Earth—2327: Xurian

By Ritesh Shergill

It is 2327, and planet Earth has been saved from extinction. While everything seems tranquil on the planet, that is not the case at all. Somewhere high above the clouds, a Xurian scout ship is circling Earth. Aboard the ship are Xurs, an unattractive bio-organic species who mistakenly believe their vessel is camouflaged from the confederate militarys advanced defense system. But just as the aliens realize their mission has been compromised, an explosion rocks their ship.

Viren Kathik and his younger brother, Baren, are rookie pilots in the confederate military tasked with observing and reporting alien crafts. But when they foolishly botch their mission by bombing the alien ship, they are disgraced, court martialed, and incarcerated. After an intergalactic war with the alien species begins, the brothers are set free and provided a shot at redemption. As they set out on a dangerous mission to infiltrate the Xurian Citadel and learn their motivations for war, the Kathiks soon recognize that redemption comes at a cost.

In this science fiction adventure, two brothers assigned to protect Earth from aliens amid a futuristic world discover that the universe is full of shocking revelations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing India
• Release date: Apr 15, 2016
• ISBN: 9781482873252

Ritesh Shergill

Ritesh Shergill moonlights as a software analyst but in his other ventures he aspires to be a science fiction author. He has been writing stories since childhood. Earth 2327 Son of Orion is the sequel to Earth 2327 Xurian, the second book in the Earth 2327 trilogy.

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Copyright © 2016 by Ritesh Shergill.

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Contents

Chapter 1   The beginning of the war

Chapter 2   The invaders

Chapter 3   Reconciliation

Chapter 4   The Brainmesh

Chapter 5   Recovery

Chapter 6   Operation Hack Mesh

Chapter 7   Project X

Chapter 8   The plan

Chapter 9   Interception

Chapter 10 Rogue

MACHINE

JADE

FINAL FLIGHT

Chapter 1

The beginning of the war

I t was a dark and cloudy day on planet Earth 2327. A planet that had been on the brink of extinction, saved by the very people who had once jeopardized their own existence.

The badlands had seen a fair amount of rain in the past few months. There were lots of exotic fauna growing wild, tall trees stretching their limbs towards the skies as if praying for more rain. While everything seemed tranquil here, somewhere else, somewhere high above the clouds, things were about to get ugly. A Xurian scout ship with its trademark pyramidal design was circling the Earth. Its inhabitants – The Xurs, a bio-organic species, much like the human race, only very very ugly. They had triangular heads(or so it seemed because of the way their ears jutted out) and inset slits for eyes, an imperceptible nose if you could call it that and a mouth lined with an array of sharp teeth. Their tongues were forked just like reptiles and they communicated using monosyllabic sounds (sounding like a series of clicks and clacks). They were about 10 feet tall with long limbs ending in sharp talons. They wore special armor coated with a special paint that gave it chrome colored sheen. Their anatomy was similar to the human physiology but with reptilian DNA spliced into it that gave them their thick exo skin and also allowed them to survive in extreme temperatures.

Their ship was well camouflaged (or so they thought) from the advanced defense system that had been put up years ago by the Confederate. Another scout ship joined them. An encrypted dialogue ensued among them.

"#1001 mission has been compromised, you must return immediately’

‘#1001 to #0010 confirm mission abort, return commencing’.

In all the time that they had to make the transmission, and just as they were about to throttle light years away into space, an explosion rocked #1001.

It was Rancour-1 of the Confederate. One of the best fighter jets outfitted for battles in space.

Based on the design of the CBA ARC-22 Rancour fighter jets, only a little bulkier, it had state of the art tracking systems. It had a sleek design, almost conical, but arching towards the front much like the head of a cobra. It was named after a pilot called Harry Rancour who had aided in the design of the prototype and had flown one of the first of these crafts into airspace, albeit in peace time. The pilots sat in the crew cabin created with specially reinforced materials that encased them in a protective shell of sorts. In the event of a critical failure, it was this shell which would be ejected from the main craft. The shell was capable of flight up to short distances to allow the crew to land successfully. The shell was simply called ‘The Pod’.

Rancour-1 had picked up the Xurian scout ship long before it had even entered Earth’s perimeter. As per orders, it had been tracking the Xurian craft, trying to intercept any communication going out from it.

