Star Clash: A Space Anthology

By Vera Loy

“Then they came. Humans. They looked like us, walked like us, but never have such a brutal, bastard race existed ... We will fight. We will end them, or we will die trying.” In Vera Loy’s science fiction anthology, a war threatens to annihilate two species; a mercenary travels to Avalon to fight zombies; and a crime-fighter chooses to cross the line, the line between right and wrong.
Featured Stories: Star Clash, Emerald Warrior, Io Colony, Black Death, Kaia, Crime Fighter, Guns and Guys.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Vera Loy
• Release date: Nov 6, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311173942

Vera Loy

I have brown eyes and red hair, some weeks redder than others! The rest is subject to change without notice. I live in Australia with my family and two cats, the cats rule. After thirty years of working with the unemployed, coping with threats, tears and broken lives (and these were only from fellow staff), I decided it was time to make my escape. And what better place to go than the world of regency romance? I started writing this story years ago, but put it aside due to work and family commitments. A few years ago, I dusted off the foolscap pages stored under my bed, finished the story and turned it into a book, Regency Masquerade. Since then I have published three collections of short stories. Beach Apples, all with an Australian theme, and two books of science fiction, Star Clash and Splinters of Glass. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them.

Book preview

Star Clash

A Space Anthology

by

Vera Loy

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader.

All rights reserved by the author, Vera Loy, any unauthorized distribution or selling of this ebook constitutes as an infringement of copyright.

Copyright © 2015 Vera Loy

Smashwords Edition

These stories are a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

Acknowledgements

Cover by EJ Kellan Premade Covers

www.premadecoversbyejkellan.weebly.com

A big thank you to EJ for the wonderful cover.

Thank you also to Aarathi Prakasen, for your help with editing.

Any mistakes are, of course, my own.

Dedicated to Angus Ecrivain

and all my friends at ForbiddenPlanet,

without whom many of these stories would never have been written.

Author’s Note

Star Clash is a collection of my science fiction short stories.

You will find a variety of sub-genres amongst these tales, ranging from Galactic Empire, to Spunky Heroine, to Zombie Apocalypse. Most of them were written as entries for various Smackdowns. A Smackdown is an elimination-round competition, where the participants are provided with a series of prompts—anything from pictures, to quotations to song lyrics— a sub-genre, and a word limit.

Smackdowns are a lot of fun, as well as suggesting plots and characters which are outside a writer’s usual comfort zone. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them.

Star Clash, the first story, was a winning entry and the prompt was the first six paragraphs, written by Angus Ecrivain.

Contents

Star Clash

Emerald Warrior

Io Colony

Black Death

Kaia

Crime Fighter

Guns and Guys

Star Clash

PROLOGUE

Irra, Vishna Star System

"We were arrogant, perhaps foolish but most definitely naive. Confidence in our defences was high and rightly so. As a highly evolved, technologically advanced race of beings, we have often—galactically speaking—been the target of foreign powers wishing to take our technology for themselves. We had always repelled such invaders though, without fail. Perhaps that is where the arrogance came from.

Perfectly happy in our tertiary star system, its thirteen life sustaining worlds more than sufficient to house our modest population of almost eighty billion, we thought we were untouchable.

Then they came. Humans. They looked like us, walked like us and the technology they possessed allowed them to talk like us. That is where the similarities ended. Never have such a brutal, bastard race existed and it is the sincerest hope of myself and every single surviving member of my species that never will such a race exist again.

Will we survive? I can no longer say for certain. Our cities are in ruins, our lands pillaged. Men women and children taken captive and put to work doing whatever their human masters demanded of them.

We will fight. We will do so for those of us that came before and for those of us that come after. We will fight not only for our species but for every other species. Humans are a stain on the very beauty of the Universe.

We will end them, or we will die trying."

Jax Naga (Council leader)

~~~

Mars, Sol Star System

"We are now in the sixth year of this damnable war.

By all rational criteria we have won, but the Gliesers won’t admit it, they keep on fighting. Sometimes I think they will keep fighting until the last man, woman and child is dead.

They attack our ships, flaunt our laws and ambush those personnel sent to maintain peace, at every opportunity. Their acts of terrorism have forced us to destroy their cities and imprison those who resist us, planet by planet until they surrender. It is a huge cost to us in terms of resources, both human and material, but we have lost too much to give up now.

Much of Earth lies in ruins, whole cities washed away by the tsunamis, caused by the shift in the Moon’s orbit. Perhaps we were arrogant, believing our defences around our home planet impenetrable—we were certainly mistaken. When the Gliesers attacked, they didn’t attack the Earth with weapons as we expected, they targeted the Moon, moving the huge satellite into a new orbit with their technology. Just enough to cause chaos on Earth.

Many of us wanted to annihilate their race, obliterate them from the face of the universe. You will hear people say they look like us, talk like us, but... they do not act like us.

They are monsters."

John Nelson (Commander)

~~~

PRESENT DAY

Troni, Vishna System

"Did you realise that every Earth colony has Vishnan slaves to do their dirty work?"

Premier Tev Nesa looked down at the small, white headed figure in front of him whose hand was clutching his arm, seeking his attention. He frowned, And what in Vishna’s name makes you think that is something I want to hear? he asked, almost angrily. He tried to walk on past her, he had far more important things to do than listen to the obvious.

But if you look at it another way, she continued, not letting go, we now have our people inserted into every one of their bases.

Tev Nesa came to a sudden halt, his attention caught. Come into my office, he directed. Tell me more.

Vishna was a tertiary star system, which meant it had three suns. The two orange dwarfs, Bi Xiu and Ca Xiu, were in close orbit and supported most of the thirteen planets between them. The third, Xui, a red dwarf, was a distant third in the partnership, orbiting on the outskirts of the system, with only a single planet in tow.

Usually the least desired place of residence in the system, after all not many people wanted to live underground the whole time, Troni had come into its own after the humans attacked. It was distant and small enough not to attract their immediate attention and now the humans had their hands full dealing with the twelve central planets. They thought they would deal with Troni later. Their mistake, Nesa smiled, grimly.

For Troni was the centre of the Vishnan resistance, the scientific part that is. The military front was still on Irra and the other central planets, fighting for every inch of ground.

The military was doing the best it could, but their weapons were no match for those of the humans. For centuries, the Vishnans had prided themselves on their technology, technology which they had used for engineering and public infrastructure projects, communications, not for developing individual, transportable weapons like the humans. Now it was time for their scientists to come up with a solution, or at least, something to give their fighters the edge. To date though, there had been lots of theorising but little concrete result.

And now, here was one of their oldest, most respected scientists in front of him. Was it possible she had something practical to suggest, or only more theory?

What do you have for me, Ula Tesz?

Mars, Sol System

Captain ‘Hawkeye’ Hallow shot the skyplane through the mountains, swooping and twisting like his namesake, following the slipstream. He’d disconnected himself from the autopilot which would have given him the exact co-ordinates. As far as he was concerned, his own eyes were good enough to get the job done. The day his eyes started to fail him would be soon enough to rely on instruments.

The rocket launcher was primed and ready to fire as soon as he spotted his prey. There! Something moved on the ground.

He aimed and fired in one smooth movement. Then smiled tightly as a pink and crimson cloud sprayed into the air. Looked