Artemis War: Birth of the Rim, #0

By Phil Huddleston

A prequel novella to the Birth of the Rim Series.

One moment Penthesilea of Thrace is fighting the Greek hero Achilles on the battlefield of Troy. A few hours later, she wakes up in a starship leaving Earth, trying to understand what has happened to her. Grieving her sisters left on the battlefield of Troy, Penthesilea must adapt and overcome - to face a new life where nothing is familiar, and nothing makes sense.

 

But just as she begins to make strides toward becoming a new person, everything changes again. Once more she is headed for an uncertain future in the center of the galaxy - but this time, to be placed on trial for her life.

 

Because she is a human who knows too much.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Phil Huddleston
• Release date: Mar 14, 2020
• ISBN: 9781734221589

Phil Huddleston

Phil Huddleston grew up barefoot and outdoors like Huckleberry Finn until he discovered books.  Thereafter, he read everything he could get his hands on, including reading the Encyclopedia Britannica and Funk & Wagnalls from A to Z multiple times.  He served in the U.S. Marines for four years, returned to college and completed his degree on the GI Bill.  Since that time, he attempted to assist his wife in raising two daughters, built computer systems, worked in cybersecurity, played in a band, flew a bush plane from Alaska to Texas, rode a motorcycle around a good bit of America and would like to do it all again.  Except without the mistakes.

Book preview

Artemis War

A Prequel Novella to the Birth of the Rim Series

Phil Huddleston

Copyright © 2020 Phil Huddleston

All rights reserved.

No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For inquiries, contact [e-mail]

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this book are either products of the author’s creative imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, businesses, locales, or persons is coincidental and not intended to infringe on any copyright or trademark.

ISBN – 978-1-7342215-9-6 (paperback)

ISBN – 978-1-7342215-8-9 (eBook)

Contents

Useful Terms

Troy

Achilles

Pyre

Hermes

Aeolis

Ephor

Tribunal

Training

Artemis

Return

Amorian

Mars

Jupiter

Mycenae

Mestra

Patrol

Epilogue

Author Notes

Preview - Imprint of Blood

Works by Phil Huddleston

About the Author

Useful Terms

This is a novella - an introduction to the Birth of the Rim series. It’s shorter than a novel; it should take roughly half the time of a full-size novel to read. I hope you like it and will continue to the rest of the full-length novels in the series: Imprint of Blood, Imprint of War, Imprint of Honor, and Imprint of Defiance.

Here are some terms that may be helpful as you read:

AI – Artificial Intelligence. Can be sentient (conscious) or non-sentient.

AU – Astronomical Unit, commonly used to specify the huge distances inside a solar system; about 93,000,000 miles or 150,000,000 km. The Earth is 1 AU from the Sun. Saturn is 9.5 AU from the Sun (about 1,427,000,000 km or 886,700,000 miles).

Bottleneck Experiment – an experiment where a small population of creatures is placed into a strange environment to see if they can survive.

G-force (or g) – the force of gravity. When standing on Earth, you experience 1g of weight. If you were experiencing 8g, you would weigh eight times as much.

KPS – kilometers per second. Escape velocity to leave Earth is roughly 11.19 kps. To travel to the Moon in one minute, you’d need to average 6,407 kps.

Troy

There were clouds in the sky, but few, and only the small white cotton ones. The rest of the sky over Troy and its environs was blue, oh so blue, as far as the eye could see, over the river and on to the sea. It hurt her heart to see the beauty of it.

A good day to kill Greeks, said Penthesilea of Thrace, gazing across the land from her vantage point high on the walls of Troy. I hate fighting in the rain.

Beside her, Melanippe grinned. Well, yeah, especially since you can hardly walk even on a dry day!

Penthe punched her sister on the arm, hard. Melanippe punched her back, and the two Amazon warriors laughed. Then they leaned forward, resting their elbows on the rampart wall, and looked outward.

It was a warm day, and flies buzzed around as they always did. Overhead, crows swarmed.

Somehow, the crows knew. Penthe didn’t know how - but the crows always knew a battle was brewing. They waited, circling overhead, sitting in the few sparse, dead trees that remained after so long a war.

The crows knew.

The river ran slowly in front of Penthe, moving a heavy load of silt toward the Aegean. Earlier in the week, there had been three days of thunderstorms. The Scamander River was muddy and dark.

But two days ago it had dawned dry. Mist and fog rose as the water went back to the sky.

Then, yesterday had been a fine day, with the clouds gone, the ground mostly firm again, and the pools of water disappearing in the heat.

And today was even better. Now it was early in the morning; the air not yet darkened by hundreds of cook fires burning by noonday, smoking up the air both inside the city and across the river in the Greek camp.

The sea glittered in the far distance, across the swampy land between Troy and the Greeks. Swamps abounded in the area, both on the Trojan side of the river and the Greek side toward the sea. Only two small sections of dry land allowed travel between the two armies.