Aboard the Rancour-1 were 2 pilots of the Confederate’s Air Space Ops (ASOPS) on their first mission.

Viren Kathik and his younger brother Baren Kathik.

Viren was a mild mannered person by nature, unless provoked to which he would reply by standing tall 6 feet with strong sinewy arms and an athletic body. He was dusky in complexion just like his forefathers from India. And he was intelligent. Quite a lethal combination.

On the contrary his brother was just a little shorter, about 5'11 very good looking and a ladies’ man. He was very aggressive by nature, very protective about his elder brother but very nonchalant about everything else. He was an ace at whatever he did and few could match up to his wits. And he was the one behind the controls of the Rancour-1.

Baren you idiot, you disobeyed a direct order. We were only supposed to follow and report, not attack. Stay away from my console OK, your job is to fly this thing, weapons are my area.

Take it easy bro, I got this….

Well, too late to do anything about it now. We’ll have to face the consequences when we get back. Father won’t be happy. Said Viren resigning to the fact that they had been discovered and preparing to fire another volley at the escaping Xurian craft.

Their father Commander Rabeer was a council member of the confederate (Governing body of Earth 2327) and Commanding chief of ASOPS. His sons had been inspired by him to join the air force. Quite a Gung Ho personality, he had simmered down to take over from the vacillating Commander Amaderin. It was under his leadership that the air space defense system had seen marked improvements over the last few years. In short his sons had quite a legacy to live up to. Though he would be angry at them for disobeying a direct order, secretly he would be happy because he had been quite the maverick himself when he had been a pilot in ASOPS.

Though damaged from the hit, #1001 was still operational. The Xurian scout fired up its primary boosters. Rancour-1 knew that once the primary boosters would be fired up, #1001 would be well beyond their reach.

Baren turned the ships towards it. Viren tried to get a lock on the scout ship. It was tough. They had fired a shower of Chaffs to misguide Rancour-1’s weapons.

Viren knew that he would have to fire blindly to register a hit. At the same time he was itching to use the advanced weaponry.

Get me within range, I’m gonna use the LBL (Link based Laser) to get rid of him. said Viren.

The Link Based Laser – another innovation of one of those young scientists who lay cooped up inside the research wing of ASOPS all day long try to figure out the best means of obliterating hostile crafts.

The concept was very simple. A high intensity laser beam bent to hit a target side-on to achieve maximum damage. By hitting the target side on, they intended to ripple the damage evenly across the hull (it especially screwed up a ship’s navigation system), enough to deter the ship from going into overdrive (at faster than light speed).

Baren nodded and thrust in the direction of #1001. They were gathering speed now and at any moment #1001 was going to elude them with a hyperthrust. All around Rancour-1 chaffes were exploding. It was completely screwing up their weapon and tracking diagnostics.

Damn these Xurs, why don’t they just roll over and die, muttered Baren.

He wove through the chaffes trying to avoid as many of them as possible. There was one thing that was bothering him. Why wasn’t #1001 defending themselves, they hadn’t fired a shot yet and it puzzled Viren that they were content with using defenses rather than offenses. Then it struck him. It was a ploy. A second later his worst fears were confirmed.

It was Rancour-1’s turn to be rocked with an explosion. Whilst #1001 had kept them busy, #0010 had come up behind them and attacked. Immediately after attacking them, #0010 held back.

Viren hit a button to bring up statistics on his console screen.

Baren we’re screwed. We can’t boost now, we’ve lost weapons bay 1 as well.

Goddamnit, what’s the good news?

The good news is that the hull hasn’t been compromised, we can make it back to base. And…

And what?

Weapons Bay 2 is still intact; we can use the V3 Cannon.

They looked at each other. The cannon was only good for close quarter combat. It was useless at long ranges.

Then Baren had an idea.

Chapter 2

The invaders

T he residents of #1001 were surprised. They had not expected this. They were moving in towards Rancour-1 which was suspended in space. They could track no energy impulses from it. As far as they could make out – it was dead. But they had to make sure. They didn’t want to leave behind any survivors. Meanwhile, #0010 had warped away.

There were three Xurian crew members on board, two pilots and the Captain.

They were close enough to bypass secondary defenses and run a scan on Rancour-1. It would be a bonus if they could get hold of survivors.

They started scanning from the cockpit. They