Gauntlet

By J.J. Snow and Adam Burn

A commander driven by duty. A crew who might be humanity's only hope. A boy caught between a sociopath and a directive. A government assassin with a dark secret. As war rages across the galaxy, each of them have a role to play. For some it will be their last.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jun 13, 2016
• ISBN: 9780989778114

Book preview

12

Prologue

The last few weeks came in flashes, bits and pieces of memories blurring and fading into each other. Reilly pressed ahead cautiously until she came to the tunnel exit. She checked the camera for activity, then opened the door and stepped out onto the surface.

The wind blew fiercely as snow and hail rained down without mercy. Reilly stood motionless on top of a rocky outcropping, looking down over that deep valley. Ice covered over her respirator mask and threatened to choke off her air as she pulled the hose snug under her field jacket. At subzero temperatures, the metal and rubber were cold enough to make her skin sting through the layers of clothing. Bits of snow melted and trickled down the inside of her gear and along her neck and back, making her shiver. She hated this planet, hated the ice and the wind, the cold and the snow. But more than anything she hated Welch and the choices he had forced her to make.

The snow was blowing ever harder, but still it wasn’t enough to block out the view. Below her in the valley, dark shapes jutted up from the rocky floor. They looked like debris from a landslide, scattered and broken, small and large, some still smoldering in the eerie silence. The snow had begun covering them slowly. Reilly stood frozen and staring until the strain to breathe alerted her to her peril as her air line began to seize up. Her oxygen levels flashed low on her eyepiece. She could no longer feel her hands or her feet. They had gone numb when she had first emerged from the hidden tunnel behind the observation point. Yet even now, she was reluctant to move. It was hard for her to justify preserving her own life after what she had done. Her only reason for living now was revenge. After that, nothing else would matter.

Through the snow, she could just make out the remainder of the smoking bridge of a blackened gunship rising up from the valley floor. It sat like a ghost finger pointing at her. She knew she was guilty. In the distance, faint laser rounds and explosions sounded, giving off vibrations that brought her back to the present. Unwillingly she turned, forcing herself to head back into the tunnel, her movements slowed by her cold limbs and now-constant, uncontrollable shaking. The images from today and the last three weeks clouded her mind, coming fast and furious before her eyes, blinding her as she walked. No matter. A few more ghosts wouldn’t change anything now. She had kept her promise. She had made this place hell for them. The tunnel clicked shut behind her as she continued down into the warmer subterranean half-light of the complex, her weapon held at the ready just in case she ran into any unexpected company. There was still work to be done.

Behind her, the wind howled mournfully, driving the blizzard before it as if it sought to cover up the terrible truth of what was slowly being buried in the valley. Flake by flake, the snow turned from red to pink and finally back to white as the blood diluted and drained to the valley floor or froze in miniature waterfalls and pools, trapped within the ice for eternity.

Chapter 1 – Three Months Earlier

None of the others know? She stared at him intently.

No, he replied. You need to keep it that way. Someone was looking for them. Atropos allowed me to modify the genetic code to hide them and you. Anyone searching for Gaiden will find that they have all disappeared. In the mind of the people, the children of Atropos are either dead or mentally and physically damaged beyond repair. As far as they know, the only remaining survivors are institutionalized in the capital, left to drool, piss, and shit the remainder of their lives away. Modern Gaiden warriors are a bedtime story and I intend to keep it that way. No one can know the children still exist or what they are…

And I’m their protection. It was a statement. She already knew the answer.

Yes. They are the most formidable weapon I have. If we lose them too early, we lose the war.

But they are expendable…

We are playing chess on a galactic level. At some point I will have to make some sacrifices to win the match, but I don’t want to lose my best pieces to a pawn. You understand, I’m sure? He focused on the ice melting in his drink and decided to add more whiskey. The next swallow burned as it went down.

I understand.

He realized he was being just a touch callous and looked up to meet her gaze. I wouldn’t have asked for you on this assignment unless I was sure you were capable. You are the best I have. He glanced at the digital time frame on the wall, then frowned, disappearing into his own thoughts.

I must be going. I’ll be late. She didn’t feel slighted by his lack of response. She was used to being treated like an instrument. Her whole existence had been designed for the purpose she served today. In time, if needed, she too would become expendable. She headed for the door and the transport that would drop her at Roen.

Tiny. His voice halted her as the metallic doors slid apart. They must not know either.

She paused at that, knowing the they Zain was referring to. There was nothing she could do about it. The tingling sensation from the implant reminded her that protection of compartmented programs was mandatory, even where friends were concerned. Even when those friends were at the pointy end of the spear Zain was about to thrust into the heart of Welch’s Allied Organizational Command. She nodded curtly and left.

