Resolute Alliance (The War for Terra Book 6)

  Resolute Alliance

  By

  James R. Prosser, Jr.

  Resolute Alliance

  Copyright: James R. Prosser, Jr.

  First Published: November 1, 2014

  Cover Illustration by: James R. Prosser, Jr.

  Publisher: James Prosser

  This book is entirely a work of fiction created by the author. Any resemblance to any person or character, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  The right of James R. Prosser, Jr. to be identified as author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, copied in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise transmitted without written permission from the publisher. You must not circulate this book in any form.

  Other Books in the War for Terra Series:

  Resolute Command

  Resolute Stand

  Resolute Uprising

  Resolute Victory

  The Adventures of Connor Jakes: Masks

  You might want to read these before this one. I’m just sayin’…

  Coming Soon:

  Resolute Strike

  Contents

  Prologue

  Alliance Carrier Baal

  During the War

  1

  2

  3

  Battleship Resolute

  4

  5

  Tonal Banking Commission

  Battleship Resolute

  6

  Super-Maximum Security Facility – Vadne

  7

  8

  Battleship Resolute

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  Xyphlic Base

  14

  15

  Battleship Resolute

  16

  17

  18

  19

  Planet Grekii

  20

  21

  22

  Alliance Carrier Zeus

  23

  Battleship Resolute

  24

  25

  Nottingham Agricultural Research Station – Ganymede

  26

  Battleship Resolute

  27

  28

  29

  Epilogue

  Earth

  Authors Note

  Acknowledgements

  Prologue

  Alliance Carrier Baal

  During the War

  “Why haven’t they called?”

  Admiral Ronald Chang turned away from the projection screen to look around his bridge. The crew had been working efficiently despite the tedium and he was beginning to despair. The signal they had been waiting for from Earth to inform them the advance recon force was ready had still not come. Resolute was deep in Ch’Tauk territory, searching for Banu Rao and the errant battleship Victory. The Baal had nothing to do but wait and plan for the action to come.

  “Captain,” a voice called from the pit below. “I have a strange reading on the number twelve scanner.”

  Captain Lira, who had entered the bridge from the lower command well, stepped to the sensor officer. Chang looked down to the pit, feigning disinterest despite the interruption from boredom it presented. Lira, a tall Vadne who had taken over the command of the ship after Chang accepted his new rank, was a competent officer and a good man. He stood over the console and examined the data scrolling over the screens.

  “Report,” Chang ordered his captain. “Are we having relay issues again?”

  The Baal had been built in the latter days of the Confederacy and was top-of-the-line before the fall of Terra. Lack of maintenance and disastrous radiation leaks had taken their toll on the massive ship, though, and the sensor network was wearing out. As he surveyed the consoles below, Chang hoped the ship could last for at least one more battle. A scarred and blackened edge on the front of the command bridge reminded him of the damage inflicted on the vessel while under the command of Admiral Hathaway some three years before.

  “I don’t think so. I’ve never seen readings like this,” Lira responded. “Have you recalibrated the interstitial phase coupler?”

  “Aye,” the sensor officer replied. “It seems fine, but…”

  “Pipe this up to my chair and join me,” Chang ordered. “Take number twelve off-line and re-task fourteen. If it gives us the same reading, then we have something.”

  The crewman nodded and tapped the keys on the console. Lira straightened and walked up the nearest command ramp. Confederate construction placed the command chair above the logistics well below. Chang had once thought the design beautiful and commanding. That was before having to engage in battle with the ship. Afterward, he saw it as indicative of the arrogance and condescension of the Terran designers. He waved a hand and brought up the sensor data from the console below.

  A blossom of blue-orange light shimmered against the backdrop of space, like a thin sheet of gauze being stretched across space, lit from some unseen candle. When he had been younger, Ronald had believed M-space the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. As he grew older and more cynical, beauty was an illusion he no longer believed in. The image on his projection, however, was a match back to his imagination. Flashes of brilliant green and yellow floated across the surface of the anomaly, adding a frightening brilliance to the image.

  “That is the damnedest thing I have ever seen,” Chang said as Lira approached. “If this is a sensor malfunctioning, then I should sell it to the galaxy as entertainment.”

  “It does have a pleasing aspect, Admiral. Have you looked at the electromagnetic spike? I can’t tell if what we are seeing is real or not.”

  “Captain?”

  The voice of the sensor officer drifted up from below. Chang and Lira both went to the edge to see the man. He was pointing to his console again and the projection on the screen. Another view had opened of the gauzy film in space. Both men looked to each other in bewilderment.

  “We’ve got it up here, Lieutenant. Thank you,” Lira called down.

  “No, sir,” the man replied. This is real-time feed from fourteen. Whatever it is, it’s real enough and not a glitch.”

  “Put it on the big screen,” Chang ordered.

  The image spread wide across the holographic projection screen. Chang could make out the stars behind the film, but they shimmered as if through an atmosphere. He strained to find an edge to the thing. It was roughly circular, with projections sticking out and changing size. The whole thing reminded him of something, but he couldn’t quite make it out.

  “Sir,” the lieutenant cried. “We’ve got M-space intrusion!”

