Legacy (First Colony Book 3)

by Ken Lozito

  Lieutenant LaCroix confirmed the order. “Scanners show two Vemus cruisers completely destroyed. The third is severely damaged.”

  A live feed from the high-res optics showed the remaining Vemus cruiser being chewed up by the rail-cannon high-velocity projectiles. Nathan watched with grim satisfaction as the Vemus cruiser exploded.

  “Colonel, assault teams are away—” Sergeant Martinez said and stopped speaking in the middle of her status update. Her eyes widened. “Colonel, sensors have detected colossus cannon active fire near Sanctuary.”

  Nathan’s gut clenched. “Are there any Vemus ships in the area?”

  “Negative, Colonel,” Sergeant Martinez said.

  “Comms, have there been any alerts from our CDF forces on the ground?” Nathan asked.

  “No, Colonel,” Sergeant Boers answered.

  Nathan winced and looked at Major Shelton. “It has to be those Vemus scout ships we detected earlier. They’ve located Sanctuary.”

  “Colonel, Vemus Alpha is moving out of orbit from New Earth,” Lieutenant LaCroix said.

  “Put it on the main holoscreen, Lieutenant,” Nathan said.

  The Vemus Alpha was slowly moving away from New Earth.

  “Tactical, ready the next HORNET salvo,” Nathan said.

  “Yes, Colonel,” Lieutenant LaCroix responded.

  “What about Sanctuary, Colonel?” Major Shelton asked.

  Nathan frowned, trying think of something they could do to help. “Comms, send an encoded broadcast to CDF ground forces.”

  It was the only thing they could do. He had already committed his resources to the Vemus Alpha. There were CDF ground forces. They’d have to deal with the threat to Sanctuary.

  Three new ships appeared on PRADIS. They came from the Vemus Alpha.

  “Troop carrier class ships detected, Colonel,” Lieutenant LaCroix said.

  Nathan gritted his teeth in frustration. “Target the carriers,” he said and watched the PRADIS screen update. The Vemus Alpha was moving faster now on an intercept course right toward them. There would be no hiding from the Vemus. Nathan knew he couldn’t stop all the troop carriers from reaching Sanctuary, but he hoped that what they were doing would give them a fighting chance.

  “Target all weapons on the Vemus Alpha,” Nathan said.

  The CDF had built weapons systems all across the lunar surface, and once they went active, they could be tracked by the enemy. Lunar Base was in this fight now. Hopefully, the assault teams were flying undetected, closing in on the Vemus Alpha. They’d have to execute emergency combat landings on the Vemus Alpha, but that was something his teams were prepared for. It was Connor and his team that needed to get inside that massive Vemus ship if they were to have any hope of stopping the Vemus permanently. He couldn’t even warn them about the change in plans, but it wouldn’t have changed anything. The Colonial Defense Force’s final assault on the Vemus was just beginning.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  A small taskforce of ten combat shuttles had left the remnants of Phoenix Station two hours before. To keep their approach hidden from the enemy, Connor ordered the taskforce to power off their main engines. He didn’t want to give the Vemus any reason to suspect the combat shuttles were anything but wreckage from previous battles. Throughout their engagement with the Vemus, they’d proven to be more reactionary when the CDF switched tactics.

  “Nothing like putting Sir Isaac Newton in the driver’s seat,” Captain Randle mused from the copilot’s seat in the cockpit of the shuttle.

  “There are worse ways to get inside an enemy ship,” Connor replied, thinking of when he’d used a storage container to infiltrate a space station. The entirety of the Ghost platoon had been cramped inside that confined space with nothing but a whole lot of waiting to be offloaded.

  “Final update from Phoenix Station. The comms drones have been sent off. They’ve staggered their departure and speeds,” Captain Randle said.

  The comms drones contained all of Dr. Kim’s findings on the Vemus, as well as what they were about to try. Connor understood the theory that supported the scientist’s belief that the Vemus were behaving with a hive hierarchy, but he couldn’t help but think there was more to it. The evidence was there to support the scientist’s theory, but there seemed to be some missing pieces that Connor couldn’t quite wrap his mind around. Primary among those missing pieces was the fact that the Vemus had navigated across interstellar space to find them. They had followed the deep space comms buoy network like a trail of breadcrumbs. A two-hundred-year journey was no easy feat. How had the Vemus survived for that long? Connor was sure that, with time, colonial scientists could answer those questions, but ultimately he just wanted the Vemus gone without a chance of survival. The colonists were the last humans in the galaxy. He was disgusted that part of the reason humanity was in such a predicament had stemmed from an opportunistic human faction. Were humans always destined for such an outcome?