Colonel Zain noted her hesitation. Maybe it was time to mix things up. Tiny was no use to him if she became attached. He contemplated how best to drive that wedge a moment longer before turning his thoughts back to the battle at hand. Zain took another bitter sip as he gazed out his window across the modern silver-and-gray cityscape that was Galant. Time to plan his next move.

~

Present Time, Year 2203 – Ice Planets, Central Milky Way Galaxy, Battle of the Galactic Bar

She was always thinking ten moves ahead. Chang paused to marvel at the progress and how very far they had come in just six months under Captain Campbell’s leadership. The work had been hard, seemingly impossible at times, and they were all bone tired, but she kept them going. Her understanding of tunnel warfare, counterinsurgency tactics, and high-altitude combat was second to none. Chang shook off a cold chill that drifted across his neck as he remembered learning those hard-won lessons by her side on these forsaken planets years before. Had he been younger, he would have tried to convince himself that this fight was just and necessary, that fortune would be on their side, the right side, and that glory and honor were things one should seek out. He turned to study the holodisplay of the tunnel system and sighed. He was older now, and this was just one more battle in one more war where many would die for reasons only fully understood by a few stupid, powerful men who had no care for anyone or anything but themselves.

It was very fortunate, however, that they already knew the terrain and how to operate in the desolate environment of the psychroplanet. The temperatures on the ice planets stayed below freezing, way below, and this meant that both men and machines had to be managed with survival in mind. Even their enemy, the Vhax, would be limited by severely plunging temperatures, although their insectoid bodies dealt with extremes much better than a human’s ever could.

Reilly had had the bunker complex scouted and mapped in its entirety within forty-eight hours of landing. As the teams reported back, she had tasked out assignments and begun a series of modifications designed to capitalize on the strength of their defenses. She had surprised Chang when she chose to set up the control element in the last bunker. Of the five, it was the smallest, situated at a fork in the mountain range where the peaks came together in a conglomerate of toothy spikes before diverging again to either side of a large, deep valley. It was also the least defensible to airborne assault, wedged as it was inside the range itself, with only one way in or out. But Reilly was no idiot; she had learned years earlier from her special mission experiences how a smaller force could hold a larger one at bay and even defeat it. Deception was critical, and it had to be done well, especially if it was to fool the aliens they had fought against and the implants they had once fought alongside. The new bunker now existed several hundred feet below the thick granite of the planet’s mountainous surface, joined to the other bunkers by miles of underground tunnels and passageways. The small surface bunker hid one of the many passive detection systems the teams had placed around the complex to enhance security. And if any unwanted guests decided to pay a visit, they would be greeted by a massive thermobaric blast that would decimate the bunker seconds after a breach occurred.

Reilly’s team had had a lot to do with their current state of readiness. Lee Roy and Marek were invaluable assets. They both had a knack for the mechanical and had gone to work immediately on the old ISU robots they found in the storage bay. Lee Roy fashioned new parts while Marek figured out workarounds, swapping circuit boards and upgrading old processors to get the metal beasts running again. In a matter of days, the robots were online, set to the task of clearing out tunnels and laying a small high-speed rail system. Lee salvaged metal from the old battle sites, and using a modified laser production system, he molded, cut, and shaped pieces of rail that the robots then welded into place. A recovered magnet from a destroyed cruiser’s propulsion system was enough to power the modified flatbed cars. In short order, Reilly’s troops were transiting from the main bunker to their respective patrol sectors underground, safe and undetected. The Massive Integrated Material Extruders (MIME) systems were still in good order, and Marek had the 3D replicators working around the clock creating plastic explosives, metal hybrid shielding, and a variety of weapons to outfit both man and machine.

Together, the father–son team had developed one of the complex’s most valuable assets: the Overseers. These large mobile robots were heavily armored, outfitted with high-speed machine guns and rocket launchers. When activated by a threat, they provided an intimidating selection of mobile firepower that could rain hell down on the enemy. Five robots manned critical positions in the tunnels, waiting for the enemy should they find their way underground.

Engineering teams worked to construct hidden launch bays around the complex using giant mechanical moles, tunnel boring machines (TBMs) that could cut through the planet’s hard granite and tulanite foundation. Two of the larger bays were linked with rail tunnels for resupply, while the others were accessible only via narrow tunnels that were easy to blow in place if the locations became compromised. Here, Reilly had prepositioned small numbers of fighters and gunships. The vessels could launch in an instant to support troops anywhere around the complex. Observation points had been installed along the tunnels so troops could secretly monitor enemy activity, defend strategic points, or resupply the new turret guns.

