The Veil Rising Read online

  The Veil Rising

  Star Guild Episodes 1 - 9

  Brandon Ellis

  First Edition, January 2015

  Copyright © 2015 All Rights Reserved

  www.brandon-ellis.com

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  DBGregg, Executive Editor

  [email protected]

  Proof Edit by Karen Lieberman

  Proof Readers in Alphabetical Order

  Katie Aborn-Milojevic

  Chris Bailey

  Lynda Lanza French

  Allison Parker

  Jill Powell

  Elizabeth Gregg

  Chrissa Syverson

  Created with Vellum

  Episode 1

  The Attack

  Location: Andarta System, Circinus Galaxy, 832 year cycle of Starbase Matrona's orbit around Planet Lumus

  Year: Unknown

  Approximation to Earth: Unknown

  Present Human Knowledge of Earth: None

  Fleet Admiral James Byrd was on vacation, sitting on a blanket in the middle of a plush green meadow. It was something he'd not experienced in several years. He took a deep breath, thoroughly enjoying the first few minutes of an anticipated two weeks of bliss. Leisurely, he looked down at a gold pendant he’d been holding in his hand, carefully eying the mystical figures carved within it. There were two men riding one horse, both carrying a spear and shield. The pendant had belonged to his grandfather, so he pulled it to his heart and held it there for several moments, revisiting a memory with fondness. Then carefully, he returned it to his pocket and raised a glass of lemonade to his lips. Suddenly, the ground shuddered violently, splashing the lemonade down his chest.

  The ground shook again. The admiral instinctively dropped to the ground, gripping the grass near the edge of his blanket, the best he could do. When the shuddering stopped, he started to push himself off the ground but paused, making eye contact with a deer frozen with fear at the edge of the forest.

  “What the...?” Tossed onto his back with another tremor, his eyes remained oddly fixed on the deer as it panicked and dashed into the forest. A moment later, the ground was still as silence hung in the meadow.

  The admiral stood up, wondering about the source of the quakes. He was wiping the lemonade from his clothing when he heard heavy footsteps from behind. Before he could turn around to see who was approaching, he was thrown off his feet by another shudder.

  Landing hard on his back, he heard the cracks and pops of bones absorbing the impact. He lay still for a moment, staring at the sky as he waited for the ground to stop shaking. When it did, he wiggled his toes and hands. There was sensation there. He sighed, furrowing his brow, his heart pounding rapidly within his chest as he took a deep breath. Without looking, he rolled onto his side, but was startled to find himself staring at a black boot next to his face.

  A voice from above said, “Admiral, we have a problem.”

  His eyes followed the boot up the seam of a pant leg to recognize a dark blue Star Guild uniform. A young woman's face with hazel eyes was staring down at him, her brown hair stuck to her forehead as if she'd been running. The admiral stiffened as a heavy feeling churned in his stomach. “Lieutenant Eden? Why are you here? What the hell is going on?”

  The lieutenant shook her head as she extended a hand. She winced because of his strong grip, especially at his age. She also grunted as she leaned back, pulling him quickly to his feet.

  “The fleet is under attack, sir.”

  Dusting himself off, the admiral frowned. “Is this a joke?”

  Eden returned his frown. “I'm afraid not, sir.” She grabbed his arm and started him into a run, guiding and pulling toward the forest.

  The admiral suddenly stopped and yanked his arm away. “Explain to me why we—”

  Another jolt rocked the area, but it was slight enough to allow them to maintain their balance.

  The admiral looked into Eden's eyes, stern and unmoving. “Am I the subject of a prank?”

  She quickly shook her head. “No. We have to get going, sir!”

  Another blast shook the ground, knocking the admiral to a knee. Eden grabbed his shirt, forcing him up. “We need to get you to your vehicle and the flight deck immediately.”

