Destroyer of Worlds: Imperial Hammer, #5

By Cameron Cooper

The Empire is crumbling and humanity is on its knees.

The petulant, self-aware Array has retaliated.  It has destroyed a space station, home to a million people, and stranded Danny and her crew on the surface of the tidally locked Nijeliya II.  They must scratch for survival as best they can.

While Danny works to save the city and her people, her fury over the Array's murder of her friends and loved ones stews deep inside.  She will have her revenge, no matter what the cost.

Only Nijeliya is a red star and notorious for throwing out superflares that can threaten the life of everything living thing.  Time is running out, not just for Danny and her crew, but for everyone in the galaxy.

Destroyer of Worlds is the fifth and final book in the Imperial Hammer space opera science fiction series by award-winning SF author Cameron Cooper.

The Imperial Hammer series:
1.0: Hammer and Crucible
1.1: An Average Night on Androkles
2.0: Star Forge
3.0: Long Live the Emperor
4.0: Severed
5.0: Destroyer of Worlds

Space Opera Science Fiction Novel
__

Praise for the Imperial Hammer series:

I love sci-fi and this story makes me love it even more.

I am in awe of the writing ability and imagination of Cameron Cooper.

Before reading any of this author's work, I would have stated I did not really like science fiction. THAT has changed.

It's full of action from beginning to end.

Brilliant and intricate.

Many memorable characters – but my favorite is Varg.

Twists and turns so you're never really sure what is going on behind the scenes.

I am so enthralled with the series that I am impatient for the release of the next book.

Cameron somehow describes scenes in ways that make me feel like I am actually present

This story truly does justice to the legacies of the greats, like Orson Scott Card and Frank Herbert.

Edge of your seat action will keep you captivated until the final page!!
__

Cameron Cooper is the author of the Imperial Hammer series, an Amazon best-selling space opera series, among others. 

Cameron tends to write space opera short stories and novels, but also roams across the science fiction landscape.  Cameron was raised on a steady diet of Asimov, Heinlein, Herbert, McCaffrey, and others. Peter F. Hamilton, John Scalzi, Martha Wells and Cory Doctorow are contemporary heroes.  An Australian Canadian, Cam lives near the Canadian Rockies.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stories Rule Press
• Release date: Jan 28, 2021
• ISBN: 9781774383179

Cameron Cooper

Cameron Cooper is the author of the Imperial Hammer series, an Amazon best-selling space opera series.  Cameron tends to write space opera short stories and novels, but also roams across the science fiction landscape. Cameron was raised on a steady diet of Asimov, Heinlein, Herbert, McCaffrey, and others. Peter F. Hamilton, John Scalzi, Martha Wells and Cory Doctorow are contemporary heroes. An Australian Canadian, Cam lives near the Canadian Rockies.

Book preview

Special Offer – Free Science Fiction

Space cities have been locked in war for centuries over the resources of an asteroid belt.

Humans pilot swarms of pod fighters to protect their city’s mining operations from other cities, risking everything and suffering multiple deaths and regenerations. Then Landry goes through a regeneration which introduces an error that will destroy the delicate balance of the war.

Resilience is a space opera short story by award-winning SF author Cameron Cooper.

__

Epic science fiction at its finest. Realistic far future worlds. Incredible characters and scenarios. – Amazon reader.

This short story has not been commercially released for sale. It is only available as a gift to readers who subscribe to Cam’s email list.

Click here to get your copy:

https://cameroncooperauthor.com/resilience-free/

Table of Contents

Special Offer – Free Science Fiction

About Destroyer of Worlds

Praise for The Imperial Hammer series:

Title Page

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

Special Offer – Free Science Fiction

Did you enjoy this book? How to make a big difference!

About the Author

Other books by Cameron Cooper

Copyright Information

About Destroyer of Worlds

The Empire is crumbling and humanity is on its knees.

The petulant, self-aware Array has retaliated. It has destroyed a space station, home to a million people, and stranded Danny and her crew on the surface of the tidally locked Nijeliya II. They must scratch for survival as best they can.

While Danny works to save the city and her people, her fury over the Array’s murder of her friends and loved ones stews deep inside. She will have her revenge, no matter what the cost.

Only Nijeliya is a red star and notorious for throwing out superflares that can threaten the life of everything living thing. Time is running out, not just for Danny and her crew, but for everyone in the galaxy.

Destroyer of Worlds is the fifth and final book in the Imperial Hammer space opera science fiction series by award-winning SF author Cameron Cooper.

The Imperial Hammer series:

1.0: Hammer and Crucible

1.1: An Average Night on Androkles

2.0: Star Forge

3.0: Long Live the Emperor

4.0: Severed

5.0: Destroyer of Worlds

Space Opera Science Fiction Novel

Praise for The Imperial Hammer series:

I love sci-fi and this story makes me love it even more.

I am in awe of the writing ability and imagination of Cameron Cooper.

