Dark Moon Arisen Read online

  Dark Moon Arisen

  Book Three of The Omega War

  By

  Chris Kennedy & Mark Wandrey

  PUBLISHED BY: Seventh Seal Press

  Copyright © 2018 Chris Kennedy & Mark Wandrey

  All Rights Reserved

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  Get the free Four Horsemen prelude story “Gateway to Union”

  and discover other titles by Mark Wandrey at:

  http://worldmaker.us/

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  Get the free Four Horsemen prelude story “Shattered Crucible”

  and discover other titles by Chris Kennedy at:

  http://chriskennedypublishing.com/

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  License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This book is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are products of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

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  Dedication

  To Sheellah Kennedy and Joy Wandrey for supporting us in making the transition to being full-time authors, and to our fans for giving us the ability to do so.

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  Cover Design by Brenda Mihalko

  Original Art by Ricky Ryan

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  Contents

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Epilogue

  About Chris Kennedy

  About Mark Wandrey

  Titles by Chris Kennedy

  Titles by Mark Wandrey

  Connect with Chris Kennedy Online

  Connect with Mark Wandrey Online

  Excerpt from Book One of In Revolution Born:

  Excerpt from Book One of the Earth Song Cycle:

  Excerpt from Book One of the Kin Wars Saga:

  * * * * *

  Prologue

  Winged Hussars Prime Base, New Warsaw System

  Colonel Alexis Cromwell gestured the rest of the Four Horsemen leaders to their seats. The intervening weeks since the invasion of Earth had been the most pivotal for Human mercs in the hundred years since first contact. Alexis and her ancestors had spent that century turning their hidden headquarters at New Warsaw into an unassailable base. The first commander of the Winged Hussars had decided invisibility wasn’t enough; he’d wanted defensibility as well. The system in New Warsaw was “unmapped,” its coordinates lost from the Cartography Guild databases. Simply put, you couldn’t get there from anywhere.

  When Alexis had taken command more than a decade ago, she had continued to prepare for war despite how expensive it was, even though she’d never thought being attacked in New Warsaw was a serious concern. Not until a little over two years ago, that is, when things started getting strange. The Hussars’ special asset, an ancient artificial intelligence known as Ghost, warned her of impending danger, but couldn’t provide specifics. As it liked to remind Alexis, it wasn’t omnipotent, just very, very observant. A few months before Earth was invaded, a move was made against her, directly, and her command ship Pegasus. With Ghost’s help, and some very creative tactics, Alexis survived.

  To her right sat Jim Cartwright of Cartwright’s Cavaliers. The least probable of the assemblage, he was just 21 years old and at least 150 pounds overweight. His father, Thaddeus Cartwright, had been the best Cavaliers’ commander since the first Cartwright, but he’d been killed when his son was only 10 years old. His mother had taken temporary control and appeared to have bankrupted it. The reality was, the same plot against the other Horsemen had been behind the economic disaster. Alexis’ intel suggested it was probably one of the first moves against them.

  Jim Cartwright reconstituted the Cavaliers with some salvaged gear and stashed credits. With no practical training—and a complete lack of physical merc traits—the kid turned out to be a natural, much like his great grandfather. It also didn’t hurt that he’d somehow managed to resurrect a 20,000-year-old, 100-foot-tall war robot known as a Raknar. His furry friend had probably had something to do with that.

  The alien, known as a Fae, rested on his shoulder. Looking like a cross between a howler monkey and a lemur, her thick tail circled Jim’s neck, and her delicate toes clasped his shoulder. Her big eyes were shielded by handmade, skillfully-assembled goggles. Despite her appearance, the alien examined the assembled group with a clear intelligence.

  To her left sat Nigel Shirazi, the Asbaran Solutions commander, who was smiling at her with a grin that was a little more than congenial. His incredibly handsome bronze features, with thick black hair and boyish glimmering eyes, caused her to return his smile before she could stop herself. He’d been 4th in line to command Asbaran and all but disowned. That was, until the alien plot against the Horsemen had rolled up all those ahead of him. Then they kidnapped his sister.

  Unlike the rest of his family, Nigel loved his sister, and he threw everything he had into rescuing her. The MinSha, long the adversaries and mortal enemies of Asbaran Solutions, proved to be behind the plot. Nigel fell short in his effort to recover her—his sister died in his arms—and he barely came away with his life. He’d since managed to scrape together some forces and, thanks primarily to Jim Cartwright, had left Earth just in time. Since she’d met him, he’d grown progressively more charming, much to her chagrin.

  The Golden Horde commander, Sansar Enkh, was directly across from her. She was a few years Alexis’ junior, and as much in love with pinplants as Alexis’ sister had been, until she’d been killed while her pinplants were linked with Pegasus’ computers, and Ghost had taken over her sister’s body. Sansar was incredibly intelligent and an accomplished commander, especially in the defensive and relief tactics her company specialized in.

