Hale's War Read online

  Hale’s War

  The Terra Nova Chronicles Book 4

  by

  Richard Fox

  and

  Josh Hayes

  Copyright © by Richard Fox

  All Rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission.

  ASIN:

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Epilogue

  From the Authors

  Read THE EMBER WAR for FREE

  Read BREAKING THROUGH for FREE

  Chapter 1

  “Can you kill that?” Warrant Officer Kit Carson asked, plugging one ear with a finger.

  The blaring alarms in Valiant’s cockpit had been going off one after the other for the last two minutes. Carson stood behind the pilot’s couch, along with her senior non-comm, Master Sergeant West; Jena, the increasingly mysterious Zeis Cleric; Jena’s father, Yentl; and Jerry Hale, the newest member of her Pathfinder team. All of them stood watching their approach to the massive Regulos Judicator ship in front of them.

  Rachel Greer, Valiant’s pilot, tapped her panel with her finger, deactivating the alarms. “I don't get it. It's like several different targeting systems hitting us at the same time, but they're all coming from that ship.”

  “I’ll see if I can just disable the warning system altogether,” said Oscar Lincoln, Valiant’s co-pilot.

  The spherical Regulos ship hung in the void ahead of the Valiant, lights flickering across the surface. The outlines of massive hangar bays dotted the equator, each expelling swarms of fighter drones that flew through space like flocks of birds. Each group was made up of hundreds of droids, moving in almost complete synchronicity. They stretched out from the sphere, then folded back around on themselves, taking another path around the ship, crisscrossing with the other groups.

  The surface wasn’t smooth; rather, it was dotted with clusters of sensor dishes, antennas, and weapons emplacements ranging from cannons to missile launchers. It was obvious this ship had been built for only one reason, and the only question in Carson's mind was where the hell had it been this whole time. If they’d had access to one of these, they wouldn’t need to zip around the galaxy looking for allies. They could just enlist the firepower of one of these and they’d be able to crush the Triumvirate without breaking a sweat.

  So why haven’t they done it already? Carson thought. The question was troubling, but she reasoned that the answer was probably simple enough: the Regulos bureaucracy had prevented it. If this monstrosity was as tied up in regulation and protocol as they’d been on Diasore, it was a complete mystery how they’d grown to the massive strength they’d achieved so far.

  “And I thought the Spirit was big,” West said, grimacing as yet another alarm sounded.

  The Enduring Spirit, the colony ship that had brought the majority of the newest human colonists to this galaxy, was one of the biggest ships mankind had ever created. This Judicator warship dwarfed that ship and Carson had no desire to step inside. Memories of the long, drawn-out process required simply to have a conversation with DIN Governance made her nauseous. She wanted nothing more than to avoid any kind of negotiation process that would most likely lead nowhere at all.

  “Doesn’t matter how big the bat is if you can’t swing it,” Carson said.

  West chuckled. “Got a point, Chief.”

  The alarms stopped and Lincoln leaned back in his seat. “Finally. Talk about redundant systems. That was painful. You’d think one target lock would be sufficient to prove their point.”

  “Par for the course for these characters,” Carson said. “Let’s just hope this Judicator has a little more sense than the Intelligence Nodes we talked with before.”

  “The Judicators are known to be less…bureaucratic than the others of their kind,” Yentl said. Jena’s father stood behind West, his hands clasped behind his back. His pale-blue Cleric tunic hung loose around his athletic frame, unbuttoned at the top, exposing his sepia skin. His shoulder-length red hair framed his face perfectly. If not for his goat-like eyes, the Zeis would’ve looked almost human.

  “That’s not saying a whole lot,” Carson argued. “But I’ll take your word for it.”

  “There are things going on throughout the Regulos Connectivity that are changing the very nature of how it has operated for hundreds of years.”

  Carson frowned. “What kind of things?”

  Yentl shook his head. “Unfortunately, I had to leave the Core before I could uncover that particular mystery. Suffice it to say, the functions of the Regulos are becoming segmented, and the Core’s processes are being systemically corrupted.”

  “Corrupted?” Carson asked.

  “For lack of a better description,” Yentl said, “it’s dying—slowly—but it is. Frankly, with the level of degradation that’s occurred throughout the Regulos society, I’m surprised it hasn’t collapsed under its own weight.”

  “Any theories on why it hasn’t?”

  “Only that it’s extremely hard to stop a behemoth once it’s set on a path. It’s like telling a caldryl where it can and cannot sleep.”

  Carson shuddered at the memory of being almost eaten alive by the massive dragon-like creatures native to the Zeis homeworld. She could still hear the monster coming after her, its roar vibrating in her chest as its claws ripped the shuttle right out from underneath her. She could still smell its breath, feel its powerful wings beating at the air. Every time she closed her eyes, she could see the thing staring right back at her, its fangs opening wide to—

  Another alarm sounded.

  “What the hell, Lincoln? I thought you fixed that,” Greer said, throwing her hands into the air.

  The co-pilot’s fingers danced over the controls as he shook his head. “It’s not a target warning. It’s something else.”

