Exodus: Tales of The Empire: Book 2: Beasts of the Frontier. (29 page)

“Yes, ma’am.” 
The Warrant Officer lifted the sub out of the water on grabbers and pushed the
acceleration to the limit.  Within seconds the vessel was pushing past the
sound barrier, the power of its grabbers turning the poor aerodynamic form into
a swift transport.

The main holo
switched to view the creature they were chasing, while the side screen flipped
to show the image of the larger being still heading up, out of the atmosphere
and into the vacuum of space.  It was accelerating at over a hundred gravities,
amazing for something that was supposedly alive, though nowhere near the class
of the frigate that was still pumping beam energy into it.

Amazing
,
thought Jensen, shaking her head.  The creature was like nothing human science
had ever run into.  As far as she knew, checking her assumption in the sub’s
computer, no other intelligent species had ever run into anything like this.  A
creature that could live in space or in the crushing depths of a deep sea. 
That could change its outer coating to fit the situation.  That could swim at
hundreds of knots, levitate in the air, and accelerate at the speed of a ship
that would have amazed with its performance less than three hundred years
before.

The larger
creature was now on an outward heading, passing the frigate, and entering the
firing arcs of the remaining pair of warships that were coming in.  It looked
like it might have a chance, especially when it jumped its acceleration up to
eight hundred gravities.  That is, until one of the incoming frigates launched
one of its missiles, accelerating toward the creature at five thousand
gravities.

The missile
struck, its two hundred megaton warhead flaring high above the planet, showing
a bright pinpoint to anyone on the ground who happened to be looking up.  Heat
and radiation burned through the creature, destroying millions of tons of the
protoplasmic substance through the tough, stone like membrane.  The second missile
took out what little was left.

“One left,” said
Jensen in a quiet voice.  “And once you’re gone, this place is once again
paradise.”

*     *     *

The last free
Gatherer
cringed in its mind as the larger manifestation of itself died in space.  It
realized that it didn’t have a chance against the ships of these tiny
intelligences.  In its memories of the last Galaxy there was nothing of the
tech level of these intelligences except for the creators.  It would have to
have taken over a third of the Galaxy before it would be able to handle the
firepower of these things.

Its senses
picked up the craft that was following it when it was still seconds from
contact.  It wasn’t sure what it was, but it was travelling at three times the
speed of sound and still accelerating.  With a burst of energy the
Gatherer
dropped
down and hit the water in a large splash.  Moments later the follower, now at
substantially reduced speed, followed suit and sliced into the water.

The
Gatherer
looked
for a hiding place, but the water here was still too shallow, and it recognized
its mistake at leaving the air before it had gotten over the safety of the
deep.  It hesitated for a moment, deciding between attacking the thing after it
or continuing to flee.  It thought it could outrun it.  It thought it might be
able to defeat it, but its certainty was not strong after what had happened to
the others.  So it decided to run, since it was the only member of its species
left with freedom of action.  And it also decided to get rid of the five hundred
ton weight that rode within it, dropping the tank out of its body to head for
the bottom.

*     *     *

“It’s pulling
away, ma’am,” reported Kama, looking up from his board.

“Can you catch
it, Zaya?”

“Not a chance
ma’am.  Not in the water.  It’s already exceeded our maximum speed.”

“Prepare a pair
of torpedoes, Master Sergeant.”

“Are you sure
you want to kill it, ma’am?” asked Kama, brows furrowing.  “It’s proven by its
actions that it could be an intelligent creature.  That means we aren’t
supposed to kill off the species.”

“It’s also not a
natural evolved animal,” countered the Major.  “It’s a construct, as much
machine as anything else, and therefore the restriction does not apply.” 
And
we know how dangerous self-aware machines are,
she thought.

“We don’t really
know what it is ma’am.”

“Follow my
orders, Master Sergeant,” growled Jensen, a scowl on her face.  “This thing is
too dangerous to live.  I take full responsibility for this action.  So get
those torps ready.  As soon as you have a lock, fire.”

Kama nodded and
looked back at his board.

I might get
busted out of the service for this
, thought Jensen, never taking her eyes
of the plot. 
But once it gets into the deep, we may never find it again. 
Until it’s ready to come at us again, when we aren’t ready.

“Firing,” called
out the Master Sergeant, and the sub shivered slightly as it released the pair
of torps.  The weapons sped away through the water, tracking unerringly on the
creature that was twenty kilometers ahead.

