Galactic Frontiers: A Collection of Space Opera and Military Science Fiction Stories Read online

  “That thing even work?”

  “In the lab, sure, but it’s never been field tested.”

  “No time like the now,” she replied with a smile.

  It was easier to make light of it. They had accepted they were probably going to die, but at least now they could fight back, and actually have a chance of killing something.

  “Whatever happens, somebody has to get out with the drive and this weapon, do you hear me?” Woods asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Did you hear me?”

  “Yeah, we heard you, okay!”

  “Nothing matters but this technology. Nothing. We do whatever it takes to guard it, no matter what it costs.”

  “No matter what it costs,” repeated Babacan sternly.

  “Okay, we aren’t hiding anymore. Let’s give these bastards hell!”

  Woods turned a selector on the side of the weapon. A pulsating sound emerged, as though a huge power source had activated inside the weapon. The barrel began to glow green.

  “Talk to me, what is that thing?”

  He didn’t get a chance to reply to Riley. The last door slid open, and a dozen Morohtan warriors were standing there. They didn’t look surprised or shocked, nor even worried. They were cold and relentless warriors.

  “Have a taste of this,” snarled Woods.

  He fired the weapon. The recoil was brutal, and he held on tight as a small shock wave erupted from the muzzle. A pulse of green energy burst from the barrel and struck the nearest enemy soldier. Smoke filled the room, and the vibrant light almost blinded them. For a brief moment nobody said anything or opened fire. They were too stunned by the experience. As the smoke began to clear, they could see a hole the size of a football had blasted through the enemy soldier, and it had taken the left arm off the one behind it. The creature slumped lifelessly to the ground. A loud whirring sound came from the Liberator, as if it were charging up and regaining power.

  The enemy had not moved, held in awe by the phenomenal power of the weapon. Woods selected his next target and squeezed the trigger, but the weapon hissed as if it had overheated, and nothing emerged from the barrel. Babacan reacted first and opened fire on the enemy. He cut one creature down with his initial shots, and the rest of them joined in. Gunfire zipped back and forth over the counters, forcing them to take cover, but not Babacan. He had used this equipment before, and his approach to combat was very different. He activated the energy field on his arm, and a semi-translucent oval shield sprung up to protect him as he advanced on the enemy. He kept on firing.

  Woods reached for a Reitech rifle, leaving the Liberator beside him. He slammed in a magazine and joined the fight. They cut down three more creatures as Babacan closed the distance to the enemy. They were appalled as he went in close. His magazine emptied, but he would not stop. He dropped the rifle and drew his Assegai. Several shots hit his shield, but the structure held. He beat an enemy weapon aside and drove his Assegai into his assailant’s body. The wounded creature tried to grapple with him, but with his shield hand, he snapped its lead arm at the joint and thrust his blade into its throat.

  His performance was a personal and graphic display of his martial prowess, and a sight of combat of which the others were unaccustomed. Despite their surprise, the Morohtans reloaded and kept firing as he moved to his next victim. Babacan had an elite reputation, and among the fighters in the Alliance most considered him the best. Now both enemies and allies began to understand why. Seemingly fearless, yet ruthless in his execution.

  He ducked under another weapon and thrust deep into the enemy’s stomach before casting it aside. Another drew a blade and rushed at him, but he raised the lower bezel of his shield and thrust it into the beast’s throat, crushing its windpipe. He hammered his blade into the joint of the leg of another and prised it off, then pushed the blade in a brutal upsweep to the soldier’s jaw. The tip penetrated to its brain. The Assegai was among the most powerful weapons an Alliance soldier could carry. Although with such short range it took immense courage to use it, let alone use it effectively.

  A volley rang out from the three Alliance soldiers behind him, cutting down the last of the Morohtan enemy. They were all dead, and they now possessed knowledge that was vitally important. They could at last face the enemy head on and beat them. The power and protection of the suits, as well as the weapons the suits enabled them to wield, gave them a fighting chance at last.

