Star Guild: Episodes 1 - 3 (Star Guild Saga)



  Star Guild

  Special Edition

  Episodes 1 & 2

  A NOVELLA

  by

  Brandon Ellis

  Copyright 2013 by Brandon Ellis

  First Edition, December 2013

  Copyright © 2013 by Brandon Ellis

  www.brandon-ellis.com

  No part of this publication may be reproduced,

  stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any

  form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,

  photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without

  prior written permission from the author.

  ISBN: 978-1494412975

  Book Cover by Brandon Ellis

  Editing by DBGregg

  [email protected]

  Proof Readers in alphabetical order:

  Chris Bailey

  Lynda Lanza French

  Katie Aborn-Milojevic

  Chrissa Syverson

  Dedication:

  To my son, Hunter. I love you so much!

  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

  Admiral James Byrd was on vacation, something he had not experienced for several years. Taking a deep breath and enjoying his first minutes of an anticipated two weeks of bliss, he sat on his red blanket while viewing the beautiful meadow surrounding him. Leisurely, he looked down at a gold pendant he’d been holding in his hand and carefully eyed the mystical figures embroidered within it. There were two men riding one horse, both carrying a spear and shield. It was his grandpa's pendant, given to him as a child. He brought the pendant to his heart, holding it there for several moments. Then, carefully placing the pendant back into his pocket, he raised a glass of lemonade to his lips with his other hand. Suddenly, the ground shuddered violently, causing him to drop the glass, spilling lemonade down the front of his shirt.

  The ground shook again, not allowing the admiral time to think as he automatically braced himself and gripped the grass near the edge of his blanket and feeling as though he could be lifted up and thrown across the field at any moment. An instant later, the shuddering stopped.

  Loosening his grip from the grass and leaning forward, he pressed his palms against the ground to get up. He paused, making eye contact with a deer frozen with fear at the edge of the forest.

  “What the...?” Tossed onto his back as another tremor picked up strength, he was oddly able to keep his eyes fixed on the deer as it panicked and raced into the forest. A moment later, the ground was still, and silence hung in the meadow.

  Admiral Byrd, wondering what could be causing the quakes, stood up quickly and swiped lemonade off his clothing when he heard heavy footsteps approaching from behind. Before he could turn around to see who belonged to the footsteps, he was thrown off his feet again by another shudder.

  Landing hard on his back, he heard the cracks and pops of bones absorbing and adjusting from the impact. He lay there for a moment, staring at the sky, waiting 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, and took a deep breath. Without looking, he rolled onto his side. Dirt and grass fell out of his hair and he 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, recognizing a dark blue Star Guild uniform. A young woman's face with hazel eyes stared down at him, her brown hair sticking to her forehead as if she had been running for a while. The admiral stiffened and 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 reached out her hand. He grasped it and Eden visibly raised her eyebrows because of his strong grip, especially at his age. She leaned back, grunting against his weight, as she helped pull him 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 to run, guiding and pulling him toward the forest.

  The admiral pulled his arm away. “Explain to me why we—”

  A jolt rocked the area, but it was slight, allowing them to keep their balance.

  The admiral looked into Eden's eyes. He was 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 one knee. Eden grabbed his shirt, forcing him up. “We must 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. As his brows arched he waved a hand, trying to dismiss everything as nonsense, thinking it had to be some type of simulation programmed into this biosphere. He smiled and chuckled. “Tell me, then, who would be attacking us?”

  There was fear in her eyes and the admiral couldn't help but feel a sudden chill move from her to him. He dropped his smile. There was something going on. Eden gave a sour look. “They came at us quickly, sir!”

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

  She shook her head and 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 crafts 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 suddenly sweeping over Admiral Byrd's face. She closed her eyes, not wanting to see his next expression as she said, “Starship Contrebis is down and Starship Sirona has taken heavy damage, many casualties and—”

  He interrupted by grabbing her shoulders and 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, practically dragging her through the meadow and into the forest. “We have to get out of this biosphere immediately, and onto my starship!”

  Jumping over forest logs, dodging low lying branches and moving around bushes, they made their way to a central door. Admiral Byrd yelled, “Open!”

  The central door slid open vertically, allowing them to exit the biosphere, entering onto one of many large roadways spread throughout the starbase—a starbase the size and shape of a moon. Parked along the roadway, his vehicle sat directly across from the door, with Eden's parked just behind his. Seeing that the road was empty, he dashed across the street to his oval-shaped hover car, shouted “open!” and jumped in. Gripping the steering wheel with one hand and pressing the ignition with the other, he fired up the ion drives and rose into a hover just a few feet in the air. Looking behind him, he saw Eden jumping into her vehicle. He waved for her to hurry, then pressed his foot on the pedal and sped toward Flight Deck 21. He had to get off this starbase to assess the situation—a situation he'd never assessed before, and an attack for which they had never trained.

  ∞

  Chief Petty Officer Crystal McCoy stood inside her two ton, twelve foot Mech Sui
t, which was appropriate for the intense gravity of the dwarf planet she was on, planet Lumus. Her body was just under half the suit's size, allowing her enough room to be comfortable in the suit's cockpit. In these types of environments, especially on a larger dwarf planet such as Lumus, gravity was too intense, making these bulky Mech Suits necessary for the outdoors. 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 brought 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 which, when melted and cooled, created the most durable metal known to humankind. All Star Guild spacecraft, and even the Mech that Crystal was inside of, were made out of this very substance.

  Moving the Mech's other arm, she grasped the ebb, broke off a chunk, and threw it into a large, metallic hover cart floating next to her Mech. If she could hear anything outside of her sound proof suit, she'd hear the deafening sounds of rock pounding against the metal of the cart, eventually wearing her ear drums deaf. A good reason the cockpit of the Mech being sound proofed.

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

  Throwing the last bit of ebb into the