Planet Killers

By Sean Brandywine

Someone tried to destroy the Earth. They nearly succeeded, just missing our planet and shattering the Moon. Millions of fragments rained down on the Earth. The death toll was staggering. Fortunately, mankind had reached a point in its development when flight to the stars was possible. The four surviving starships were converted from exploration to military use, and sent out on a journey taking them farther into the galaxy than any humans had ever gone before. The goal: find the race that tried to destroy us. The mission: revenge.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Running Wolf Books
• Release date: Jan 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463671832

Sean Brandywine

Sean Brandywine was born in 1943 of a Russian father and Irish mother. Most of his professional life was spent working with computers, ranging from programmer to systems analyst and project leader. His BS and MS are in Computer Science. He began programming computers in 1961 and still enjoys writing code occasionally, and designing his own websites.In addition to science fiction, he also writes juveniles under the pseudonym of Shiloh Garnett, and adventure/horror as John Savage.He has been married to the same woman for over forty years and claims to love her more now than ever. He has two children, named Talon and Melody, and three grandchildren (so far). He lives in Solana Beach, California where he enjoys watching his grandchildren growing up, astronomy, fishing, fast sports cars, and, of course, writing.

Book preview

Planet Killers

by Sean Brandywine

Published by Running Wolf Books

Copyright 2009 Sean Brandywine

All rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means except by prior and express permission of the author. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or used as an element of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Chapter I: Swift Killer

Chapter II: Counting up Losses

Chapter III: Departure

Chapter IV: Target Identified

Chapter V: Knocking at the Enemy’s Door

Chapter VI: Attack!

Chapter VII: First Contact

Chapter VIII: Communication I

Chapter IX: Communication II

Chapter X: A Square with a Cross

Chapter XI: Escape

Chapter XII: Attack Run

Chapter XIII: From the Ashes

Chapter XIV: Launching the Plan

Chapter XV: The Revenge is Boarded

Chapter XVI: The Getaway

Chapter XVII: Aftermath

About Sean Brandywine

Contact Sean

Other Books by Sean Brandywine

Chapter I

Swift Killer

The killer approached silently and swiftly. The helpless prey never knew of the danger until the strike, and then it was too late.

The killer was an intelligence-made machine, a construction of metals, plastics and other materials not normally found in nature. It had a rest mass of 878,938 kilograms (968 tons) and was moving at nearly the speed of light. Even so, it took over nine months to pass through the Oort Comet Cloud surrounding the Solar System, and another three and a half hours to pass through the Kuiper Belt before entering the realm of planets. In neither of them did it strike any objects for, although the Oort Comet Cloud contains around two trillion icy bodies of frozen methane and carbon monoxide, the average distance between them was tens of millions of kilometers. Likewise for the Kuiper Belt where these objects tend to be larger but are still widely spaced apart.

This object, made by creatures that did not resemble men at all, sped past the orbit of Neptune, inward bound. In just short of three hours it had crossed to the orbit of Saturn. Another thirty-six minutes later it had reached the orbit of the planet Mars. From there to the earth took only three minutes.

Faster than any eye could follow, this killer machine missed the Earth by just over eighty thousand kilometers. But it did not miss totally. A half second after its near-miss of the Earth, the object impacted with the edge of Earth’s moon.

The explosion was the largest ever seen by man, dwarfing man’s puny atomic and hydrogen bombs. It shattered the moon, leaving one major ragged chunk and thousands of smaller pieces flying off in all directions. The off-center hit caused what was left of the moon to spin wildly, throwing out fragments and dust as it did.

It was the largest disaster to ever hit mankind. And it was not natural.

Chapter II

Counting up Losses

News bulletin, Station KKNV, 23 July 2213 A.D.

"Officials all over the world today are releasing casualty figures from the Moon Strike, as it has come to be called. Casualties attributed directly to the falling pieces of the Moon have already topped 800 million worldwide, and more continue to strike the Earth. Secondary casualties from tsunamis, flooding and fires exceed 100 million and are expected to grow. Authorities place the death toll from the major meteorite that struck near the center of Beijing at 200 million, but communications within China are unreliable. Some say that figure is too low.

"Other cities have suffered near misses. Casualties are high New York and Chicago, also from nearly direct hits.

"Disruption of the social infrastructure in many countries is expected to affect almost everyone on the planet. Distribution of food supplies, power and other necessities has been disrupted in many areas, and it may be weeks or months before they are restored. The World Health Organization has warned of massive spread of diseases to due food shortages and disruption of fresh water and sanitation facilities.

