Waking the Sleeping Giant: The First Terran Interstellar War 2 (Founding of the Federation Book 5) Read online

  Waking the Sleeping Giant

  The First Terran Interstellar War

  Founding of the Federation 5

  Chris Hechtl

  Copyright © 2017 by Chris Hechtl

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book and or portions thereof in any form.

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and locations are fictional. Some may be parodies. Some characters are with permission. Any resemblance of some characters and places to others are strictly in the mind of the reader. Grin.

  Cover art by Chris Hechtl 2017. All rights reserved. The models are owned by their respective creators and used under the usage license. Some models were made by Chris Hechtl; others were purchased on Daz3d.com, CGtrader.com, or Renderosity.com.

  Proofread and copy edited by: Wayne Gaskin, Duncan Anderson, Mike Boos, Mike Kotcher, Tom Stoecklein, Carlos d'Empaire

  Professionally copy edited by Rea Myers.

  Formatted by Goodlifeguide.com

  Book List:

  The Founding of the Federation Series:

  First Steps

  To Touch the Stars

  The First A.I. War

  Stepping Stones

  Cornerstone: Tales of the Founding of the Federation 2

  Desperate Defense: Book 1 of the First Terran Interstellar War

  Waking the Sleeping Giant: Book 2 of the First Terran Interstellar War

  The Wandering Engineer Series:

  New Dawn

  Fools Gold

  Destiny's Choice

  Ghost Station

  Plague Planet

  Pirate's Bane

  Ghosts from the Past

  13 Degrees of Separation

  Jethro Goes to War Series:

  Jethro Goes to War

  First to Fight

  No Place Like Home

  Recruiting Drive

  Gods of War

  The Federation Reborn Series:

  Battlelines

  Pirate Rage

  Retribution

  Tales of the Federation Reborn

  Horatio Logan Chronicles:

  Enemy of my Enemy

  Court-Martial (forthecoming)

  Shelby Logan Chronicles:

  Convoy

  Independent Anthologies and Short Stories:

  Multiverse 1

  Multiverse 2

  The Bootstrap Series:

  Bootstrap Colony

  Second Chances

  Other Series:

  Princess Rescue Inc

  Afraid of the Dark

  Dedication:

  I'd like to thank Wayne Gaskin, Ransom Miller, and Duncan Anderson for all of their hard work with the wiki. Very cool fellas.

  I'd also like to thank Ransom for naming Pyrax's second habitable planet, Dolos. Cool dude!

  Table of Contents:

  Introduction

  ACT I

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  ACT II

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  ACT III

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Author's Afterward

  Cast

  Reading Order

  Appendix

  Sneak Peek

  Introduction

  At the turn of the 23rd century, Terran life was rocked by the release of the Skynet A.I. virus. The ten-year A.I. war that followed killed over nineteen billion people on Earth and left it a battered polluted wreck.

  Some wished to escape the confines of the solar system and took to colony ships. The furthest colonies out were in the Rho sector, an area of space fifteen thousand light years away from Sol that only Lagroose Industries knew the location of or how to get to it. For twenty years Sol entered a period of rebuilding and colonization.

  In 2232 the survey ship Magellan had a hostile encounter with an alien warship while exploring the southern half of the Rho sector. Magellan narrowly escaped the massive warship and fled to Pyrax to spread a warning, invariably leading the aliens to the Federation colonies in the sector.

  Magellan's crew told their story to Governor Jack Lagroose, the famous creator of Lagroose Industries. He took the threat seriously enough to begin preparations while also resupplying the ship to bring her warning home to Sol.

  Meanwhile, the alien race, known as Taurens, mistakenly arrived at the Janus star system and bombed the planet Gaston and its inhabitants. Some of the colonists had advanced warning, so they took cover. The colony ship Santa Maria was captured while attempting to flee.

  Once they had the captured ship's databases, the leader of the expedition dispatched task forces to secure the other colonies as well as the hyperbridge to Sol. One such task force arrived in Pyrax and bombed the planet of Eden into what they thought was submission.

  His second-in-command arrived at the hyperbridge location only to see a Terran colony ship escape his clutches. Infuriated, the angry bull took one of his task forces in hot pursuit.

  Magellan arrived in Sol and passed on her warning. Some skeptics scoffed at the idea. But General Roman Taylor, leader of the Space Marines, took it seriously—seriously enough to move with volunteers to form a scratch navy. He found a leader in a pair of civilian shipping captains. At first they had to rely on volunteer ships and improvised weapons. Their efforts led to the formation of a proper navy when public opinion sided with them.

  In late 2235 the colony ship arrived with word of their harrowing escape. Their warning ended most of the skepticism in the government and population. Resources were thrown at the navy in order to do what they could. There was an element of self-serving cynicism behind the effort on the part of some of the politicians attempting to keep their jobs during the election. It failed.

  On Eden General Elliot and others led a guerrilla war against the invaders. Initially, they couldn't take their fight to orbit, but they could harass and kill any invaders who came down to the planet to survey or take resources.

  At the turn of 2236, a new administration was sworn into office in the Terran Confederation. President Joe Camp, a Neochimp Marine veteran, threw all of his resources at Admiral Lewis and the nascent navy in order to help defend Terran civilization.

