Anthony James [James - Alien Firestorm (Fire and Rust Book 2)

2019 Anthony James

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The right of Anthony James to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988

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This is it folks, said Jake Griffin, captain of the Hunter class light cruiser Star Burner. New Destiny.

Bringing it up on the viewscreen, said Lieutenant Cassie Dominguez.

Griffin shook off the lingering aftereffects of the recent emergence from lightspeed and fixed his eyes on the sensor feed. His instrumentation told him the planet New Destiny was a quarter of a million klicks away, but the image was sharp enough.

Looks beautiful.

Same as it always was, Lieutenant Kenyon. Your first visit?

Yes, sir. A tourist paradise.

Its a bit more than that.

It was understandable why New Destiny was still thought of as a holiday destination. From here in space, its azure blues and lush greens made it appear like the closest thing to Earth in the entire Unity League.

Two weeks of shore leave. Dominguez couldnt keep the excitement from her voice. First in over a year.

Sounds like youve got a hot date lined up.

Right. Like I get on all the FTL dating sites when were out on patrol.

Griffin rubbed his hands together. Shore leave, he repeated. They call it the peace dividend.

Except were not really at peace, are we? Kenyon wasnt normally one to break the mood, yet here he was giving it his best shot.

We arent shooting at the Fangrin and thats what counts, Griffin replied, trying to keep it light. The Raggers arent here, so Im going to have some fun.

I didnt know senior officers were permitted to have fun, sir, said Dominguez. I thought there was a regulation making it a court-martial offense.

Ill take the punishment.

Griffin fed power into the propulsion system and the cruiser accelerated strongly. Its sublight fuel levels were low and the tharniol drives reserves were nearly depleted. On top of that, the Star Burner was only patched up after the railgun strike it suffered a couple of months ago in a fight with Ragger spaceships. All the status lights were green, yet the controls didnt feel exactly right. The spaceship required a complete overhaul and thats exactly what it was going to receive here on New Destiny.

Want me to let someone know were here? asked Kenyon.

I was enjoying the peace, said Griffin. Check in with Durham, please.

The Durham military base was the only ULAF facility on the planet with the capability to refit a spaceship like the Star Burner. Some of the more industrialized planets in the Unity League such as Earth - had a dozen such shipyards. The Durham yard was well-run and the Star Burner didnt have enough tharniol to reach one of the bigger yards.

Uh, Durhams on alert, sir.

That wasnt expected.

What kind of alert?

The maximum kind of alert, said Kenyon, suddenly all business. Im trying to find out what the hell is going on. This is definitely not an exercise.

Commencing surface scans, said Dominguez. Were too far away for me to get you a fast result.

I need answers, said Griffin.

His mind spun with the possibilities. The Unity League had signed a declaration of peace with the Fangrin exactly seven weeks ago. The details were still to be ironed out, but there had been no reported confrontation between the two sides since the accord.

Which left only one possibility.

Raggers? It cant be, he said. How did they manage to locate New Destiny?

Griffin was speculating, but when you were in the dark about a maximum alert, guesswork was all you had.

Kenyon pieced together an outline from the comms. The base lost contact with its two Hunter classes thirty minutes ago, sir. They were in orbit and then they stopped reporting in.

Do we have sightings of enemy warships? Griffin felt the frustration rising. Dammit, do we have anything?

Negative to both, sir. The base sent an FTL distress signal twenty-nine minutes ago. Its got a long way to go to reach anyone.

Lieutenant Dominguez, check for wreckage. Lieutenant Kenyon, see if you can speak to anyone on those cruisers.

I already tried, sir, said Kenyon. Were linked into the planetary comms satellites and neither the ULCraster nor the ULVincent are offering a receptor.

Shit, said Griffin. The planet was a long way off, but he didnt want to fly in blind. If this was the Raggers, the aliens would blow the Star Burner to pieces in moments. Get me something. He struck the front of his console with his gloved fist. How the hell did they know where to come?

If this is the Raggers, they could have pulled the coordinates from the Fangrin comms data they took off Zevrol, said the warships engine officer, Lieutenant Kroll. Hed been quiet up until now and his first words werent exactly welcome. New Destiny is one of the four Unity League worlds the Fangrin know about.

Theres nothing here! said Dominguez. Oceans, forests, cities! A place to take two weeks of shore leave with a cocktail in one hand and a book in the other.

Maybe the Raggers dont know theres nothing here. Maybe they saw a target and came for a look.

If they know about New Destiny, they know about three more of our planets, said Griffin. Send out an FTL comm. Recommend every planet goes on full alert.

If the Raggers unscrambled that comms data, the Fangrin are going to have their hands full in the near future, said Lieutenant Carina Jeffrey. Same way we are.

That depends how it was encrypted within the Fangrin data arrays, said Kroll. We dont know for sure. The Raggers might have only extracted a fraction of the information so far.

Its not going to get any better, is it?

The planet, which had recently appeared so inviting, now seemed diminished - a place which threatened death rather than a place which promised happiness.

Lieutenant Dominguez? Have you located a target?

I cant see shit, sir. You know how hard the Ragger ships are to find. If theyre sitting in place above the planets surface without firing their weapons, I might never find them.

The words were painful but true. Have the enemy made contact with anyone?

Negative, sir, said Kenyon. And were only assuming its Raggers.

It seems safe to assume the worst.

Kenyon swore with surprise. The base is receiving a stream of data through the comms network. They dont recognize the source.

Whats the data? Can they track it?

Waiting on a response, sir.

The response didnt come immediately. The Star Burner was within a hundred thousand klicks of the planets surface and Griffin didnt want to commit himself to an engagement without more facts. This situation filled him with a sense of dread. He maintained speed and the planet came ever closer. The patterns of clouds above the oceans were vivid and he convinced himself he could see them drifting slowly towards land.