  The deck rocked under their feet, throwing Carson and West into the seats in front of them. Yentl and Jena stumbled forward into them, pinning them against the seatbacks. They quickly righted themselves.

  “The hell?” Greer asked. Several warning panels appeared on her holo display. “They’ve locked on to us with some kind of tractor beam.”

  Carson gripped the back of Greer’s seat. “Can you shut it down or pull out of it?”

  “Main control systems are being infiltrated,” Lincoln advised. “I’m trying to reroute the security systems.”

  Greer gritted her teeth, straining against the controls. “I can’t pull out of it.” She looked back over her shoulder. “Whatever it is, they’ve got us and they’re not letting go.”

  A new voice spoke up amid the confusion. “Can you target the beam emitted and take it out?”

  Everyone seemed to pause and turn to look at Jerry Hale. The oldest of Governor Hale’s two boys, Jerry was the newest member of Carson’s Pathfinder team. His eyes flicked around the cockpit, looking at everyone in turn. He shrugged. “What? Can you not?”

  Lincoln laughed. “You want us to shoot at that?”

  “We don’t have to beat them. All we have to do is get away, right? Valiant’s a fast ship. We could do it.”

  “She’s not that fast
,” Greer said.

  “Speed is irrelevant,” Yentl said. “The Judicator’s reach is, for the most part, infinite. Running will do us no good at all, and shooting at them, well…”

  Carson nodded. “Agreed. We’re here now. For better or for worse, this is what we came out here to do. Besides, the amount of firepower that thing has trumps everything Earth had at the start of the Ember War.”

  “The Judicator is powerful,” Yentl said, “but they’re not without weakness. Be that as it may, I would not recommend firing upon its ship.”

  “Whoa!” Lincoln said, ducking in his seat as a swarm of Regulos fighters rushed past the Valiant’s main viewport. They swirled in the void, the entire group performing a giant corkscrew maneuver as they flew away from the human ship.

  “I’m not going to lie,” West said. “That’s fairly impressive. Their navigational systems must be top-notch.”

  “Looks like we’re being positioned to land in one of those hangar bays,” Greer said, pointing.

  The perimeter of the large rectangular opening along the Judicator ship’s equator was illuminated by long strips of yellow light. A blue haze over the opening flickered every few seconds as lines of white flashed across its surface.

  The swarm of drones that had just passed them formed up around the bay’s entrance, all turning simultaneously to face the Valiant as they approached. Tactical computers identified multiple-beam weapons powering up on each drone, instantly calculating power ratings and projecting damage estimates. Any one of those drones would give Valiant a run for her money, but all of them combined put the ship and her crew at a distinct disadvantage.

  Through the force field, rows of Regulos fighters lined one side of the hangar bay while squadrons of battle droids lined the other. The droids were formed into diamond formations, alternating positions so that each edge matched with the next, creating an interlocking pattern.

  “Those look like the things the Netherguard were fighting on Diasore,” Jerry said.

  “The Judicators are set up to settle disputes,” Yentl said, “one way or another.”

  “So is it kind of like the DIN node on Diasore?” Carson asked.

  Yentl shook his head. “The Judicator is its own entity. It is not a Core Node or an independent node connected to the Regulos network. The five Judicators act entirely separate from the network, so if there's ever a cataclysmic failure of any of the section nodes or even the Core, the primary code and matrix processes are kept alive and functioning. They are the Regulos’s ultimate fail-safes.”

  “Let’s hope he’s open to discussion,” Carson said.

  ****

  The force field flashed blue as they passed through it. Some of Valiant’s systems and lights flickered but immediately returned to normal. The crew watched as they descended toward the expansive deck, which was filled with fighters and Regulos battle droids. An area in the center of the bay had been cleared for their arrival, the perimeter surrounded with what looked like more advanced—and deadlier—battle droids whose frames were a lot taller and beefier than the rest of the assembled droids behind them.

  A two-tone alert chimed and the mechanical whine of Valiant’s landing platforms unfolding from their recesses in the hull reverberated through the cockpit.

  “I didn’t do that,” Lincoln said, holding his hands above his shoulders, frantically looking at his control board.

  “It’s fine,” Carson said. She turned to West. “Come on, let’s get the team loaded up. Proctor Yentl, would you and your daughter join us, please?”

  The Zeis dipped his head, not taking his strange pupils from Carson’s. “We would be honored.”

  The rest of Carson’s team was gathered in Valiant’s main cargo bay, standing around the makeshift command station Elias had erected just in front of their six-wheeled rover. During their time on Yalara, the Zeis homeworld, Elias had been left on the ship and had made good use of his time. With the ship’s crew, Elias had been able to piece together a truly impressive piece of hardware that proved to be a boon for the ship.

  Technical Sergeant Alan Birch stood behind the kid, shaking his head as the youngest Hale boy worked. He looked up when Carson approached, the corners of his mouth curled up in a grin. “You know, I’ve been standing here watching this kid work for about five minutes now and I don’t think he’s said one English word the entire time.”

