R.A.E.C.E. Genesis
By Geoffrey C Porter
Release Candidate XII
Cover Artwork by
Cathleen Marie O'Brien
Copyright 2013, Geoffrey C Porter
Release Candidate XII
ISBN-13: 978-1493764587
ISBN-10: 1493764586
Library of Congress: TXu 1-877-109
An Untied Shoelaces of the Mind production.
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Chapter 1
A.D. 2130
Planet Artemis, seventh colony of the commonwealth, notable for its size and density, giving it high gravity…
The war raged for as long as Jack could remember. He didn't so much hate the Lithor as he knew deep down that they'd be fighting until one species reached extinction. Jack hoped it wouldn't be the Humans. He lived his whole life on Artemis; he took to the high gravity, played sports, biked in the mountains. Jack had two years to wait before he could join Fleet, the elite military arm of the Human empire. At the moment Jack was on his way to school. He lucked out this semester, and his first class started at 10 a.m. As Jack walked, the shelling started.
Whistling; strange high-pitched whistling echoed off the houses. Jack stopped and looked around himself for the source of the sound. The first detonations crashed, and it sounded like a firecracker but far away. Then they started getting closer, and he panicked and ran for home. He didn't know why. Instinct told him to get home, to get to safety. A shell hit the roof of a house, and it exploded in a great ball of fire and smoke. The house caved in and collapsed. He ran on. When he turned the corner of his street, his home had been hit by at least two rounds, and it still burned. He started looking for a place to hide. He knew it had to be the Lithor. They must have destroyed the Fleet warships in orbit and now wanted the colony.
He stood in the middle of the street as the buildings burned. He couldn't think of anything else to do. "You're in a bad spot, kid. Find some place to hide! Move towards town center." Jack looked to the left, and a troop of three Fleet infantry soldiers were there, carrying rifles and shovels. They set up camp in the middle of the intersection by Jack's house and dug a foxhole in the earthen street.
Jack didn't want to hide. He didn't know what to do, so he just stared at the soldiers digging their hole. He thought to himself, they must practice digging holes as they made short work of it. The whistling of mortar shells went on. Jack was almost used to it when one got louder and louder. Then 'Boom!' it landed right in the hole with the soldiers, and body parts flew. Jack stared at the dead men, dumbfounded.
A voice sounded on his right, "You can't just stand there, kid!"
Jack turned and looked; another Fleet soldier, this one wore powered battle armor, and Jack couldn't see his face. The mechanized suit was seven feet tall and painted to look like a Human skull. The shoulders and chest bristled with sensors and antenna. The legs were thickly armored, and both arms had weapons attached. The suit came thundering to a halt in front of Jack, and its owner seemed to be surveying the damage to the other Fleet soldiers.
Something was clicking in Jack's mind, like a giant machine counting down, but counting down to what? He was never before at such a loss for what to do.
Jack stared blankly at the armor. The head turned to face him. "They're gonna kill you whether you pick up a rifle or not, kid. They'll come down those two streets. I got my own octant to watch. Either defend yourself or run like a bat outta hell for city center: what's left of it. You hear that? The mortars have stopped, that means they'll be coming in with rifles and killing everyone…"
Being called kid egged on the anger slowly building up in Jack's psyche.
The man/suit shook his head and turned the corner to the left and started running again. Fear paralyzed Jack for a few moments. Rage started to filter in to the primitive part of his brain. He would defend his home.
Jack walked over to the hole that the soldiers dug that the mortar opened up into a sizable pit. He picked up one of the soldier's rifles. He knew how to shoot but had never seen anything exactly like the weapon. He put the butt of it against his shoulder and looked through its sights. Everything showed in a red tint, with crosshairs in the center, and two dim box shapes floated around on either side. He didn't know their function. He poked around on the rifle. He found the zoom for the sight and the magazine eject button. Within the sights, a number displayed 100, and he test fired the rifle. It didn't kick, but a bolt of green energy shot out of it. The counter dropped to 99.
