Exodus: Empires at War: Book 05 - Ranger Read online

  Exodus: Empires at War:

  Book 5

  Ranger

  by

  Doug Dandridge

  She climbed the last meter, looking over the rocks while exposing as little of her face as possible. There were now three people at the entrance, all male. A fourth male was returning from the spring, a full water container in his hand. She studied the men, still not sure what to make of them. That they were using the refuge her family put together went without question. That would not be a problem, since her family had not come, but she still needed it.

  She saw another man come out of the cave, this one in partial light battle armor, the type the planetary militia wore. That gave her a bit more hope. If they were militia they would surely have an officer, or at least an NCO, in charge. With that thought she scrambled up the last bit of slope and rose into sight.

  The men at the cave all jumped and pointed, and some weapons made their appearance. They calmed a bit as they saw that she was just a child. She didn’t like some of the looks that came across the faces of the group. They made her distinctly uncomfortable.

  “Where the hell did you come from, girl?” asked the oldest looking of the men, one wearing the torso covering of light battle armor and a partial helmet.

  “From the jungle,” she said, her eyes looking for a way out, just in case this had been as bad a decision as it was now looking. She looked back at the man. “This place was my family’s. We set it up when the aliens came.”

  “And where is this family of yours?”

  “They didn’t make it. Are you militia? My father is a reserve officer. Is there any way you can contact him?”

  “We were militia,” said the man with a sneer. “Until those sons of bitches wanted to throw us away trying to slow them down, for no damned reason. Now we’re on our own.”

  Deserters, she thought with a shudder. What the hell did I get myself into?

  “How old are you, girl?” asked another of the men, moving toward her.

  “Ten,” she said, lying, hoping that they would decide she was too young for whatever game they wanted to play.

  “You look a lot older than that, girl,” said the older man who seemed to be in charge. “We don’t have any women here. And you sure could fill the bill.”

  Thoughts of gang rape started to go through her head, and she started to back toward the place where she had climbed onto the small plateau.

  “You stop right there, girl,” said the man, pulling a pistol from the holster at his side. “We won’t hurt you, not really. You play with us, we’ll make sure you’re protected and fed.”

  Rebecca knew about sex. She had learned about it in biology courses. And she knew she was too young, and didn’t want to have anything to do with it at her age. She would become a sex slave to these men, all of them using her whenever they wanted. Her internal nanites would keep her from getting pregnant, and protect her from disease. Still, the idea of being used by these deserters was not her first choice, or her last.

  “Stop,” said the man, pointing the pistol at her. “If you take another step I will shoot you.”

  And he doesn’t know I’m wearing a military class survival suit, she thought, looking at the pistol, then at the nearby rocks. They also don’t know what kind of weapon I have.

  With that last thought she dove for the ground. Something smacked into her suit, which went rigid from the impact. Rolling over she came to a stop behind the rocks and pulled her particle beam pistol from its holster. A flick of her finger and the weapon’s accelerator started humming and whining.

  “Come out of there and you won’t be hurt,” yelled the leader. “Make us come for you and it will go hard for you.”

  I can imagine, she thought, checking the pistol and seeing that the proton charge was up to full acceleration.

  One man came around the rocks and caught the particle beam in the chest. The nearly relativistic particles ripped into his body and vaporized kilograms of tissue, dropping him into a smoking heap on the ground.

  Rebecca stared at the man for a moment. She had never killed a human. She had of course killed a Ca’cadasan, and many animals, but never another human being. She thought that she should have felt shock. Instead it was rage that was the dominant emotion. Rage that these people had made her a killer of her own kind.

  “Fuck you,” she yelled out, looking around the rock and leveling her weapon at the cave mouth. A half dozen shocked looking men stood there, some pointing weapons her way. A couple fired, the worst thing they could have done.

  The girl pulled the trigger on the pistol and held it down, swinging the beam across the mouth of the cave. Three men went down with catastrophic wounds while the others ran into the cave. The beam tore into the rock, shattering large pieces that fell into the mouth.

  “This is mine,” she yelled, still holding the trigger down even when the weapon stopped firing. “I will be back, and I want you gone.”

  She wasn’t sure that was the truth, but in her anger she wanted to panic them. She looked down at the pistol, afraid that she had broken something, and was relieved to see that the blinking light indicated that the proton pack was empty. She only had one left, and she cursed herself for a fool for letting her anger rule her.

  Rebecca slipped back over the lip of the plateau and started down the slope. Her shoulder blades cringed at the thought that the men might come out of the cave and shoot at her from above. Her suit might protect her from a few shots, but with enough there was sure to be a hit to her head, or a penetration of the suit.

  She reached bottom without incident, saying a prayer of thanks before she realized what she was doing. Stopping for a moment, she looked back up at the mountain, wondering what she was going to do now that the refuge was closed to her. I could wait and see if they leave, she thought, rejecting that idea as soon as she had it. They might never leave, and she wasn’t sure she could force herself into another firefight. Having to fire back was one thing. Starting a battle in which she intended to kill other humans was quite another.

