Fight Back

By Neil Stott

Book 2 of Xarthan Wars Series
Everything seemed lost. The Xarthans had come and ravaged Barnes World. The colonists and remnants of the Colonial Marines hunkered down in their "hides" waiting to be discovered and exterminated or enslaved. Their only hope was rescue from Earth. Except the Guild had played their own card and declared a blockade on the system and refused to transport the Ready Reserve to help.

Deanne had escaped Barnes World and reached Earth in an escape pod that could not, should not have been able to use Folded Space Technology. Did she actually have the secret to travel between the stars? Could she break the Guild blockade? Perhaps ... if she survived the Guild assassins that were going to make sure her secret died with her.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Neil Stott
• Release date: Jan 4, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463595794

Neil Stott

Neil now works part time for a rural Victorian church. He now uses his spare time to focus on writing with three books already published and more in the pipeline. He always enjoys reading the great action adventure novels and brings that passion into his own writing. He is married with two adult children and seven grand children. His other passions include Sci-Fi, AFL Football (The Saints), golf and snow skiing.

Book preview

Fight Back

Xarthan Wars: Book 2

Neil Stott

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Copyright 2019 Neil Stott

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Discover other titles by Neil Stott:

Xarthan Wars: Invasion

Naaman: Leper Warrior

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to my wife Kaye for her ongoing support and encouragement.

Special thanks to my Grandkids for inspiring me to continue to write.

Chapter 1

Arias IV - First Warning

Arias IV had been a rich fertile world. Her colony had prospered and grown in the sub-tropical climate and spread across the major continent in a widespread network of rural towns and communities. They had one major town of one hundred and fifty thousand people which served as the centre of Government but with each community largely self-sufficient. Their military had remained a decentralized command structure, until the first Xarthan war.

The Xarthan colony on barren Arias III had been like a dagger aimed at their hearts for five years. The invasion had come as no surprise, but its power and brutal, efficient execution surprised them all. One after the other, every community was swallowed up by the unstoppable Xarthan forces. When the 1st Marine Expedition to Arias IV arrived, very few communities were left. Most had been killed or taken off world as slaves. The Marines suffered firstly one and then another defeat and could not reclaim the lost colony, nor rescue its people.

Only at the end of the war were the Xarthans expelled, but not before they razed half the planet with heavy pulse weapons and fire. The surviving colonists and those rescued from slavery, returned to a shattered world. Earth committed to help them rebuild and thousands of new settlers arrived as well as a permanent Marine force to defend them against future attack. But for both old and new colonists, the fear remained. When would they come back?

At EDF HQ on Arias IV the communications officer turned to the watch commander,

Commander. Computers have brought up an alert. We've lost all telemetry from Barnes World observation posts. The Commander strode over,

All of them?

Yes sir. Progressive loss at 1819 1820, 1821 and 1825.

Any possibility it is at our end?

Negative, sir. We are still receiving signals from Delphi Prime, no interruption.

This can only mean one thing. Someone or something has taken those posts out. He knew the signals took three days to reach Arias IV and another four to reach Earth. It also meant that any other attacks could also be right on top of them.

It was Johann Pieter Frederickson, a great German physicist that developed the FTL transmitter. He had been on the FST team for twenty years trying to unravel the mysteries of the Guild FST drive. Everything had ended in a brick wall. One of the project teams had spent ten years examining the various sensor readings gathered during the FST effect at either the departure or destination sites. Space was disrupted when a Guild ship left or reentered real space. At the time of the disruption, light was bent, distorted, slowed and sped up. It was why light sped up that Frederickson focussed those ten years of his life on.

Then, one day it happened. Just as one thousand failures by Edison brought him closer to the final successful test, Frederickson was able to 'push' a light beam faster. The power requirements were enormous, almost the entire output of a fission generator. But doing it once opened the doors to its major benefits, FTL transmissions. In normal time, messages from the outer observation posts outside of Pluto took 4 hours to reach Earth. The Frederickson device changed that to seconds.

The Watch Commander picked up a phone and pressed the Alert button. Instantly his call was routed to the Base Commander who answered in moments.

Rameesh? Colonel Daro Rameesh was of ancient India, his voice still carried that British/Indian heritage, but his look was all Marine.

Sir, telemetry lost with Barnes World Obs posts one to four.

