Ardent Redux Saga (eBook)

The Complete First Season

J. L. Stowers (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2023 | 1. Auflage
537 Seiten
Sixth Moon Publishing (Verlag)
978-0-00-042877-6 (ISBN)

Infos

Dani Devereaux captains Alaska's Vengeance, the ship that has won countless battles against the Vaerian advances into human space.
But when the aliens bring a new weapon to war, everything goes sideways leaving millions dead and billions more demanding blood. The government needs a scapegoat and their accusing eye lands squarely on Dani and her crew.
Dani takes full responsibility to protect her crew. In her solitude she has plenty of time to dwell on how recent events don't quite add up. And Dani's not the only one. Someone is leaving her a trail of clues that point to corruption at the highest levels of government. But the death sentence that was handed to her ends up being just the beginning.
As a new tyrant moves into power, Dani gets a second chance at life. She rallies her crew and they embark on a new mission: to eliminate corruption at its source before more innocent lives are lost.

This is the complete first season of the Ardent Redux Saga featuring episodes 1 - 5:

Vengeance Lost
Osirion's Ascent
Uncharted Territory
The Dead Zone
Houston's Peril
And Bonus Prequel: Alaska's Vengeance
This growing series is perfect for fans of who love action-packed space adventures.

Textauszug

“Brace for impact!” Captain Dani Devereaux called out. The guns on the massive enemy Vaerian ship let loose another barrage of white energy blasts. The attack was
in sync with an assault from a dozen single-pilot fighter ships.

Alaska’s Vengeance shuddered as shots made contact with the already weakened shields. Dani relaxed her white-knuckled grip on her console and raised her hand to the communications device in her ear. “Peterson, anytime now would be great.”

“We’re doing the best we can out here, Captain. These fighters are better than any others we’ve encountered.”

Dani watched as Peterson’s red-tailed fighter zipped around the Vaerian destroyer in pursuit of the quick fighter ships. Her own ship focused fire on the enemy’s primary weapons system, the yellow-hued shields lighting up as the attack made contact. The destroyer’s guns began to glow again as they charged for another attack.

Dani veered Alaska’s Vengeance away from the weapons mounted on top of the enemy ship and dipped beneath it.

“Now we’re talking!” Jag shouted from the right side of the bridge as he fired the remote-linked weapons into the underbelly of the ship. “Their shields have got to be about shot.”

“Our shields are down to eighteen percent; theirs are estimated around the same,” Cassia alerted the crew.

“I’m going to swing around for another drive-by,” Dani said as she banked the Galactic Conglomerate ship and angled it back toward the destroyer for another pass. “Hit it with all you’ve got, Jag.”

“My pleasure,” he replied as Alaska’s Vengeance’s weapons systems began to hum with power.

Dani could almost hear the grin in his voice as he called out, but she didn’t dare look away. The battle had gone on far longer than she was used to. Typically, Vaerians came in with guns blazing and little regard for their own safety. This battleship was a different story. Instead of fully powering weapons, they diverted a fair amount of energy to their shields, a rare move for the GC’s long-standing enemy.

“Cruz, how much longer before our backup is here?” It wasn’t in Dani’s nature to shy away from a fight, but her orders were to come to the defense of the Denver, a nearby Galactic Conglomerate warship on the verge of being overpowered. They hadn’t expected to come in contact with an elite Vaerian destroyer as soon as they dropped out of hyperdrive.

The ding of a bell from Cruz’s station drove Dani’s eyes to the graphics display, where a countdown timer now appeared. Dani frowned. Help was too far out. She
had to end this now.

“Woodworth is down, Captain,” Peterson announced over the comm.

“Keep on those fighters; we’ll handle the destroyer. You worry about your men, Peterson.”

“You got it.”

Peterson and his squadron whipped past Alaska’s Vengeance, chasing the agile Vaerian fighters as Jag fired another round at the battleship’s shields. As soon as they were out from beneath the Vaerian ship, it fired on them again, causing alarms to sound.

“That one took us down to twelve percent,” Cassia announced. “By my calculations they should be around ten or so.”

“Drop our shields down to five percent and divert the power to weapons. It’s now or never.”

The border on Dani’s console flashed red as Cassia lowered the shields to critical levels. She circled her ship around, quickly diving under the destroyer that was easily three times larger than Alaska’s Vengeance. Jag fired upon the enemy once more, the yellow shields taking the brunt of the energy blasts before the last burst from the guns on Alaska’s Vengeance made contact with the hull of the destroyer itself.

