Flight of the Javelin: The Complete Series: A Space Opera Box Set

by Rachel Aukes

  “You really are hopeless, Punch.” Aubree rolled her eyes and turned to Throttle. “When do you head out?”

  “Today. We’re launching with the second wave.”

  Aubree frowned. “So soon?”

  “Doctor!” A nurse came running over.

  Aubree sighed. “I need to get back to work. You take care of yourself out there.” She turned to Punch. “I’ll stop by to check in on Macy after dinner.”

  Punch grinned. “Stop by for dinner. I’ll have it ready for you.”

  She paused, gave him a small smile, and then rushed away with the nurse.

  Punch looked around. “Let’s get out of here. I hate these places.”

  “Me too,” Throttle said, and the pair left.

  They slowed their pace when they entered the hallway.

  “I was headed your way after I saw Aubree, to say goodbye to you and Macy,” she said.

  “She’s asleep,” Punch said.

  “Oh.” Throttle paused and reached into her pocket. She pulled out two patches and handed them to Punch. Each patch bore a single black sheep. “See that she gets one, then.”

  His brows rose. “And the other one?”

  Throttle shrugged. “I figure you deserve one just for the sheer amount of time you’ve flown with us.”

  He chuckled. “After all the shit I’ve dragged you through, I figured you’d rather shoot me.”

  “Sometimes.” She smirked. “But you and Macy, you’re Black Sheep. You don’t fit in, and that’s okay. You’re like us.”

  He smiled and pocketed the patches. “How is the rest of the team doing? I still can’t believe that Eddy and the computer pulled off their magic trick. Speaking of Eddy, I bet his head’s grown even bigger now that he’s a bona fide hero.”

  She shook her head slowly. “Eddy’s taking Rusty’s death pretty hard.”

  “He’ll come around sometime.”

  “I hope so.”

  His smile returned. “Ah, and there’s that optimism that I love and hate. I think we can use all the optimism you have, and more, in this war.”

  “I suppose so.” Throttle inhaled. “When do you head out?”

  “I don’t. I’m staying here at Free Station. Macy needs me right now. Besides, the High Spirit is still under repairs.”

  She eyed him for a moment. “Don’t tell me you’re taking a desk job.”

  “What if I was?”

  She belted out a laugh.

  “Fine, fine. It’s not a desk job. I’ll be training new recruits. In case you haven’t heard, we’re about to have noobs coming out of our ears around here.”

  She chuckled. “I feel sorry for the recruits.”

  “Hell, I feel sorry for the recruits,” he said, then sighed. “But we all work with what we have, don’t we?”

  She reached out and gripped his arm. “And it’ll be enough.”

  “You sure?”

  She smiled. “Absolutely.”

  Epilogue

  The Vantage Leviathan emerged from the Gliese beltway to find a small fleet of forty human ships waiting for it. It found humor in how the humans would be registering its arrival. Until now, humans had only seen probes and their drones. They’d dealt an unexpected blow by destroying a Core, which led to establishing human eradication as the immediate priority.

  It wondered how the humans perceived it—a destroyer over two miles long and a half mile wide, its massive photon cannons could obliterate a colony in seconds. Its rows of photon guns could fire sixty-seven shots per second. Its tentacle pincers could grab multiple ships, even small stations, and bring them into the destroyer’s maw for analysis and interrogation. The humans couldn’t even see the seven hundred attack probes housed within the Leviathan’s stomach, but it expected that the humans had seen enough to be afraid…as they should be.

  The destroyer gave the humans credit. They didn’t run as it’d expected. First, they tried to make contact, which it knew was their attempt to bide time. Then, they attacked—as it’d hoped—but none of their cannon fire could penetrate the Leviathan’s hull. In response, it laid down a barrage of automatic photon fire across the conveniently lined-up ships. The battle was over in less than three minutes.

  Marshal Christian Morado commanded forty ships of the Gliese Peacekeeper fleet. Until a few seconds ago, he thought forty ships were overkill for a single, albeit large, bogey that had appeared on their network. Now, he worried that forty ships were nowhere near enough for the Swarm beast flying through their system.

  He called it a beast, but it looked more like the Devil himself. Or perhaps it was Cthulhu come to life. Either way, a monster had found its way to Gliese. The massive Swarm warship was like nothing he’d ever seen before. Longer than Gliese’s GP headquarters and wider than the village where Morado had grown up. Its photon cannons were larger than any guns Morado had seen before, and he’d been a marshal for over forty years. He couldn’t even fathom what horrors lurked within its hull.

  What kind of enemy did they face if it could envision a monstrosity of such destruction?

  The Peacekeepers knew the beast skulking toward the fleet was Swarm because it emitted the distinctive electronic signature of the alien technology, and it was covered in the same gray hull that every other Swarm bore, from probes to Stingers to even the Swarm planet the Ross Peacekeepers had destroyed the prior month.

