End of the Line Read online

  “I assure you, Admiral,” she replied, “that this is very serious. The fact that I am now the commander of this mission and I have just cut our Wire link is proof that this is serious. We’ll be making multiple stops. Our goal is to launch Genesis-1 and Genesis-2 from the far end of Veridian space toward the Sagittarius Arm, then -3 and -4 from the edge of Rathala territory across the Perseus Transit into the Perseus Arm. We’ll launch Genesis-5 from Alpha Point.”

  “Alpha Point?” Meyer asked, his eyes shifting between his two commanders.

  “Yes.”

  “We’ve never been beyond that. There’s nothing out there for at least two thousand light years, maybe ten depending on where you’re at.”

  “Nothing we’ve ever sent through the deep black has ever returned,” Huang said. “Why the hell would we send a last-ditch seedship through it? Might as well send it into a star or black hole and be done with it.”

  “It’s a chance we have to take, unfortunately,” Irina said. “The other four will be launched from within easy reach of the Kai, but we don’t have much choice on that. Everyone else has shut us out and expelled our people to appease the Kai. The Veridians are the least likely to actively help the Kai, though I can guarantee they’ll do their best to destroy our ships to show the Kai that they’re not assisting us. The Rathala have no love for the Kai, and only slightly more love for us. They’ll do their part and attempt to engage us if they can, but they’ve tangled with the Kai before, and aren’t afraid of getting their guns dirty as long as it doesn’t escalate into full-scale war.”

  “So…” Meyer said, leaning back in his chair. “Genesis-1 through -4 are really just decoys?”

  “Yes,” Irina confirmed. “The ultimate hope is that they somehow make it far beyond the Orion Spur and deep into the Perseus and Sagittarius Arms, but SF Intel doesn’t hold much hope for them. The Kai are nothing if not efficient at rooting out their enemies.”

  “And yet,” Huang countered, “this Genesis-5 seedship is supposed to survive a trip through the deep black to the Outer Arm?”

  “We’ll be launching at the edge of the deep black, so they’ll survive long enough to at least leave the Spur, something we aren’t holding much hope for with the others. We’re sure the Kai won’t pursue them.”

  “And if they do?” Meyer asked.

  “Then we’ll have to hope that the fusion drive on the ship gets them up to speed so the Kai have no way of catching them.”

  “Won’t they just jump ahead with their FTL drive?” Huang asked.

  “Not in the deep black, they won’t, unless they have technology even greater than what we’ve been shown. Even if they attempted to jump blind through that area, they’d have to jump within a few light hours to spot the fusion signature, then try to get close enough to launch a weapon that could burn long enough to reach the target.”

  “This sounds like a lot of guessing and paper math,” Huang grunted.

  “It truly is, Sir,” Irina said with a grin, letting the Admiral know she had a sense of humor, even if it was a bit dark and morbid. “Consider that if the unthinkable happens—and again, unless we somehow build an STD, or are granted a miracle from God, it’s going to happen—then all that guessing and paper math will have hopefully helped one or more of these ships to eventually reach a destination where humans can survive and rebuild. One far enough away from the Kai that they’ll never bother looking. The ultimate goal is to launch these seedships without the Kai ever knowing.”

  “And yet,” Admiral Huang said, “we’re expecting contact with the Kai at one or more of these launch points?”

  “Correct,” Irina answered.

  “So what’s the plan, then?”

  “Admiral, Captain, this is where it is imperative that you believe I am not your enemy. The reason you both were assigned to this fleet, the reason all of your captains and executive officers were assigned to these specific ships, is that you are the Navy’s best. We’ve had to fight tooth and nail to get each and every one of you off the front lines and into this task force.”

  “That’s a pretty compliment,” Huang said. “But that can’t be all of it.”

  “And because your psyche profiles suggested those we picked to be the least likely to react negatively when you are told that if we successfully reach the mission’s conclusion, none of us will be going home again.”

  Meyer’s face fell into a sickly pallor. “What do you mean? We’re all expected to commit suicide? Fly the fleet into a star?”

