The Cagliostro Chronicles 2: Conflagration
By Ralph L. Angelo, Jr.
The Cagliostro Chronicles II: Conflagration
By Ralph L. Angelo Jr.
Cover by Gustav Barta
Edited by Tommy Hancock
Copyright 2014 by Ralph L. Angelo Jr
Published by Cosmic Comet Publishing
This is a work of fiction. Any similarities to persons places or things described herein is purely accidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without permission in writing from the copyright holder, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
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
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Epilogue
Dedicated in loving memory to my father,
Ralph L. Angelo Sr.
I miss hearing your voice, Dad.
10/2/32-12/15/13
Prologue
Warning! It is highly recommended that your read ‘The Cagliostro Chronicles’ (Book One in this series) before reading this novel.
What has gone before:
Twenty four months ago Mark Johnson, CEO of Johnson Aerospace as well as a brilliant engineer/scientist/inventor discovered the secret to piercing the light speed barrier, finally after many years of failures giving Earth its first faster than light ship, the Cagliostro.
But the Cagliostro and its crew were almost immediately attacked by shadowy forces; leading to the discovery of a long standing conspiracy by dark forces across the galaxies who sought to stifle the Earth’s expansion and exploration into deep space. This led to the discovery that high ranking government officials around the globe were replaced by shape shifters as well as other monstrous beings specifically put in place to stop Earth’s space faring vessels from ever leaving its solar system.
A war ensued with the denizens of the Earth alone against the forces of the Agalum Empire. Earth survived and won the first battles, its mighty space ships battling the Agalum to a standstill until Mark Johnson and the crew of the Cagliostro could deliver the final blow, saving the people of the Earth from subjugation and obliteration.
But that was only the first skirmish in what would become a long standing war across the stars themselves, with the very future of humanity at stake.
Chapter 1
The Cagliostro listed badly in space; plasma venting from its port tail. Nearby an Agalum ship floated, dead in space, its hull ruptured. Bodies floated through the void nearby it.
“How long until we can limp out of here?” Mark Johnson shouted into the microphone built into his command chair.
“Not as fast as I’d like, that’s fer sure,” Dan Sledge’s voice replied over the comm.
Mark punched the arm of his command chair and cursed.
“Mark, we need you to be the captain now.” Ariel O’Connor grasped his arm while speaking to him, driving her point home.
“Don’t worry, Ari, I am and will be. I’ll get us out of this yet.”
James ‘Red’ Robinski suddenly turned from his console and shouted, “We have incoming. Two ships, both two man fighters on an intercept course with us.”
“Eddie, do we have weapons?”
Eddie DiGenovese spun and shook his head negatively, “Not yet, Boss.”
“Crap,” Mark muttered under his breath. He rose from his chair and headed toward the maglovator door. “I’m going down to help Danny. We’ll be out of this in a few minutes. Eddie, do whatever you have to to buy us some time.”
Eddie nodded grimly and nervously saluted.
The maglovator door hissed close and Mark commented to himself, “Now I know we’re in trouble, Eddie isn’t making a wise crack. Great.”
Mark exited on the engineering deck and made directly for Dan Sledge.
The two men were almost polar opposites in looks. Mark was six foot two with his longish brown hair wavy, almost to his collar. He walked with an almost feline grace and power to his steps. He was average weight but well-muscled, looking almost like a jet setting playboy instead of a genius inventor and trillionaire CEO.
Dan Sledge, definitely Marks right hand man, was another case altogether. He was six feet tall, but built like a rhinoceros. He was stocky and broad shouldered. His muscles bulged beneath his tight fitting silver and blue tech suit that all of the crew wore. His face was wide and flat, and his close cropped brown hair had an almost military look to it.
Sledge was a genetically enhanced former Jupiter colony member. He was brought up on one of the giant planets floating gas mining stations; just to live there required genetic alteration to survive the crushing gravity. His strength was ridiculously impressive. Two years ago at the start of the war against the Agalum he had hefted a forty ton nuke and carried it to an airlock before tossing it untold miles in airless space toward its destination.
But these two men, as well as the rest of the command crew, were as close as family.
“What’s goin’ on, Boss? What’re you doing down here?” Sledge asked. He was kneeling on the ground in front of an access panel, and had to look up at Mark to speak to him.
Engineers and other personnel hustled about behind the two men, while two other members of the engineering staff joined them at the sub panel. Sparks flew from it, but Sledge ignored them, working in their midst.
“Things are getting a little intense topside, so I figured I’d come down here and hide from it all,” Mark replied with a straight face.
“Grab a spanner and those insulated long reach spreader pliers. I need ya ta hold those two sections of the power coupling cable apart while I install a new one.”
“All right, Danny,” Mark replied.