  If the Gliese Peacekeepers hadn’t been actively monitoring the primordial black hole that stood at the edge of their system, they wouldn’t have picked up the beast until it was too late, that was, if they weren’t already too late. If the goliath continued at its current speed, it’d be within firing range of Gliese’s outermost colony in fifteen minutes.

  Morado was terrified. Anyone not completely insane would be afraid of the beast. He swallowed the bile building in his throat before sending a broadcast to the trespasser, “Attention, unidentified Swarm ship in Gliese airspace. You have entered this airspace without an approved flight plan. Leave now or stop immediately and request approval to continue. This is your only warning.”

  A response replied in under a second: This is Vantage Leviathan Alpha-Three. No.

  “No? What are they saying no to?” Gavin, Morado’s communications specialist asked.

  Morado’s jaw tightened. “To all of it. They’re not turning around, and they’re not going to stop.”

  Gavin guffawed. “Then why did they even bother responding?”

  “They want us to know who we’re facing,” Morado said. He frowned as he considered what he knew of the Swarm. They were a species of artificial intelligence beings, evolved from Sol-launched exploratory probes. He’d always considered artificial intelligence as cold and unfeeling. After all, it was simply a machine. But the Leviathan’s response spoke of a very human trait: pride.

  He looked across his crew before he opened the communications channel to the fleet. “This is Commander Morado. The Swarm ship has rejected our demands. Remain in formation and hold your fire until you receive my order. I’m launching several probes at this thing to gather as much intel as we can for GP HQ.” He then nodded to Carol, his weapons specialist. “Launch the probes.”

  “Three survey probes have successfully launched,” Carol replied a couple of seconds later.

  Morado watched the torpedo-shaped probes speed toward the Leviathan. Bright white flashes caused him to blink, and the probes went offline.

  “They destroyed all three probes,” his weapons specialist announced.

  Tension kept every muscle in his body taut. He noticed his finger trembled as he pressed the button to transmit to his fleet. “This is Commander Morado to the Gliese GP fleet. The Swarm ship has proven to be hostile. We’re the only thing that stands between that thing and the colonies, so remain in formation at all costs. Fire at will. I repeat, fire at will.”

  Streaks of light flashed from the wall of forty ships and through the black at the Leviathan. With the size of the Swarm ship, every photon blast struck i
ts hull.

  And every single blast ricocheted off its hull like light bounced from a mirror.

  “Its hull’s too strong for our cannons,” Carol said.

  “I see that,” Morado gritted out and then he hit the transmit button. “All ships with projectile weapons, fire them now. Fire all of them!”

  “I’ve launched our missiles,” Carol said.

  Morado stood and watched as light reflected off the missiles. The Leviathan’s photon guns fired, taking out nearly half of the missiles before they struck. The remaining shells found their target and exploded. As the fires dissipated, he saw that their entire arsenal of missiles had only left charred stains on its hull.

  “What the hell is that thing,” Carol said breathlessly.

  Dread filled Morado, and he turned to his communications specialist. “Gavin, be sure to send all data we’ve acquired on this thing so far.”

  “I’ve been transmitting every word and every video since we arrived,” he replied.

  “Good.” Because Morado had begun to doubt that he could deliver his report in person.

  A second later, his doubt cemented into certainty. He sucked in his breath as he watched the Leviathan’s massive photon cannons power up. When it fired, its beams transformed the black into blindingly bright day. For the first time, and last time, in Christian Morado’s life, he screamed.

  The Leviathan continued—not that it had considered stopping—along its trajectory to the nearest colony. It was a mining camp, as it seemed humans loved to pillage resources. The destroyer was larger than the colony, and its shadow brought night to the surface. It chose to unleash a single cannon shot into the colony, and it watched as the explosion erupted outward from the blast until the entire settlement was enveloped in flames. Based on data, an estimated twenty-eight thousand humans had been eradicated in that single blast.

  The Leviathan had been asleep for too long, and it felt fulfilling to move and to use its weapons. It changed its trajectory to line up its next target, and it propelled forward with eagerness.

  Thank you for reading FLIGHT OF THE JAVELIN

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  ABOUT RACHEL AUKES

  Rachel Aukes the bestselling author of over twenty novels and a dozen short stories, including 100 Days in Deadland, which made Suspense Magazine's Best of the Year list. She is also a Wattpad Star, her stories having over six million reads.

  Her series include the Flight of the Javelin, Bounty Hunter, Fringe, and Deadland Saga. She's also written three Tidy Guides, which cover the how-to's of writing, self-editing, and publishing.

  When not writing, Rachel can be found flying old airplanes with an incredibly spoiled fifty-pound lap dog across the Midwest countryside. She lives with her husband near Ames, Iowa.

  Learn more at www.RachelAukes.com