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  Recker’s Chance

  Savage Stars Book 7

  Anthony James

  Contents

  Tokladan – DEKA-L System

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Other Science Fiction Books by Anthony James

  © 2020 Anthony James

  All rights reserved

  The right of Anthony James to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed upon the subsequent purchaser

  Illustration © Tom Edwards

  TomEdwardsDesign.com

  Tokladan – DEKA-L System

  The Daklan planet Tokladan was a sphere of drab red stone and sombre yellows, with surface temperatures and an atmosphere capable of supporting life. Not that life had existed here before the Daklan arrived more than a century ago, set up their extensive industrial and military complexes, and settled in their tens of millions.

  Now, the surface facilities numbered over a hundred and, from space, they appeared like patches of dull grey, out of place amongst the planet’s natural colours. The Daklan appreciation of beauty was different to that of humans, and the aliens lived without complaint in these boxy cities of slab-sided factories and warehouses, their families housed in adequately sized units, all edges and corners.

  Tokladan saw few visitors from the Human Planetary Alliance, but those who came invariably returned home with a feeling of immense relief, as though they had escaped a failed brutalist architect’s nightmare vision of a perfect future.

  Despite their acceptance of tedium, the Daklan didn’t actively seek it out. The reason for their presence on Tokladan could be found beneath the surface, where lay boundless quantities of high-grade tenixite, an ore which could be refined into the ternium required for a thousand applications both civilian and military.

  On this day, and ten million kilometres from the planet, a particle wave appeared, formed by the transit of a spaceship approaching at lightspeed. Within a second, the wave was detected by one of the deep space satellites positioned around the planet and the data analysed. Having determined that the inbound vessel was many times larger than anything in the Daklan or HPA fleets, an alarm was sent to the local defence force.

  A dozen ravager class destroyers, along with two desolator heavy cruisers, broke from their orbital positions and sped towards the origin point of the particle wave. Meanwhile on the planet, the inhabitants reached for their injectors of Frenziol-13 and stabbed themselves with needles. Everyone, no matter how young, was given a shot and the only variation was the size of the dose.

  From lightspeed emerged a warship of immense proportions. Shaped like a cube with eighteen-thousand-metre edges, the Lavorix ship Ixidar was fitted with five huge cannons, one protruding from each of its six faces, with the final barrel having been destroyed in a recent engagement at the planet Tronstal.

  For several seconds, the Ixidar hung in place, like it had all the time in the world. The Daklan were not meek opponents and two lightspeed missiles, one launched by each of the desolators, emerged within the Lavorix ship’s energy shield. Twin flashes of plasma followed the impacts, the detonations leaving angry holes in the Ixidar’s armour.

  At once, the massive warship vanished into lightspeed and reappeared a fraction of a second later, this time within half a million kilometres of the two desolators. With a burst of savage acceleration, the Ixidar raced directly for the Daklan warships, rotating steadily about its vertical axis as it did so.

  The two desolators fired their enormous Terrus cannons, sending hardened slugs of alloy at the approaching warship, though the projectiles didn’t travel rapidly enough to stand much hope of impacting given the intervening distance. No such limitation affected the Ixidar and it discharged its facing cannon. A sphere of dark energy concealed one of the desolators for a split second and when it disappeared, the Daklan spaceship’s armour and the edges of its ternium propulsion modules had been stripped away and turned into dust.

  The Ixidar’s rotation brought another gun to bear and the second desolator was hit by the same energy burst and with the same outcome. Already out of the fight, the two stricken vessels banked away, their external armaments destroyed.

  Still accelerating, the Lavorix warship attained a velocity far greater than anything its opponents could match. One of the ravagers fired a dozen missiles and then it was obliterated by a third shot from the Ixidar.

  As it approached Tokladan, the Lavorix spaceship slowed and then adjusted course to bring it into orbit, fifty thousand kilometres above the planet’s surface. Wary of lightspeed missiles, the Ixidar shifted erratically on and off its orbital track, its crew having learned that the Daklan warheads could only reliably bypass its energy shield when the vessel was stationary.

  A few minutes passed, during which the ravagers and the Tokladan conventional ground batteries thew everything they had at the Ixidar. Each missile impact produced a faint glow from the huge spaceship’s energy shield and no more.

  Seemingly unconcerned by the attacks, the Ixidar continued its orbit for several minutes. Then, it fired its Extractor at one of the main industrial complexes. Protected by the Frenziol-13 and their innate, partial resistance to the weapon, most of the Daklan survived and those who did not were killed by the shock of agony, rather than by the leeching energy itself.

  With its life batteries near empty, the Ixidar continued circling the planet, while the Lavorix technicians studied the data from the first attack and considered how best to adjust the weapon so the next discharge would be cleanly fatal.

  On Tokladan, the Daklan could do nothing but wait.