  “No, Captain,” Irina chuckled darkly, “nothing dramatic like that. Command Ops has given us a twelve percent chance to successfully complete the mission and have survivors.”

  “So we’re all expected to die?” Huang asked, his face holding neutral. Like a good flag officer’s face should, Irina thought.

  “More or less, yes. You’ve fought the Kai before. You know they have the numbers and the tech to eventually destroy our naval forces down to the very last ship, even if we could get double the number of factories and mining ops back online tomorrow. They command the stars, and there’s very little we can do about it. The same as we command the ground, and there seems to be nothing the Kai can do about it. The problem with this equation is that one must travel through space to arrive at a location to fight on the ground.”

  “Thank you for the condensed lesson in warfare, Commander,” Huang said. “But you haven’t answered the question.”

  Irina sighed. “In the event units with an FTL drive survive after Genesis-5 is launched, the ship or ships will then proceed to refuel, rearm if possible, and begin a series of jumps that will take us into the Sagittarius Arm. We will not be reconnecting to the Wire under any circumstance, and we will not be returning to within fourteen thousand light years of either human or Kai borders.”

  “And where the hell are we supposed to go?” Huang asked.

  “Our destination will be the Centaurus Arm,” Irina said quietly.

  “Jesus Christ! That’s on the other side of the galaxy!”

  “I know.”

  “How the fuck are we supposed to travel fifty thousand light years while jumping blind into regions no one has ever charted?”

  “How the fuck are we supposed to let the Kai wipe us out completely without doing everything we can to make sure enough of our species survives to go on, and far enough away that the Kai won’t or can’t reach us?” Irina countered.

  “It sounds like some admiral shit this plan out, sniffed it, and decided it wasn’t as rank as some of the others,” Captain Meyer said with a straight face. “Sir.”

  “I’m sure it was born as excrement, Captain,” Irina said, a small smile on her lips. “However, over the last decade, Nightfall and All-Stop are the only two plans studied, out of thousands, that have any chance of success. We cannot rely on, nor endanger the races within our local region. Most are afraid of the Kai, and those that are not afraid, are smart enough to not engage in warfare with them. Our only options at this point are to fold, or hold the enemy off as long as possible to give us this chance. Once All-Stop is initiated, there won’t be another opportunity.”

  “So, what’s this All-Stop?” Huang asked.

  “I’m afraid I cannot divulge that information at this time, Admiral,” Irina said.

  “Of course not,” he said. “Why should I be surprised? Fine, Commander. Tell me and Captain Meyer what we have to do and why we shouldn’t spend the entire mission fantasizing about stomping your guts out while doing it.”

  Irina smiled. “Imagine all you want, Admiral. Captain. If you’d like to try your hand at it beyond your imagination, you know my comm code and where my quarters are.”

  Both men looked away. They knew the unassuming woman could more than likely best an entire Security detail while unarmed.

  “No? The offer always stands, gentlemen, as long as you leave your rank at the door. Now, as to why you shouldn’t hate me? You won’t have time for petty emotions. I need you to draw up a plan fo
r the launch sequence, and get us and the seedships to each destination, as well as provide defense should we encounter hostiles.”

  “You show up and take command, tell us some general bullshit like ‘jump to these areas and launch some ships via fusion drive, then jump to the next,’ and you don’t even have a detailed plan of action?” Huang shook his head in disgust.

  “Admiral, I will provide you with enough tactical details to make your job easier, but your job, after all, is to draw up action plans for your fleet, is it not?” Huang glared at her, but nodded. “Again, the reason you were chosen is that you were judged to be the best strategists, navigators, combat engineers, tacticians, and carrier wings in the entire Coalition.”

  “That’s a lot of confidence for a plan that isn’t even a plan,” Huang said, shaking his head again.

  “Then you had better come up with a detailed plan that leaves nothing to chance and offers the greatest amount of success,” Irina replied. “These twenty thousand might be the last humans in the galaxy a thousand years from now.”