  It was Sansar who’d remained behind on Earth and called the aliens’ bluff. The Merc Guild, headed by General Peepo, had taken her into custody and transported her to Capital Planet. There, she’d been subjected to a show trial. Even though Sansar had revealed the trial to be just that, the guild still had the temerity to sentence her to death. Nigel had rescued her and brought her back to New Warsaw, and the Horsemen were finally together.

  “Before we meet with the rest of the merc commanders,” Alexis began, “I wanted to thank all of you for a great job. Thanks to everyone’s efforts, we have a sizeable combat force at our disposal.” Polite applause. “Breaking them out of Karma was a master stroke, and I’m sure Peepo is stinging from that blow.”

  “We have 23 companies here in New Warsaw,” Sansar said. As a defensive specialist, she’d tasked her people with assembling the numbers after she’d arrived. “Not counting our own commands, there are 12 battalions of CASPers, m
ost of which are Mk 7s and Mk 8s, although there are couple of battalions with older models. We have four battalions of modern infantry, along with a battalion of mechanized armor, and a battalion of artillery.” Jim Cartwright whistled, and Sansar shook her head. “Don’t be too impressed,” she cautioned, “Peepo hit me with more than double that in Uzbekistan, and that was just Tortantula assault companies.”

  “Yes, and they are now radioactive goo,” Nigel said, nodding. “In New Persia, we call that a good start.”

  “Still,” Sansar said, “that is but a fraction of the forces Peepo can use against us. There are 36 other races lined up against ours.”

  “Our real problem is their space navy,” Alexis pointed out. “As we discussed before Sansar joined us, we have nothing compared to what the merc guild has at their disposal. The sensor data we have showed battleships in the Sol system. Several of them. I’m happy to say that my efforts to salvage ships from 2nd Level Hyperspace was successful.” A Tri-V came on and showed the ships she’d returned with. “We salvaged two Izlian ships, a battlecruiser, and an older heavy cruiser. But the real find was four Egleesius-class battlecruisers, the same class as Pegasus.” The screen showed the four ships, moored a short distance from the Hussars’ huge space station, Prime Base.

  “Do you have names for them yet?” Jim asked.

  “Actually, yes,” Alexis said, smiling. “They are now Phaeton, Arion, Nuckelavee, and Shadowfax.”

  “You guys love interesting names,” Sansar said. Alexis shrugged.

  “Gandalf would be proud of Shadowfax,” Jim said. Alexis gave him a wink.

  “Nuckelavee is in the worst shape of the four and will require considerable work—it’ll be at least two months before she’s ready for action. The other three should be up and running in just over a week.” Nods of appreciation came from around the room.

  “Your technical staff is impressive,” Sansar complimented.

  “They have a lot of experience on the Egleesius-class from all their time working on Pegasus, and having four more gives us a real edge. However, it’s still not enough to go up against multiple battleships.”

  “Go back to the other hyperspace for more,” Nigel said. “It sounds like it is ripe with lost ships!” Jim nodded, and Sansar looked at Alexis for confirmation.

  Alexis shook her head. “There is a problem with that, as we’ve encountered an unknown force there. The first time we visited 2nd Level Hyperspace, we lost several people on a derelict to an entity described as an armored and shielded alien combat suit. Later, we were approached by a strange ship, which we destroyed. On our latest trip, we lost a shuttle and were attacked by a group of ships.” She looked around the room.

  “You are afraid these unknown aggressors are getting worse?” Sansar asked.

  “We are,” Alexis said. “My technical people are trying to get a better feel for how to manipulate 2nd Level Hyperspace, as well as understanding its physics. Until then, I’ve decided the growing risk isn’t worth the potential payoff. We’re considering what to do next.”

  “That is reasonable,” Nigel agreed. “I’m sorry for your losses.”

  “We all know the price,” she said with a shrug. “So, our space forces are bolstered, as well as our capabilities. All the new Egleesius have hyperspace shunts as well. That’s very useful, although they’ll be a bit less capable in offensive capabilities than Pegasus, as we have upgraded her several times over the years. Whoever built the ships originally didn’t use them as frontline combat ships. Frankly, we don’t know what they did use them for.” She looked directly at Jim. “Enough about our additions; I’m most impressed with Commander Cartwright. Nobody else here brought an asteroid to the party!”

  Jim coughed, and his face turned red. Alexis noted the reaction and wondered why it was. “My Geek Squad is chomping at the bit to get at the facility. What did you call it?”