“What the hell
is that?” asked Zaya, as two smaller objects left the main body of the
creature.

“I have no
idea,” replied Kama, “but they’re heading directly into the paths of the
torpedoes.”

“It’s sending
pieces of itself, like interceptors,” said Jensen.  It made sense when she thought
about it.  The creature was smart enough to know that the two objects tracking
on it were bad news.  It was able to split, and every piece of it could think,
after a fashion.  “Can you set the torpedoes to avoid them?”

“I can try,”
said the NCO, sending the orders out on his board.  Both torpedoes veered off,
trying to curve around the small beasts, which also adjusted their own courses
to follow.

“Get us out of
the water,” the Major ordered her pilot.

Zaya pulled up
on the control yoke and the sub headed for the surface.  She was almost there
when the first of the torps was hit by the smaller interceptor beast and
detonated with a twenty megaton blast.  The shock waves started to strike the
sub, bouncing Jensen in her chair, just before the sub rocketed into the air.

Ahead was a
rising mushroom cloud of vapor.  A moment later the other warhead went off,
sending another spout of water that converted into a high climbing mushroom
cloud.  The shock wave spread through the water, while a several hundred meter
high wave ranged out in a rough circle from the two nuclear explosions.

“Get us around
those and onto the track of the creature,” ordered the Major.  “And prepare the
last torp for a ballistic shot.”

Kama nodded and
set up his weapon, while Zaya pulled the sub in a curve around the mushroom
clouds.  Kama frowned and looked over.

“I think I’ve
got it, but I can’t be sure.  Launching a probe to check it out.”

The probe, which
looked like a smaller version of the torpedoes, dropped from the sub and flew ahead
ten kilometers, then dropped into the ocean.  As soon as it hit, it started
sending out active sensor waves while its passives listened.

“There’s a lot
of turbulence,” said Kama, shrugging his shoulders.  “I’m having trouble
localizing anything.”

Jensen nodded. 
She could see how two nukes going off in the ocean would cause all kinds of
reverberations through the water.  “Keep at it.”

Kama nodded
again, working furiously on his board.  “I think I’ve got it,” he said, looking
up from his board.

“Certainty?”

“Over eighty
percent.  I think I should take the shot.”

“Take it,” said
Jensen, mentally crossing her fingers.

Kama’s finger
hit the commit panel, giving the computer firing system the permission of an
organic intelligence to do its business.  The final torpedo rocketed out of its
tube and curved away, striking the water nine kilometers distant.  It went
under and cut in its water jets, sensors searching for the target.  At a little
over three kilometers it had little trouble picking up the large creature, and
the torpedo accelerated ahead.

It was within
two hundred meters before the
Gatherer
could release another
sub-creature to intercept.  The weapon and small interceptor creature met at a
hundred meters from the main beast, and the twenty megaton warhead went off
with a flash that illuminated the night dark ocean for scores of kilometers in
each direction.  Heat vaporized water for hundreds of meters in each direction,
radiation moved through the water, while the blast wave moved out at over ten
times the speed of sound.  The
Gatherer
was pummeled by the shock wave,
broken into smaller pieces, which all died under the onslaught.

“As soon as it's
safe, take us down into that,” ordered Jensen.

It took some
minutes for it to be safe, but
Argonaut
was soon in the water again,
searching for any trace of the creature.  Water samples showed a high
concentration of minerals that were associated with its protoplasm, but nothing
more.

“I think we got
it,” she told the crew, linking into the com so the Governor would also hear
it.

“Good work,
Major,” responded the Governor.  “Of course, we’ll want to keep monitoring the
oceans for a couple of years, just in case.”

“Which means
you’ll want us to stay?” asked Jensen hopefully.  This world, now that it was
free of the menace they had come to fight, was perfect.  If she could do ten
years here and then retire, it would be the best of all worlds.

“I think that
can be arranged,” said the Governor.  “I have some connections.”

“We’re getting a
distress signal, ma’am,” said Master Sergeant Kama, interrupting her
conversation with the Governor.  “Colonel Suarez and her crew are in her tank
at the bottom, about thirty-nine kilometers from here.  Requesting rescue.”

“Then I guess we
had better get to it,” said Jensen.  “We should be back at the capital in a
little over an hour.”