  Chapter One

  Four hours after its capture by Captain Carl Recker and his crew, the warship Gorgadar emerged from its Gateway into the Kobin-15 system, way out beyond the star’s fifteenth and outermost planet. Layered doses of Frenziol masked, without completely deadening, the thumping pain which accompanied this method of travel. Technology had its benefits, yet always with an accompanying downside to remind its users that the manipulation of nature and physics came with a price.

  Recker swore – something he did so often he wondered if he should get a list of oaths tattooed on his forehead to save him the effort of repeating them – and clenched his fists. He couldn’t wait for the pain to subside and barked out orders for his crew to report.

  “Scans clear, sir,” said Lieutenant Jo Larson.

  “Nothing on the fars,” said Lieutenant Adam Burner a few moments later.

  The Gorgadar’s sensor feeds were displa
yed on a huge screen which covered much of the forward bulkhead and curved around the command console. On those feeds, Recker saw stars and darkness.

  “Let the fun and games begin,” he said. “Open a channel to the Sapphire station and let them know we’re here.”

  “I’m requesting a channel now, sir,” Larson confirmed.

  Twenty seconds passed. “What’s keeping them?” Recker growled.

  “They’ve accepted the request. I’ve told them who we are and what we’ve brought with us,” said Larson. “The man on the other end – a Lieutenant Vince Vickers - sounds stressed.”

  “Anything we don’t know about?” asked Recker. “Or is it just because a 29000 metre Lavorix warship turned up to ruin his breakfast?”

  “I think it’s what you just said, sir,” said Larson.

  Recker sat back and the cracked leather of his chair made a tearing sound. The eighty-kilometre aura around the Gorgadar, which had killed its original crew, had also made all the biological matter on the warship age about a thousand years. Of course that was a figure and a diagnosis Recker had pulled from his ass – nobody onboard had the faintest idea what had happened, and even Corporal Suzy Hendrix’s medical box only spat out failure reports when it was plugged into one of the thousands of dead Lavorix which were scattered throughout the interior.

  As for the Lavorix replicators, a few braver members of the human and Daklan platoon had attempted to sample the enemy chow, but the machines would only vend a foul-smelling thick liquid more akin to crude oil than anything edible. Clearly the replicator storage tanks had been just as much affected by what many of the soldiers were calling the death sphere.

  “I’d like a channel to Fleet Admiral Telar,” Recker said.

  Since capturing the Gorgadar out in the RETI-11 system, Recker and his crew had worked hard to familiarise themselves with the warship’s operation, finally discovering how to access and activate the Gateway hardware not long before embarking on this return to HPA space.

  During those four hours, Recker had ordered many transmissions sent to the Lancer base on Earth, something which Burner and Larson accomplished by routing through the accompanying warship Vengeance’s comms system. Until a thorough audit of the Gorgadar’s comms system was completed, it seemed best to limit the data going through its hardware in case it synched with other members of the Lavorix fleet.

  According to Lieutenant Burner’s estimates of the travel time, it was certain that the outbound comms had not yet arrived at a receiving station, which made the situation all the more infuriating since the Gorgadar was equipped with enormously capable FTL amplifiers which they couldn’t use until the risks were mitigated.

  With everything that had gone on – the Ixidar’s destruction of the allied fleet at Tronstal and the Vengeance’s subsequent voyage to RETI-11 - Recker wasn’t sure what Telar’s reaction would be, and the uncertainty was putting him on edge.

  “Lieutenant Vickers is trying to reach the Fleet Admiral, sir.”

  Recker’s frustration threatened to boil over and he took a deep breath. Although the Gorgadar was a few hundred million kilometres from the Sapphire station, its incredible sensor arrays obtained a recognizable image of the structure and Recker’s eyes lingered on the slowly turning cylinder, with its square ends which had always made him think of a giant alloy bolt. Unlike some of the other space stations, Sapphire didn’t orbit a planet. It had propulsion, but its deep space arrays functioned better if it was left stationary, as it was now.

  “I’ve got the Fleet Admiral for you, sir,” said Larson.

  “Put him on the bridge speakers,” said Recker. “I’ve got some news for him.”

  “And what kind of news would that be, Carl?” asked Telar. The words were spoken mildly, though only a fool would have missed the undertones of anger and disappointment. “And where the hell have you been?”

  “We’ve been to Meklon space and out of easy comms reach,” said Recker. “We captured the Gorgadar and travelled by Gateway to the Sapphire station.”

  Telar went quiet, doubtless considering which of a hundred questions he should ask first. In the end, he went for the simplest one.

  “How did you capture the Gorgadar?”

  Recker gave the summary and again came the silence.

  “You say the Ancidium is coming,” said Telar at last.