  “Intrusion?” Lira asked. “Incoming or outgoing?”

  “Neither … I think. It’s not an M-space vortex. It’s … I don’t know, but the object is acting like an M-space portal.”

  “When you say intrusion, what do you mean?” Chang asked.

  “Something is pushing into our universe,” the man replied. “It’s like a … a hernia … into our space. I guess that’s the only way I know to describe it.”

  “Is something breaking through?”

  The image on the screen shimmered sharply and Chang could make out the edges more closely. It resembled an M-space vortex, but the colors were wrong. The energy was flaring brighter now and he could make out a warping of the stars as if they were being pushed aside . He saw a bright blue dot in the center, which erupted into a brilliant star for a moment and then closed.

 
; “What was that?” Lira asked.

  “Something came through,” Lellda replied, tapping keys on her communications console. “It’s sending a signal, but I can’t make it out. I think the frequency is randomizing. It might be radiation spillage from the translation.”

  The porcine communications officer was staring intently into her screen, and Chang stepped over. He could hear the screeching signal through the sound dampeners. The sound bled out and quieted suddenly. Lellda looked up to see the admiral’s questioning gaze.

  “I don’t know,” she said with an apology. “Whatever it was, I have it on my comm grid. We could send someone out to retrieve it.”

  “Not while whatever that thing is still shimmers,” Lira replied, still looking at the big screen. “I don’t think it’s safe to—”

  “It’s gone!” the lieutenant shouted. “The whole thing, sirs. It’s gone. One second it was there and the next it was gone.”

  The stars were no longer shimmering on the screen. The brilliant flashes of energy and light had vanished. For a long moment, Ronald Chang felt a loss. In the few moments he had seen the effect, it had seemed to have lasted forever, and now it was gone. The sight of the naked stars filled him with a sadness he had not thought real.

  “Run a full scan with all relays,” Lira ordered. “I want to know if that thing is coming back.”

  “Ensign, do you still have a lock on whatever came through?” Chang asked the Tonal officer.

  “Aye,” Lellda replied. “It’s not really moving out there.”

  “Captain,” Chang said, turning back to the Vadne commander. “When you are satisfied with the sensor sweeps, send a shuttle out to retrieve that thing. I want it analyzed and studied. If it caused that distortion, I want to know where the portal led to … or from.”

  “Aye,” Lira said, scanning the readouts on the command chair. “It may take a little time.”

  “We’ve got time, Captain,” Chang replied. “I’ll be in my office when you get it here.”

  “You will be studying the data?” Lira asked, with a twitch of his whiskers.

  “No,” Chang replied, standing perfectly still. “I think I’ll be busy with something else.”

  Standing in front of Chang was one of the small creatures called Engineers. A finger of fear ran along Chang’s spine when he looked into the pale eyes. The creatures had seemed comical when he had first met them, and had been strange companions as they fought the war, but he had never seen what he saw this time. Fear.

  “Admiral Chang,” the Engineer said in the admiral’s head. “We need to talk.”

  1

  The last moment of Everett Pearce’s life was almost the proudest…

  *

  The battleship Resolute had docked at the station alongside the Alliance’s newest carrier, the Trinity. The warship represented everything the Alliance stood for. It had been designed by a joint committee of humans, Vadne, and Tonal and built as a joint project between the three races. Human advanced weapons and propulsion technology, combined with the sleek design of the felinoids and the tough armor of the porcine Tonal, had created a beautiful and deadly warship which made the outdated and battle-scarred Resolute look small and useless. The pitted and plasma-scarred hull of the battleship could be seen in the reflection from the gleaming flanks of the twin-hulled super carrier. In every way but one, the Trinity was a better representative of the might of the new Alliance.

  Captain Lee Pearce entered the station, pushing his father’s floater chair and arguing with his first officer, Commander Farthing. The two men were each dressed in the pristine white uniform jackets and navy trousers of the Unified Fleet. Behind walked Commander Alice Bennett and the members of the Demon Squadron. Despite the formal uniforms and martial atmosphere of the station, the fighter pilots seemed at ease, laughing over the discussion they had been enduring for the last few hours.

  “Trinity’s a beast, Farthing, but in a fair fight Resolute could fly circles around her,” Pearce said, trying once again to convince his friend of the merits of his ship. “She can’t take a corner worth a damn and that will be her undoing.”

  “Vadne technology makes it unnecessary for a ship of her class to corner quickly, Captain,” the commander replied in his soft tone. “Her dorsal array would stop your circular pattern before it began.”

  “Both of you, shut the hell up,” Everett Pearce said, turning his head to look at the two men. I want to hear the music.”

  A brief cheer was heard from the pilots walking behind them as they left the exit ramp and entered the receiving hall of the station. Music provided by an interspecies band was being played. Lee recognized the march as the new Alliance anthem. As they stepped past the glass-walled customs stand, a crowd of creatures began applauding their arrival. Aliens from across the galaxy were present, slapping together appendages in admiration of the heroes of the war. Lee waved his right hand in greeting, embarrassed by the attention. Everett, on the other hand, held up both hands and smiled broadly to the waiting throng. Reporters from Alliance Today raced to stand in front of the group, camera and holo-recorders in hand as questions were launched in their direction.