  “Well, damn!” Riley cried out.

  Woods ignored him. “Move it. We don’t have any time to waste!”

  He rushed to the doorway where their vanquished foes lay, already reloading his rifle, as was Babacan. They stepped out into the corridor and found it empty, with no sign of the enemy. They ran on with Woods in the lead. It was now clear he knew where he was going, giving them some faith that they might yet make it out. But as the corridor opened into a dome-shaped communal area, they froze. Before them stood the Juggernaut and the enemy officer they had seen before.

  “What do we do, Captain?” Riley asked.

  “Fight them! Kill them all!”

  Woods lifted the Liberator as the two enemies rushed at them. He squeezed the trigger, and once more the high-tech weapon fired up. A shock wave hurtled across the room, blasting a hole through the lower torso of the Juggernaut. It didn’t exit the back, testament to the thickness of their armour, but the round had penetrated the armour at its thickest point.

  The Juggernaut folded as if struck in the guts by a freight train. It started to stumble, but the other creature, the officer, didn’t stop coming forward. Babacan opened fire, but his rounds merely bounced off the creature’s elaborate armour. He’d have to resort to his Assegai once more and drew the weapon, but he was too slow. The Morohtan officer struck him a massive blow, launching him across the room and through an open doorway. His Assegai fell from his hands, and before he could get back on his feet, the creature picked it up and slammed it into the door mechanism. The door shut and sealed, locked closed. He hit the portal with all his force, but he couldn’t make it budge. Babacan let out a roar of anger and sprinted around the room, searching for a way back.

  Woods had already dropped the Liberator. Whatever was wrong with it, the weapon overheated after every shot. Without doubt, it wasn’t ready yet to go into service. In desperation, he reached for his rifle and fired from the hip. Several shots struck the enemy officer, but the creature contemptuously kicked the rifle out of his hands. The sling connecting the weapon to his armour snapped, and it flew across the room. Woods drew his Assegai and activated his shield, but he had never fought with such weapons before. Behind him, he noticed Flores was searching for a clear shot.

  “Say out of my line of sight!”

  That attracted the attention of the creature, and it kicked powerfully with one of its back legs. The blow threw her several metres across the room to crash into a wall, and she collapsed unconscious. Riley’s expression registered his shock, but a moment later shock turned to rage as he found the resolve to fight. He held his rifle in his left hand. The powered suit supported it with ease, and he drew his Assegai with his right. As he did so, the creature threw the Captain to the ground, and it stamped down on him, pinning him to the floor. Riley opened fire on full auto as he ran forward. The magazine emptied. He threw the weapon aside and thrust his Assegai into the creature’s front left leg that was pinning the Captain down.

  The blade struck deep, but the creature responded by taking hold of Riley and hurling him aside, thrusting down with the talons of one of its legs. The blow struck Riley’s left arm and penetrated deeply. He howled in pain, but the creature hadn’t finished with him. It drew a large, straight blade, and in two hands thrust it down into his chest. The blow punched through Riley’s armour, and he squirmed, coughing out blood as he lay pinned to the ground.

  The fight had given Woods just enough time to get back on his feet, and then a door opened on the far side of the room. Babacan appeared, empty-handed, but Flores was approac
hing him and shouting for him to help.

  “Come on! We need you to help us kill it, before it kills us all.”

  Brave words, but they weren’t under any illusions. They could not beat this creature, which was no ordinary enemy, but the closest to a Morohtan Prince Babacan and Woods had ever faced. The Captain holstered his weapon and ran towards the fight. He unsnapped the sling of the Liberator and snatched out the drive from his webbing. The creature rushed at him, and Babacan could see what was about to happen. He grabbed Flores and threw her to safety through the doorway he had just come through.

  “What are you doing?” she screamed.

  The creature was closing on Woods fast, too fast. It thrust one of its front legs into his body, penetrating the shoulder and passing into his chest. The tips of its talons were like sharpened steel. He gasped for air as the blow punctured his lung, and the other talon pierced him a second later.