  “We lack absolute proof, but it appeared on the Laws of Ancidium battle network for a short time after we boarded the Gorgadar and it was moving across Meklon space. Presumably, it was gathering the members of the Lavorix fleet still deployed across the spheres. Then, it dropped off the battle network and no further communication has reached the Gorgadar.”

  “What we’re facing? What is the Ancidium?”

  “We don’t know, sir. We have spent four hours on the Gorgadar and that time was occupied figuring out how to tie in the star charts and the Gateway hardware so that we could come home. I planned to begin investigation of the other onboard systems from here in the Kobin-15 system.”

  “And you chose that location because of the death sphere?”

  “Yes, sir. We can route our comms through the Sapphire satellite while remaining far from our planets.”

  “So many unanswered questions,” said Telar. “On another occasion I would enjoy the challenge. Not now.” He sighed, a long, drawn out exhalation that carried with it the weight of a hundred billion souls. “The Ixidar is currently orbiting one of the Daklan worlds – a place called Tokladan. It arrived while you were off grid.”

  It didn’t take a genius to guess what the Lavorix were doing at Tokladan. “The enemy are testing their Extractor?” asked Recker.

  “That’s exactly what they’re doing. The Ixidar is circling the planet and hitting the Daklan population centres.”

  “How many attacks and with what result?”

  “So far, the Ixidar has fired its Extractor three times and on each occasion the Daklan have lost a few thousand people – mostly the older members of the population, or those with medical issues.”

  “Shock deaths,” said Recker.

  “That is what the early reports suggest,” Telar agreed.

  “The Extractor isn’t working as the Lavorix intend,” said Recker. “They’ll stay there until it is and then they’ll come to our other worlds.”

  “You have the Gorgadar, Carl. Which of our planets are detailed within its star charts?”

  “I was coming to that, sir.” Recker felt a sudden reluctance, such was the magnitude of his earlier discovery. “The Lavorix have entries for Ravel, Bronze, Basalt and Future. Added to those are coordinates for the Daklan worlds Loterle, Videze and Terrani.”

  Telar’s intake of breath was audible. “Terrani? That’s the Daklan’s first world!”

  “I saved the worst till last,” said Recker. “Earth is on the list as well.”

  “Shit,” said Telar. He didn’t swear often, so when he did it had a far greater impact. “This might be the end, Carl.”

  “Yes, sir, it might be. However, I don’t think the Lavorix know what they’ve found. I believe their charts contain these planets as points of interest, rather than as confirmed destinations. The enemy have many other such places marked on their charts.”

  “They plan to visit each in turn,” said Telar. “How many planets are on those charts?”

  “One hundred and seventy,” said Recker.

  “With the Ancidium and Ixidar working together and using their Gateway generators, they will soon locate our worlds.”

  “That depends on how long it takes the Ixidar’s crew to adjust the Extractor, sir,” said Telar. “And if the Ancidium is in Meklon space, it might be delayed for a considerable time if it is gathering resources.”

  “Aside from the Gorgadar, we have no aces up our sleeves, Carl,” said Telar. “Our weapons labs are pursuing numerous avenues, some of which may eventually bear significant fruit.”

  “But nothing soon.”

  “Nothing soon enough,
” Telar confirmed.

  “My crew and I will learn the functions of the Gorgadar, sir,” Recker promised. “And then we will fly it to Tokladan and destroy the Ixidar. If we are successful, perhaps it will reset the enemy’s Extractor research and buy us some time.”

  “We had planned an attack on the enemy warship, in the form of a lightspeed missile barrage from the edges of DEKA-L,” said Telar. “Gathering the fleet will require several more days, and the Daklan do not possess unlimited numbers of annihilators, desolators, or indeed lightspeed missiles. Their fleet cannot withstand another blow like it suffered at Tronstal. This was to be our last chance.”

  “Can our HPA warships be modified to carry lightspeed missiles?” asked Recker. “Like we did for the Vengeance?”

  “Work is underway,” said Telar. “Again, we are limited by time and resources. The Daklan can’t produce their missiles fast enough and their new manufacturing centres are not yet onstream.”

  “We’ll need all the warships and lightspeed missiles we can muster once the Ancidium arrives,” said Recker.

  “Do you believe the Gorgadar can defeat the Ixidar?” asked Telar softly.

  Recker didn’t answer for a moment – he closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. The Gorgadar’s scents of staleness and decay intensified in his nostrils, along with another entirely unidentifiable odour which he’d convinced himself was a part of the death sphere. When Recker opened his eyes again, the miasma enveloping the warship seemed stronger than before, turning everything dim like fog on a dark winter’s morning. Then, the darkness shrank away as if it couldn’t tolerate his sight of it, and returned once more to his periphery. Many a time, Recker had asked himself if it would claim him as soon as he laid down to sleep, in the same way it had claimed the Daklan soldier Unvak.