Shattered Union: Frontier Saga, #3

By Steve P. Vincent

Continue this explosive science fiction series by USA Today Bestselling author Steve P. Vincent…

 

A final victory won. A new threat in the shadows.

 

Sergeant Talon Stiler is finally back home, a hero after he sent the hated alien Dioscuri packing and saved humanity from the brink of disaster. But in his experience, peace doesn't often last long in the great expanse of the galaxy.

 

On Shellanth, one of the industrial powerhouses of the Terran Union, Stiler will soon find not everyone is keen on his newfound status. Facing threats in front of him - and from behind - he soon finds himself in another battle for the future of the Union.

 

And this enemy makes the Dioscuri look tame…

 

If you like James S.A. Corey's The Expanse series, or novels by Frank Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson or Iian Banks, you'll be right at home in The Frontier Saga.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Steve P. Vincent
• Release date: Mar 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215671597

Book preview

1

Sergeant Talon Stiler stared at the ceiling and groaned.

Dave Sinclair’s snoring from the bunk above was like a drill to his skull. The corporal was taking advantage of the first chance in months to rest properly, but Stiler had only managed short bursts of sleep. It had been the same story since he’d come aboard the Union battleship Jupiter. The flagship and its battered escorts were making their way back to the core systems after rescuing Stiler from a near-hopeless battle on the planet Kiel, and the whole time Stiler had been preoccupied with the sinister threat Admiral Osaka had made to him.

I’m not done with you, Sergeant…

If nothing else, Stiler knew his journey was almost concluded, which meant he’d finally get some answers. Osaka’s Third Fleet was approaching its base on Shellanth, the linchpin of the Union’s presence along the frontier with the Dioscuri. The fortress world had been besieged by the aliens only a few days before Stiler had helped to end the war, precipitating a general withdrawal of the Dioscuri from across Union space. His intervention had ensured that while the planet had been ravaged, it hadn’t fallen.

While it was clear Osaka had something planned for when they arrived, the details continued to elude Stiler, and so his mind continued to run wild with speculation, allowing only a few fitful hours of sleep at a time. It came in short, chaotic bursts – fifteen minutes, a half-hour – as his exhausted body battled his overwhelmed mind for primacy.

And every time he drifted off, he dreamt of the preceding months…

Of people lost.

Of heroes and betrayers.

Of enemies vanquished.

He also dreamt of the future, and these were the most bloody and chaotic dreams of all. He didn’t know what he’d face, days and weeks and months from now, but if his subconscious was right the road ahead would be challenging. He’d survived imprisonment in Denmead Penitentiary, a suicide mission to rescue Professor Cate Campbell – and her secret to ending the Dioscuri war – and the overwhelming alien assault on Kiel, yet the constant fire and fury in his dreams suggested worse to come.

The door to the room beeped and hissed open a moment later to reveal Admiral Osaka and a pair of Marines, each armed with a carbine. The bright light from the hallway roused Sinclair enough that he rolled over, but it failed to wake him. Stiler had no such issue. Already awake and now with no chance of sleep at all, he locked eyes with Osaka.

She gestured him to follow her, the stern look on her face making the consequences of refusing the instruction clear enough.

Already dressed, Stiler climbed out of bed and exited into the corridor. Without even looking at the Marines guarding her, he fronted up to Osaka. What can I do for you, Admiral?

Glad to see your attitude has improved since we left Kiel, Sergeant. The searing overhead lights seemed to make her eyes flash orange as she turned to hold his gaze. Follow me, please.

Stiler nodded and moved after her, watched closely by the Marines, who appeared relaxed but who he knew would be ready to bring their carbines to bear in an instant.

They snaked their way through the ship until they reached the command-and-control deck for the entire Third Fleet. There, sailors manned terminals that helped to coordinate the vast fleet. There were individuals responsible for navigation, gunnery, logistics and any of a hundred other functions necessary to keep such a huge endeavour on the tracks.

Stiler had been on similar decks on similar ships, but something about this felt different. Before he could pinpoint the anomaly, Osaka spoke.

"We’ve transferred coordination of the Union military to the Jupiter, she said. As the largest collection of ships and troops remaining, it made good sense."

And what did High Command back on Earth think about that? I can’t imagine they were happy to have their authority usurped.

High Command’s influence is waning, Osaka replied. This fleet comprises over two thirds of the Union’s remaining naval fighting strength.

Sounds like the start of a coup to me.

You’re at the crossroads of your future, Sergeant… Osaka walked over to one of the many consoles. Watch.

Stiler approached the screen as Osaka called up a video feed. Instantly, Stiler recognised the anchor from the Union’s daily newsvid, produced on Earth and beamed out across the galaxy – the one-stop-shop for current affairs across the human expanse.

The anchor looked earnestly into the camera. Top story tonight: with the Dioscuri in full retreat, we look at the heroic efforts that turned the tide, and the survivors of the daring team who discovered the secret that saved humanity.

