thousands to go after any planet we might be defending. And that’s with just the Tronan Ships we’ve seen in this galaxy. Add in the other galaxies we’ve scouted and, who knows how many others they’re active in, and this is hopeless.”
“We can cause them huge losses, Captain. They cannot defeat our ships coated with Bellingham hulls.”
Leo turned and looked at Carl, “They could ram our ship at high speed with hundreds, no make that thousands, of their ships, and I don’t know if the coated hulls would stand up to that. Even if the hulls are capable of withstanding that kind of attack, the crews could be rocked so hard inside their ships that they die from the concussion.”
Carl shook his head, “They couldn’t catch us to do that, Captain.”
Leo rolled his eyes, “Carl, the fleet that just arrived would choke a normal sized filament even if they tightened up their formations. All they’d have to do is send one fleet at us from behind and another from the front and catch us between them. Speed won’t save you if there’s nowhere to run in the filaments.” Carl frowned and then turned back to his panel.
Desiree stared at Leo and he saw her expression, “What are you thinking, Desiree? Do you not agree with this?”
“You’re right, we couldn’t prevent them from dropping troops on a planet they choose to attack. Their warships would tie all of us up and thousands of others could drop their landing forces on any planet with little or no resistance from our fleets,” Desiree answered.
Leo looked up, “Computer, are we wrong? Do you see a way to handle this many warships if they invade our space?”
“Not at the moment; the only way to defeat them is to find a means of killing them quickly in very high numbers. We have not currently developed the technology to do that. Our blasters will defeat them individually, but it would take a few minutes to burn through their hulls and destroy one of their warships. I suspect our ships won’t be given enough time to attack before they are swarmed in mass.”
“So, are you saying, Computer, that if they invade our space, we will lose?”
“Not necessarily, you need to examine how far our technology has developed in the short time since some of their warships went to attack Heaven. The advances have been quite extraordinary. The Tronan Warships cannot harm this vessel and ganging up on it by surrounding it in a filament is not a likely scenario.”
/> “Why not, Computer” Carl asked.
“Because there are two sides of the filament that move in opposite directions. If the one fleet approaching this ship from the opposite flow attempted to cross and block our path, we have enough speed to leave the filament and move to the side they left. In an instant, we’ll be past both fleets. It would take at least ten of their fleets to pen us down in a filament.”
Leo glanced at Carl and saw him smiling an ‘I told you so’ expression and Leo said, “That’s good to know.”
“Of course, if they knew of our existence and that we destroyed the warships they sent out to find us, they’d probably send two hundred fleets to remove us,” the computer said.
Carl’s smile vanished, “You didn’t have to say that, Computer.”
“I am required to provide Captain Leonidas any information he might need to make good decisions.”
Desiree looked up, “Computer, do you have enough information to make an estimate of how many fleets the Tronan have?”
The computer was silent and Leo said, “Do you?”
“Since we’ve arrived in Tronan Space, every galaxy we’ve entered has large numbers of their fleets. A best guess estimate is they have more than ten-thousand major fleets scattered across their empire.”
Leo lowered his eyes and said, “We’ve seen enough. We need to go back and inform Bellingham and the others what we’re up against.”
“There is one thing you might want to consider before you do that, Captain.”
“What is that, Computer.”
“Perhaps Desiree would know the answer to this question. What would prevent the Tronan from sending their fleets into our space?” Desiree’s eyes narrowed and she drew a blank. The Computer said, “Then look at it another way; what would prevent us from coming here to attack them?”
Desiree immediately saw it, “Someone attacking us in our space would keep us pinned down at home.”
“That’s Correct.”
Desiree looked at Leo, “And the Tronan would stay here as well if they were being attacked.”
“Only if you were attacking something they really needed to defend,” the computer stated.
Leo nodded, “We need to find something here that fills that bill before we leave. We have to find something the Tronan really value and would use everything they have to prevent it from coming to harm.”
Barney turned around, “And just how do we do that? Their territory is huge.”
The Computer answered, “We have to find their Bellingham.”
Desiree tilted her head, “I’m not sure what you’re suggesting, Computer.”
“Bellingham is where all of our most powerful warships are built. We’ve determined the Tronan are not building warships on the planets they invade.”
Leo nodded, “That means they have to be manufactured somewhere on their planets.” Desiree blew out a hard breath. Leo looked at her, “What?”
Desiree shook her head, “We should have brought a Guyton telepath with us. It could have found out what we need to know quickly. We could waste decades searching for it.”
Leo shrugged, “Then we have to go back, report on what we’ve found, and come back with a Guyton.”
Barney turned around and looked at Leonidas, “There’s one other thing we need to determine before we come looking for targets.”
Leo’s eyes narrowed, “What is that?”
“We have not moved within close scanning range of a Tronan War Fleet. There is a possibility that they may have a more advanced warship than any we’ve seen to date. There’s no way for us to know if a more advanced warship exists without getting a lot closer than we’ve gotten so far.”
