Dark Warning: The Merged Wars, #1

By Chris Thompson

Two women, one alien and one human, are brought together. Victoria doesn't know who she is or why she's there, other than a vague memory that tells her something is coming; an unstoppable, unimaginable horror that will wipe away all of humanity. Confused and afraid, Victoria places her trust in Captain Abigail Lincoln, a Marine Commando from the Sovereignty of Earth.

Unsure what to believe, and with a mysterious energy signal gaining power, heralding the arrival of... something, Lincoln works to understand the forgotten message the alien woman is attempting to impart.

With time running out, the truth of what's coming for humanity will shake Lincoln to the core, leaving her fighting not only for own life, for those of her teammates, or for the Sovereignty, but for the lives of every human in the galaxy.

Dark Warning: The Merged Wars Volume One is a gripping, action packed sci-fi adventure that will have you desperate to read just one more page.

Please Note: This book contains adult langauge, scenes of violence and sci-fi battle horror; it is intended for mature audiences and reader discretion is advised.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chris Thompson
• Release date: Mar 10, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386892656

Book preview

Dark Warning

The Merged Wars Volume One

By Chris Thompson

Copyright

Text Copyright © Chris Thompson 2018

Cover created by Chris Thompson and is © Chris Thompson 2018, and is an original image.

All characters and events in this book are fictitious; any similarity to persons alive or dead, to any actions or conflicts, are purely coincidental and unintentional. This story contains adult subject matter, language, action and scenes of a violent nature. If any of the aforementioned subject matter is distressing or offensive to you then please, do not read any further. This book is intended for mature audiences only, and reader discretion is advised.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Disclaimer

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

One

FIRST, THERE WAS FIRE; intense, burning, agonizing beyond anything she could have imagined. The fire gave way to an immense light; so bright the darkness that followed could have been interpreted as blindness. There was no air to breathe, and the speed with which she was moving would have made it difficult to do so anyway. The darkness was all around her, pressuring her and causing her entire body to ache. She struggled to make sense of what was happening. It became apparent that she was spinning, hurtling around and around at a breakneck velocity she didn't know how to counter. Slowly, she came to realize she didn’t know anything - her name, where she was, why she was there, what the light she had been brought through was and why everything was now dark, save for a large bright spot - a sun she realized - that occasionally came into view. Fear spread through her body, causing her to try to take panicked breaths that could never be as she realized she was in space. Flashes of imagery appeared and disappeared in her mind; they could have been memories or they could have been nightmares. Great, terrible monsters, so unbelievable in their grotesqueness she couldn’t imagine they were real. However, trapped in the terrible, airless dark, she could almost believe anything was real.

In the blackness she caught sight of something and, for a few seconds, she thought it was one of the nightmarish creatures from the images flashing through her mind. But it wasn’t; it was long and sleek with points of light littering the surface like stars while part of its long, grey surface was illuminated by the distant sun. The size of the thing was incredible and, although she could only see it in flashes as she spun, she was certain she was getting closer to it. She was also certain that if it didn’t move she and it would collide and then she didn’t know what would happen. In the snapshots she gleaned through her revolutions, she saw letters that at first were alien, but their meaning filtered through from some hazy corner of her mind.

Triumphant. She mouthed.

Confusion was overwhelming her, and with confusion came more fear. There was no way to slow herself that she could determine, nor was there any way to cease spinning. She was, inevitably, going to hit the Triumphant; all she could do was wait. And so she waited, bracing herself for the inevitable strike. Minutes passed, perhaps longer as there was no way to calculate time in the void, then she felt herself hit the metallic skin of the behemoth. The spinning ceased, but she was being deflected back into the blackness, going away from the Triumphant and out into the endless nothingness. She flailed, swiping her hands around to try to grapple something, anything, which might stop her. At the very edge of her reach, she saw a pylon of some nature and stretched out as far as she could, barely managing to wrap her hand around it and hold on tightly before it was beyond her grasp and dooming her to float forever in the dark. She was pulled violently against it, her shoulder hurting as her inertia was brought to a somewhat alarming, sudden, jerking stop. After a few moments to calm down, she pulled herself in, grappling her way down until her bare feet were pressed against the icy cold metal surface. She hadn’t realized, but her legs and arms were bare, only her body was covered; by a thin, white tunic that felt soft and delightful against her skin. Why she was dressed this way perplexed her greatly as it seemed impractical for the environment she was in. All of her questions would need to wait however, and instead she focused on her surroundings.