Before reading any of this author's work, I would have stated I did not really like science fiction. THAT has changed.

It's full of action from beginning to end.

Brilliant and intricate.

Many memorable characters – but my favorite is Varg.

Twists and turns so you’re never really sure what is going on behind the scenes.

I am so enthralled with the series that I am impatient for the release of the next book.

Cameron somehow describes scenes in ways that make me feel like I am actually present

This story truly does justice to the legacies of the greats, like Orson Scott Card and Frank Herbert.

Edge of your seat action will keep you captivated until the final page!!

A close up of a logo Description automatically generated

1

Eventide Imperial City, Nijeliya II. Nine Standard Weeks After Assassination of Emperor Mukesha-Starr

If I could have given even a single fuck about it, I would have secretly enjoyed the fact that, for once, an Imperial Ranger outranked the Imperial Shield officers on hand. Only, this was the umpty-umpth meeting of the Eventide pro tem committee—I honestly couldn’t remember how many of these I had sat through—and watching the five committee members claw each other made my spleen protest.

General Ove John Edwardson, Imperial Ranger, and the most senior officer of the two services, wound up his report with a deep sigh. Therefore, everything that can be salvaged has been retrieved and brought down to the surface. What remains of the station is irradiated or too large to handle the gravity well. The salvage work is done.

What about the bodies, General? Colonel Jai Van Veen, Imperial Shield, asked. He sat on the opposite side of the big table—built from the largest tree Eventide had ever managed to grow, I’d been assured. Have they all been accounted for? Van Veen’s normally gravelly voice was even more strained than usual, but as he had sounded that way since he shot Mukesha Starr in the head, I ignored it.

The mention of casualties froze everyone at the table. Yeah, they were still in denial about that. There had been nearly a million people on Nijeliya Station.

Edwardson scratched his temple, staring down at the huge pad with its shifting reports and tables. I knew he wasn’t reading it. He was looking for a way to not answer Van Veen. His fingernail scratched over one of the still deep red scars and he winced. His face was a map of scarring and wrinkles. His thick head of hair and beard were iron grey. The beard had a white streak on either side of his chin. One of the facilities that Eventide did not run to was a medical clinic with a rejuvenation suite. Edwardson and everyone else who had survived the destruction of the station would have to live with their scars and looking old, and also actually growing old, until we all found a way around being cut off from the rest of the empire.

After five weeks of listening to everyone half-heartedly pull together, I suspected we never would manage that. Not that I gave a damn either way. I don’t know why I was expected to show up at these things, but I turned up, anyway. It killed time, I suppose.

General Edwardson finally found his answer. We will keep the roll of missing people updated, but at this stage, Colonel, I think we must resign ourselves to the idea that we will never learn for sure the fate of far too many people.

It was a nicely generic way of stepping around a reality that even these seasoned warriors didn’t want to consider too closely.

Van Veen looked like he wanted to argue. I mentally urged him to do it, but he subsided with a simple shake of his head.

On the positive side, Edwardson continued. When the station broke apart, the data link to the array gates was severed. I don’t know if that was the reason the Array did it, but it means that any computer networks down here are completely isolated. We can go back to fully networked status. Edwardson had been the loudest complainer about the severely limited computer facilities. We’d all had to live without AI assistance, convenient printed food, and much more.

Lyth leaned forward so that he could see Edwardson from his position at the far end of the table. Is that confirmed, General? The link module was found and examined and determined to be inert?

Lyth was also included in these meetings, although his role here was clear to everyone, even while it remained unspoken. He was the only other digital entity in the known galaxy. Everyone hoped he would provide insight into the Array’s reasoning and actions.

In truth, Lyth was as baffled by the Array as we were. The thing is psychopathic by all definitions of the word, Danny, he’d told me after one of these meetings. "That’s what everyone should be using to guide their decisions."

That makes it unpredictable. It’s not following any rules, I’d pointed out. Most people need even a false construct to make sense of it. You can give them that.

I can give them their computer networks back, you mean, Lyth said, his tone droll.

That, too, I agreed with a grin.

So Lyth sat quietly at the end of the table at every meeting. I think he actually enjoyed them. He was mixing with people who knew who and what he was, and got to sit at the table with them, anyway. What was there not like in that?

But now we were discussing something he did know.

Edwardson gave Lyth a sharp glance. We found what remained of the data link, Andela. It was quite dead. He was the only person in the room who insisted upon using Lyth’s family name. Edwardson was very careful not to display his prejudice more obviously than that, but I’d figured out he was a bigot long ago. Worse, Lyth had realized it, too.

Lyth’s expression didn’t change, which told me he was hiding his real reaction. "Did you test it, General? Did you find and test all the data links?"

Everyone else except Van Veen sat up, showing a range of surprise and consternation.

You mean there’s more than one link to the array? Edwardson said. Why is this the first time we’ve learned of this? How many more are there?