The turrets were Lee Roy’s genius, a combination of above- and below-ground systems that could fire and then retreat into the tunnels, protected from enemy counter-battery attacks. Reilly had positioned the heavy guns underground, out of sight of the increasingly frequent Vhax raiding parties. A number of light guns had been emplaced in the open around the larger main bunkers. The Vhax raiders had tried to destroy several of them without success. Reilly’s scouts had made certain that they paid dearly for their attempts. The last few booby traps had been particularly nasty. All that remained was scorched ground and some burnt pieces. The patrols had replaced the improvised devices with new ones in case other unexpected guests wanted to try their luck at sabotage.

Chang saw a shadow flit across the tunnel entrance to the landing bay. Tiny, a Gaidan warrior who had joined their team on Roen, had used her electronics background to improve the complex’s protective force fields. Her codes had reset the field strength and allowed for the energy signature to be better masked, making it harder for the enemy to determine where to focus their fire. Now, instead of a single field hovering above the bunker, a second field was incorporated into the bunker materials, making them stronger and more resilient against the heavy turret fire that Welch’s cruisers were hitting them with now. A direct hit above the main bunker shook the ground forcefully enough to knock a few people down. Several others kept themselves from falling and looked up at the ceiling. The structure had held without a crack. Chang brushed some dust from his jacket as he walked towards the supply battalion, eyes still tracking Tiny’s fading shadow as it traveled along the tunnel wall behind her.

A second shadow, taller and panther-like, followed Tiny down towards the tunnels. Chang smiled. Their Gaiden shipmate had formed an unlikely friendship with their scout sniper Joby Ty. The two were nearly inseparable these days. The last security additions had fallen to Sergeant Ty. He had served with Reilly since she had joined the ISUs. Together, they had fought and survived some of the worst battles in recent galactic history. Ty’s experience as a scout sniper uniquely qualified him to develop the fallback plan for the complex. He had spent several years as a tunnel rat and he knew all the tricks. It was his plan that had made the tunnels an asymmetric advantage for Reilly’s forces. With Tiny’s help, he had effectively employed the alien technologies they had acquired during the Vervian 813 heist, the job that had put them in the middle of this mess to begin with.

Ty’s designs were clever. Several concussive tubes were wired to the sides and top of each of the tunnels that exited to the planet surface. Explosive traps using HEAT grenades and breacher charges were placed at critical checkpoints. An explosive set could be triggered by entering a code into a handset to collapse that portion of the complex. Once activated, the concussive tubes would do the rest.

Each crystalline baton-size tube housed what looked like a miniature electrical storm inside its protective casing. When the tube was activated, it would detonate a small pin that breached the crystal container, causing the material inside to coalesce into a spinning ball that would suck in everything around it with a bright blast of light, then expand rapidly outward like the overpressure from a small-scale nuclear device. A tunnel could be destroyed in a matter of seconds, along with anyone or anything inside it. Ty had nicknamed the devices Chaos Bottles, gleefully referring to them as little balls of hate and discontent, after watching a concussive chain destroy a wrecked cruiser during one of their tests. The enemy would be reluctant to press ahead after seeing the destructive force generated by these simple improvised explosive devices.

A shout from the nearby drew Chang’s attention. Reilly’s pilot Duvall Jackson emerged from under a gunship swearing and holding his thumb while Trace Callum, a pilot and friend from Reilly’s past, scratched his head and tried to suppress a laugh. The two men had upgraded the software and active camouflage for all of the gunships to help improve their survival against the inbound AOC fleet. One more effort to tip the balance in favor of the remaining Interstellar Units. A sudden chill ran down Chang’s spine. He wasn’t a superstitious man, but he did believe that the gods or whatever they were intervened to change paths and direct the future. He made a sign against bad omens as his mother had taught him long ago, then turned back as Trace hollered out to him and waved while Duv crawled back under the gunship, grumbling. Chang waved back and continued on to resupply still shaking off the dark feeling. In his mind he could hear his teacher’s reminder.

Treat every moment as if it were your last. No one saves us but ourselves. Not the Gods. Not our family. Not our friends. We ourselves must walk the path. Redirect your thoughts and accept your destiny.

As he waited for his turn at the window, his mind turned to all that had been accomplished in the months leading up to this, the eve of major battle. Reilly’s team had worked a miracle, that much was certain. Their success was an even bigger accomplishment when viewed in light of the many challenges and losses the crew had experienced. Duv’s continued dedication to this fight and mission were a prime example. Chang wouldn’t have blamed the man for leaving to go find his son. Seth Jackson was still a prisoner of the AOC, a fate that he could have easily avoided. Instead the young Gaiden thwarted an AOC plot to capture Reilly and her crew, risking his life and ultimately his freedom. Yet Duv still remained, trusting Reilly’s word that as soon as they had a location they would launch a rescue immediately to recover his son. Chang knew their staunch loyalty and dedication to this woman was a testament to her strength as a leader and the impact that her leadership continued to have on them all.