He looked down one street then the other on full zoom. He hoped he could trust the soldier in the suit that his backside would be covered. He felt in over his head with two streets to watch. Hell, he would have felt in over his head with one street to cover. He tried to think back to school about what they knew of the Lithor. He didn't know much of their history. They had faces, arms, and legs like Humans, but they weren't supposed to be skilled fighters, for they evolved on a lower gravity world than Earth. On average, the Lithor were slower and dumber than Humans. At least, that's what Humans said. If a Human and a Lithor entered a boxing ring, you bet on the Human.
Jack looked from one street to the other with his sights on full zoom, trying to concentrate. Suddenly on the right, a group of almost-man-like figures marched in two columns down the road. They were too tall and slender to be Humans. They displayed brightly in red in the sight. The two floating boxes in his sight bounced to the brightly colored figures and started flashing green. Jack pointed the crosshairs at the column on the left. The box still flashed green while the crosshairs changed from red to green once the sight pointed at a target. Couldn't be simpler, he thought. He took a deep breath as he squeezed the trigger on the rifle. The first Lithor crumpled to the ground. The other Lithor dove for cover. A few didn't make it, and he cut them down moving from target to target as fast as he could. His stomach tightened up into a ball of hardened steel.
Some of the Lithor crouched behind shelled out vehicles and husks of buildings. Jack remembered he had two avenues to watch and turned his attention to his left spotting another pair of columns marching towards him. This time he knew he had to be quick. He knew they'd go for cover. He sprayed them, holding down the trigger on his rifle and sweeping it between the two columns. He figured he bagged six or seven. Better than the three that he'd bagged on the right street.
It flashed in his mind--I just killed a dozen intelligent beings. He thought he should feel remorse or pity. Then the sweat started to pour off his forehead and palms of his hands, and only one thing went through his mind, they are invaders.
He turned to face the right again, and the squares in his sight tracked two separate targets. Two of the Lithor fired laser bursts at him, missing. Jack targeted them first and shot them both square in their faces. He aimed the crosshairs of the rifle at the flashing green squares and squeezed the trigger over and over until the green boxes were dimly floating again. He spun to the left, and a laser blast caught him on his left ear, burning about a quarter inch of it off. It hurt like hell. A new flood of adrenalin hit his system. He blasted away at the Lithor, and one by one they fell to the ground, dead. He felt good as no targets showed themselves on the left street.
He turned to the right again. Glimpses of Lithor slowly moving from one piece of cover to another closed in on him. He bagged one in motion, then another. The gun's sight made it almost child's play to waste the aliens. Then as if by some higher order, all the Lithor opened fire on him at once, some within ten meters of him. He ducked under the earthen wall of the pit. He looked for anything that might help him. He saw a helmet, which he grabbed off the dead soldier and put it on. Then he noticed what had to be a few grenades attach
ed to a dead soldier's jacket. He grabbed one and pulled the pin, then threw it down the right street with all his might. It made a satisfactory 'Boom!' on detonation, and Jack threw two more in quick succession.
It dawned on Jack there was pooled blood and body parts in the pit, and his pants were soaked at the cuffs.
Jack poked his head up over the edge of the pit and looked down the street. He had maybe a dozen targets. He aimed for the closest ones and started cutting them down. A laser blast hit him on his helmet, and it got warm, but the blast didn't get through. A new target ran from one of the houses, but it seemed too short to be a Lithor. He opened his left eye to get a look. Lexi, a girl Jack knew from school, the girl he planned to ask to the Spring dance, ran for her life towards him, carrying a baby.
A Lithor shot her in the leg, and she went down. The baby flew out of her grasp. The Lithor laughed. Jack targeted the one who had shot Lexi and held down the trigger on his rifle: three shots for that one. He moved to the next target, while the Lithors started firing on the baby, like for sport almost. Time slowed for Jack, everything did. He found himself targeting Lithor and firing before his sights could even flash green, the on-target indicator. He cut down seven of them before the street quieted. The baby didn't make a sound—Jack looked at it and saw the burn from a laser blast on its skull.