  Rebecca shook her head, knowing that waiting here was not the answer. But where to from here? She checked the map and saw that there were several villages and a minor town within five days walk. There was no guarantee that they were intact, or that she would be able to shelter there if they were. Seeing no other option, she took a compass reading, set her location on the inertial navigation device, and started on her way.

  Dedication

  This novel is dedicated to writer Kevin J Anderson, whom I met at Dragon*Con 2013. You are an inspiration to me, showing this writer that the future is full of unlimited promise to those willing to work for it.

  Contact me at [email protected]

  Follow my Blog at http://dougdandridge.com

  Follow me at @BrotherofCats

  Copyright © 2013 Doug Dandridge

  All rights reserved.

  Please respect the hard work of this author. If you found this book for free on a pirate site, please visit Amazon and buy a copy of your own. I feel that I charge a reasonable price for this work.

  For more information on the Exodus Universe, visit http://dougdandridge.net for maps, sketches and other details of this work.

  Acknowledgements: I would like to thank all of my fans, especially those who sent emails or commented on blogs about how much they enjoyed the first four books of this series. Your kind words gave me the impetus to continue through the not so kind words left in some reviews. And special thanks to Ruth de Jauregui, who helped with the covers on all of the Exodus series. Her changes improved all of the covers.

  Note for Fans.

  I have received s
ome feedback from fans that stated they preferred space action to ground action. I write both in this series. I felt that Cornelius needed to have a book written about his entry into the world of Special Ops, where he will continue to rise through the war, as early in the series as possible. I have big plans for the boy. That said, the next couple of books in the series will be predominantly space action, which does not mean there will not be some political intrigue and ground combat. Future books will focus on whatever aspect of the war I feel needs more development, but all will contain at least some space action.

  Books by Doug Dandridge

  Doug Dandridge’s Author Page at Amazon

  Science Fiction

  The Exodus Series

  Exodus: Empires at War: Book 1

  Exodus: Empires at War: Book 2

  Exodus: Empires at War: Book 3: The Rising Storm.

  Exodus: Empires at War: Book 4: the Long Fall.

  The Deep Dark Well Series

  The Deep Dark Well

  To Well and Back

  Deeper and Darker (coming Winter 2014)

  Others

  The Shadows of the Multiverse

  Diamonds in the Sand

  The Scorpion

  Afterlife

  We Are Death, Come for You

  Fantasy

  The Refuge Series

  Refuge: The Arrival: Book 1

  Refuge: The Arrival: Book 2

  Refuge: Book 3: The Legions

  Doppelganger: A Novel of Refuge

  Others

  The Hunger

  Daemon

  Aura

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  Cast of Characters

  Cornelius Walborski: Former farmer on planet Sestius, where he distinguished himself by killing a score of larger, stronger Ca’cadasans in the jungle. Holder of the Imperial Medal of Heroism and currently a soldier in the Imperial Army.

  Sean Ogden Lee Romanov: Sean I, Emperor of the New Human Empire after the assassination of his parents and older brothers. Supreme ruler of the Empire in time of War.

  Doctor Jennifer Conway: The Royal Consort, Sean’s lover, as well as his personal physician.

  Rebecca Goldman: Twelve year old resident of planet Azure in Sector Four, the most active sector of the war.

  Benjamin Goldman: Rebecca’s six year old brother.

  Captain Joseph Goldman: Rebecca and Benjamin’s father. A civilian Engineer on Azure with a reserve commission in the Imperial Army.

  Sergeant Devera Sutton: Imperial Army Physical Therapist.

  Prime Hunt Leader Sybalis: Leader of the Maurid contingent to the Ca’cadasan Ground Force on Azure.

  Ted Stephenson: Retired Naval Commando and Engineer, friend of Joseph Goldman, and a tracker and hunter in the jungles of Azure.

  Brigadier General Walther Jodel: Preacher. Legend in the Imperial Army Ranger Community, and friend and mentor to Cornelius.

  Doctor Lucille Yu: Director of the Donut Project.

  Sergeant Chantamurta: Ranger Team Leader.

  Staff Sergeant McAllister: Ranger Squad Leader.

  Sergeant First Thorwaldson Ranger Platoon Sergeant.

  Lieutenant Schwarz: Ranger Platoon Leader.

  Lt. Colonel Su: CO, First of the Three Eighty-Seventh Rangers.

  And many other minor characters.

  Prologue

  “To put it bluntly, your Majesty, they are beating the hell out of us,” said former CNO Gabriel Len Lenkowski. “Until we can concentrate a large enough force to oppose them in Sector Four, we will continue to get beat.”

  “What about the new technologies?” asked the young leader of the New Terran Empire, Sean Ogden Lee Romanov. “What about the new ships coming off the line? Most of those will be hyper VII. That should bring us up to parity. And the wormholes should give us an advantage.”