  BOOK TWO: “GENESIS-6” COMING SOON

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  End of the Line

  1. PFC Dana Lofgren, Terran Marines, 307th, B-Company

  2. 1st Sgt. Mike Lowell, Terran Marines, 307th, B-Company

  3. Sgt. Krista McAdams, Terran Marines, 307th, B-Company

  4. Sgt. Paul “Pedro” Vasquez, Terran Marines, 307th, A-Company

  5. Specialist David Goldman, Terran Marines, 133rd, D-Company

  6. Specialist Veronica Hollingsworth, Terran Marines, 307th, B-Company

  7. Corporal Tyler Jordan, Terran Marines, 307th, A-Company

  8. PFC Nina Talamentez, Terran Marines, 307th, B-Company

  9. PFC Henry Grummond, Terran Marines, 307th, B-Company

  10. Ensign Helen Kirilenko, Terran Navy, Gold Fleet, 7th Support Wing

  11. Private Jack Monohan, Terran Marines, 307th, B-Company

  12. Private Muhammad Bishara, Terran Marines, 307th, B-Company

  ***

  Kai - insectoid race, enemy of humanity

  Hanura - race of humanoids, partners with humans and The Seven against the Kai

  The Seven - race of sentient energy beings, semi-organic bodies, allied with humans and the Hanura

  Vipers - six legs, four arms, with automated energy turret mounted on its tail, the size of a sheep or a large dog

  Hawks - fixed-wing drones with light offensive capabilities, five meters long by three wide.

  Varu - exterminated by the Kai

  Hoerus - exterminated by the Kai for helping/hiding the Varu

  *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

  Launch Sequence:

  TCN Raiden (HBS, 70/900 crew, Flag):

  Commander (official rank unknown) Irina Drazek (F) - United Coalition Strategic Forces (UCSF) - Special Operations field agent

  Fleet Admiral Mattias Huang (M) - Terran Coalition Naval Forces (TCNF) - commands Silver Fleet

  Captain Rickus Meyer (M) (Nelspruit, South Africa) - TCNF - Captain of the TCN Raiden

  Captain Nasira Sawalha (F) - TCNF - XO of TCN Raiden

  Lt. Ferla Korrigar (F) - Navigator, TCN Raiden

  Lt. Commander Sten Hellewege (M) - Navigator, TCN Raiden

  Lt. Jan Mikkelsen (M) - Tactical commander, TCN Raiden

  Lt. Genzebe Aweke (M) - Tactical commander, TCN Raiden

  Lt. Marcia Ken (F) - Communications, TCN Raiden

  Lt. Commander David Anders (M) - Logistics officer, TCN Raiden

  ***

  Core Admiral Lem Karlsson (M) - UCSF (Earth)

  ***

  Silver Fleet (Task Force: Nightfall)

  TCN Hyam Wolski (HBS, 55/800 crew)

  Captain Emera Benka (F)

  XO Franklin Gaustaud (M)

  AUTHOR’S NOTE(S)

  Okay. So it was depressing, but then there was hope when you saw the next “part” (that “Launch Sequence” thing). Then it was depressing again when Launch Sequence was only one chapter long. Or maybe it was cause for celebration because this stupid story is finally done and now you can go online and leave me a mean review haha.

  (It’s cool, I’m a big boy)

  So… if you did like it, you’re probably wondering where the hell this “Launch Sequence” thing is. Well, I’m glad you asked.

  As I said in the first afterword, this story was ripped from my brain over about nine days during a really shitty time in my life. I’ve always heard that these moments are when artists do their best work, but I hope that isn’t true. I don’t know if I can do another round of that again.

  The original ending to “End of the Line” (EotL from here on because I’m lazy) was a heck of a lot darker than what you just read. Luckily, as I neared the ninth day of writing, I began to soften up inside a bit. By the third or fourth day after finishing the first draft, I already had about eight notebook pages of handwritten concept for taking this story even farther. If you’re interested, read on, though no spoilers. I hate people who spoiled “Red Wedding” for Game of Thrones fans. That has nothing to do with this, but I thought I’d mentioned it just in case you hate those people too.