Leo sighed, “You’re right. We’re going to have to come back and take a good look at their fleets before we decide to go out scanning any targets up close. My mission was to find out how many warships the Tronan have to use against us. I will not run the risk of moving in close without getting our information back to the Combined Planet Leadership.” He turned to Desiree, “Do you see it differently?”
“No not really. I believe our Bellingham coated warships could withstand them but they currently only represent thirty-three percent of our total number of warships. We’ll take what we’ve collected back to our territory and let our Leadership Team decide how to handle this.”
Leo nodded and turned to Barney, “Get us out of here.”
“It is imperative that this ship is not detected by the Tronan while leaving their space,” the Computer announced.
Leo nodded, “Drop the ship into Under Space and move toward the filament. Make sure you remain outside their scanning range.”
Barney turned back to his console and activated the stardrive.
Chapter One
Three-months later, Embree, Sam and Gregor sat in the Thermopylae’s conference room watching the recordings taken during Leo’s scouting mission in Tronan Territory. The ship’s computer provided commentary on what they were viewing and they remained silent until the presentation was competed. Leo exhaled slowly and said, “Even though our warships are more powerful, we cannot stand up to their numbers. We now have ten thousand warships with a third of them coated with the metal from Bellingham. The Computer estimates they out number us more than five-thousand to one.”
Gregor looked at Leonidas, “They cannot defeat our coated warships, Captain.”
Sam shook his head, “They don’t have to defeat them.”
Gregor turned to him, “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“They have enough ships to surround them and then ram them at high velocity. The coated ships might survive the impact but the crews inside will be killed by the impacts. Our blasters couldn’t take out a Tronan Warship fast enough to prevent others from ramming while it’s attacking.”
Leo nodded, “We’ve made the same determination. We also wonder if a more advanced Tronan Warship exits that would represent an even larger danger to our fleets.”
Gregor shrugged, “I am inexperienced in commanding large numbers of warships. I would think that our ships would be fast enough to avoid being surrounded.”
Sam shook his head, “And what if our ships are defending the Dragon’s Planet or Bellingham. Will they fly away to avoid being surrounded? They’ll have no choice but to stay and fight it out.”
“But they won’t be able to come to Bellingham with the filament being removed,” Gregor said firmly.
“Venzel still has a filament and so do the Insectoid Planets. Are we going to allow them to be destroyed?” Leo asked. Gregor’s eyes narrowed and Leo said, “Are we going to flee and watch them destroy any civilized planet with billions of innocent people on their surfaces?”
Gregor stared at Sam, “I hate to sound callous about this but my primary concern is Bellingham. I’ll do what I can to prevent loss of life elsewhere but I won’t allow our ships to be lost doing it.”
“You promised the Dragon Queen that you will defend her world against outside aggression. Did you really mean it when you made that promise?” Sam asked.
Gregor opened his mouth to respond and then closed it. He looked at Leo and sat back in his chair, “Yes, I meant it.”
“The Tronan will find the Dragon’s planet rather quickly if the Dragons oppose their fleets when they arrive,” the ship’s computer said over the wall speaker.
Gregor shook his head, “I thought we have indestructible warships but I guess that’s an impossibility; nothing is completely indestructible.” He looked at Leo, “How long do we have before they come back?”
“We learned from the Tronan Ship we captured that they had enough stores to last them three to four years. We destroyed their ships at Heaven a year ago, so the Tronan Leadership won’t be looking for them for another two years or so. When they don’t show up, they’ll launch a much larger force to investigate what happened. It will take that new force a little more than a year and a half to arrive at Heaven’s intersec
tion, so we’re looking at three years at a minimum; five if we’re lucky.”
“We should be able to build enough ships during that time,” Gregor replied.”
Sam shook his head, “Not if you only allow Bellingham ships to be coated in the metal. The Dragon and Insectoid Ships can go toe-to-toe with the Tronan Warships one-on-one but cannot withstand two or more and will lose quickly if three or more attack them. If the Tronan do have a more advanced unknown warship, then the Dragon and Insectoids may be out of the fight before it even begins. Are you prepared to allow their vessels to be coated?”
Gregor stared at Sam and Leo interrupted, “It wouldn’t matter if he was.” Both of them looked at Leo and he shrugged, “Computer, have you done an analysis of this question?”
“I have.”
“What have you determined?”
“I’ve estimated the Tronan have fifty-million warships to use against you. Bellingham can only build eight-thousand ships a year using the current coating process. Adding an additional thirty-thousand warships won’t really make much of a difference. They would still outnumber our ships by more than a thousand to one if they use their full inventory. And that’s not adding any additional warships they may construct over the next four or five years and I firmly believe they will construct a lot more than thirty-thousand during that period. The odds against us gets worse over time.”
Gregor stared at the wall speaker for a long moment and then said, “So what do we do?”
“We go to their territory and attack their ship building planets,” Leo answered.
Sam’s eyes narrowed, “Why would we do that?”
“If our important planets were being attacked here, would we send our ships to attack them in their territory?” Leo replied. “We could also go after the planets where their leaders are located. That would pin down a huge number of their ships.”