The length of the surface of the Triumphant was unimaginable. Attempting to cross the full length of it would take some time, but she knew she might be forced to try as somewhere on the metallic body there would have to be a way in. Another concern was whether the point of entry was on the side or beneath the colossus. Of course, she thought belatedly, there was also the problem of how she could get there, causing her to feel wary and unsure. If she let go of the pylon she would go back to simply floating and thereby risk being carried away into the void. She searched for handholds or anything she could try to reach to keep her anchored to the metal gargantuan. Her eyes fastened on some U shaped objects bolted to the surface about thirty feet away from where she was. She followed their direction until she saw something marked with white and red stripes - a large square she discerned after a long, peering look. It was as she surveyed the surface of the Triumphant that her vision started to get blurry, so she shook her head to try to refocus, but it didn’t improve.

Still holding the pylon tightly, she lowered herself as close to the surface as possible and then slipped into a horizontal position. Her body began to float with only the anchorage of her hands on the pylon keeping her in contact with the metallic body, so she quickly lined herself up with the first of the U shaped objects and prepared to propel herself forward. The understanding of how to initiate the manoeuvre confused her at first; she could remember nothing of whom or where she was, and yet her actions were familiar and felt almost instinctive, as if she’d done it before. She let these instincts take control and tried hard not to think about the haziness accosting her vision. After letting herself drift back, she pulled violently towards the pylon then released her grip and allowed herself to glide across the metallic surface. Quickly, she moved her hands ahead of her, ready to grasp the handholds she’d identified. She moved towards them faster than she anticipated, but was able to snatch hold of one with one hand and, as her inertia spun her about, she grabbed another. The dual handholds tethered her and she was able to bring her body against the surface and reach out for the next handhold, then the next, and start crawling towards the striped area she’d seen earlier. It was difficult, as moving too quickly or applying too much strength threatened to upset her inertia, so she focused on small, safe, controlled movements that brought her slowly but surely towards whatever the stripes were indicating.

Once she had reached her target she realized the stripes surrounded a doorway of some kind that was segmented into four smaller squares, each with a small glass panel that allowed her to see inside. There was a chamber with more handholds leading down, perhaps a ladder of some kind, and then another of the segmented doors in the bottom of the chamber directly opposite the outer segmented doors, forming an airlock. She turned her attention to the panel beside the outer hatchway which had a display of illuminated, numbered buttons at the bottom with some kind of screen above. Hooking one elbow through the closest handhold so that she was more secure, she tentatively began to tap at the buttons and saw the numbers she selected appear on the screen. She typed randomly, hoping that by trial and error she would discover the correct combination. She had an inkling that it began with a nine and then a seven; again, she didn’t know how she knew this, but it was as certain to her as her knowledge of how to move in her current environment. She tried one combination and the screen flashed the word ‘error’. She tried another, only to be denied entry again. She continued, working her way methodically through every combination that started with nine and seven, but as she typed, her vision began to grow hazier making her task more difficult. After a minute or two her sight diminished further, as if everything around her was growing perceptibly darker. As she struggled to continue, her mind was almost overcome by a profound weariness. Her eyes began to flutter closed as slumber first beckoned, then overwhelmed her, but she jolted awake almost at once and kept entering numbers only for the desire to sleep to return seconds later. The time she could spend entering numbers before needing to jerk herself back to consciousness was reduced fractionally each time her heavy eyelids closed and, as it did, her fear intensified. She became more and more certain she would remain trapped outside the hatch until the Triumphant started to move, and when that happened she believed she would be left behind; floating in the darkness until whatever was keeping her alive ceased to function.