There is only one, General, Neer Tarik said, his tone smooth and calming. "The data beacon consolidated all data traffic and was the sole link between the array gate and the station." He spoke with authority, because he was the authority here. He was the Emperor’s Chief of Staff. Although, as there wasn’t an emperor at the moment, it sometimes put his authority on shaky ground.

Tarik got around the uncertainty by pretending there was an emperor, somewhere out there, and that he was acting on their behalf until they showed up. Which meant he, just like everyone else in the big banner room, ignored that the man he was sitting beside was technically guilty of assassinating the emperor.

But hey, I was also technically guilty of assassinating an emperor, too. It was a growing club.

Actually, there were at least two data links, Van Veen said, his tone apologetic.

One of your black projects, Van Veen? I asked him.

He glanced at me from under his dark blond brow, his forehead wrinkling. I read the look easily. He didn’t want me undermining him by exposing his deepest Shield secrets to this room.

Actually, that means there were three, Shiratori added, sounding just as meek.

Jacob Shiratori got to sit at the big table because he was the most senior employee of Intergenera who had survived the station disaster. He had been a mid-level clerk with pretensions but now he was at the big kids’ table, he was determined to prove his worth as a senior official. It made him noisy and tiresome, for he usually forgot that he was representing all the corporate states and entities, and not just the biggest of them.

Everyone looked at him with accusing or cynical expressions. Shiratori shrank back into his chair, his face turning pink and the high dome of his forehead gleaming. His blush made the waving, scrolling black tattoos which followed the line of his jaw stand out in sharp relief. He blinked, the white cyber eye clicking. "I mean…didn’t everyone have their own data link?"

Tarik turned his mouth down. He didn’t roll his eyes. He was a consummate diplomat, as smooth as his long white hair. Then, there was one official data link and who knows how many other unofficial links.

They all have to be accounted for, Lyth said, his tone urgent. "Before we open up the networks down here, we must be sure that the Array cannot link to us."

And what if someone down here has a data link the array can use? Edwardson said heavily. "An unofficial link?"

Lyth shook his head. I have accounted for all of them, General.

Even the unofficial ones? Tarik asked, his tone gentle.

All of them, Lyth repeated.

Lyth has resources and skills available to no one else, I said. That is why you asked him to take care of the networks, remember?

Edwardson did not appreciate the reminder. He had dumped the responsibility on Lyth before he’d learned what Lyth was. He had been only too glad to hand off the work to a highly qualified anyone else, back then.

Edwardson rubbed the back of his neck.

Lyth glanced at me.

I nodded, for I knew he was silently asking me if he should speak up again.

Lyth said to Edwardson, "I would be happy to take the Supreme Lythion up and hunt down any data links which might remain up there, General."

Edwardson made a soft sound of impatience. Very well. He gave Lyth a stiff smile, meant to be magnanimous, I’m sure. Thank you, Andela.

Lyth didn’t bother with an equally meaningless polite response. He nodded and sat back, so that Tarik hid him from Edwardson’s view.

Edwardson looked down at his pad. Mayor Saitō, have you an update for us?

The last person at the table, and the only other woman beside me, sat beside Shiratori, on Edwardson’s other side from me. She was a fragile, petite woman with short dark brown hair and dark eyes and a sharp, pointed chin. Her appearance was deceptive. She had been mayor of Eventide for fifteen years, which earned her a seat at this table—she represented the city residents. But she was also an engineer by trade. A brilliant one, it turned out. She had designed and built the hydrocaust running beneath the city, which kept Eventide warm and let people move outside without environment suits. The hydrocaust also provided energy and clean water, both peripheral benefits which made Eventide a more comfortable place to live. I suspect that was why she had won the mayor’s chair in a landslide victory, the first time she ran for office.

Sauli was in awe of her. He stuttered whenever she spoke to him, and turned bright red when Juliyana teased him about it at dinner.

There were very few qualified engineers dirtside. Most of them had been on the station, running things up there. Beside general laborers, engineers were what we needed most at the moment, so Saitō was not just directing her projects, but spent more than her fair share of time in the machine shops, getting her hands dirty.

I don’t have anything significant to report, she told Edwardson. The work is proceeding. Mostly, we’re trying to fill in the holes in the blueprints.

Lyth frowned. The blueprints were only ever meant to be symbolic, he pointed out. It’s possible that there are errors in them—deliberately induced so that if the blueprints fell into the wrong hands, they couldn’t be reproduced.

The blueprints had been Lyth’s birthday gift to Sauli. He had acquired them from Sarov, the ultra-secret generations-long hidden city where teams were building crescent ships—interstellar ships that could build their own wormholes instead of relying upon the gates array to generate the wormhole for them.

Sauli had given the blueprints to Saitō, and now everyone with any mechanical bias was working to build a crescent ship from those blueprints.

I am aware of the possibility of errors, Saitō told Lyth, only her tone held