  “No!” Flores screamed again.

  The Morohtan stopped dead, holding its enemy pinned. Seconds later, a burst of gunfire rang out, strafing the creature’s back, and forcing it to drop the Captain. It swung back to face the new threat, squirming as blood splattered from the fresh wounds. Whatever was striking it had done serious damage. They saw him then. Riley was on his knees, weapon in hand, still firing even though he could be no more than seconds from death.

  “Kill it!” he screamed with all the failing energy he could muster.

  The angry creature stormed towards him, and they sensed it was their opportunity. Babacan rushed in and hauled the Captain through the door just as the beast reached Riley. He hit the door mechanism, and the huge blast door sealed shut behind them. It had no windows, and that was the last they saw of their brave friend.

  Flores’ voice was flat, yet tinged with sadness for the loss of Riley. “How long until that thing finds a way around it?”

  “A long time,” spluttered Woods.

  “We have to get you out of here,” she insisted.

  He was coughing up blood as the two of them hauled him onto their shoulders, yet still with enough energy to guide them to a nearby craft. It was a shuttle much like the one Babacan had first wanted to escape in. They placed him carefully inside and locked the doors. Babacan went to the flight controls.

  “It’s going to be okay. We did it,” Flores said, kneeling beside the Captain.

  Blood poured from his wounds. He was coughing up blood and barely able to breathe. He nodded an acknowledgement and reached for her hand, but failed to find it. She offered it to him, and he put the drive in it, wet with his own blood.

  “Yes, we did. We did it.”

  “Don’t worry. You are going to be okay.” She began to cry.

  The engines fired up, and they lifted off. Babacan wasn’t wasting any time. They soared out of the station, heading towards the enemy fleet, but seconds later he made the jump. After he’d completed the manoeuvre, he leapt out of his seat and rushed to the Captain. As he knelt beside him, he realised it was too late, he was already gone. Flores stared at him in despair.

  “We lost... we lost him.”

  “Yes, we did, but we didn’t lose the battle.” Babacan picked up the Liberator A16 from the dead Captain’s lap, “And we aren’t going to lose this war.”

  “Didn’t we? What do we have left? Is there anything we can take out of this?”

  She put the drive into Babacan’s hands. He looked down at it.

  “There is something. Now we have hope.”

  About the Author, Nick S. Thomas

  Nick S. Thomas is a writer, martial artist and European martial arts fencing champion. He is a keen Science fiction fan, writer of the ‘Battle Earth’ and ‘Starforce Ganymede’ series of novels.

  Nick is a keen Zombie Survival enthusiast, well prepared and keen to spread the word on survival techniques!

  Find Nick online: Facebook | Amazon

  Books by Nick S. Thomas

  Battle Beyond Earth Series

  Battle Earth Series

  Razor’s War: Season One

  Time War Series

  Daughters of Ayor

  By David R. Bernstein

  Science Officer Log: SalvationOne

  Entry: 439

  I don’t give a crap anymore…

  Log that.

  -End Log-

  ***

  Nearly six months – well, five months, twenty-three days, ten hours, give or take – and I am still here. I look at the time display on the wall. Oh wait, eleven hours now. Great.

  Today’s dinner is ration pack B256 – cheese lasagna. Dried, fake cheese. Low sodium. Enough to survive, I guess. My taste buds died of boredom months ago. I guess it’s better than irradiated vegetables from the quarantined hydroponics bay. The system still provides the plants water, which annoys me to no end. How dumb is it that an advanced AI computer system would shut off eighty percent of the ship due to ionized radiation exposure, but not disable water and power systems there? Luckily, my lab has a separate and dedicated H2O system.

  Would be fun to see the mutant plants that might have developed though. Maybe I have a new, floral shipmate wandering around.

  I’m left with level 1 sleeping quarters, storage room B, and my research lab. A few hours in the rec room would’ve made the last few months bearable, but no. I have four cook books, board games that require more than one player, and three tablets with broken screens. A bounty of excitement. If I had access to engineering, I could fix the shattered devices in ten minutes. It’s like prison with no chance of parole.