Her eyes were half closed when she felt something rumbling beneath her and, mere seconds before she passed out, she saw at the edge of her peripheral vision that the door was opening, each segmented section retreating into its housing as a crimson light filled the chamber. Using the last of her strength, she reached inside to grab hold of the ladder then quickly unhooked her other arm to grasp it with both hands before clambering inside. She continued the motion, using her feet to kick forward, descending down the ladder faster and faster until she neared the next segmented door. There was a large, round red button against the wall of the chamber and, as her body began to fail her, she stretched up to press it. Her arm trembled, her hand shook and she felt doubt that she would reach it in time before the all consuming exhaustion overtook her, but with considerable exertion she found enough strength to complete the action and pressed her palm to the button. As the outer door above her closed the chamber was suddenly lit by a stark white light and, in the same that moment, a loud hissing noise filled the space. Her body immediately felt heavy and, as gravity suddenly took hold of her, it sent her falling towards the segmented door to slam headfirst into it. The hissing was soon overlaid by a loud wailing sound that increased in pitch, only to suddenly decrease. She struggled to comprehend these new stimuli while drawing deep, much needed breaths into her lungs. Then the door she had crashed against started to open and she realized she was about to fall through and drop several feet onto the grey corridor below, so she quickly lunged and grabbed onto a second, descending ladder as it came into view.

Feeling more alert but still a little disoriented, she climbed down to the lower floor. The door sealed itself behind her and she realized the alarm was still blaring all around her. She looked up and down the corridor, hoping to find some sense of where she was or perhaps where she should go. It was functional and not in any way ornate, wide enough for maybe three people to walk abreast and perhaps ten feet in height. The sound was echoing up and down, and although she could see no one, she was certain that beneath that sound of the alarm there was another – boot steps, she suspected - closing in on her position. The sound seemed to be coming from up ahead of her so, in her dazed, confused state, she began to retreat, heading down the corridor to get away. There were turn offs here and there with small staircases that seemed to lead to more floors below. There were also rooms covered by large, metal doors which seemed segmented in a similar fashion to the first two she had encountered. Pipes ran along the upper and lower edges of the corridor, sometimes disappearing into the wall. She began to run, going as far as she could until she was forced to make a decision. Left led to an identical corridor, while right led to some kind of room.

Freeze! A male voice called out behind her. She turned her head suddenly, her blonde hair drifting at the edge of her vision, and saw a strange thing before her. It was covered in a similar grey colour as the walls of the corridor; it was bulky, with large plates where the shoulders, torso and forearms would be, and on its legs, covering the thighs, knees and shins. Its face was obscured by a grey helmet with some kind of dull silver visor where its eyes should have been and a grill of sorts over the mouth area. It had something in its hands - a weapon perhaps - that was braced against its shoulder. Two more of the things were behind it, armed and garbed in the same way as the first.

Put your hands behind your head and get on your knees! The first of the creatures instructed.

She stared at it as it slowed its advance, its weapon pointing directly at her. She tried to speak, but for some reason her voice wouldn’t come out. Her throat felt constricted and the only noise that escaped was a soft, breathy sound.

I said put your hands behind your head! Do it or I’ll open fire! The creature demanded. Its two companions were close behind it now, their weapons also pointing straight at her. She wanted to tell them not to be afraid, that she meant them no harm. She wanted to tell them that she was just scared and needed help. She tried to speak again, but her voice was still lost.

Take her down. One of the creatures said.

A loud sound erupted from the weapon of the leading one, followed by a flash and then she felt a sudden pain in her shoulder. It stung and burnt, not as badly as the pain in the fire, but it still hurt. She grunted and staggered back a step, feeling her heel press against the wall. A second and a third shot struck her in the same area. She heard a clanking sound as small pieces of metal fell away from her skin and landed on the metallic floor. It confused her, so she touched the painful area, feeling a small hole through her tunic and the sore skin beneath.

What the hell? One of them asked.

As she touched her shoulder and felt the pain burning deep inside her muscles, she began to feel terribly sad; they were trying to hurt her and all she wanted was some help - someone to explain where she was and what had happened to her. She wanted help and they were hurting her. This realization turned the sadness into a boiling, angry haze. She felt a stinging in her eyes as though she might cry, but she determinedly pushed this aside. These things wanted to hurt her and she wasn’t about to let that happen! Instinct took control of her limbs and spurred her into action.

She took a large step