Right. Pull the tapes from those posts for the last hour. We need to know what happened. Go to full alert. Place all reserves on standby orange. And Captain, I want all our cruisers up. No mistakes, no surprises. If something comes in, I want it met and challenged before they get anywhere near us. As he broke the connection, Rameesh sat back in his chair. He had full confidence in his officers and men. The attack on Barnes world, he had no doubt it was an attack, had given them a threat warning they didn't get twenty years before. He took a moment to think about his compatriot on Barnes World.

Mad Max Roberts, tough and as smart as they come, but with no warning, did they have a chance? He wondered, as they all did, how the Guild could just take the Xarthan money and transport their ships and troops and let them launch a sneak attack like they did. Their ethics and morals were their own.

He remembered the lecture at the academy. The Guild Ambassador to Earth had given a presentation. Many of the officer trainees had lost families in the Xarthan war. Despite protocol, they were very hostile to the Ambassador. Yet, he calmly addressed them, fielded all their questions with a smile.

The Guild has no interest in the internal affairs of their members.

The Guild does not take sides in territorial disputes.

The Guild heavily levies worlds that wish to transport military equipment and personnel to any planet, friendly or not.

The Guild will defend its ships and planets from attack. Any such attack will incur severe penalties on the people and planets that attempt it.

One Cadet, whose father, mother and three siblings were killed on Arias IV stood and asked his question,

Ambassador. Are not the Guild acting as dictators to its members by not sharing their technology? Controlling who travels and not travels, extorting crippling payments to travel and send goods. Are you not guilty of murder when you transport an enemy fleet to a peaceful planet and allow them to kill innocent men, women and children? The Cadet stood red faced as he waited for the Ambassador's response. No rebuke came from any of the assembled instructors and senior Marine officers. He only asked the question that everyone wanted the answer. And he had the right. For the first time, the Ambassador looked grave, almost apologetic.

Cadet. War is indeed a wasteful and murderous thing. Our desire is for all our members to live in harmony together. But it is also our policy to never and I repeat, never to take sides. To do that would destroy the very fabric of what the Guild stands for. He paused and looked from the Cadet to the rest of the class and the instructors, many who had fought in that campaign before he concluded,

Do not forget, we also transported the Marine fleet that ultimately defeated the Xarthan forces on Dana II. The Cadet just shook his head and sat down.

Rameesh remembered well the words and could never accept the answer he received. One thing he learnt. Never trust the Guild. He pressed the Comms unit and Captain O'Reilly's face reappeared.

Captain. Issue orders to our cruisers. No Guild ship is allowed in orbit around Arias IV. Any craft that arrives that does not come from Earth or one of our colonies, is to be blockaded. If necessary, fired upon.

The Captain looked at him and just nodded. The call was recorded, and the Colonel would face the full consequences of any future court martial if his order was forced to be carried out. Rameesh disconnected and considered his next difficult decision, go to Barnes World or stay and wait for the Xarthans here.

Orbit - Barnes World

The three Guild Captains were not friends. Neither in their training, early service nor as Captains, did they ever meet, such was the nature of their work with ships constantly in transit. The arrival of the Dark Light and Santor now required them to work together more closely than any trio of Captains in Guild history. It helped that information, data and perspectives were so easily transferred from mind to mind. The Guild plan required the Xarthans to completely conquer Barnes World. The Guild relief fleet would arrive to rescue the inhabitants. All blame on the Xarthans, the Guild as true heroes.

Chapter 2

Ready Reserve

The Acheron Way emerged into real space as scheduled in the outer reaches of the Arias system. Even as the standard challenges were issued from the outposts, other messages were transmitted to the Naval and Marine units deep within their holds. Five minutes after their arrival, Major Sampson ran on to the Guild bridge. Normally protocol required he request permission to enter this most aloof command centre. The alert from his comms officer raised an ire within him that caused him to give no thought to the niceties of Guild diplomacy.

The Captain looked up as the Marine officer strode up to him and smiled benignly as he greeted him.

Why Major. So good to see you again. How are those warriors of yours holding up in the transport Bay? Sampson ignored the question, instead pointed to the navigation array which displayed the current ship position.

Captain, in accordance with Article 671 of the Guild constitution, I declare a military emergency and request immediate transport of all of our units on board this ship to Barnes World. The Captain looked at the Marine and gave his most forlorn look.

Yes. The Xarthans. Truly tragic. Unfortunately, we cannot comply with your request. Sampson went rigid with both surprise and rage.

Damn double-dealing Guild. He held his tongue, instead asked,

Why? The captain shrugged and his pained expression was one of utmost sincerity as he replied,

"I have an order to restrict all traffic into the disputed system. The Xarthans have laid a claim in the Guild Court of arbitration. As such, no further interference in the civil war