  New Earth had been home to an alien intelligent species that had evolved to build a civilization, but the colonists hadn’t figured out what had happened to them. They left behind cities and ruins. Colonial scientists had even detected an alien influence over the other species on the planet. Had they reached a point in their evolution where their own self-destruction was assured? Were humans just another species to follow along that seemingly well-worn path to destruction, paved by the intelligent species before them? In the hundreds of years that humanity had looked to the stars with wonder, they hadn’t detected any traces of intelligent life.

  “The final comms drone is configured to reach Sanctuary’s vicinity in seven days,” Captain Randle said.

  “It’s our failsafe in case we aren’t successfull,” Connor said.

  “Let’s make sure it’s not needed then,” Captain Randle said.

  Connor glance at Randle. They were heading into the belly of the beast. Given that their chances of survival weren’t great, Connor was surprised to see a hopeful glint in Randle’s determined gaze. He’d seen a similar look in Reisman’s eyes right up until Connor left him to die.

  “You’ve got that look again,” Captain Randle said.

  Connor turned back to the controls. “I was just thinking of Wil and everyone else we’ve lost during this war.”

  “Wil.” Captain Randle snorted. “I liked him. He always came up with ways to keep you on your toes.”

  Connor let out a small chuckle. “It was what made him so good at what he did.”

  A comlink opened to the cockpit from the rear of the shuttle.

  “General, it’s ready,” Dr. Kim said.

  Connor sat up in his chair. “Excellent work. I’ll buy you a drink when this is over.”

  “I’ll take you up on that, General,” Dr. Kim said.

  The comlink closed and Captain Randle gave him a sideways look. “Here’s what I don’t understand. How is whatever the doctor is cooking up back there going to stop the Vemus?”

  “I’m sure if you went back there and asked him, he could spend hours trying to educate you on it, but by then the mission would be over,” Connor replied.

  Captain Randle laughed. “I’m surprised you don’t want to know.”

  Connor shrugged. “The way he explained it to me was that the basic function of a virus is to spread itself. He’s just helping to speed that along, which is where the nanobots come in. The process will gain momentum as time goes on.”

  “Okay, but if the living exoskeleton is what’s keeping that Vemus Alpha together, why couldn’t we just insert the toxin on the surface and then get the hell out of there?” Captain Randle asked.

  “The only way to be sure is to find the collective intelligence behind the Vemus and infect that first. This way, it will spread to all of them while crippling their capacity to fight,” Connor replied.

  Captain Randle shook his head. “You really think there’s a hive queen?”

  “Call it whatever you want, but I do believe there’s a collective intelligence
controlling the Vemus,” Connor said.

  Captain Randle nodded. “What about the Vemus forces that aren’t on the ship?”

  “They’ll need to be stopped. Every single one of them,” Connor said.

  A passive scan alert appeared on the combat shuttle’s heads-up display. Connor read the alert and frowned.

  “Colonel Hayes has begun the attack,” Captain Randle said.

  “He’s early,” Connor said while rubbing his chin. “Something must have happened.”

  He’d kept the combat shuttle’s systems on passive to avoid detection, which included the long-range communications systems. He opened the short-range comms channel to the other shuttles. “We need to move faster than originally planned. Start up main engines. We’ll use the battle as cover to get aboard.”

  The other combat-shuttle pilots acknowledged his orders. They were close enough to the Vemus Alpha that they should be able to sneak aboard. Connor initiated the startup process for the combat shuttle’s main engines. When the shuttle’s engines came online, Connor engaged them and they darted ahead, flying toward the cavernous rear of the Vemus Alpha. Connor had estimated that this was the area where the Vemus Alpha’s main engines were located. While not the safest place to fly, he also knew there would be maintenance hatches not far from the engine pods. Colonel Hayes knew the approach vector Connor was going to take, so they didn’t have to worry about being caught in friendly fire.