  “Karma Upsilon 4,” he said, then he cleared his throat to compose himself. “I found it after an extensive search. I’ve been trying to track down more info on the Raknars, for obvious reasons. After we got the first one running, I wanted more. I was pretty sure KU4, as we call it, was an ancient Raknar facility. What I didn’t realize, until recently, was that it was also capable of hyperspace travel.”

  “And equipped with shunts,” Alexis added. Jim’s expression was peevish as he nodded in agreement. Now Alexis was sure there was more to this than she’d suspected. She really wanted to get the kid alone and ask more pointed questions about the facility. Most importantly, how had they known the coordinates for New Warsaw? The Winged Hussars frigate docked to KU4 hadn’t given the coordinates to them. “Now that you have 22 of the war machines, that rock is coming in pretty handy.”

  “For sure,” Jim said with a big grin.

  “I should charge you for the relocation costs,” she said with mock seriousness. The asteroid base had arrived in a somewhat inconvenient location, and not in a proper orbit around the system’s star. A dozen of her biggest asteroid repositioning tugs, burning huge amounts of hydrogen, were working to get the damned rock into the right orbit. They were within a day or two of having it in position, but at the cost of setting back her mining operations a month.

  “I think we have the core of an excellent force,” Alexis said. “It’s a hell of a lot more than Peepo hoped we’d have, of that I’m sure. It may even be enough to retake Earth. Sansar still has forces there, working to unite the resistance, that will help us when we go for it. For now, though, we need to figure out how to get in there without it turning into a straight-up space battle. We can’t win it yet; if we tried, we’d probably lose it all.”

  Nigel looked darkly, and she held up a placating hand. “Yes, we’ll need to make that gamble at some point. But first, we have to get all our assets together and in line.” She looked at each of them in turn. “As we said, the Four Horsemen for Earth. The other merc units will look to us for guidance, and dare I say, leadership. Like it or not, we’re in charge of this.” She glanced at Jim, who looked less than comfortable. She’d heard he’d struggled when his friend died on their mission to stop a spy from divulging New Warsaw’s location.

  Jim Cartwright might be the youngest of them, and the least experienced, but they all had to rise to the occasion and trust each other. “Are we all on the same page?” she asked. One after the other, each commander nodded. “Good. Paka?”

  “Commander?” replied her XO from the next room.

  “Let the other unit commanders know we’re ready,” she said. “We’ll be there in a minute.”

  “Yes, sir,” Paka replied.

  “All the other commanders are in the conference room next door,” she said. “I think it’s time we give them an update.” At her gesture, the other three got up, and everyone followed her to the door.

  Ghost said to Alexis through her pinplants.

  “No,” Alexis agreed. “I didn’t. Partly because I don’t know everything myself, and partly because I don’t like sharing guesses. Is there anything you would like to add?”

  Alexis’ jaw muscles bunched. She’d long counted on the AI to have her back. Since the first trip to 2nd Level Hyperspace, though, she’d begun to question just how reliable Ghost really was. Lately, she’d also begun wondering if the AI was entirely on her side.

  * * *

  SOGA HQ, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Earth

  “What is this?” Peepo asked as the Jeha waved a scanner over her as she entered the SOGA’s conference room. She had taken over the offices of the Secretary of the General Assembly of Earth immediately after the invasion and had ruled from there ever since.

  “It’s a scan for your protection, ma’am,” said the Jeha as he looked at the results on the screen. The alien muttered to himself for a moment, then took another device from the tool belt strung across his millipede-like body. It emitted a low humming noise as he turned it on and ran it over her body. “Actually, this one i
s for your protection. The other was just identification.”

  “Protection and identification from what?” Peepo asked.

  “Bugs.”

  Peepo frowned, a gesture she had learned from being around Humans for far longer than she’d ever hoped for. Although the Jeha were excellent engineers, they were sometimes very difficult to work with, especially when they were focused on a project. “What kind of bugs?” Peepo asked when she realized the Jeha wasn’t going to elucidate further.

  “Apparently, someone has been lacing our seats with nanobots,” Major Brantayl, the MinSha officer in charge of security, replied. “I asked Kr’ch’lt to see if he could find out why everyone on your staff was getting sick. After studying the problem, he determined that a plague of nanobots was to blame.” She waved one of her primary arms toward the conference table. “Each of the chairs had a dusting of nanobots on it, and that appears to be how the staff has been contracting their maladies.”

  “Even mine?” Peepo asked. The MinSha nodded. “If that is the case, why have I not been afflicted with anything?”

  “That is unknown,” Major Brantayl replied. “Your chair, however, was covered in the nanobots, and Kr’ch’lt found active ones inside your body. They are now deactivated—” he looked at the Jeha and received confirmation, “—and you do not need to worry about them. Your chair has also been cleaned, as have all the other chairs at the table.”

  “How did those nanobots get here in the first place?” Peepo asked. “Who has had access to this room?”