*     *     *

A hundred and
fifty kilometers off the southwestern coast of Mu, the last remaining
Gatherer
found its way back into the open water, ninety kilometers from the surface.  It
had followed the battle through its quantum connection, and realized that it
was the last of its kind in this Galaxy.  It thirsted for revenge, but also
realized that seeking such at this time would just lead to its death as well. 
No, the time would come, when the organic intelligences of this world had
forgotten about it.  With a thought it broke off a several hundred ton portion
of itself and sent it into the tunnel it had emerged from, to hibernate until
the time was right.  It then separated into a dozen more creatures of equal
size.  They moved out on their own, hugging the bottom, seeking their own
individual hiding places.  There they would absorb what minerals they could,
increasing their size and waiting for the time to strike.

Doug Dandridge is the author of over twenty-eight
self-published books on Amazon, including the very successful, Exodus: Empires
at War series, the Refuge techno-fantasy series, The Deep Dark Well Trilogy, as
well as numerous standalone science fiction and fantasy novels.  In a three
year period as a self-published author, Doug has sold over one hundred and
fifty thousand ebooks, paperbacks and audio books.  He has amassed over 2,200
reviews across his books on Amazon, with a 4.6 star average, and over 2,600
ratings on Goodreads with a 4.118 star average.  He served in the US Army as an
infantryman, as well as several years in the Florida National Guard in the same
MOS.  Doug, who holds degrees from Florida State University and the University
of Alabama, lives with his five cats and one outnumbered dog in Tallahassee
Florida.  He is a sports enthusiast and a self-proclaimed amateur military
historian.

Science Fiction

The Deep Dark Well
Trilogy

The
Deep Dark Well
:  An Adventure 40,000 years in the making.  Pandora Latham
was a Kuiper Belt Miner from Alabama.  She’s used to landing on her feet, even
when the next surface is through a wormhole, halfway across the Galaxy and
46,000 years in the Future.  Pandora must discover the secret behind the end of
civilization, and the enigma of the Immortal Watcher, the last survivor of the
Empire that once ruled the stars.  Her decisions will set the path for Galactic
recovery, or a continuation down the roads of Barbarism.

To
Well and Back
:  Pandora Latham is back, working Watcher’s plan to restore
Galactic Civilization.  But first she has to deal with the Xenophobes of the
Nation of Humanity, back in the Supersystem with their sights set on making the
Galaxy their own.  Pandora is angry at the hyper religious Nation, and you
don’t want to make a woman from Alabama angry.

Deeper
and Darker
:  Pandora Latham is on the warpath.  Watcher, her lover, and the
only man who can once again unite the Galaxy, is a prisoner of the Totalitarian
government of the New Galactic Empire.  The Empire thinks they have the upper
hand, but they have never faced someone like Pandi, and the peoples of the
Galaxy that she has rallied to her cause.

Theocracy:
  
A young gunpowder era monk becomes the only hope for his doomed world as he is
caught up in the game of empire between two more advanced cultures.

The Exodus Series

Exodus:
Empires at War: Book 1
:  The introduction to the Exodus Universe.  Two
thousand years prior mankind fled from the Predatory Ca’cadasans, traveling a
thousand years and ten thousand light years to a new home.  Now the greatest
power of their sector of space, things seem to be going well for the New Terran
Empire.  Until the enemy appears once again at the gates.  And the years have
not softened the aliens’ stance toward Humanity.

Exodus:
Empires at War: Book 2
:  The saga continues.  The Ca’cadasans attack at the
moment when the government of the Empire is at its most chaotic.  There are
other enemies as well, waiting for their chance to fall on the overwhelmed
humans.  And a young man with no ambition for power finds himself in the
position he most dreads.

Exodus:
Empires at War: Book 3
:  Sean is rescued, but he is not about to go back to
the safety of the capital without striking back at the Ca’cadasans who have
invaded his Empire.  But will his decision put the lives of thousands at risk,
as well as risking the safety of his own Empire, by depriving it of its leader.

Exodus:
Empires at War: Book 4:
  Sean is crowned Emperor, and attempts
to organize the Empire for war against the Ca’cadasans.  But he finds that
planning battles and winning battles are two different things. Defeat follows
defeat.  Can anyone snatch victory from the jaws of defeat?  Or will the new
Emperor fail before his reign even really begins.

