First Legion

By David W. DePriest

The Legions were created to protect Earth and other planets from a fierce foe known as the Tellnites. The Tellnites's only purpose is to take over worlds. When the Gargans visit Earth, they tell the planet about the Tellnites and the fact that their path of destruction is pointed in the direction of both Earth and Gargan, their home world. Men and women of Earth, of all races, head the call to protect Earth and their new friends, the Gargans. Little do they know that things would change in a drastic way only ten years later. Thus is born the Legion, with its creed: "No slavery in the universe."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Aug 31, 2020
• ISBN: 9781645750116

David W. DePriest

David W. DePriest was born and raised in San Jose, California. After graduating from W.C. Overfelt High School, he worked in various jobs and decided to enter the U.S. Navy. He was transferred from San Diego to the U.S. submarine base in Groton Connecticut. He retired from the Navy in November of 2002 as a disabled United States naval veteran who spent most of his Navy life onboard submarines, the USS Trepang (SSN 674), and the USS Boston (SSN 703). He currently lives in Ledyard, Connecticut.

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About the Author

David W. DePriest was born and raised in San Jose, California. After graduating from W.C. Overfelt High School, he worked in various jobs and decided to enter the U.S. Navy. He was transferred from San Diego to the U.S. submarine base in Groton Connecticut. He retired from the Navy in November of 2002 as a disabled United States naval veteran who spent most of his Navy life onboard submarines, the USS Trepang (SSN 674), and the USS Boston (SSN 703). He currently lives in Ledyard, Connecticut.

Dedication

This book, and the entire First Legion series is dedicated to my wife, Joan, and mother, Shiela, who died due to complications of cancer surgery. They believed that he had the ability to put to paper stories that others would love to read.

Copyright Information ©

David W. DePriest (2020)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Ordering Information:

Quantity sales: special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address below.

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data

DePriest, David W.

First Legion

ISBN 9781645750093 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781645750086 (Hardback)

ISBN 9781645750116 (ePub-e-book)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020909815

www.austinmacauley.com/us

First Published (2020)

Austin Macauley Publishers LLC

40 Wall Street, 28th Floor

New York, NY 10005

USA

[e-mail]

[phone]

Acknowledgment

Todd E. Scheitler who believed in where I was going with my writing. My father, Charles Wayne DePriest, who believed in me and my abilities and was the first one to tell me that I ‘had a way with words.’ And to all of our armed force members that have served in the past, present and future.

Chapter 1

The stateroom was large, painted a light grey with brass knobs and latches. On the starboard side is one permanent bunk with six additional fold down bunks for visitors. In the center of the room is a large table capable of sitting twelve people with additional seating for another fifteen. the port side contained several desks and computer screens that were constantly updating the status of the fleet and its personnel. To the left sat the most important piece of equipment, a thirty-four-cup coffeemaker.

At one desk sat the fleet commander, preparing to type his daily log. His personal comm buzzed.

‘Legion One,’ said Godford.

‘Sir, Captain Merrick, we will be slowing in ten minutes any special orders the fleet?’ said Merrick.

‘Not at this time, continue with plan Alpha unless we are detected, then we will go to plan Bravo,’ said Godford.

‘Roger sir, contacting the fleet now. Slowdown in seven minutes, forty-five seconds,’ said Merrick.

Fleet Admiral Stephen James Godford looked at the time display, then back at his personal computer. It was time to write the log he had been putting off for a long time.

He called his assistant, Captain Jeffery Johansson.

‘Captain Johannsson, please hold all my calls, deal with the normal traffic as I would, and give me a few hours of peace,’ said Godford.

‘Finally going to write that log sir?’ said Johansson.

‘Yes, it is about time I did. Let me know when we are five hours out of our Plan Alpha position, I may be sleeping,’ said Godford.

‘Yes sir, I will be available if you need any reminders or hit a wall, sir,’ said Johansson.

‘Thank you, Jeff, I will call you if I need you,’ said Godford.

The hardest part of any story/log/journal is where to start, he thought about it and decided to just start and see where it took him.

Admirals log, 3-16-0010 AL. For those that do not know, al stands for After Launch, which refers to the launch of Legion One, the first space defense unit of Earth. We were formed from over one billion volunteers to man the ships and millions of workers who built them and the rest of the equipment that comprised the First Legion.

This story, our story, actually started three years earlier than al. It started the day that the Gargans made their presence known and asked for our help.

I was on my home from work; I was a computer engineer for a major company, listening to my favorite sports talk radio show when the news of their landing was broadcast. At first, I thought it was one of the station’s on-air jokes that they pulled once in a while, but they kept talking about it for most of my drive home.

When I got home, I found my girlfriend, Carol, glued to the television, watching the same news that I was listening to on the radio.

‘Did you see this?’ she asked.

‘No dear, I was already on I95 when it started. I listened to it on the radio though,’ I told her.

Of course, dinner was not ready, so I picked up the phone and ordered a pizza, Hawaiian, on account that she did not like it very much. I get a little prissy when I am tired and hungry at the same time. We watched the coverage, and of course, as something started to happen, the pizza arrived.

As I made it back to our couch, aliens were moving out of the ship. Taking defensive positions around the ship and the podium they had set up in the shadow of the ship. They were dressed up in what appeared to be battle armor, and carried an assortment of weapons. Then three aliens, dressed in, believe it or not, blue three-piece suits, walked up to the podium. Then one of them positioned itself at the podium and began to speak.

‘People of Earth, I will not say that we come in peace, but with tidings of war. Not war between our two peoples, but with an enemy that threatens my world as well as yours. The Telinites, a warrior race is set on conquering the universe. Our galaxy is next on their list. There are three inhabited planets in our galaxy, but only our planet is capable of meeting them in combat. Unfortunately, our resources are low, and our people numbered. We come to ask for your assistance.’ The alien then took a step back and the second of the three took his place.