  The admiral paused, running his hands through his thick but graying hair. His mind raced. None of this was making any sense. He waved a hand, trying to dismiss everything as nonsense, thinking it had to be some type of simulation programmed into this biosphere. Then he smiled and chuckled. “Tell me, then, who would be attacking us?”

  He could see fear in the eyes of Lieutenant Eden. The admiral couldn't help but feel a sudden chill move from her to him. He dropped his smile. There was something going on. “They came at us quickly, sir.”

  He pounded his fist against his hand. “Who, dammit! Who?”

  She shook her head. Her breath was quick and short. “We just saw it as a blip on the hologram, then more blips, then more. There were hundreds of them, maybe thousands—flying craft we'd never seen before. When our sensors detected that they were armed and targeting us, we didn't know what to do. They fired, so we fired back. We're still firing at each other.” She hesitated, observing the horror sweeping over Admiral Byrd's face. She closed her eyes, not wanting to see his next expression as she stated, “Starship Contrebis is down and Starship Sirona has taken heavy damage, many casualties, and—”

  He interrupted by grabbing her shoulders, shaking her. “Slow down, Lieutenant, and back up - what do you mean, Starship Contrebis is down?”

  “Gone, sir.”

  His eyes widened. “What? Destroyed?!”

  Eden nodded her head, and this time it was the admiral grabbing her arm, pulling her into a run and practically dragging her into the forest. “We have to get out of this biosphere and onto my starship!”

  Jumping over logs, dodging branches and tromping through bushes, they made their way to a central door with Admiral Byrd yelling, “Open!”

  The door slid open vertically, allowing them to exit the biosphere to enter one of many roadways spread throughout the starbase—a starbase the size and shape of a moon. His vehicle was parked directly across from the door, with Eden's parked just behind. The road was empty, so he dashed across the street to an oval-shaped hover car again shouting “open!” He jumped in, gripped the steering wheel with one hand while pressing the ignition with the other, firing up the ion drives. He rose to a hover and looked behind to see Eden jumping into her vehicle. He gave her a wave to hurry as he pressed his foot on the pedal. He sped toward Flight Deck 21, thinking he had to get off the starbase to assess a situation never before assessed, and to fend off an attack for which they had never trained.

  ∞

  Chief Petty Officer Crystal McCoy stood inside of her two ton, twelve foot Mech that was appropriate for the intense gravity of the dwarf planet being mined, planet Lumus. Her body was just under half the size of her Mech, allowing enough room for comfort within its cockpit. In these types of environments, especially on a larger dwarf planet such as Lumus, the gravity was too intense to sustain life, thus making these bulky Mechs necessary. Nonetheless, she'd rather be somewhere else. Working another day inside one of these blasted, stifling Mechs wasn't her cup of tea, to say the least.

  She swung her arm forward, making the Mech's arm mimic her own movement. Then she placed her Mech's thick, metallic fingers around a long, vertical twisting rock known as ebb—a heavy, dark gray ore that, when melted and cooled, created the
most durable metal known to humankind. All Star Guild spacecraft, and even Crystal’s Mech, were made of this substance.

  Moving the Mech's other hand, she grabbed the ebb, broke off a chunk and threw it into a metallic hover cart floating next to her Mech. If she could hear anything outside of her sound proofed cockpit, it would be the deafening sounds of rock pounding against the metal of the cart that would eventually wear her ear drums deaf.

  Lifting the Mech's arms again, she broke off another piece and tossed it into the cart. She did this over and over again, frequently looking at the time on the HDC, the Holographic Display Console, just below the large cockpit window in front of her, counting the minutes until quitting time.

  Finally filling her cart to the brim, she blinked several times, trying to get some stinging sweat out of her eyes. She glanced at the clock again. Only an hour left.

  “Complete,” she called. Instantly, the hover cart moved forward, zipping ahead at a high rate of speed toward a large warehouse a mile away.