The ship shook and both men stopped what they were doing and looked up, toward the command deck.
“Uh oh,” Sledge muttered.
“Forget it for now.” Mark ordered, “Let’s get this thing fixed so we can fight back at least.”
Again the ship rocked, this time more violently. The two techs with Mark and Dan looked at each other silently and nervously.
“What’s goin’ on up there, Mark?” Dan worked as sparks flew about, burning his hands. He continued to ignore them. Mark held the power cables apart while Dan quickly and faultlessly worked.
“Oh, just two Agalum two man fast attack ships trying to blow us all straight to hell, that’s all.”
“The hull holding okay?”
“It’s fifty feet thick and armored all around. That doesn’t mean it will hold forever. But for
now it’s good.”
“That’s comfortin’ ta know.”
“How are you doing in there?” Mark asked.
“Almost done. Hang on, Boss.”
“Okay. I can’t see a thing with your big head in the way.”
Dan chuckled. “You always say the nicest things ta me.”
Again the ship rocked and now sirens blared.
“Uh oh,” one of the techs muttered.
Over the intercom Ariel O’Conner’s voice announced, “Hull breach on deck ten. Clear deck ten immediately. Repeat, hull breach on deck ten. Clear deck ten immediately.”
“That ain’t good,” Dan announced quietly.
“Can’t worry about it now.” Mark replied, “The Cagliostro has been through hell recently. We have to get back to Earth for refits.”
“No kiddin’.”
A last blast of coruscating sparks showered over Dan’s shoulders. He quickly backed away, turned to Mark and said, “All done! Get us outta here!”
Mark keyed the communicator built into the cuff on the right sleeve of his tech suit and then spoke, “Get us out of here, now!”
Instantly the hyper-warp engines returned to life, their low hum winding up steadily and quickly in a rising crescendo that rang throughout the great ship; then in a burst of light, the Cagliostro leaped away from its attackers.
Both men ran toward the maglovator while the two techs finished closing up the panel behind them.
Less than a minute later they were on the command deck and a young pilot named Samuels stood and exited the pilot’s station, leaving it to Dan.
Mark took the command chair behind the row of command deck stations.
“Shields?” he asked.
“Fifty five percent and climbing,” Red answered.
“Double rear power while the magno discs charge up to full potential.” Mark ordered.
Red nodded in agreement. If Dan looked like a rhinoceros, Red looked a lion. He was brawny and solid. He spent two hours every day in a regimented work out. One hour working his muscles, another hour practicing various martial arts. He was a grim faced man who rarely smiled. His close cropped red hair was shorter than Dan’s. He stood six feet four inches, and while not as wide as Dan, he was more precisely and perfectly muscled. He looked like a red headed Hercules.
Red was a tough guy who took his business seriously. He liked his job as security officer aboard the Cagliostro, and he liked his friends on the ship more. But at the moment, he didn’t like what he saw on the sensor array before the ship.
“We’ve got company.” Red Growled.
“What? More of it?” Eddie asked, wide eyed and surprised.
“Yeah,” Reed replied, “two medium sized Agalum ships are ahead of us. They’re vectoring for a strafing run.”
“Shields front,” Mark ordered. “Where the hell did they come from?”
Red complied immediately. An instant later glowing balls of energy sparked across the shields, fired from the enemy vessels. The Cagliostro rocked with each impact.
“Return fire,” Mark commanded, “solar canons at one hundred percent, followed by a brace of star core missiles.”
“The two behind us just caught up,” Red advised.
“Of course they did,” Mark grumbled. “Status?”
“Not good. They’re trying to take out our main engines. Shields are holding, but not for much longer, and those engines are beginning to vent plasma to space.” Red informed them all.
Mark snapped his fingers. “That’s it! Drop out of hyper-warp, now.”
“Are you nuts?” Red yelled. “We’ll be sitting ducks.”
“No, we’re about to win. Drop out of hyper-warp and immediately vent all the cooling plasma from magno-disc number one.” Mark replied.
“We won’t be able to get to full hyper warp on only one disc, you know,” Dan offered.
“I know but we’re about to be trashed if we don’t do this. It’s four against one. This is our only way out.”
Dan shrugged his mammoth shoulders. “You’re the Boss.”
He dropped the ship out of hyper-warp and immediately dropped all the plasma from the right side magno disc’s storage cell, leaving a sparkling trail, many miles wide behind them in deep space.
“The two in front of us overshot us when we dropped out of hyper-warp,” Red announced.
“I thought as much,” Mark replied. He leaned forward and held his chin while in deep thought. “Viewer on rear.”
Instantly the view on the screen at the head of the command deck changed to the rear of the ship. The ejected trail of plasma floated miles behind them while the four pursuing ships flew through it, seeking to gain on the Cagliostro.