  “All very true, your Majesty,” agreed the Grand High Admiral of the Imperial Fleet, at least for the moment, until he took his new assignment as the head of the new Battle Fleet. “But new tech takes time to integrate, and it doesn’t always work as advertised, at least not at first. And we still have hyper VI ships coming off the docks. Even our hyper VIIs won’t have the same capabilities as their ships.”

  “So what about the wormholes?” asked Sean, looking at the faces at the table one by one.

  “We don’t have enough of them to make that much of a difference, yet,” said Lady Hannah, the Minister of War.

  Sean looked at her intently. Lady Hannah had come up through the ranks in the Imperial Marines, unwilling to use her social rank to get ahead. She had retired as a Lt. General before getting into politics, and from there to the Cabinet. As such she was much respected by the military.

  “Eventually, we will have enough of them to really use them to their advantages. Right now they give us some advantages with long term com, and moving personnel from one place to another.”

  “And what about the Stealth/Attack ships?”

  “Those are working marvelously with their wormhole heat sinks and com,” said the Minister of War. “But again, we just don’t have enough of them. There are a hundred programs demanding wormholes, and we don’t have enough for all of them.”

  “Any thoughts, Mishori,?” asked the Emperor of Grand Marshal Mishori Yamakuri, the Army Chief of Staff.

  “There’s nothing much we can do, your Majesty, except reinforce those systems most likely to be attacked,” said the small head of the Imperial Army. “Unfortunately, until the Fleet gets us to where we can launch invasions, we are pretty much helpless to do anything else.”

  “And that won’t come for some years, if ever,” said Lenkowski, frowning over at his Army counterpart.

  “Not meaning any disrespect,” said the Grand Marshal, bowing to the CNO. “But it is a fact we will be fighting a defensive battle for quite some time.”

  “I want to hit them on the planets they’ve already taken,” said Sean, turning all the attention in the room back to himself. “The people on Sestius told me that they are not as good of ground warriors as we are. So that is where we need to hit them.”

  “The problem, your Majesty,” said Lenkowski, looking at the others for confirmation, “is getting troops onto those planets. Any ships we tried to send into an occupied system would be destroyed before they could deliver the troops to the planet. And they, meaning the ships, would never get away.”

  Sean sat there for a moment, thinking, holding a hand up to let the others know he was not to be disturbed. A smile crossed his face. “Wormholes,” he said.

  “But we don’t have wormholes on those planets,” said Yamakuri, shaking his head.

  “Then we need to get them there,” said Sean, his smile growing wider. “And I think I know how we can do it.”

  * * *

  “Attention,” yelled the Sergeant Major as the commanding officer entered the room.

  Christ, thought Brigadier General Walther Jodel, The Preacher. Never thought I would enter a staff meeting again. And as a friggen general. Preacher looked over the faces of the men looking back at him while they stood at attention. The stances of the soldiers were not the best he had ever seen, but he didn’t expect such with men like these. They were Rangers, just like himself, the elite of the elite, and not really into playing the kind of games the regular Army thrived on.

  “At ease,” he said, walking toward the empty chair at the head of the table. “Take your seats if you please, gentlemen.”

  Preacher plopped back into his chair and again studied the faces around the table looking at him. There was a full colonel, four light colonels, five majors and eighteen captains studying him, as well as the senior NCOs of the brigade and all the battalions. The NCOs had the weathered faces of veterans, but to his eyes all of the officers looked like children, even though he knew most were well over thirty.

  “May I say, sir,” said one of the light colonels, looking Preacher in the e
yes, “how honored we are to be under the command of a legend.”

  “That’s very flattering, Colonel Narovicki,” said Preacher, his implant tagging the men in his vision. “Unfortunately, that kind of thinking can get you and your men killed. I’m just a man, another officer in this Army. I am enhanced in exactly the same way as the rest of you, which does not make me a God.”

  “It’s just that we have all heard the stories, sir,” said Lt. Colonel Hattaway. There were nodding heads all around the table.

  “Well, again, forget the stories. I’m not that young Ranger any more. The young men under your command will be making new legends, and I will tell you how to use them.

  “I have talked with the new Emperor, on the way back from Sestius,” said Preacher, trying to ignore the hero worship and get them on track. “We talked about the way me and my young apprentice, and the civilians known as Freeholders, put a hurting on the Cacas in that jungle. He wants to put us to use doing the same thing on other worlds. Tomorrow I will inspect your units in battalion formations. The Sergeant Major will give you the schedule.”

  Preacher looked around the room and could see a bunch of unasked questions. He looked at Narovicki, who looked like he was about to bust with his withheld question. “Yes, Colonel?”

  “How many of the Cacas did you get sir?” asked the light colonel. All the faces looked at him expectantly.

  “I got a couple,” said Preacher with a smile. “The young man I was with got about twenty of the bastards. It was unbelievable. He had to be the best I’ve ever seen.”

  “What was he, sir?” asked Hattaway. “Ranger, Naval Commando or Marine Recon?”