Xetonian Trades
“The Augerite Hordes”
by
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Ragan looked out of the main viewing port and saw a second wave of torpedoes coming. The torpedoes, having no masking capability, were visible to the naked eye but they seemed to be coming from nowhere. Raygan noted that the torpedoes were coming from bearing 276 relative, declination minus 18 degrees. “All units release a spread of missiles twenty degrees wide centered on 276 degrees relative, minus 18 degrees declination.” “Raygan there is nothing there.” “There must be, they must have some kind of masking system, do it now.” “Our support ships are under attack Raygan; hundreds of weapons hits are being reported. They won’t last long.” “You were right Raygan, look; our torpedoes have hit some of the attackers.” By blindly firing a spread of missiles in the direction of the unidentified beacon and communication signals, Raygan had hit several dozen of Zenn’s battle cruisers and two BP-3s. They became visible as there power grids failed. “Amazing, I was right, these attackers can hide themselves in open space. I must have that technology. Fire another spread of missiles and send ten squadrons of fighters to defend the support ships.” Without help, the Augerite Turian in charge of the support ships knew his units were doomed. He had fighter protection but they were too few in number. “Fleet command, support ships are under heavy attack, if we are going to survive I must have more fighters.” “Additional fighters have been dispatched, they should arrive in eight octomers,” came the reply. Raygan’s fleet was taking hits at an alarming rate. “This is alpha one, I’m hit.” “This is hyper four, I’ve lost my gyros.” “Dicon, eject, eject!” “This is support ship group one commander, all units disperse, and you’re on your own.” “Zeta six, pull up you have a fighter on your tail.” “Raygan, this is support group commander, I need more fighters now, and we are taking heavy losses.” Zenn, realizing the Augerite shields were very sturdy, ordered his ships to aim their fusion torpedoes at propulsion and attitude control nozzles. Increasing numbers of cruisers were turning into slowly tumbling hulks, venting gas and smoke. SACTO fighters with neutral particle beams and lasers were damaging sensor ports and making hard and soft kills on his fighter planes. The masking technology was an incredible advantage. Damaged Augerite fighters were drifting and tumbling in every direction, their severed cables flailing, sparks flying and multi colored gas spewing everywhere. Fighter plane carcasses ricocheted off of cruisers or smashed into each other in violent collisions. The battle space looked like a combined American Fourth of July and demolition derby with no rules. Zenn’s fleet was suffering losses as well, more and more damaged ships were appearing as their masking systems shut down. “Raygan, that Y-3 Gwave receiver you had installed just delivered a message. A squad leader named Danso Hiltner says he received orders from Turian one Gor to inform the emperor that an unknown fleet is attacking Y-3.” “Where are these sewer snakes coming from? No wonder Y-3 was so easy to conquer. They must have sent most of their professional military units away prior to our arrival, maybe to assess our capabilities and now have decided to attack. The military they left behind were auxiliary or reserve units - a ploy to make us think they were weak.” Raygan didn’t have it exactly right but it didn’t matter at this point.
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About the Book
The discovery in 2043, of what Earth thought was a small, flat, densely packed asteroid cloud, seemingly on a collision course with Earth, increased the political pressure on the Sagittarius Constellation Treaty Organization. Whether or not to build additional ships capable of supporting significant numbers of people dominated the inter-galactic senate’s agenda. Using the moth balled battle fleet for long term population sustainment in deep space was not practical. For centuries Earth had feared the impact of just one large asteroid. The possibility of multiple, hyper velocity asteroid impacts created a state of near panic. Additional ships would be needed to destroy or divert asteroids expected to impact Earth. There was also the frightening possibility that to preserve the human race, Earth might need to be partially evacuated. Earth's leaders and her alien allies began planning for the defense of the planet against the coming onslaught. Earth would soon find out that the asteroid cloud approaching Earth was in fact an invasion force. Emperor Raygan and his Augerite Hordes were about to become Earth’s newest and worst nightmare. "The Augerite Hordes" is a fast paced science fiction story about how intelligent life, human or alien, have the ability to reason and the need to love and be loved but can also be cruel and dream of conquering the universe.
About the Author
J. Wayne Stillwell is a native of Greensburg, Pennsyvania. After serving 34 years as a Naval Officer he completed a second career as Corporate Vice President Vice for an R&D company. He is currently an independent consultant and fiction writer. He received his B.S. in Electrical Emgineering from Purdue University, Master's degree in Physics from the Naval Post-Graduate School and completed the Executive Development Program at Carnegie Mellon University. He is a life long fan of science fiction and considers himself a 'Trekie'. He has published articles in Navy journals and authored his first science fiction book in 2003. He enjoys golf, writing and science fiction. He and his spouse of 46 years have two sons, John and Matthew, and four grandchildren.