  “We’ve heard about a promotion, Captain Pearce!”

  “Will you be taking command of Trinity?”

  “What do you think of the new uniforms?”

  “When are you and Commander Bennett getting married?”

  The last question caught Lee off balance. He and Alice had been engaged since before she had been captured by the Ch’Tauk two years ago, and they had recently begun talking about resuming the arrangement. Alice had been so damaged by her incarceration and torture, and he had been trying to be understanding and give her space, but the public reaction to their relationship had come as a surprise. Leaked reports of their renewed engagement had flooded the news lately. He wasn’t used to having his life broadcast across the news nets any more than Alice, but he smiled and waved away the questions. So it came as a surprise when Alice’s hand slipped into his and she allowed the reporters to take pictures of them together.

  “Move back please!” the voice of fleet security boomed across the reception hall, as two fierce-looking Vadne guards parted the crowds and pushed back the reporters. “Give them some room!”

  From behind the guards came the smallish figure of Admiral Ronald Chang, Chief of Terran Military Forces and one of the three Joint Chiefs of Alliance forces. His white uniform was lined with stripes which ran vertically along the seam. He was wearing the shoulder boards of his rank and his face held an expression of restrained anger. As he approached, the guards began shoving reporters back into the crowd. Chang stepped in and whispered something to one of the guards, who apologized and helped the nearest reporter to its foot. Chang looked back to Lee and shook his head in despair.

  “I thought fighting the Ch’Tauk was hard,” the admiral explained. “Creating a stable peace may be the harder battle.”

  “Well, you get to wear a nicer uniform anyway,” Lee replied with a smile.

  The two men shook hands. Lee noticed new lines on Chang’s usually youthful face, and a few wisps of white hair at his temples. Since they had retaken Earth, the man had been working non-stop to cement a lasting peace between the worlds. A century of human arrogance had created an atmosphere of distrust amongst the three races, the needs of humanity having been of primary importance. Only the valiance of her fighting forces had pulled them back together. Their hands parted and the admiral’s hands went to his collar, tugging away at the gold thread at the high neck of the dress uniform.

  “Does yours give you a rash?” Chang asked. “Whatever this material is, I think I’m allergic to it.”

  “I think you look dashing, Ron,” Alice said, reaching up and adjusting the admiral’s collar. “You should dress up more often.”

  “Alice, it’s good to see you again. You look good,” replied the admiral, a strange smile finally cracking his face. “I’ll tell you what, let’s get out of these cam
eras, the ceremony is about to start, and you’re late.”

  “One of Resolute’s port thruster assemblies was acting up,” Lee replied. “We had to pull out of M-space and repair them. I think the dreadnought on Aleinhelm did us more damage than we first thought.”

  “Speaking of that old rust-bucket,” interrupted Ev Pearce. “When are you gonna give my boy that new ship of yours? He’s a hero, you know.”

  “I know, Everett, but I don’t think he’d want the damn thing if he ever rode in her,” Chang replied, waving the group along past the crowds towards the central assembly hall. “The systems don’t work together. Half the gravity generators think we’re on a heavy world and the other half cut out during meals. The restructured M-space engines keep pulling the ship out in mid-flight. It’ll be a wonder if she makes it back to Earth in one piece.”

  “Sound familiar, Admiral. The Alliance hasn’t exactly been the strongest organization so far,” Lee said, stepping near the door to the assembly hall.

  “Well, this dog and pony show might help,” Chang replied, activating the door and waiting as it slid aside. “When the ceremony is over, we’re going to hash out this formal treaty. The Alliance will be more than just a name.”

  The admiral ushered the group into a small ante-chamber. A Tonal guard was standing inside and checked their identity clearances. Jackal, the lead pilot for the Demon squadron, was pushing Everett and held up his civilian badge for scanning.

  The old man seemed pleased to be included in the proceedings, even as a spectator. His cancer, thought to have been in remission, had returned. He had believed himself to be dying before the Ch’Tauk invaded the planet. Instead of dying, Ev had found allies and lived as a kind of caretaker to the refugee children left on Earth.

  One of the guards motioned for the group to pass through while a uniformed military officer took Ev to sit in the audience. He waved to his son as they passed into the ceremonial hall. Lee gave his father a quick smile and a nod as he passed from sight.

  The admiral led them from the ante-chamber to a platform in the center of a cavernous arena. The crowds erupted in thunderous applause as the captain and crew stepped to the platform. Lee noticed races from all over the galaxy present. Alice’s hand returned to his as they were seated behind a long table. The chancellor of the Alliance Parliament was speaking, trying to calm the crowds into silence. He acknowledged the arrival of the honorees with a hand and waited as the cheers swelled again. The chancellor was a tall, black-furred Vadne with a long face and a single white stripe running vertically from the tip of his head to the end of his snout. He spoke with a sure, clear voice which had carried him far in his own government and again in the Alliance. As the crowd finally lapsed back to quiet murmuring, the chancellor launched into a long speech about the forming of the Alliance and the involvement of Resolute’s crew and captain.