  Crystal watched through the Mech's window as the cart maneuvered around brownish-red boulders, successfully missing any obstacles in its way. She chewed her lower lip, hoping for the worst, for a little drama. She wished that at least for once she could see the hover cart crash, smash into bits tossing ebb everywhere against the rocks and exploding into dust. But, she knew that would never happen because it never had before, but a little change would be nice.

  She surveyed the monotonous landscape, waiting for the next hover cart to appear by her side. “Next,” she ordered. When, after several minutes, no hover cart appeared, she blew air out of her mouth, knowing that Hendricks, who was in the Mech several yards behind her, was being slow, as usual.

  Hanging her head, she refrained from yelling at him for the moment, instead staring at the fading light over the horizon. The sky was a canvas of purples and pinks. It was beautiful, and perhaps the only thing attractive about this planet. The rest of this world was way too still for her taste. There were no trees, no vegetation, and no wind. There was never any wind, which had baffled her for many years. Something had to have carved these twisting rock formations. She had heard scientists speculating about the spiraled rocks being formed by massive rivers that once flowed throughout the planet, yet she’d never seen any water sources, anywhere. However, she knew that large underground lakes existed within the planet, providing her crew and the rest of the fleet with an unlimited supply of fresh water.

  She took a deep breath, whispering, I hate this job. She shrugged. At least she wasn't on the hydro drilling crew watching water being sucked up giant tubes all day long.

  Water.

  She pressed her lips against a soft tube hanging from the ceiling and sucked down a few chugs. Clearing her throat, she pressed the Mech's parrot switch to the off position. Brushing auburn hair out of her blue eyes, she yelled, “Next!”

  When nothing arrived, she pressed the parrot switch back on and turned her torso, causing the Mech to do a torso twist. About fifty yards behind her stood Hendricks' Mech, oddly tilting its head toward the sky.

  “Dammit, Hendricks! Stop daydreaming and get back to work.”

  “Uh,” replied Hendricks over the com link, his voice quiet. “You better take a look at what I'm seeing, Chief.”

  She sighed. You idiot, Hendricks. Why do I have to play this sight-seeing game with you all the time?

  Crystal tilted her head, causing the Mech's head to do the same. She was expecting to ask Hendricks about what she was supposed to be seeing. Perhaps it was another mythical elephant cloud formation that he always talked about, or maybe a cloud that looked like a snow man like the ones everyone used to make as a child back on Starbase Matrona.

  Crystal, however, saw something entirely different. In fact, there were no clouds in the sky at all, and when she saw what Hendricks was gazing at her jaw dropped. Up above, higher than the atmosphere, was Starbase Matrona. This was a normal sight, since the starbase had been acting much like a daytime moon for this planet for over 800 years. However, what was occurring on Matrona, and around it, wasn't normal at all.

  Explosions?

  “Are you seeing what I'm seeing?” asked Hendricks, his worry piercing through the com link. “What do you think is happening, Chief?”

  Crystal didn't want to say the first thing that popped into her mind because it couldn't be, but the words slipped out of her mouth anyway, as if this type of event occurred every day.

  “Someone's attacking us.”

  “What?” asked Hendricks. “Who would attack Matrona?” Hendricks laughed.

  “Chief!” said a woman's voice over the com link. “Look up!”

  “I am, Daf.” replied Crystal.

  “What's going on up there?” asked Daf.

  “Daf, where are you positioned?”

  “Two clicks to the east of you, gathering ebb at the Androse Quarry.” There was a pause as they all stared at the colored explosions bursting above Starbase Matrona. “Chief, what are we looking at?”

  A drop of sweat poured down Crystal's cheek, falling from her chin to her chest. She didn't know how to answer Daf's question and she didn't want to answer it the same way she had with Hendricks. “Daf, listen to me. I need you to gather up the rest of Mech Team 11 and get them back to the warehouse, a-sap.” Keeping her voice calm, she continued, “Hendricks and I will meet you there soon.”

  “But, what's up with—”

  “That's an order!” snapped Crystal, her eyes full of concern and staring at what looked like a red and yellow fireworks display surrounding Matrona.