Exodus:
Empires at War: Book 5: Ranger:
  Cornelius Walbroski enters the rigors of
Ranger training, becoming one of the augmented warriors of the Empire.  But his
first assignment, Azure, is one of the most deadly planets in the Galaxy, even
prior to the coming of the Cacas.  Can Cornelius survive his first mission?  Or
will  promising career end before it really begins.

Exodus:
Empires at War: Book 6: The Day of Battle:
  Sean and the Empire need a
victory before human morale goes completely into the black hole.  He develops a
plan to bring the Ca’cadasans into battle in space of his choosing.  But the
Cacas are not an easy opponent, and they have plans of their own, for the
Donut.

Exodus:
Empires at War: Book 7: Counter Strike
:  The Empire has weathered the
Ca’cadasan onslaught, and now it’s the time to strike back with an offensive of
their own.  A victory could win the war.  But will it?

Exodus:
Empires at War: Book 8: Soldiers
:  The Cacas have been ejected from
Imperial space, for the moment.  But millions of citizens of New Moscow are
still held captive in death camps in their former empire, processed for rations
for the large aliens.  Sean is determined to save as many as he can, and the
Fleet and Army are prepared to carry out his directive; free the prisoners at
all costs.

Exodus:
Empires at War: Book 9: Second Front
:  The exploration mission sent around
the edge of the Ca’cadasan Empire has found the other Empire at war with the
large aliens.  They are not as expected, and Sean must order his military to
perform actions that could vilify him in the eyes of his new allies.

Exodus:
Tales of the Empire: Exploration Command:
  Three novelettes
concerning Exploration Command, the arm of the Fleet tasked with pushing back
the boundaries of the Empire, and discovering the technology needed to win the
war.

Exodus:
Machine War: Book 1: Supernova
:  When a civilization is discovered that has
a special ability that would be of tremendous benefit to the Empire, great
excitement is generated.  When it is found that a nearby blue giant star is due
to supernova in less than a year, destroying that world, excitement turns to a
frantic race to save as much of that species as possible.  And enemies from the
past, lurking in space, bring forth a new war to the embattled Empire.

Exodus:
Machine War: Book 2: Bolthole
:  The Machine Intelligences are back, with a
vengeance.  While the Empire is busy fighting a war of survival against the
Cacas, the murderous killing machines they had created hundreds of years prior
are now ready to strike back.  And the Imperial stronghold of Bolthole is in
their sights. 

Other Scifi

Diamonds
in the Sand
:  When a perfectly healthy scientist falls dead of an apparent
heart attack, it is up to Sarasota Police Detective Lieutenant Gary Lariviere
to find out what really happened.  The scientist was working on Nanotechnology,
a secret desired by everyone from the Government to the Mob.  There are too
many suspects, including the woman that Gary comes to love.  The Army had made
Gary better than human, but had they prepared him for the terrors that had been
unleashed by the new technology?

The
Scorpion
:  The Scorpion had been the world’s deadliest living terrorist. 
Kestral McMann had been in on the kill.  Now The Scorpion is back as a mind
upload, using clones to penetrate the tight security of an isolationist United
States.  McMann is the only man who can stop him.  But can McMann survive the
threat of his own side, and the insane President who leads the Nation, in time
to stop The Scorpion from plunging the Great Satan back into the Stone Age.

The
Shadows of the Multiverse
:  Something has been periodically wiping
intelligence from our Universe through the ages.  It’s back, and it’s up to
three unlikely heroes, the Captain of a Battle Cruiser, a Physicist turned
Archeologist, and a Child, to save the intelligence of the Universe from
Monsters from another Dimension.  Can they learn to use the powers of their
unusual Quantum Minds to defeat creatures that have been playing the game for
billions of years?

Afterlife
: 
What if you didn’t believe in the afterlife of the World’s Religions?  And what
if science offered you the alternative, survival within the Virtual World of a
computer, where your mental abilities are magnified and you can do anything you
want?  And what if the World decided that your way was wrong, and declared war
on you, meaning to destroy your reality?  What would you do?  Afterlife, a tale
of survival at all costs.

We
Are Death, Come For You
:  When aliens strike the Tau Ceti colony, humankind
knows that something bad is on the way.  They prepare as best they can, but
will it be enough against superior technology?  The aliens are death
worshippers, and only the extinction of the human race will satisfy their evil
intent.  There are wonders of tech on the horizon, but can they be deployed in
time?  Or will humankind have to depend on the smallest of their techs to save
them?