  “Computer?” I grit out through my teeth.

  “Yes, Officer Morrow?” a female voice responds. She sounds slightly better than an automated attendant.

  “How about you check the radiation levels for me?”

  “Sure.” She pauses. “Radiation levels at critical. No new breaches.”

  “Computer, can you take me back to earth now?”

  Not sensing my sarcastic tone, she replies, “Earth is unsustainable for future human life. Our mission objective prevents me from altering course. Humanity’s chance for survival relies on the success of our—”

  “Super. Thanks,” I interrupt. “Computer, play Captain North’s last log entry on screen two.”

  The communications display brightens and expands out from the wall from each side. I’ve tried to get this thing to do more than log and play video entries, but it’s beyond my skill set.

  An older woman with a short, grey haircut pops onto the display, her collar unfastened at her throat. A solemn look fills her tired face.

  “This is my final entry. From what I can tell, the rest of the crew is dead. It’s been twenty days since the solar flare forced the computer to quarantine parts of the ship. No one has attempted to contact me for a week. My body is breaking down. We have failed our mission. My hope is the S1 will maintain its course and someone will discover us. The ships protocols will still function. We are an unmanned lifeboat now. Please tell my family I love them. North out.”

  I’m not sure why I watch that video log. It only depresses me more, but I think some flickering sense of duty is trying to hold on. Captain North was a great person. I respected her, but she was wrong.

  The whole crew is not dead.

  I’m not dead.

  The solar flare disabled my commlink to the rest of the ship. Sealed off before the radiation hit, I’ve only been able to view recorded crew logs. Each one gets harder and harder to watch as they slowly wither away from radiation poisoning. One by one, I replayed their final mission logs. Their bodies are broken down, the life stripped from their dulling faces. Some handled it better than others. I’m not sure how I would’ve handled it, but watching everyone slowly die has not been great either.

  Keeping busy is all I can do to keep my mind off my dwindling rations. With each day that passes, we are thousands of miles further from Earth. Every mile is one step closer to my death. I’ve calculated that I have forty-nine days left of food at limited calori
c intake levels. Just when I was getting used to our ship-grown, plant-based protein sources, it was ripped from me by the damn radiation. Today, I plan to analyze our latest deep space scans. None of them have shown any signs of organic compounds from any of the nearest star systems.

  “Computer?”

  “Yes, Officer Morrow?” she replies quickly.

  “Have you processed today’s data from the DSS?”

  “Analysis shows zero signs of organic compounds from system G-1234.”

  “This is just stupid… stupid.” I slam my fists down on the workstation, my head dropping.

  A rapid cascade of beeps floods out of the comm. “Excuse me Officer Morrow, a priority signal has pinged us from an unknown location. I must attend to this.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa.” I pop my head up and step back a few steps. “What does that mean?”

  “I am sorry sir. You do not have the clearance level for this protocol.”

  “What the,” I snarl. “I’m the most senior officer left on this ship. Fill me in, now.”

  Nothing but silence fills the room as I stare up at the ceiling. My heart races.

  “Hello? Computer?” I call out.

  A low tone pulses from the comm system, filling the silence. Nothing. My mind’s blank. I can’t recall what this specific alert tone signifies. The alarm intensifies, echoing off the hull walls now. I cringe, covering my ears. It’s hard to think.

  “Computer, what’s going on?”

  I can barely hear my own voice. The ship rattles. The gravity lock glitches, lifting me up a few inches. I’m yanked down again as it quickly re-engages. I stumble, grabbing a handle on the workbench to brace myself. The Ion drive has reversed, killing all forward momentum. I rush to the sensor panel and try to analyze system statuses, but nothing is giving me data on this alert. My access is restricted even more than normal.

  We’ve come to a full stop now.

  “Computer?” I plead. “Please analyze radiation levels on the bridge.”