Invasion Read online

  Contents

  TITLE PAGE

  COPYRIGHT

  DEDICATION

  CONTACT

  NOAH

  DISMISSED

  LILY

  O'MALLEY

  SECOND CHANCES

  THE TITAN

  DECISIONS

  ROSKAN

  DEPARTURE

  REGGIE

  LIANA

  BON VOYAGE

  LON'KAH

  NAL'SEK

  EN ROUTE

  REVELATIONS

  PREPARATIONS

  WE HAVE FOUND IT

  DARKNESS COVERS ALL

  RESPECT

  ARRIVAL

  LUR'VOT

  DESCENT

  THE LANDING ZONE

  CITY: FOUND

  BREAKING IN

  CITY CENTER

  THE BRIDGE

  GON'CHA

  DISCOVERY

  SABOTAGE

  FINDERS KEEPERS

  GUARD DUTY

  MESSAGE: SENT

  GUARDIANS

  MESSAGE: RECEIVED

  CHANGING COURSE

  RESCUE

  EXTRACTION

  INTERROGATION

  THE RETURN

  DINNER

  CONTACT

  WARNING: SENT

  ATTACK

  WARNING: RECEIVED

  THE DRAD'EK

  ALERT

  CHAOS

  FULL DISCLOSURE

  UNFINISHED BUSINESS

  GOOD NEWS / BAD NEWS

  BETRAYAL

  NO WAY OUT

  WORLD SHIP

  RELIEF

  GAMEPLAN

  MOBILIZATION

  REACTION

  END OF THE LINE

  A NEW THREAT?

  LOST

  EPILOGUE

  THANK YOU

  COMING SOON / ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  INVASION

  The Lost Frontier: Book 1

  A part of

  The Lost Frontier Universe

  Written and Created

  By Jerel Shepard

  Cover by:

  Ryan Schwarz

  https://thecoverdesigner.com/

  The Lost Frontier Universe (and what happens within/ characters/ situations /worlds)

  are Copyright ©2018-2019 by Jerel Shepard

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,

  or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise,

  without the prior written permission of the copyright holder.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents

  are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner.

  Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  To my family:

  My wife Nerissa,

  my daughter Dara,

  and son Magnus,

  my parents,

  and my siblings.

  I am eternally grateful for your love and understanding.

  I cannot write the books I want to write without your support at home.

  To my wonderful readers:

  I wouldn't be able to do this for living without you.

  Thank you for reading my books.

  CONTACT

  Year: 2564 (Alliance Year: 7), Location: Unknown

  Captain Sivus took a sip of his coffee and examined the readouts of the system on his screen. Nothing jumped out at him about this system. One Class B star and a few uninhabitable planets so far. Nothing to write home about. Just a quick scan of one more planet and he could turn his attention elsewhere.

  "Ensign, do you have the scans of the asteroid fields and that fifth planet?"

  "Not yet, captain. Should be finished in about an hour."

  "Got it. Carry on."

  "What about the gate? Is it operational yet?" Sivus asked, turning his chair to the First Officer.

  "Not yet, sir. The gate itself is in position. However we're programming in navigational charts and that will take at least another hour. In addition, it appears that one of the stasis field generators is not coming online."

  "What's the status on those generators?"

  "Unknown at this time captain."

  Captain Sivus winced at that last statement. With the stasis field generators not fully operational, the Archon would need to maintain its position and basically hold the gate in place until they were brought online. And from his days in the war, he knew that a ship that was basically anchored, was a sitting duck. Not that anyone was supposed to be out here. But the energy source they had detected before their last jump had him nervous.

  "Ok, I need that expedited. Get it done!" he roared as he got out of his chair and looked around the bridge at the young crew that were manning the stations.

  Everyone had told him that he should be retired by now. He endured the good natured jokes from the younger captains. Some of them were young enough to be his grandkids. But this is the kind of work he liked doing. And after all these years, he still craved excitement.

  He got lucky to have landed one of the few jobs that offers some excitement after the war ended. Exploration had always more dangerous than routine assignments. And if he had been reduced to ferrying passengers to and from colonies, he probably would've killed himself by now to escape from the boredom.

  He grabbed his coffee and walked to the door that led to his quarters.

  "XO, you have the conn," he said, exiting the bridge.

  "Aye sir."

  ***

  Sivus slammed the coffee down on his desk so hard that most of it exploded out of the cup.

  "Shit," he said as he started to wipe up the brown nectar. Once the mess was cleared, he sat down in his recliner and seethed as he went over just how vulnerable they were.

  Without the stasis field generators coming on-line, the gate could not hold its position and would essentially drift away. They would need to stay tethered to the gate for as long as the repairs lasted. A ship their size could easily stay put. But in an uncharted region of space, this was a dangerous position to be in. From his days commanding a warship he knew that a ship that can't move, is a dead one. What made it worse is that while in this position with the gate, they could not have their shields up to protect them from any hostile activity.