Mark grinned, then said, “Okay they’re all in and making a bee-line for us, Eddie, fire it up, now!”
Eddie did not hesitate, firing the two working rear solar cannons into the cloud of flammable plasma. It exploded instantly. The rear view was immediately a pure white field of destruction, while the Cagliostro’s monitors instantly compensated for the brightness of the explosion, dimming the scene.
But the Cagliostro shuddered violently, the crew actually thrown from their seats within the command deck.
“What happened?” Ariel asked.
“Dammit!” swore Red, “the burning plasma trail led right back to our fuel tanks. If we didn’t have safeties in place the whole ship would’ve gone up.”
“But it didn’t Red, just like I knew it wouldn’t. I designed this ship, remember?”
Mark paused for a moment and then asked, “Status report?” as the ship finally stopped shaking.
“All four of those ships are disabled at least. I’m measuring life signs, but that’s about it,” Red replied.
“What about us?” Ariel asked.
“We need engine repairs or we’re never going to make it home again,” Dan announced stoically.
“Are there any Earth-like planets in this system?” Mark inquired.
“One,” Red answered with his usual enthusiasm. “Looks uninhabited too.”
Mark nodded slowly. “Make for it. We need repairs.”
“I just hope I can get us back into space once we land,” Dan grumbled quietly.
“If not we’ll just have to start building some log cabins,” Eddie replied, smirking.
“You’re not really that funny, ya know that, DiGenovese?” Red growled.
Eddie began to answer then closed his mouth, having thought better of it.
The Cagliostro limped across the alien solar system they found themselves in, trailing plasma from the damaged engine as well as a trail of particles from the damaged rear cannon.
“How much longer?” Mark asked grimly.
“An hour, maybe two,” Dan replied. “Our speed’s not exactly constant. The engines heat up, I have to shut ‘em down. We coast for a while. Things cool off, I fire ‘em up again.”
Mark sighed. “All right, Danny. Do what you must. Get us down there safely so we can start repairs.”
“Mark,” Ariel began, “should I send out an emergency beacon?”
“No, there are too many Agalum ships around this system.”
“Are they going to be able to follow our trail?” Eddie questioned.
“Possibly, but it can’t be helped. That plasma should dissolve in a few hours. If no ships pass through here we’ll be okay. If they do, we may have more trouble. Just get us down there as soon as possible, Dan. Once the engines are fixed we’re bee lining it for Earth.”
***
An hour and a half later the Cagliostro began its descent toward the unknown world below.
“Main stabilizers are at forty percent power, Boss. This is gonna be a rough landin’,” said Dan.
Mark gripped his chin pensively.
“Understood.” He replied quietly.
The Cagliostro began to skim the atmosphere until it slowly dipped beneath it.
“Hull temperature is climbing, but shields are holding, as is hull
integrity,” Dan announced.
Mark nodded.
The Cagliostro shook as it nosed deeper into and began bouncing off of the atmosphere.
“Whoa, what’s with the rough ride?” Eddie hung on tight to his chair and console nervously.
“Keep yer yap shut, pipsqueak,” Dan growled. “I’m concentratin’ on keepin’ us in one piece.”
Mark leaned forward. “Dan, any spots that you would recommend landing on so far?”
“I see one close to our general vicinity, a few hundred miles off that’s accessible and has some cover for the ship.”
“Good,” Mark nodded. “I want the ship to be hidden. If there are some sort of life forms here, they don’t have to know they have visitors.”
The Cagliostro rocked again, causing breaths to be sharply in taken, and grips to be tightened. The ship began to slow, its skin shunting heat from entering the planet’s atmosphere.
Finally mere feet above the planet’s surface, the Cagliostro’s nose rose up in a stall-like maneuver and the ship hovered above a lush valley of dense growth. In the midst of the valley was a deep ravine with many overhanging trees.
Mark pointed at a spot on his personal holographic view screen on his console. Instantly the image was transferred to the main viewer as well as the smaller personal viewers across the command deck. “Enter there, clear any trees in the center with the solar cannons,” Mark ordered.
“What about indigenous life?” Ariel asked.
“I’m not picking up anything close by, Boss,” Red replied. “It looks like there may be some bird or serpent-like creatures out there at the edge of the valley, but they’re already scurrying away from us.”
“Good,” Mark commented, “Take those trees down ASAP.”
Eddie nodded and fired the forward cannons in one blast, instantly clearing a space almost eight hundred feet wide beneath the immensely tall canopy of trees. “That should work, boss. There’re still enough of these trees bent and overhanging the forest floor from above to keep us hidden, even though I turned a lot of ‘em to kindling.”
“Good job, Eddie.” Mark acknowledged. Then he turned toward his pilot and said, “Take us in, Dan,”
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