As the newsman spoke, the screen flashed up stills of Stiler, Sinclair and Professor Cate Campbell, whose discovery had been the key to driving back the Dioscuri. There was talk of parades, some kind of victory tour…

Osaka muted the feed. I want you to appreciate the narrative here, Stiler. After the attack on Earth, you were painted as a villain by High Command. Now word of your involvement in throwing back the Dioscuri has spread, they’ve deemed you a hero.

So?

So, your whole life has twice been turned upside down on the whim of cabal of unelected elites a billion miles from the front lines. People who will laud you and then flip on you as soon as it suits their interests and public messaging.

Stiler smirked. What they’re offering sounds better than anything you’ve got, Admiral.

Don’t be so sure. She paused, letting the words sink in. Support me and you can have a prominent seat at the table for what comes next for the Union. The current, decrepit leadership was wholly unable to win the war against the Dioscuri. They had us on the brink of disaster, until a new generation of leaders and heroes – you and me – saved the day.

Stiler scoffed. You?

Osaka shrugged. Point is, between us I’ve got the ships and you’ve got the clout. We have a shot at toppling the whole corrupt mess.

Stiler had a horrible sense of déjà vu. A few years ago, he’d been compelled to approve the first generation of exosuits at the insistence of General Taggart, despite the machines having a spotty safety record that regularly got test pilots killed. He’d refused, and the decision had cost him everything. Now he was at a similar crossroads: benefit personally by signing up to something he disagreed with, or refuse and face who-knew-what horrible fate.

You’re not convinced. Osaka picked up a datapad and then handed it to Stiler. This shows the current status of Union and Dioscuri forces.

Stiler looked down at the screen. It showed the dozens of planets that comprised the Union – now free of the Dioscuri taint – and a smattering of known Dioscuri planets butting up against the frontier Union colonies. It was the same as hundreds of other maps he’d seen over the years, except for one thing: an icon denoting the Dioscuri home world itself.

He looked up at Osaka with wide eyes. We found their home system?

We sure did. She gave him a thin smile. But there’s a slight problem…

What?

Osaka crossed her arms over her chest. High Command wants to leave it alone, content that we’ve forced the Dioscuri to retreat. That finally made me decide it was time to force change at the top.

Because you want to hit it.

We have the enemy on the back foot. We have the matriarch revealing secrets about their makeup. We have the woman who engineered our enemy’s destruction and the man who enabled it.

Stiler’s mouth fell open a little. Despite his distaste and distrust for the admiral, this was a game changer. Until now, the Union had wholly failed to communicate with the Dioscuri, preventing any sort of diplomacy or intelligence gathering. But if Osaka was telling the truth, and the matriarch had revealed the location of the Dioscuri home worlds, then now the Admiral had his interest…

He considered a moment. The Third Fleet isn’t enough to take on the Dioscuri home world. It was barely enough to handle the evacuation from Kiel.

There are always more ships in construction and bodies signing up to hold a carbine, Osaka replied. It will just take a little time to prepare. The main thing is being willing to call the shot…

Stiler’s tired, restless mind waged a silent battle between staying loyal to the Union and taking a step closer to ending the Dioscuri once and for all. If it was true High Command was content with letting the Dioscuri retreat, Stiler wasn’t cool with that. Campbell’s secret had won the battle, but there was no guarantee it would win the war. At any moment, the Dioscuri could figure out they’d been conned and turn their ships and armies right back around.

The only way to assure victory was to follow the aliens home and burn whatever was there.

If High Command didn’t want to do that and Osaka did, he’d listen to her.

He readily admitted the leadership of the Union wasn’t perfect. In his experience, there was grift almost everywhere, not to mention larger scale corruption. The issues weren’t exclusive to the elites, either. Non-citizens were a large and permanent underclass that provided cannon fodder for the Union’s armies and cheap labour for its factories, and life in the colonies on the frontier was short and hard.

But despite its flaws, the Union had kept humanity rowing in the same direction for a century, and Stiler had studied enough history to know that while revolutionaries often promised that things would be better, safer, more prosperous, those improvements rarely manifested in the lives of the general populace. Once the dust settled, revolution usually just led to a different boot crushing the people.

He resolved to wait out the situation for a while, say what he needed to stay in the game Osaka was playing until he figured out exactly what he wanted to do – to be part of the plan or work to stop it from the inside.

He nodded at Osaka. You can count on me.

2

Stiler stared out the window of the Navy transport shuttle as it flew in for landing at the Shellanth Military Spaceport. An immense facility that could house thousands of ships, shuttles, and interceptors at any one time, its vast expanse of lights formed a connect-the-dots picture in the night, a map someone with Stiler’s experience could easily put together. Bright red lights showed the outline of landing pads and hangars; soft glows illuminated internal roads and walkways; dazzling white points mapped the perimeter security fence.

Amidst the lights were the drive plumes of dozens of ships of various sizes, coming and going every few minutes. Some would be carrying troops or valuable trade goods back to the core systems, while others would be shipping more soldiers or colonists or supplies to the newly reclaimed frontier worlds. Shellanth was one of the busiest ports in the entire Union, and almost everything and everyone of worth that traversed the trade routes of the Union ended up there at some point.

But the port seemed far busier than any other time Stiler had come in for landing.