Scientists are still uncertain what it was that struck the Moon. No sign of any approaching object was found by Space Track. We can only assume that it was a high speed asteroid," said a spokesman for the Astronomical Union. He could not account for the fact that Space Track, a system that has proven itself many times in detecting near-Earth asteroids, failed in this case.

Van Johnson, an economic advisor, turned off the TV. For long moments no one in the room spoke. Finally, the military Chief of Staff, General Groves, rose to address the President’s Advisors. Estimates, he began in a weary voice, are that the death toll is likely to far exceed one billion. The stunned silence continued. He paused to look around the room, seeing many shocked and disbelieving expressions. "Of course all national and local organizations will be put into full time rescue and rehabilitation efforts. But that is not the only purpose of this meeting. The first order of business is to try to determine the cause of this disaster. I have invited several leading scientist to assist us.

Dr. Carlton from Space Track will speak first.

The elderly astronomer, who looked more like a tall, slender mortician than a leading scientist, stood. "You all have the same question that I have: how did Space Track miss this? Space Track has seventy-six telescopes around the world and on the Moon. We have a very good track record of finding, identifying and countering any near-Earth asteroid or comet that comes our way. You all remember how we identified the asteroid NGAC-18999C in time for Space Command to divert it away from Earth with nuclear bombs.

All I can tell you is that we detected nothing in the days before this event. Whatever struck the Moon must have come in at an unbelievably high speed. Otherwise we would have seen it. If not with the optical scopes, then with the radar installations.

Doctor, asked a voice from one side of the crowded table, could the object have been black, non-reflective? And somehow shielded from radar. We have aircraft that can do that.

There is nothing known in space that can be both. Even assuming that an object was covered with dark, non-reflective dust, such as carbon, it will still show up on the radar systems. I know of no natural objects that will not reflect radar and still be solid enough to do this damage.

General Craig Smith of Space Command, said General Groves as Dr. Carlton sat down.

The General looked like one. Short cut hair, hard features and a well-tailored uniform that spoke of a man still in shape despite sixty or more years under his belt.

I can tell you categorically that there was no device stored on any moonbase that could have caused this explosion. There are a few nukes stored for Space Track use, but even if all those were to go off simultaneously, the explosion would have been nowhere near as large as was seen. Nor, he continued, "was there any kind of experimentation being conducted on the Moon that could conceivably account for an explosion of this size.

Further, all Space Command ships are accounted for. We lost two of our starships that were in orbit around the moon and a number of smaller craft. But whatever hit the moon was not one of our craft.

He sat back down.

General Groves rose again. He was closing his cell phone as he rose to address the body again. Looking around the table, he begged them, Does anyone have any other ideas?

No one replied. Very well. I shall inform the President that we are unable to explain this event. This advisory board will now turn to matters of national recovery. I will turn you over to Dr. Lewis. Dr. Carlton and General Smith, please come with me.

The two named people joined him as he left the room. What is it? asked Dr. Carlton. Not here, was the curt answer. The three of them left the underground bunker conference room and got into a golf cart. Many facilities in this bunker complex were linked via tunnels with electric carts to transport personnel about. Once they were traveling and could not be overheard, General Groves told them that he just had a call from the President. They were wanted in his presence immediately. They drove in silence for over a mile before pulling up to a passageway labeled Room 17. He turned down that tunnel and traveled another half mile. There was a massive, closed door at the end, guarded by four Marines in combat uniforms and armed. All three of them had to look into a retinal scanner to be cleared through that door.

Inside was a medium sized conference room with several large monitors along one wall. Two of them were currently showing the Norad Command Center and the Military Unified Command Center in Maryland. Both places looked very busy but the sound was muted within the room.

A figure arose from a chair to greet them. He was tall, just a little over six feet, and slender. The youthful face did not seem to be old enough for the important position he held.

Mr. President, said General Groves, May I present Dr. Carlton of Space Track and General Smith, whom I believe you already know.

Yes, we know each other from way back. Had some debates in the Senate about military spending.

Yes, Sir,

"Gentlemen, please be seated. This meeting will be informal but recorded. Coffee? Tea? No? Then let’s get right to the bottom line.

I was informed by my counter-part in Russia that one of their optical tracking systems did observe something approaching the Moon in the brief moment before the explosion. All heads came up. It was not a normal object in any respect. Here it is. He pressed a button on the console before him. MUCC display disappeared to be replaced by a photo showing one edge of the Moon in clear detail. To the right and just below the Moon was a short streak of