“Yes!” Jag shouted, pumping his fist into the air as a small explosion erupted near the Vaerian ship’s engines.

“Bringing us around again. Finish her off, Jag,” Dani ordered as they completed another run beneath the enemy.

Before she could bank for another pass, the swarm of Vaerian fighters dove at them from their position above the destroyer. Peterson and his pilots were hot on their tails, firing at the one-man ships. The energy blasts from the GC ships converged on the lead fighter, which was gunning straight for Alaska’s Vengeance. The small Vaerian craft burst apart, sections of debris exploding outward. A second Vaerian fighter flew into the debris field and lost control of the craft after a wing was sheared off by a large fragment of twisted metal.

The damaged fighter barrel-rolled behind Alaska’s Vengeance, then slammed into the engines before Dani could maneuver out of the way. An explosion tore through
the aft section of Alaska’s Vengeance, the vibrations echoing across the ship.  On the bridge, the power flickered before going out completely. Not a moment later, the emergency reserve power was up, powering only vital systems and emergency lighting.

“Shit!” Dani yelled and hit her mostly darkened console with the heel of her hand.

“The destroyer is powering primary weapons,” Cassia warned.

Dani clenched her jaw. They were so close. A quick glance at the display of the ship’s systems confirmed her fear. The explosion had knocked their shields and weapons out, and reserve power was only enough to provide life support and communications. She hesitated momentarily before overwriting the power systems to drop life support to minimum function to divert power to the shields. If help arrived when it was supposed to, then they wouldn’t need long-term life support anyway. And if not, well, they’d be dead anyway.

“Brace for impact,” Dani announced to the ship once more. She bit the inside of her cheek, hoping the shields would take the brunt of the attack, but instead of emitting a blast of energy from their weapons system, an explosion occurred aboard the alien ship.

A fiery orange blast radiated outward from the primary weapons array. A sizable chunk of the hull sheared away from the rest of the ship. The reptilian-like aggressors choked and froze, floating away from the debris that used to be a Vaerian destroyer.

Dani stared at the destruction, slack-jawed. Luck was typically on her side, but not usually to this extent. She immediately assumed that there was some kind of
malfunction aboard the ship. The explosion in the weapons system caused a chain reaction of smaller, secondary explosions that tore through the Vaerian destroyer. She raised a hand to her lips as the blasts erupted along all sides of the ship.

“They’re trying to escape!” Jag shouted as he pointed to the cargo bay of the destroyer.

Sure enough, the doors were sliding open. How the cargo bay remained intact as the ship around it essentially disintegrated was a mystery to Dani, but she didn’t have time to ponder the details. “I don’t know what happened, but it looks like they’re trying to escape. Peterson, what’s your position?”

“My squadron can handle the few remaining fighters. I’m coming around to take out whoever thinks they can shoot up our ship and get out alive.”

Dani watched the red-tailed fighter zip out from beneath the destroyer and position itself within firing range of the cargo bay. But what emerged wasn’t a Vaerian
escape vessel. Instead, the ship birthed by the bursting destroyer was one that looked like it had been pieced together by someone with a severe lack of resources.

“Pirates?” Jag asked aloud, as he leaned forward, staring at the screen in bewilderment. “What are pirates doing aboard a Vaerian destroyer?”

“I’m not sure,” Dani responded, scratching her head. “But I want to find out. Peterson, hold your fire.”

“You got it.”

“Cassia, open a line of communication,” Dani said as she stood and stared at the screen, stone faced.

The left side of the display screen filled with a riot of sight and sound. The bridge was a mess of confusion as men and women dressed in clothing that was just as mismatched as their ship darted about. The crew comprised a variety of races and ages from the very old, to the young. There even appeared to be a child carrying a circuit board in the background.

Amid the chaos sat a dark-haired, blue-eyed man with a large hat and a curious smirk. There was a calmness about him that made him seem out of place in the commotion taking place around him. His eyes lit up with recognition and he stood, slipping the hat from his head and dipping down in a swooping bow.

“Captain Devereaux, always a pleasure,” he said with a wink as he stood and placed his hat upon his head once more. “Tell me, how is my brother?”

Before Dani could open her mouth to speak, Jag was at her side.

“Talon, what the hell are you doing out here?” Jag demanded with all the ferocity of a younger brother who caught their older sibling sneaking in after curfew.

Dani’s eyes darted between the equally handsome men. The family resemblance was undeniable. She bit her...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.1.2023
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Science Fiction
• ISBN-10: 0-00-042877-9 / 0000428779
• ISBN-13: 978-0-00-042877-6 / 9780000428776