  “Roger that, Chief!” responded Daf, clicking off her com link.

  Crystal pulled her eyes from the starbase and focused on the mountains of dark gray ebb and red rock lying in front of her. She had to get to the warehouse to contact Command. There had to be a realistic explanation for what she saw happening to her home. It couldn't be an attack. No, that would be ridiculous. She shook her head and almost laughed, remembering her response to Hendricks' question only moments ago. Still, it was baffling. What were they doing up there? Was Star Guild practicing a new type of war game? She shook her head, knowing she had too much experience in the military to know how that couldn’t be the case. She started moving toward the warehouse, pounding the Mech's legs forward into a run and moving quickly across the terrain, not caring if she trampled important mounds of vertically twisting ebb.

  Bounding along and running at the same pace for several minutes, she suddenly heard Hendricks’ heavy breathing over the com link. She pursed her lips and crinkled her brow. “Hendricks, calm down. It's probably nothing.”

  The breathing got even heavier, then loud clanks filled Crystal's com link, making her wince. What the hell? “Hendricks! That's annoying! Turn off your com link until you've settled down.”

  “Chief! Chief! Something is after me! I can't—”

  Several more clanks sounded through the com link, then silence. “Hendricks? You there? Hendricks?”

  When there was no reply, Crystal stopped her Mech and spun around. She gasped. A billow of smoke was rising from a pile of metal not more than twenty yards away. It was Hendricks' Mech, or what was left of it. An instant later, the rocky ground near the destroyed Mech burst into projectiles of rock, creating a hot, molten explosion. Crystal reacted by covering her eyes, with her Mech imitating her movement.

  Finally lowering her arm, she saw that Hendricks' Mech had been blown into small bits littering the ground in flames. Crystal held her breath, her thoughts scrambled, trying to cope with what she was seeing.

  “Hendricks?”

  When no one replied, she knew she wasn’t witnessing an illusion, nor was it the drama on Lumus that she had wished for. Hendricks was dead and she froze, feeling rooted to the ground. She held back a scream. Then her eyes widened in alarm as she realized that she was probably next. She had to hide–flee! She had to do anything but remain here.

  Crystal twisted her Mech back around, running
it as fast as it would go. But, when she glanced at her heat gauge she saw that her efforts were too much for the Mech, that it was about to overheat and then it would shut itself down. She slowed the Mech to a jog and her breaths were now heavy, just like Hendricks.

  Opening all com channels, her voice boomed over the com lines. “If anyone can hear me, get out of here! Get out now! Find cover where you can - Hendricks is dead and we're under attack!”

  A burst of flame erupted in front of her, forcing her to turn sharply, doing her best to avoid a direct hit. A second later, another blast hit the Mech's inner leg, causing Crystal's Mech to lose balance. She struggled to keep it upright, but the force was too much and the Mech fell on its side; smashing onto rocky ground and tumbling forward, until a large piece of ebb crushed against her window, cracking the glass as her Mech flipped over like a crab on its back.

  The Mech shook and then hissed. Steam filled the cockpit, covering the window and blinding Crystal from seeing anything outside of it. Disoriented, adrenaline pulsed through her body, making her stomach burn nervously. She shook her head back and forth, trying to gather her senses.

  What the hell? Focus, Crystal, focus...get this Mech up and go!

  Turning the parrot switch back on, she moved her arms, expecting the Mech to do the same, but the Mech didn't move. Checking the switch to see that it was indeed on, she attempted to move the Mech again, with no response. Looking at the HDC, she parted her lips and her shoulders sagged. Her Mech was dead.

  She screamed, kicking at the column supporting the HDC. “Turn on, dammit!” She hit the console, causing it to blip on for just a moment, then it blipped off. She spoke into the com link. “Open all lines.”

  There was a crackle of static that faded. The Mech was non-functional, and a non-functional Mech wasn't a good thing to have on this planet, especially while being attacked—not that being attacked had ever happened before.