  They closed in on the Vemus Alpha, flying in close to the rear section of the hull. The hull of the Vemus Alpha was rough, as if it had been part of a large asteroid. Connor knew the Vemus had absorbed other ships in order to form the hulking mass that was the Alpha. As they approached the cavernous drop-off at the rear of the enemy ship, Connor used maneuvering thrusters to swing the combat shuttle around and then engaged their main engines to slow their approach. Even with inertia dampeners, Connor felt himself pressing into his seat while he used the main engines in a rapid deceleration maneuver. The other combat shuttles did the same, and once they reached the rear of the Vemus Alpha, Connor engaged the main engines in a burst that would take them inside. There was an array of engine pods, some of which Connor recognized from battleship carriers and others that looked like they’d come from civilian freighters used throughout the Sol system.

  “How’d they even power all those engines?” Captain Randle asked.

  Connor wasn’t sure. He knew that, in theory, the reactors that powered NA Alliance military vessels could work for hundreds of years. They just needed a fuel source for their fusion reactor cores. Efficiency was a must for any ship to operate in space, and it didn’t matter whether the spacecraft was civilian or military.

  Connor angled their approach to avoid the engine pods, taking a circuitous route toward the center. They only needed one point of entry for all of them to board. Connor brought the active scanners online. There was little chance of being detected because they were just outside the inner hull of the ship. Scanning data started to show on the main heads-up display and a map of the hull appeared. He zeroed in on an area that looked promising and slowed the shuttle down. The exoskeletal hull became sparser the farther they went. Bare patches of the original ships’ hulls became more prevalent, and Connor felt the edges of his lips curve into a smile.

  “I don’t get it. Why are there these bare patches here?” Captain Randle asked.

  “It’s the same as their other ships. They don’t fully encase the entire hull with the exoskeleton. Maybe they just don’t have the resources to cover it all or they think they don’t need to. Regardless, that’s where we’re getting on the ship,” Connor said.

  Captain Randle glanced over at him. “You expected this to be here.”

  Connor nodded. “If it hadn’t been, we’d have made our own hole and gotten on board.”

  Connor highlighted the targeted landing area on the heads-up display and transferred the coordinates to the other shuttles. There was no sign of the Vemus in the area. He deployed the landing gear and brought the combat shuttle to the hull. The landing gear hit the hull and he deployed the anchor bolts that would hold the shuttle in place. He powered down the engines and put them on standby.

  Connor and Captain Randle left the cockpit and went to the rear of the shuttle, where Nexstar combat suits waited for them. The assault team already had their combat suits on and were waiting. The chest of the combat suit was split down the middle from the neck to the feet. Connor stepped inside and initiated the startup process. The Nexstar’s systems came online and the suit closed up, encasing Connor in a protective shell. He saw Dr. Kim standing off to the side, wearing an EVA suit.

  “What do you think you’re doing, Dr. Kim?” Connor asked.

  Dr. Kim glanced at the other CDF soldiers and then back at Connor with wide eyes. “I just assumed that I was going with you aboard that ship.” He had a large metallic cylinder clutched to his chest.

  “Is that it?” Connor asked, gesturing toward the cylinder.

  Dr. Kim nodded several times. “Yes, this is it,” he said in a shaky voice.

  “I’ll take it from here. Why don’t you stay on the shuttle?” Connor said.

  Dr. Kim’s mouth rounded into a circle. “I can help you,” he said.

  “You’ve done enough. We’ll take it from here,” Connor said.

  The warring emotions on Dr. Kim’s face cycled through disappointment to stark relief. Connor knew that if he allowed the scientist to come with them he’d be among the first to die. Connor stepped closer to him.

  “You’ve done enough. We wouldn’t have this chance without you,” Connor said.

  Dr. Kim’s brows pulled together in a tight frown. “I did nothing but pull together the pieces of other people’s work. Brian Walker is the real hero.”

  “Stay on the shuttle and wait. That’s all I need you to do,” Connor said and reached out for the metallic cylinder. “I’ll take this and ensure it gets where it needs to go.”

  The scientist reluctantly let go and stood there, unsure of what to say.

  Connor turned to the assault team. “Open the hatch.”

  The rear hatch of the combat shuttle opened and the assault team began stepping off the shuttle.