  Over the next hour, he made entries into his Captain's log for the day and slipped into bed to take a well needed rest.

  "Captain!" yelled a voice over the intercom. "You're gonna want to get in here! We have unidentified ships on approach!"

  "On my way!" yelled the captain as he jumped out of bed and raced to the door.

  ***

  "On Screen!" boomed Sivus, hurrying to his command chair.

  The screen flickered and then displayed the image of three small craft coming out from behind the last, unscanned, planet.

  "Origin?"

  "Unknown sir. They look to be Xen, but of an older design," replied the ensign.

  "Hail them."

  "No response sir."

  The three craft flew ever closer to the ship. As the crew watched, the ships spread out in what looked to be an attack formation and the distance closed rapidly to the ship.

  "Hail them again! Try all frequencies, all languages!"

  Sivus looked at his own panel on his chair. He quickly brought up the close up view to the craft and his eyes widened in horror as he saw the torpedoes carried by each craft.

  "Shields up! Jettison the gate! Target the craft and FIRE! Full impulse! Get us out of here!"

  As the captain relayed his orders he saw the streaks of light begin under each craft. The telltale sign of the launch of Xen torpe
does. Given the distance he mentally calculated that they had less than twenty seconds before impact.

  "Three torpedoes on collision course with us captain. Fifteen seconds until impact."

  "Full power to the engines! Engage counter measures!"

  The ship's Ion and Laser batteries opened fire on the craft as they made their escape. One of the craft was caught between two fields of laser fire and destroyed. This brought a quick cheer from the bridge, until the entire ship shuddered and the bridge crew were violently thrown about their chairs.

  The warning klaxons sounded as screens around the bridge flooded red with damage reports from each section of the ship.

  "Two impacts! The third torpedo was destroyed by defensive fire," said the ensign.

  "Damage Report?"

  "Decks two-aft through ten-aft are destroyed captain," yelled the First Officer.

  "Life Support?"

  "Holding, sir. But we vented a lot of atmosphere from that. Our oxygen levels are down to fifty percent."

  Captain Sivus looked around the ship and at his screen. He surveyed the damage to the propulsion systems. They were offline. Apparently the attacking craft knew where to hit them as they were now, to use an old Earth maritime expression, dead in the water. They were lucky the third torpedo was destroyed. It would have definitely split the ship in two.

  The shields were still holding and he knew that they could fend off the other two craft. With no communications buoys yet deployed in this system, they would not be able to instantly communicate with Alliance Command, but the captain knew a warning should be sent anyway.

  "Send a distress call to all Alliance ships and bases!" yelled Sivus.

  He moved from duty-station to duty-station, checking readouts. "And send teams to the decks to check for survivors. Looks like we'll have to make do until we get rescued."

  "Aye sir," responded the bridge in unison.

  The First Officer looked at the screen and blanched as the visual of a massive fleet of ships grew larger on the screen.

  "Captain," said the First Officer. "I don't think we're going to need to worry about how long help will take."

  NOAH

  Year: 2564 (Alliance Year: 7), Location: Earth

  "Officer on deck!"

  Noah Jameson looked around the small, yet packed, amphitheater. He was greeted by fifty or so, wide-eyed students staring back at him, all standing at attention. No matter how many times he entered this classroom, he still felt out of place. He was used to commanding hundreds of crew members. But this teaching job was something he still needed to get used to. Not because he couldn't teach. But because he would rather be in command of a ship right now.

  It certainly wasn't the recruits who made him long to get out of the classroom. The Academy recruits were raw, idealistic, intelligent, and malleable. In other words, perfect for molding into future ship captains. Even though he still wanted to be back in command of a ship, their energy and willingness to learn gave Noah a sense of satisfaction. And he noted, only because it stroked his ego, they all had a bit of hero-worship for their new instructor. He could hear their whispers of his exploits in the Xen war each day as he entered the classroom.

  "At ease," commanded Noah, sliding into the chair at the front of the room.

  "Can anyone tell me what we were talking about yesterday?"

  "Yes," responded a female recruit as she stood up. "We were discussing the Battle of the Than system."

  "Thank you Cadet Nostara. And what makes this battle significant? Anyone?" Noah asked.

  A male cadet stood up and looked at Noah as he triumphantly declared "It was our first victory over the Xen. Up until that point, we had been getting our asses kicked."

  The first sentence brought a cheer from the class. Followed by muffled laughter as the students realized the cadet had broken an Academy rule regarding foul language.

  "Cadet Torrence, that is correct! We HAD been getting our asses kicked!"

  Noah walked from one side of the amphitheater to the other as he continued his lecture.

  "And the next question is a 'two-parter'."

  "One, why had we been getting our butts kicked prior to that battle?" Noah stopped his pacing and looked at the students.

  "And Two, what made this battle different? How did we approach it differently in a way that that led to us achieving our first victory? Anyone?"