‘People of Earth, we, the representatives of the Gargan people, asking for your assistance in fighting this threat. We will provide you with the technical knowledge and assistance in building the fleet we need to fight this threat. We will also provide your people with the training they need in order to fight these ships. We need your natural resources and the individuals to build and man this fleet. The fleet will belong to the people of Earth, but will be under our control only until this threat has been obliterated.’ Again the speaker stepped back and the third alien moved to the podium.

‘We, the representatives of Gargan, know that this is a lot to take in at first. Our galaxy, in our military’s best estimate, has approximately four years until the Telinites reach our space. Our forces will be ready, but we will be outnumbered twelve to one, or greater. We need you to protect our people and planet. Our military also estimates that the Telinites will be in this galaxy within seven years. You need our technology in order to survive. We will provide our technology to you regardless. We leave the decision to you and your governments. We have video of the Telinites fleet, as well as their aggressive acts if your governments so wish to view them.’ The third Gargan stepped back, and the first one approached the podium.

‘People of Earth, this is the time to unite, a time to fight for our families, for our worlds. Without your support, our planets will surely fall to the Telinites, and yours more than likely will also, even with the help we provide to you. We wait for your response.’ All three of the Gargans that spoke then went back into the ship.

The newscasters spent the next fifteen minutes reviewing the speeches, droning on about what the Gargans had said. Of course, they continued to show the Gargan ship and their guards as they spoke, then they switched to the White House where the president was preparing a speech.

‘My fellow Americans, we have received a dire warning. My cabinet and I, along with other world leaders, will be discussing the warning we have received from the Gargans. We will decide over the next few days and weeks what our response will be. We will view their information and decide how we will proceed. Many of you are worried, but we, as a people, have time to decide on a course of action. We will not go easy into the night, but fight to maintain our freedoms as Earthlings. We all need to relax, take a deep breath and then move forward as a people to ensure that our way of life continues. God bless, be calm and keep your wits about you, and above all pray that we as a people can and will overcome this threat to our way of life,’ said the president/

Chapter 2

Note: I had to pull the Gargan speech out of the archives; I did this for accuracy, as I knew that it was there. I looked, and found the president’s speech that was also in the archives.

My girlfriend and I sat there for three hours; pizza was long cold, before our stomachs reminded us that it was there. Then the talk started, and then it evolved into an argument, and then blessed silence. We turned off the TV and went to bed. The next morning was business as usual for me, up at five and out the door at six-thirty for work. I am glad that she did not get up before I left, I did not want to continue the fight from the night before. I was dog-tired. I did not sleep well; in fact, I have no idea of the time when I finally drifted off to sleep.

I turned off the radio as I did not want to hear any more about the Gargans and the war they wanted us to participate in.

It still upsets me, but I will tell you about the fight. My girlfriend felt that we should join the Gargans in this war. I was unsure, and wanted more information before I would commit to anything. This is about how it went:

‘So, what do you think?’ said Carol.

‘I don’t know, seems kind of like War of the Worlds to me,’ said Godford.

‘You don’t believe it?’ said Carol.

‘I am not sure. It could be a hoax,’ said Godford.

‘No way! Do you think the president would be in on a joke?’ asked Carol.

‘No, but I still do not have enough information to make a good decision,’ said Godford.

‘Not enough information?’ asked Carol.

‘All we have is what they said,’ said Godford.

‘Exactly, that is all we have, and it is what we need to make our decisions based off of. I think I will volunteer if the call comes out. I think it would be exciting. Imagine, traveling all that way, then fighting a space battle, it is romantic,’ said Carol.

‘Romantic, sounds more like suicide to me. How could dying a couple billion miles from home be romantic?’ asked Godford.

‘You are an idiot!’ said Carol.

‘If I am an idiot, what does that make you?’ said Godford.

At that point we stopped talking, thank god.

I knew from the radio, the five minutes that I listened to it, that not a lot of people took what they saw as being real. They thought it was a prank. Three weeks after the speech, they, and I, found out otherwise.

Two weeks after the Gargan ship appeared in Fenway Park, it disappeared to reappear in Brussels, Belgium. It was rumored that the U.N. had arranged to have the Gargans appear at their headquarters, and invited all interested government officials to attend. A week later, the call went out.

I was home, eating dinner with my girlfriend when we received a phone call from her mother. After listening to her for about thirty seconds, my girlfriend jumped up from the dining room table and ran into the living room. She yelled for me, and I joined her.

‘Again, ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States has asked that all ship workers prepare to be inducted into service to build the fleet of ships the Gargans asked us to build. They have also asked for volunteers from our armed services to prepare for testing for suitability for space training and the training that the Gargans will provide in order to man the ships that we will be building. The president’s request is also being relayed around the globe as the leaders of almost every government on our planet are making the same request. Detailed plans have not been divulged, but it seems that the Gargans have convinced our governments that this threat is real, and that it is in the best interest of the people of Earth to assist them,’ said the reporter.

Note: Those are not the exact words, nor can I remember the broadcaster that said them, but it is close enough to the truth that I can quote it.

Carol was still on the phone with her mom an hour later when I received a call. She was upset with being interrupted, but handed me the phone anyway. I answered it, it was my section manager. He told me not to go to work the next day. He told me that he would call me in the morning to let me know what was going on. All he knew was that the CEO had received a call from someone asking us not to work and stand by for more information. Friggen government, I thought.

When I told Carol, she seemed upset, we needed every cent I earned, and she was more worried about the pay. I was not; I was more worried