The Battle for Eden. Mark E. Burgess

The Battle for Eden - Mark E. Burgess


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      Borgo Press Books by Mark E. Burgess

      The Battle for Eden: The Human-Knacker War, Book Three

      Dog Daze and Cat Naps: A Vet Student’s Odyssey

      The Human-Knacker War Series

      1. Slaughterhouse World, by Ardath Mayhar

      2. Knack’ Attack, by Robert Reginald

      3. The Battle for Eden, by Mark E. Burgess

      Copyright Information

      Copyright © 2012 by Mark E. Burgess

      Published by Wildside Press LLC

      www.wildsidebooks.com

      Dedication

      To my wife, Denise,

      and my daughters, Anna & Sarah,

      without whom life in

      any universe would be empty;

      And my thanks to the legendary Keith

       Laumer, grand marshal of combat science fiction, whose Bolo story “The Last Command” captured my imagination even as a child.

      Chapter One

      When the Knacker invasion ships materialized out of warp dimension into the Solaris II star system, humanity’s space fleet was waiting for them. The decision had been made: no more running before the enemy, no more conceding system after system to the alien marauders from the galactic rim. Here the prey vowed to turn the tide against their tormentors, or to die trying.

      The human ships floated silently in the inky blackness of near space, their sleek, silver predatory shapes glinting in the unfiltered sunlight. Behind and beneath them shimmered the blue and green orb of planet Eden, one of the most earth-like and heavily populated worlds of the human Federation. Whether SpaceForce’s decision to stand and fight was an act of bravery or desperation was debatable, but no one disputed that the human race was running out of choices, running out of places to hide, of planets to retreat to. Humanity was also being pushed back dangerously close to their core worlds, which had to be protected at all costs.

      Simon Roy reflected on this as he waited in his new Avenger class fighter, focusing his anger to help suppress the gnawing fear at the back of his mind. The glowing heads-up display floated ghost-like in front of his eyes, and he scanned it automatically while controlling his breathing. Inhale, exhale, slow and steady, while the small red blips of the enemy ships moved toward the waiting green icons marking the defenders. The alien armada was 40,000 kilometers out and closing fast. Immediately to his port and starboard floated the other members of Alpha fighter squadron, friends and comrades all, many of whom would not see tomorrow.

      The readouts before him told the harsh truth: the human fleet was badly outnumbered. Alone with his thoughts in the stillness before battle, Simon couldn’t shake a feeling of inevitability. Despite SpaceForce’s best efforts, Eden would likely fall today, just as with every other planet the aliens had set their sights on. If only humanity had had more time to prepare, to build ships, to develop better battle tech, then they might have been able to repel the invaders, push them back, even retake the worlds that held human populations. For truth be told, the outlying planets already overrun by the Crabs (as humans called them) had not been devastated. To the contrary, the habitat of each conquered world was left intact by the aliens, aside from the violence required to subdue the resident populations. The invaders destroyed key defensive installations, and disabled the infrastructure that modern civilization depended on. Each planet’s military was overrun, its communication networks and power grids shattered. After that, the Crabs methodically “harvested” the helpless inhabitants, filling their ships’ holds with living humans to process at facilities on distant worlds. Given enough time, the marauders would reduce a planet’s population by 70% or more before leaving for better hunting elsewhere.

      The destinations of the loaded Knacker freighters were mostly unknown, but humans had discovered a few of the factory-planets used by the aliens, and Simon knew that what they had found was a horror show of unthinkable proportions. The Crabs’ processing centers were nothing less than planet-wide abattoirs that worked day and night skinning, slicing, cooking, and packaging their prey into convenient foods for the Knacker swarm.

      He sighed, his exhale sounding hollow within the helmet of his environment suit, and reached his gloved hand out to touch the photo pasted to the ship’s control panel. The faces of a pretty, dark-haired woman holding a young girl smiled out at him, and a flicker of sadness touched his face. His wife and child were only memories now, part of the multitude of humanity that had been swept away in this thrice-damned war. The thought of them being served as hors d’oeuvres in a Knacker buffet kindled a burn deep inside him that had never extinguished. At this point he had nothing to lose, did not even particularly care if he lived or died, as long as he could take a few of the hated Crabs with him.

      His expression hardened as he turned his attention back to the view outside his craft. Simon knew where the enemy should appear, from almost straight ahead of his current position, but the endless depths of space could swallow a thousand ships and reveal nothing. At least this battle would play out on the day side of the planet, so the sun’s rays would highlight the combatants. Simon disliked engagements fought in deep space or in a planet’s shadow, where you couldn’t see friend or foe except on instrument display, unless a thruster fired or a ship exploded. And if you lost your sensors while battling in that endless black, you were blind, a sitting target. Today he would fight in the light, and he would give the Crabs reason to fear.

      There!

      He caught a flicker of motion in the distance, and the speck grew rapidly even as he watched. Other shapes appeared to both sides of the first ship as the shrinking distance revealed smaller vessels. The helmet speaker crackled and his commander’s voice spoke crisply, “This is Colonel Hastings aboard the destroyer Xerxes. Heads up, everyone. Bogies at one o’clock and closing. Looks like eight or ten destroyers, three carriers, and a whole crapload of fighters. Our task is simple: engage the enemy at will when in range. Alpha and Gamma fighter squadrons, provide fire cover for our carriers and destroyers. Beta and Delta squadrons are free to range wherever you find enemy fighters. Avoid their destroyers; their antispacecraft systems will pick you off. Leave the big boys to us. Good luck, and may the gods of battle favor us this day.”

      Simon’s hands flew over the controls in front of him, bringing his ride to life, and he felt more than heard the deep hum resonating through the ship’s hull as the fighter powered up. Scarcely had he completed the startup routine when the sky around him lit up with a brilliant blue-white flash. To his starboard side the huge bulk of the destroyer Xerxes had unleashed its forward energy cannons. The windows of Simon’s small craft instantly cycled dark to cut the glare, and he was able to see the second salvo clearly. Twin beams of coherent energy, each more than a meter in thickness, lanced from the bow of the human destroyer and leapt across the void separating the two fleets. They appeared to impact one of the largest enemy vessels in the far distance. A brief flash obscured the target, but when the glare faded, the opposing ship was still advancing, with no damage visible to the naked eye.

      The apparent futility of the human barrage was expected, and he wasted not a microsecond of his attention on it. Major Simon Roy was a veteran of five heavy naval engagements with the Crabs. He knew that these initial salvos were simply saber-rattling, as well as a preliminary testing of targeting systems and armament. There was always the chance of a lucky shot knocking out an enemy’s sensor array or maneuvering thrusters, but mostly the ships were getting a feel for each other as they closed to effective striking range. Then things would get serious.

      The other human destroyers, five in all, joined in the assault, and energy beams filled the void as the two forces continued on a collision course. The blunt-nosed Knacker vessels, nearly twice the size of their SpaceForce counterparts, were now returning fire, and their energy bolts came fast and accurate, each hitting a human ship dead center before winking out a second later. The Crabs possessed the superior military technology. Their energy projection weapons produced a beam more coherent than that of the humans, with less bleed-off over vast distances,


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