One of Osaka’s junior officers had explained that the Dioscuri attack on Shellanth had seen every other civilian and military spaceport on the planet razed to the ground. After the liberation of her fleet’s home base, Osaka had ordered the larger military spaceport be repaired first, with large crews of labourers working around the clock to return the facility to operational condition – the rest of the spaceports on the planet had been slated for repair later.

The reason was obvious to Stiler: power.

If Osaka controlled the only major fleet and the only major spaceport on the most important planet straddling the most important trade route in the Union, her position became almost unassailable. She could control who came and went, as well as ensuring she clipped the ticket of every transaction, establishing a resource base outside the taxes imposed and redistributed by the Union. If there was to be a war with the Union loyalists, it was clear Osaka had the strategic position, military assets and resource base to be a formidable foe.

But while hearing about the port’s increased role from the junior officer had been one thing, seeing it was another. This first impression of Osaka’s power base was impressive; between the Spaceport and the Third Fleet, Stiler doubted there was any greater concentration of Union military assets anywhere else right now. It was a sobering thought for a man who was still weighing up which side of the power struggle he wanted to be on, if he wanted to be part of the struggle at all.

You look serious for a man about to have the universe at his beck and call, Sinclair said from the seat opposite. What’s on your mind, Sarge?

Stiler looked out the window for one more second, then turned to face his comrade and friend. I’m wondering if we’ve just jumped out of the fry pan.

And into the fire? Sinclair shook his head. We’re safe here, Sarge. We’ve done our share of the impossible. It’s time to let some other bastards take their turn.

Stiler nodded. Sinclair did not know the prime role Osaka planned for Stiler in the next phase of her plan, and while the Admiral had only approached him, so far, he couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t eventually seek to dragoon Sinclair and Campbell as well. Stiler would do whatever he could to prevent that, given how much both had already sacrificed in recent months.

But the size of the spaceport and its level of activity showed him how much pull Osaka had in this region of space. With the Dioscuri in retreat, the frontier was now her domain.

They rode in silence the rest of the way to the ground, one in a convoy of shuttles taking exhausted crew members from the battered Third Fleet down to the surface of the planet. A skeleton crew would remain aboard the battleships, but with the Dioscuri in full retreat it was understandable the captains wanted their people to take their first opportunity to rest in many months.

If Osaka’s plan came to fruition, Stiler doubted if those same sailors would have another chance to relax any time soon.

The shuttle stacked in a holding pattern, waiting for its turn to land amongst the torrent of other traffic. It took minutes, then hours, then longer, leaving Stiler wondering if something had gone wrong, or if the delay was some sort of weird power play by Osaka – reinforcing exactly who was boss. But the more Stiler paid attention to individual vessels rather than the great overwhelming tide, the more he realized everyone had been prevented from landing.

A moment later, the reason become clear.

A Monarch shuttle was coming in for landing. In his entire career spent traversing the stars, Stiler had only ever seen a Monarch on one other occasion: when a member of Union High Command had arrived on a newly colonized planet to plant the flag in the dirt. Stiler had been part of a contingent of Marines providing security for the event, which aside from seeing the large shuttle had been totally forgettable.

A Monarch landing now could only mean a similarly powerful figure was descending from on high.

Stiler climbed out of his seat and headed to the front of the shuttle, where he sidled up next to the cabin master, a young woman sporting the rank of private. What’s the delay, sailor?

The private, whose nameplate identified her as Sarah Rogan, gave him a pained expression. VIP landing, so there’s a no-fly order over the spaceport until that shuttle is on the ground.

Any idea who it is?

Commissioner Nasiri from Union High Command. Rogan sneered. Waiting for her just cost a bunch of us our dinner plans. Way to make yourself popular with the fleet that saved the Union’s ass.

Stiler thanked her, then returned to his seat opposite Sinclair. Waiting for spaceport control to get Nasiri’s shuttle on the ground and then clear the backlog of other vessels wanting to touch down gave him time to brood – and there was much to brood about. Why was Nasiri here? A member of High Command leaving the Earth to visit anywhere in the Union was a big deal, but to have a commissioner here at the same time as Stiler, Osaka and the Third Fleet? It was too much of a coincidence.

The commissioners sat so far above the average solider or citizen that they may as well be gods. Their decisions shifted the fate of planets, their justice was final, and their power was absolute. He supposed the missions he went on were ultimately ordered or endorsed by High Command, but those orders passed down through so many other layers of authority that they may as well be written in lore by deities.

Seven of the commissioners were elusive figures, appointed to their position based on the votes of all nations in each continent on Earth. Seven commissioners for seven continents, with four more representing the heads of the Army, Navy, Marines and Merchant Guild. While it sounded representative, there were plenty who griped about the High Command being too focused on the interests of Earth and the military at the expense of the other core systems and frontier colonies.

Stiler knew little about Nasiri, beyond that she oversaw Union military production and she’d been a close ally and friend of General Taggart.

Both facts made him dubious about her and her presence here.

The speculation added to his existing exhaustion, and Stiler closed his eyes. This time, however, sleep found him, a few moments of bliss while the stacked shuttles were cleared. He only knew they were headed in for landing themselves