Jack spun to the left, and another pair of columns marched towards him. He turned on the left column, fire, then the right column, fire. Then on full auto he raked the rifle back and forth on them as they dove for cover. He noticed his ammo counter on the sight. It showed seven. He ducked back down in the hole and started looking for a new magazine. He pulled one off a belt and slammed it home. He looked to the street on the right, nothing moved, but Lexi still breathed. Her chest rose and fell.
He turned back to the left and another laser blast hit his helmet. He returned fire with some skill now. He cleared the street and turned to the right again. He didn't see any movement besides Lexi. Jack shouted to her, "How bad are you hurt?"
She looked at him. She was of Asian descent, either Chinese or Japanese or something. Jack had no clue. He just knew she had this oval face with a complexion that was to die for. She spoke in a quivering voice. "My leg feels like it's on fire and broken. It hurts bad when I try and move it, Jack…"
He smiled to himself. She knows my name, he thought… "I'll see if there's a radio and call for an ambulance…"
Jack started looking over the dead for any kind of communications equipment. He found an earpiece and microphone on one of the Fleet corpses. He put it on and said, "Hello?"
"Who is this?" Rang in his ear.
"Jack Grean."
"What are you doing on this channel, and where is Corporal Johnson?" Came through the ear piece.
"Corporal Johnson is dead if you mean where I got this headpiece from. Look, we need a medic here."
"What about Johnson's squad?"
"Were there three of them?" Jack asked, as he looked around at the pieces of bodies wondering how so many chunks could be only three men. "They're dead."
"Damn. You're lucky, kid. The Lithor are withdrawing. We pushed them back. I'll transfer you to medical."
Jack heard a click, then a female voice, "Medical."
Jack said, "We need an ambulance."
"All the ambulances are tied up right now, what is the nature of the injury and how many injured are there?"
"Just one, laser shot to the leg."
"Not life threatening then. South-side was hit pretty bad in the shelling. There are makeshift ambulatory tents in city center, but you'll have to find your own ride or limp them down here."
"Damn. Well, thanks for nothing."
"We're doing everything we can, kid. You're just lucky Fleet held back the Lithor."
"Lady, I held back the Lithor in this section. All Fleet did was die."
"If you wait long enough, an ambulance will get freed up, maybe six, maybe eight hours. You can wait or walk. It's up to you."
"Thanks. Bye."
Jack climbed out of the pit he was in and walked over to Lexi. His shoes made squishy sounds from the blood in them. "Can you sit up?"
Lexi grimaced but moved to a sitting position. "It hurts bad."
"You need painkillers. We have to get you to the ambulatory tents in city center. If you lean on me, do you think you can walk?"
"Help me to my feet…"
Jack grabbed her hands and lifted. She got to her feet. She cried out in pain on the way. She put one arm around Jack's shoulders, and they started to limp a few steps. She cried out again. "Put me down. It hurts too much!"
Jack helped her sit. "I have an idea. We have to get you to city center. Let me just grab a few things."
He went back to the pit that he'd used for cover, stripping a dead soldier of his utility belt. Three grenades and two extra ammo clips were attached to it. Jack strapped it on. He went back over to where Lexi sat. She looked up at him. His navy blue eyes cut into hers, with just a hint of gray like the ocean with a violent storm overhead. His hair was long for a 19 year old boy, and his shoulders were broader than his hips. "I never thought the war would come here," she said.
"They killed the baby."
"Bill and Jo-Ann Peterson's. Jo-Ann had a doctor's appointment this morning, so I logged on to the online class. I wonder if Bill and Jo-Ann made it. I don't want to have to give them the news…"
"It wasn't your fault, Lexi."
"You know my name?"
Jack smiled and lied. "All the boys at school know your name, and hey, you knew my name."
"What do you mean all the boys at school know my name?"
Jack blushed and decided to lie again. "The consensus is that you're the prettiest girl in school…"
"Kimberly Mathews has me beat." She tried to laugh, but it came out more like a whimper.
Jack smiled. "Kimberly is two years our senior."