Fantasy

The Refuge Series

Refuge:
The Arrival: Book 1
:  A nuclear war in Central Europe opens the gates
between dimensions, sending millions of Earth Humans into a land of myth,
archetypes and fantasy.  The Evil Emperor of the Ellala Elves sees the humans
as energy to fuel his transformation to immortality.  But the humans have
brought their own weapons with them, as well as a race of Demigods who will
battle the fantastic armies of Refuge.  The war is on, and only one side will
ultimately survive.

Refuge:
The Arrival: Book 2
:  The Ellala have a plan to destroy the human military
and capture the civilians.  And the humans find that their weapons will soon
cease to function.  So it’s use it or lose it for the Earth Humans, and they
use it with a vengeance.  Tanks against Mages, Attack Helicopters against
Dragons, and Nuclear Weapons against Death Gods.  And the other peoples of the
planet come forth as allies to the humans that they see as the fulfillment an
Ancient Prophecy.  But will it be enough?

Refuge:
Book 3: The Legions
:  The human invaders are now without their technologies,
at least those using explosives and internal combustion engines.  But they
still have knowledge of many other techs, especially the arts of warfare as
practiced by the greatest infantry of the ancient world.  Will it be enough to
stand up to the half lich Emperor and his magical forces.

Refuge:
Book 4: Kurt’s Quest:
 When the evil half lich Emperor sends his minions on
a mission to find the Crown of the Lost Gods, an artifact which can control the
minds of millions, it is up to Kurt von Mannerheim to stop them.  Along with
his fellow immortal, Jackie Smith, the human Physicist/Mage James Drake, the
Ellala Ranger Fenris and the Grimakan Priest Garios, they must head to the
frozen north to foil the plan, and ensure that the evil artifact never sees the
light of day.

Refuge:
Doppelganger
: Set thousands of years after the arrival, Kurt von
Mannerheim, the Immortal Emperor of the Imperium of Free Nations, must give up
everything to save his Empress, the Elfin Princess Gwenara Elysius von
Mannerheim.  The world is at a crisis point as the Evil Tarakesh Empire, under
its Immortal Emperor Heinrich Stuppleheim, prepares to overrun the world with
its Nazi Ideology.  And Kurt must face a creature of legend that may prove too
much for even his physical and mental abilities.

Other Fantasy

The
Hunger
:  Abused wife, drug addict, prostitute; Lucinda Taylor had been
victimized by men all her adult life.  Left for dead by her pimp, Lucinda was
turned by a passing vampire.  When he is destroyed she becomes a free agent,
slaking her hunger for blood on the bottom dwellers of society, the type of men
who once victimized her.  The crime boss of Tampa is her next target, and the
City by the Bay is about to become a bloodbath.  But can Lucinda avoid those who
are hunting for her; the Priest, the FBI man, and a pair of Vampires who would
like nothing better than to send one Avenging Vampire forever into the dark?

Daemon
: 
A Steampunk Fantasy.  The world is dying, the victim of the magic used by
society for the last three hundred years.  Daemon Corporation thinks they have
the answer, stealing the life from other worlds, bringing from other dimensions
the intelligences that inhabit them for sacrifice on Earth.  But something has
come with them, a force that is killing the employees of Daemon Corp.  It is up
to Forensic Mage Detective Jude Parkinson to find a way to stop the
unstoppable, while keeping the head of Daemon Corp from silencing him to keep
the dark secrets of the company out of the public eye.

Aura
: 
Triplets are born on a world where the magical Aura decides the fate of its
owner.  Ariel is a girl with more than double the normal Aura, destined to
become a mighty Priest or Mage.  Aiden has a less than normal Aura, and is
destined to be a soldier or laborer.  While Arlen has no Aura at all, and is
seen as an abomination in the eyes of the Church of Baalra the Dragon God,
which has no power over those with Negative Auras.  Fate will rip the siblings
apart, then bring them back together as they battle to defeat the Dragon God
and leave the Evil Empire, before Ariel is taken as the Avatar of Baalra, his
mortal vessel on Earth.

Books with other Authors:

Five
By Five 3: Target Zone
:  Novellas by New York Times Bestsellers Kevin J.
Anderson and Michael A. Stackpole, along with Prometheus Award Winner Dani and
Eytan Kollin, Baen Author Sarah A. Hoyt, and Exodus Empires at War Author Doug
Dandridge, make this a must have book for the military science fiction
aficionado.

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