The main passage was a section of dry sand and low scrub to the west. It allowed the Greeks to come up from their camp and cross a small ford over the river.

From the river ford, the Greeks could turn left and come out on the plain before the city of Troy. Or they could turn right to go up the Scamander and raid the land.

What time do you think they’ll come out? asked Melanippe.

Who knows, said Penthe. They’ll come when they’re damn well ready. I’m going back to sleep. Wake me when they decide to get off their asses.

Melanippe nodded. Penthe turned and walked along the rampart to the nearest ladder, then went down to ground level. As she descended the ladder, she heard a few snickers from nearby guards. Walking over to them, she stared at them calmly.

See something you like? she asked, resting one hand casually on the hilt of her sword.

Quickly the guards silenced.

Sorry, mum, mumbled one of the guards. Didn’t mean to offend.

Penthe nodded and turned on her heel. She headed to her camp, a long walk. But she couldn’t help a small smile.

Of course, the guards were going to snicker at the strange women. The Amazon mercenaries had arrived on horseback, wearing trousers - something the Trojans and Greeks thought insane. They carried spear, sword, shield, and battleaxe, and rode their horses like they were part of them. Their bodies carried tattoos - inked designs of deer, horses, fish, fantastic animals of all kinds.

No wonder they snicker, thought Penthe. Having seen the likes of their dainty Trojan masters for so long, they’re confused about who the men are.

And it didn’t help that Penthe and her warriors were easily the tallest women in the city. The strange appearance of the scary tall women with big axes and swords had many warding them off with the sign of the evil eye.

Her Amazons had originally been allocated an area for their camp at the far southeast side of the city. Although King Priam had welcomed them gaily, with gifts and a parade, the rank-and-file commanders didn’t really know what to do with them. So they were placed in the least desirable area, mixed in with the poor and the hungry, back out of sight.

True, Priam had sent messengers to every friendly city in the area, asking for help against the Greeks. True, he had sent messengers to Themiscyra. True, when the government of Themiscyra offered to send troops, he accepted.

But Priam’s commanders were still taken aback when thirteen Amazon mercenaries showed up at their front gate, armed to the teeth.

But no more. Only a week earlier, just after their arrival, the Greeks had come out and challenged. As the Trojans buckled on their armor, gathered their weapons, and streamed out the gate to form up in front of the city, the Amazons had been ignored.

But Penthe wasn’t having it. She gathered her warriors. They mounted their sturdy steppe horses and raced out the city gate. They prepared faster than the Trojans, which allowed them to get out early, minutes before the Trojans finished all their buckling and rigging and gathering of spears and arrows. She placed her Amazons just to the right of the elite nobility, almost in the center of the army.

The Trojans looked at her as if she were out of her mind.

As the Amazons lined up, their horses prancing and antic, anticipating battle, Penthe heard muttering among the armored-up men around her. It was an even bet she would be ordered back into the city.

And then the Greeks charged, hoping to catch the Trojans as they were still forming up.

They charged directly at the Amazons.

By the end of the day, the pile of dead in front of the Amazons had put the lie to any concerns held by the Trojans. There were no more mumbles of doubt.

Now that first taste of Greek blood was behind them. Now the Trojan commoners walked wide around them in the city, afraid to be too close to them. Now the Trojan warriors bought them drinks in the taverns and sought to be next to them on the battle line.

And King Priam had offered them a camp closer to the Skaian Gate, a prime location.

Penthe had politely refused, telling the King they would stay in their back-water camp with the common people.

Then she had gone out to bury her dead.

That first minor battle last week alongside the Trojans had been limited; a probe in force, the Greeks trying the Trojan defenses. They did it periodically, an attempt to wear down the Trojans and their allies.

It wasn’t a true siege, because the Greeks didn’t have enough men to completely encircle the city.

They could prevent the Trojans from going to the sea. But they couldn’t prevent them going inland. They just didn’t have enough men for that.

So they raided. They harassed. If the Greeks caught a Trojan force out fetching water or food without a strong guard, they slaughtered them indiscriminately - men, women, and children.

Thus every activity - from fetching water, to foraging for food, to pasturing the cattle behind the city - everything - required a strong military force to guard it.

Penthe had quickly realized the Trojans had no clue how to use horses in battle. They rode their horses out to the front of the army, lined up and waited for the Greeks to advance. Then, when the Greeks began their advance, spears aligned in tight formation - the Trojans dismounted. Handing their horses to their servants, they met the Greeks on foot, spear to spear, sword to sword.

It was stupid, thought Penthe.

The Trojans argued that honor was at stake; they must meet the Greeks evenly for the sake of their honor as men.

Penthe had laughed.

Well, you won’t mind if we kill them as women, then, she had responded. From horseback. For that is the purpose of a horse, and that’s how we fight.

After that first tentative battle, when the Amazons had killed so many of the Greeks with only two losses, some of the Trojan nobility were scratching their heads and thinking it through. Perhaps the use of