"So now I'm just the prettiest girl in our class."
Jack thought she was the prettiest thing he'd seen since her arrival on Artemis last year. Jack didn't know what to say about the matter. He'd already said plenty.
"I always thought you were just a dumb jock," Lexi said.
Jack looked at the corpses he had created. "I study life sciences with a minor in exo-biology. I'm in honors English."
"I study Sociology."
"I bet the math is hard," Jack said.
"Don't make fun of me!"
"I'm failing honors English, anyhow."
"Really?" She said with a bit of excitement.
"No."
Lexi moved her leg and grimaced. "Are you going to try and carry me?"
"Yeah, try to stand up, and I'll pick you up over my shoulder in a fireman's carry…"
They got Lexi to her feet, and Jack lifted her onto his shoulder. She cried out in pain. Jack asked, "Is it comfortable enough?"
"Better than limping was…"
Jack walked towards city center while houses burned on both sides of the streets. Jack set a fast pace. Within thirty minutes or so, and after stopping twice to rest, they reached the ambulatory tents. Wounded littered the area. Some burn victims, some shrapnel victims, some with laser rifle holes. Jack walked up to what looked like a triage tent and stepped inside. A doctor, or at least he seemed like a doctor to Jack, said, "Bring her over here into the light."
Jack complied.
The doctor looked over her leg with Jack still holding her on his shoulder. The doctor asked, "Is this your only injury, miss?"
"It burns."
The doctor put on fresh rubber gloves and took a tube of something out of a drawer and started putting salve from the tube onto the burn wound on Lexi's leg. She said, "That feels good…"
"That'll help it heal, but we're rationing the salve. You'll have to go on oral painkillers as well. The pharmacy is three tents over. Here's a prescription for the painkillers and another tube of the salve. Once we get back to a Fleet hospital, they'll have to cut away the scar
tissue and re-grow some muscle tissue for you, so you'll have full use of the leg again." The doctor turned to look at Jack. "How's the ear, son?"
Jack had forgotten about his ear. It still hurt, but it throbbed more then really hurt. "It's not that bad. I'll be ok."
"You should have them re-grow the tissue once we're back at Fleet."
Jack realized something--the doctor kept acting like they were leaving. "We're leaving?" he asked.
"Yes, within twenty-four hours we'll be on transports to Orion."
"Orion? Why not Earth?"
"You haven't heard?"
"Heard what?" Lexi asked.
"Earth is a radioactive dust ball thanks to the Lithor, kid. It's just the commonwealth now, and Artemis isn't the only colony they've hit. We're lucky Fleet held the city."
"I need to find my folks…" Jack said. He still carried Lexi.
"There's likely tents set up for the wounded, Jack," Lexi said. "Help me get my pills and to a tent and then go look for your folks. Look for mine, too, please."
The doctor said, "There are plenty of tents."
They went to the pharmacy tent and picked up the painkillers. Jack dropped Lexi off at a 'refugee' tent and took off in a run towards the science compound where his mom worked.
Chapter 2
A.D 2130
Human battle group en route to the Lithorian homeworld…
The armada decelerated at one gravity (1g). They needed to decelerate for three more weeks before they would reach the Lithorian homeworld with their simple mission: defeat any and all Lithorian ships in orbit and then scorch their homeworld with atomics. All avenues of peace had been pursued with the Lithorians, and peaceful coexistence seemed impossible. The Kilken, Humans' only ally, had already engaged the Lithorian defense net and failed. Rumors went through the Human armada that another fleet existed, but the official word stayed, "We're it!"
Three weeks, and the clock ticked. On the smallest ships, the Frigates, crew lived in close quarters and ate basic rations. Larger ships had galleys and gymnasiums. All the ships except the fighters, single-man battle craft, carried various complements of atomic weapons, all ship-to-ship capable and orbit-to-surface capable. The Humans didn't even know the force they faced. The Lithor's largest ship, the Dreadnaught, could cloak, making them almost undetectable, and the Humans didn't know how many Dreadnaughts they faced.
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