  Nostara stood up and addressed the room.

  "Sir. Prior to the Battle of the Than System, the Alliance had relied too much on small craft war and attacking the enemy fleet head on. This played into the enemy's hands as their fighter craft, while more maneuverable, were not as heavily armed or as sturdy as the Alliance fighter craft. The enemy's fighters were easily dispatched if they were struck by a projectile or energy bolt. But since they were outmaneuvering our fighters, fighting these craft one-on-one was a dangerous endeavour as we had not yet begun to fight in wings of two."

  "The Xen capital ships, on the other hand," she said, looking at Noah. "Were designed completely different than their fighter craft."

  Noah sat on the corner of the desk as he listened to Nostara's almost textbook answer. "How so?" Noah said, starting to smile.

  "Sir, the capital ships were not as maneuverable as Alliance ships of the same relative class, but each Xen capital ship could take more damage than its Alliance counterpart."

  "Okay. So, what about our ships?" Noah said.

  "Sir, Alliance and Xen ships were relatively equal in terms of firepower, so the battles often came down to each side exchanging broadsides. At that point, it came down to which shield was strongest."

  "So why is that significant?" Noah said as he stood up to watch the faces of the class as the discussion continued.

  "Well, sir, since the Xen shields were slightly stronger than ours, we had lost each engagement prior to this battle."

  "Excellent summation, Cadet Nostara," replied Noah. He stopped pacing the floor and looked at the class.

  "Okay, anyone want to answer my other question?" Noah put his hands behind his back and raised up on his toes expectantly.

  No one stood up.

  Noah was intrigued. This battle was the tipping point in the war. How could these students not know the answer?

  "No one here knows what we did differently in this battle to achieve victory?"

  Cadet Torrance stood and addressed Noah.

  "Sir. Forgive us but, the Hero of the Than System asking us what was different in that very same battle is a bit too much to take in. However, I have the answer for you."

  Noah laughed a bit at that reference to one of his nicknames as he returned toward his seat.

  "Go on Cadet Torrance," replied Noah. He sat back into his chair and sipped a bit of his, now, lukewarm coffee.

  "To be frank sir, the difference...was you!" Cadet Torrance explained.

  "You sir," he continued in one long monologue,"directed your small group of ships to follow you and entered the system at the enemy's rear. You directed the Alliance fighter craft to use the two-man system of 'dogfighting' that you had developed over the previous months while serving as the CAG. And even though you had just assumed command due to the captain of the Endeavour falling ill, you were able to direct a small group of frigates and cruisers to take on the Xen command ship. You instructed your task force to use its speed and agility to outmaneuver the Xen capital ships en route to the command ship. Once the command ship was destroyed, the Xen quickly folded and were virtually wiped out."

  "Correct, Cadet Torrance. Nicely done!"

  The murmurs of the class as they discussed the heroics of that battle created a low hum.Noah rose back up to deliver the rest of the story.

  "You see the Xen. For all their ugliness. For all their shadiness. Were tough little fighters. They would eat you up and spit you out. And did." By this time the murmurs quieted down as all eyes returned to Noah.

  "Many times," he continued, "our numerically superior fleets wo
uld get wiped out. We would enter into the battle and our capital ships would go broadside to broadside and try to win the battle through attrition."

  He motioned toward the screen which played out a recording of the battle as it happened. It showed his taskforce attacking the Xen fleet from the rear and taking on a huge Xen ship.

  "But not this time. I had noticed that in each previous engagement, the Xen command ship held back and was lightly defended at the front and sides. But no pickets were set at her rear. The enemy had gotten used to us going toe-to-toe with them, and winning each battle, so they tried to get every ship in the fight to get a chance to destroy an Alliance ship. This hubris and greediness was a mistake that proved costly for those bastards."

  At this point in the recording, the students watched as the command ship was destroyed. Noah continued to face the holoscreen as he pointed out the new erratic behavior of the Xen ships.

  "You see, what we didn't know until that battle was that once a Xen command ship was destroyed, the communications between their vessels would break down. Apparently the command ship was the crux point of the enemy comms. And by taking it down, we took away their ability to coordinate their attacks. With the fleet exchanging fire from their front and my task force wreaking havoc from their rear, the enemy jumped out of the system with only two ships remaining from their original thirty."

  Noah turned to face the class and walked toward his desk.

  "My intention was to take out the command ship and destroy their morale. It was literally just dumb luck that we discovered that we could take away their ability to communicate as well."

  Noah sat down on the corner of his desk and surveyed the room.

  "Any questions?"

  Noah smiled slightly. He then proceeded to answer each of their questions for the next half hour. When the computer signaled the end of the period, he addressed the class.

  "Attention, Class Two-Four-Seven-Three," Noah began as the class came to attention. "Exams will start tomorrow. I will not be administering the exam so you will report to the proctor, instead. Good luck, and I will see you in three days at your graduation."