Together, the unit’s preparations had given them an exponential advantage. What they lacked in numbers they made up in denial and deception. From outside, the complex looked old, dilapidated. The defenses appeared worn, cobbled together, and easy to overcome. The enemy would focus on the larger bunkers and the light turrets, the most likely places for opposition forces to stage. None of the team had forgotten the bloody lessons of their counterinsurgency days, and this made Reilly’s planning more lethal. She knew not only how to overcome an insurgency but also how to prevent her own insurgency from being taken down. Even a force with substantially superior numbers and technology would be challenged by her fortifications. Chang felt pride overcome his melancholy for a moment. Her planning had given them more than a fighting chance. He took his resupply kit from the supply troop and turned, slinging his weapon, then walked back towards the largest bunker in the complex, where his team was waiting. There was still work to be done, and he planned to use every extra minute to their benefit.

~

As Welch’s forces rained volley upon volley of heavy laser artillery and high explosives across the surface in an effort to drive them out, Reilly’s thoughts turned to her recruiting stint on Roen. The soldiers, pilots, scouts, and support personnel she had picked up had done the impossible in six months. Some were new and still learning, but most were former military whose skills would give Reilly’s forces the edge they would need. It didn’t hurt that her immediate crew was made up of some of the best fighters in the business, either. As she shared pieces of her plan, they each put their own expertise to work, devising additional strategies to complement her initiatives.

Thanks to their combined efforts, Reilly was confident that the complex was more than defensible. The complex was in fact the cornerstone of her plan. As the hours ticked by, she waited patiently with her troops, refusing to return fire, refusing to give Welch’s forces a target. The only way they would win this battle was to bring the enemy in close and force them to fight on the ground. The barrage of heavy fire continued across the mountain range, jostling the complex from time to time as hits reflected off the hidden protective fields. Reilly knew Welch couldn’t wait forever. Sooner or later, he would have to try to put boots on the ground in order to ensure he had control of the planet.

The war raged on several planets in different solar systems up and down Colonel Zain’s picket line as Welch strove to find a breaking point. The ice planets where Reilly and Trace held ground were critical. If they were lost, Welch’s forces would be able to cut the line, effectively dividing and conquering the remainder of the picket from both sides. These solar systems formed a V-shaped pattern with the ice planets at its center. The tip of the spear, as Zain called it. They aligned along the front of what was known as the galactic bar, a 24,000-light-year-long span of old red stars that bounded the large black hole at the very center of the galaxy. The bar acted as a wall of sorts, preventing anyone from jumping in behind them to attack from the rear. It was too risky. The gravitational forces beyond these planets were unpredictable, and a good journey plot could easily turn bad, pulling the vessel into the hole. With Reilly’s back protected, the enemy could only approach from the front of the line and at the far ends. Zain had increased his forces at each end already to deal with Welch’s constant attacks. But if the ice planets were lost, Welch would be able to attack through the weakened center and flank the other systems, possibly even pushing forces behind the line to attack from the immediate rear if he was able to clear out some of the minefields. If this happened, the war would be lost. Welch’s forces would slaughter them without hesitation.

As she stood in the command center, Reilly watched the operators around the outer edge of the wall, monitoring their specific sectors. In the days prior, much of the space-based sensor system had been destroyed by Welch’s combined fleet of alien and implanted ISU military assets. Now, those enemy forces looked to exploit the blind spots to their advantage as they began to maneuver for the surface. On one holoscreen, Reilly could see Trace standing in a similar command center, watching as well. She briefly admired his rugged features before chastising herself over the distraction. Trace had become a good friend during the last six months. They had gotten so that at times they could finish each other’s sentences and thoughts, a development that had been useful in coordinating between battlespaces, but also

Reviews for Gauntlet

[john257hopper · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a Medieval historical novel published in 1951 and, I realised once I started it, aimed at intelligent children rather than adult readers. A teenage boy (how earnest and sober-minded such teenage boys are in fiction written in that era!) Peter Staunton, finds a Medieval gauntlet on a Welsh mountainside that has the power to transport its wearer back to 14th century Wales. Later, he falls asleep in the ruins of a Welsh castle and wakes up during that era, where is taken for one of his ancestors, Peter de Blois, son of the local Norman knight who is fighting Welsh insurgents. He has various adventures, and a lot of educational information is imparted to the reader about Medieval life and customs, castles, armour, heraldry, clothes and monastic life. As a straight novel, it is very average, but it gets a decent rating for its worthy intent.