  (Also, to let you know that yes, I am a huge GoT fan. I never made it past the 3rd book, but I love what HBO is doing. I’ve bugged them on Twitter to, you know, maybe make a science fiction show of the same high production values… but alas, I’m a nobody.)

  I realized I didn’t want this story to end. If you’re a reader of my previous books, you probably expected a dark story like this. I wrote about 15,000 words of “Launch Sequence” and was going to maybe get it about half the size of EotL and include it. But then I happened across a story I wrote about eight years ago. After sitting down and reading some seriously stained (never give me coffee and raspberry something-or-other + paper at the same time is the lesson here) pages, I had a pretty good idea. I decided to change the name of this older story to “Launch Sequence II” and fix it up (just needs another chapter or two to finish it).

  I knew I could easily turn it into yet one more side story for this universe. That made me remember that I’d also written another space-war type story, and I dug around until I found that. After reading it, it was off to the notebook to record my thoughts, as now I had a second old story that could be rewritten or modified to fit into this universe. It was a good start to tell what happened right before EotL takes place, but I still wanted more.

  To make a long (dumb) story short (less dumb), there are now 5-6 stories that connect to each other in some way for book #2. All stories are at least novella length, and the entire book will clock in at or beyond EotL’s length (so far). I’m very excited to get Book #2 out (shooting for Summer/Fall 2015, but don’t hold me to that).

  Oh, and I guess I can tell you it will be called “Genesis-6.”

  But don’t tell anyone.

  Remember what I said about assholes who spoil stuff…

  See you soon!

  Travis Hill

  April 20, 2015

  THANKS TO…

  First of all, thanks to Carly, my wife. I always thank her, it’s true, but this story and this rough patch was more than any spouse should have to put up with. But she did. She always does. And this story (and a few more!) are the result of her toughing it out and continually encouraging me to stick with it. Not sure what I’d do without her. Probably eat dog food while wearing adult diapers.

  Second, to Pamela Harcourt. EotL passed through a number of hands, but Pamela was the editor who made sure I got the story I wanted while readers didn’t have to stumble over bad grammar, “txtspk” spelling, and weird punctuation.

  Third, to Trevor Smith.
Trevor painted the cover for this novel, for “Diabolus” (published), and for “Extraction” (unreleased as of yet). He’s an incredible artist, and I’m eternally grateful I found him and that he gives me his best every time.

  You might have noticed when you were browsing this book at your favorite retailer that there are two different covers. Trevor did such a great job I paid him for two separate covers. The “scoped” version is the main cover for ebooks, with the “non-scoped” cover serving as the alternate. The “non-scope” cover is the paperback’s main cover. I didn’t do it to try and get readers to buy two copies of my book. I simply loved the two covers Trevor created and thought I would give readers a choice of which cover they liked best.

  Thanks to Rebecca Weaver, who painted the covers for “Return to Innocence,” “General Megatron,” and “Hallowed Ends.” Rebecca does the typography work for the covers Trevor paints so my name and the title look cool instead of like I drew them with a Sharpie and a shaky hand.

  A very special thanks to Stephen Brown. He read one of my non-science fiction stories (some weird mobster story about minor league ice hockey) and decided to make the mistake of liking my author page at Facebook. I put a call out for a fresh set of eyes to proofread EotL one last time before I hit the publish button, and Mr. Brown did me a righteous solid. He’s probably tired of hearing me say that by now.

  Also, any errors/issues you may run across are solely my responsibility. I’m the final gatekeeper at Ninja Hill Publishing (I don’t actually have a publishing company, but now that I wrote that, I’m thinking I might just have one in a couple of days haha). I know Pam and Stephen did their best, but after almost 70,000 words—and not just reading them for pleasure, but actively seeking spelling, punctuation, grammar, and structure errors—one’s brain begins to play tricks on one’s ability to notice the occasional “Dana and and McAdams” that sneaks by.