  “Yes I have,” Elias retorted, not looking up from his screens. “You just don’t understand.” He tapped his display. “Whatever that thing is, it’s producing more electronic signals and network channels than anything I’ve ever seen. The sheer computer power contained in that single ship is more than the entire colony has put together. Maybe even more than the Nodes on Diasore.”

  “So the questions becomes, where was it when the Triumvirate invaded Diasore?” West asked.

  “Beats me,” Elias said, shrugging. “I can tell you, they slipped through all of Valiant’s protective firewalls and were in the system almost immediately. Even the security protocols I established around this station only slowed them down a few seconds. I don’t know if I should be impressed or terrified.”

  The cargo bay’s speakers clicked on and Greer’s voice echoed through the compartment. “Might want to hold on to something back there. We’ll be touching down here in about thirty seconds.”

  At that, Elias looked up from his displays. “We’re setting down?”

  Jerry walked around his brother and slapped him on the back. “Yeah, we’re going to go meet some more alien robot soldiers.”

  “No thanks.” Elias crossed his arms.

  Carson put a hand on the front of the rover as the Valiant rocked underneath her feet. The mechanical locks clanked open at the back of the bay and the ramp began unfolding.

  “We going armed?” Nunez asked, bending over at the waist to see what awaited them outside the ship.

  Carson followed his gaze through the opening and counted four separate groups of battle droids and two rows of the larger droids in front of those. The larger droids had longer limbs and what looked like additional armor plating covering their torsos. Their cylindrical heads had three glowing orbs she guessed were optical sensors.

  She shook her head. “A couple guns aren’t gonna do us any good out there, even if we had the drop on them, which we don’t. Don’t have anywhere to run anyway.”

  Carson led her team and the two Zeis down the ramp onto the deck of the expansive hangar, stopping a few meters away from their ship, and waited. The larger battle droids stood stoically in front of them, lined up shoulder to shoulder.

  Yentl leaned close. “They are infiltration droids repurposed for combat. They are more versatile than the standard model and more heavily armed, but they are still connected to the main processing Node and therefore do not process any singular will.”

  “You’re just full of useful information, aren’t you?” Carson turned back to the formation of Regulos droids. “All right, you’ve brought us here. Now what?”

  None of the droids moved or said a word.

  “What is this, the galaxy’s longest staring contest?” asked Staff Sergeant Luca Moretti, the team’s medic.

  “The Judicator is not present,” Yentl said.

  Carson sighed. “OK, well, we’re here. What’s it waiting—”

  A series of loud mechanical thunks echoed around the bay and a large door on the far side of the bay, behind the rows of battle droids, began to open. It slid up, into the bulkhead, pale-white light streaming in under the bottom. Small clouds of exhaust or steam rolled into the bay as the door opened, revealing a massive bipedal droid with a large barrel chest. Its arms and legs were short compared to the rest of it, its head nothing more than a series of antennas and sensor nodes. It was easily three meters tall; the battle droids it passed only reached its waist.

  “That’s the Judicator,” Yentl said.

  Every step it took into the bay echoed around the chamber. A pale-blue mist rolled out of two exha
ust ports on its back, spreading out along the deck as it walked. The ranks of battle droids parted without a sound, making room for the Judicator to approach their visitors. Four silver and blue infiltrator units followed in its wake, their arms folded up at the elbows, pulse cannons built into their forearms pointing forward.

  The final row of droids parted and the Judicator stomped past, stopping several meters away. It stood there in silence for a moment, as if it was judging them all in turn. After a moment, one of the silver and blue servitor droids stepped around its master and approached Carson and her team. Its hand folded back, exposing several small, barrel-like protrusions on its palm.

  “Oh, that’s it,” Nunez said. “We should’ve brought the gauss rifles. Now we’ve lost our intimidation factor.”

  “No,” Yentl said. “It’s a standard biological scan. The procedure maps you all the way down to the molecular level, breaking down your DNA and mapping out genome sequences.”

  “It scans all that in a matter of seconds?” Moretti asked.

  The droid stopped a foot from Carson, close enough that she could reach out and touch it. It lifted its palm to head level and an orange light emitted from the small sensor cluster embedded in its palm. Carson felt nothing as the orange light passed over her body. A second later, the lights vanished, and the droid’s arms folded back into its original form.

  “I’m sure that most of the Judicator’s data collection was done while we were still in transit,” Yentl said. “These are merely to confirm the original scans.”

  “Previously unrecorded species detected,” came from the massive droid. “Transit warrant information indicates prior contact via the Diasore Intelligence Node. Contact lost with DIN Governance shortly thereafter. Additional navigational information obtained through your ship’s computer systems indicates that you originated in the Segamos system. Exclusion protocols on file indicate a Level 4 containment is in place around this location. You are in violation.”

  Carson couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “Yes, thanks, we know that already. DIN Governance explained all of that to us back on Diasore. Before the Triumvirate destroyed the planet. We didn't have anything to do with that. Governance said it would send an envoy to Terra Nova to investigate my claims.”