  “General, I just want to . . .” Dr. Kim began to say, and Connor turned back toward him. “I just wanted to say thank you. You’re one of the bravest men I’ve ever known.”

  Connor gave him a long look and thanked him. “Good luck to you,” he said.

  As Connor left the combat shuttle, he didn’t think he’d ever see the scientist again. He stepped out onto the hull of the Vemus Alpha and gritted his teeth.

  “Final gear check!” Captain Randle called. “Check yourself and check the soldiers around you.”

  There was a flurry of activity as they all did one final check. Connor reached up and cinched the straps of the cylinder hooked to his back a bit tighter, making sure the cylinder was secured to the bracket on his belt. He sure as hell didn’t want the damn thing firing off early. Dr. Kim had told him how to activate the nanobots inside.

  The other assault teams from the combat shuttles gathered around. They were all heavily armed and were as ready as they could be to face what was inside. Connor sent the team ahead to check the maintenance hatch airlock.

  “Sir, there’s no manual override,” Corporal Manis said.

  Connor stepped forward and the corporal moved aside so he could access the panel. He used his old credentials from the NA Alliance military and the hatch unlocked. Connor gestured for the two nearest soldiers to go in first, and Captain Randle stayed at his side while he waited. They went through the airlock in groups.

  The inside of the ship was dark and sparse, as if it had been abandoned. A minimal atmosphere registered from the sensors of Connor’s combat suit—hardly enough to breathe in but it had an unusually high nitrogen content.

  Once the CDF assault team was inside, they moved deeper into the ship. The dark gray corridors were empty and there was a b
uildup of a dark substance along the walls. It didn’t look like anything he’d seen on the other Vemus ships. Connor figured the maintenance corridor wouldn’t see a lot of foot traffic, but he had expected to see some sign that the Vemus had been in here. How did the Vemus maintain the engine pods if they never came down here?

  Over the next hour, all seventy members of the assault team cautiously poked around the Vemus Alpha ship, but the exterior of the ship was over twenty-two kilometers across, and they barely scratched the surface. They left the maintenance corridor behind and headed to the main section of whatever this particular ship had been. That was when they began to see a brown sludge adorning the interior walls that was all too familiar to Connor.

  “Stay away from the walls,” Connor warned.

  That brown sludge was the same substance that had begun to absorb Wil Reisman while they’d been aboard the Indianapolis. As they went farther into the ship, the sludge seemed to solidify, becoming a hardened substance. The buildup of the brown sludge rounded the edges of the corridor until Connor felt as if he were walking through a large tube.

  As they continued, the Vemus Alpha was looking a lot less like an NA Alliance ship, or any ship Connor had been on. He knew from the last time they’d been on a Vemus ship that they couldn’t use comlinks because the Vemus could sense them somehow. Their communications envelope was limited.

  “General, perhaps we should consider splitting our forces to do some reconnaissance, then meet back up,” Captain Walker suggested.

  Connor nodded. He’d been thinking the same thing. “I think you’re right. Let’s split up and meet back here in thirty minutes.”

  Captain Walker took half the assault team and went off down a different corridor.

  “Any idea what we’re looking for?” Captain Randle asked.

  “Ideally, we’d be seeing more signs of life,” Connor said.

  Captain Randle grunted.

  They came upon another set of corridors and there was a soft amber glow emanating from the exoskeletal walls. There were glowing orbs inside that lined the corridor like shining pearls. They followed along until they came to a tunnel that spiraled down and to the left. The orbs glowed even brighter. CDF soldiers took point on either side of the tunnel, and Connor peered down into the gloom. There was a drop and then the tunnel twisted out of sight. The interior atmosphere had become increasingly humid, according to his combat suit’s sensors. Connor leaned forward and took a small step. His foot slipped out in front of him and he went forward into the tunnel. Connor grunted as he rolled, completely out of control. He slid down the long, slimy tunnel floor and crashed into a wall. Connor was gasping, and it took him a few moments to get his equilibrium under control. Everything kept spinning. He pushed himself onto his feet and grabbed his AR-71 assault rifle, which had miraculously stayed by him as he slid down the tunnel. He reached his hand to his back and felt that the metallic cylinder was still securely in place.