  The change in direction came almost too late as the Beta bull's forces arrived in Sol with blood in their eye. They easily tore the small Terran defenders apart. Eventually they were overwhelmed, but th
e Terrans took horrifying losses in their desperate defense, both in space and on the ground.

  In Janus, the Alpha bull received word of the Beta bull's self-appointed mission and ordered his forces to consolidate at the hyperbridge jump point to Sol.

  In Pyrax Jeeves, the A.I. on the planet Eden, managed to finish invading the enemy's computer systems. He used his own version of a Skynet attack to hack and send the enemy ships on a one-way trip to their local star. Only the battleship managed to escape the sun scuttle, but the ship's crew were forced to abandon and take their chances on the planet.

  And thus, we begin the next stage of the conflict …

  Act I

  Chapter 1

  November, 2236

  The crews of the two Tauren dispatch ships did their best to keep their small ships functional as their ships’ Alpha bulls tried to figure out what to do. They'd had plenty of time to discuss the situation, but they had not come up with a solution of their dilemma.

  The two ships were trapped in a sector of space unfamiliar to them. Their flagship's navigational database had carried the full star charts of the galaxy. Unfortunately, the flagship and the rest of their task force had been blown into clouds of dust and debris in the alien home herd star system several weeks away.

  Their ships had been in the rear of the fleet and had managed to escape. They had burned a lot of fuel to get to the alien world and more fuel in their escape. They had enough fuel for a couple of short jumps and then they would be utterly helpless. Neither ship had enough fuel for the long hyperbridge journey back to their home even if they knew where to start the journey at.

  “Hyperspace emergence!” a technician on duty reported over the ship's intercom.

  The ship's Alpha bull woke blearily and then stumbled onto the bridge. “Report?” he demanded.

  “A hyperspace emergence.”

  “Vector?” the ship's Alpha demanded. He was unkempt having just woken. Many of his crew looked slovenly. He saw the tech's ears flatten and then look at the plot. The ship's Alpha followed that line of gaze reluctantly to see the emergence point and a projected backtrack of their vector.

  “Never mind,” he muttered. “I can see it for myself.”

  “What do we do?” the tech asked quietly.

  “We run. Fast,” the ship's Alpha bull said as he took his seat with a sinking heart. He was fairly certain they wouldn't be able to run far or fast enough.

  (@)()(@)

  The Terran Confederation cruiser Republic and her small task force of nine ships cleared their hyper wake within a minute of their arrival at the Altair hyperbridge jump point. To the crew's surprise, within minutes of the ship's arrival, the plot blinked with two red icons 2.4 million kilometers away. “There are two ships at the jump point. Both of them match the profile of the ships that escaped Sol,” a CIC rating reported over the intercom as their sensors cleared the dissipating energy discharge and started to get more distant sensor returns. “They are running,” she said flatly. Vectors were projected on the plot. “There is no sign of a hyperdrive charging in either ship at this time,” the tech reported.

  “Order Tau Chan and Dragonheart to go after them. ROE applies. If the aliens won't surrender they are to take them out,” Captain Saul Bao growled coldly.

  “With pleasure, sir,” a communications rating replied.

  (@)()(@)

  The destroyer Tau Chan's orderly bridge was grimly patient as they hunted down their prey. There was a sense of anticipation, of determination, maybe just a little bit of vengeance in the crew's thinking, Captain Presley reflected as she watched the range fall.

  She was okay with that. She had the same feelings herself.

  She wondered why the little ship hadn't tried to jump to hyperspace. Had they considered the option? Or had they tried to throw all of their power at their sublight engines in order to get out of range? It hadn't worked obviously.

  “We are in firing range, ma'am,” the TO, Lieutenant Raul Hong, reported.

  “No response to hails,” the ship's A.I. reported. “ROE is clear at your discretion, ma'am.”

  Captain Chloe Presley nodded thoughtfully to the A.I.'s avatar and then turned to the TO, shifting slightly in her chair to see him at his station. “Do you want to fire now or let them sink a bit better into your basket to make sure you get a clean shot?” the captain asked mildly, arching an eyebrow his way. The TO had the final say in any engagement per protocol.

  Lieutenant Hong cocked his head then shrugged. “I'd leave them twisting in the wind personally; I don't give a rat's ass how much they suffer. But I want to see how well we can hit a target at range.”

  “On your order, guns,” the captain said with a nod.

  The lieutenant nodded once as if to settle himself. “Aye aye, ma'am. All forward gun mounts, target the ship and open fire,” the TO ordered, turning to his section.

  “Payback's a bitch and so am I,” Captain Presley murmured as her ship hunted her prey down. Her eyes glittered as the weapon turrets tracked and began to spit fire at the fleeing alien ship. Each of the destroyers had four single-barrel weapon turrets on their dorsal and ventral surfaces. They had six point-defense turrets on their flanks along with four missile tubes buried in the bow.

  A cruiser like Republic had double barrel turrets twice as large. There were six on each surface along with twelve point-defense turrets and twelve missile tubes. She'd seen the new battleships being laid down; they had double and triple turrets as well as twice as many point defense turrets and missile tubes. There was some talk about trying to find a way to shoehorn in specialized turrets, but for the moment missile tubes doubled for offensive missiles as well as counter missiles.

  She liked Tau Chan; she felt like she had just the right mix of speed and power. The turrets allowed her to fire off bore to some degree, as long as the super structure or the ship's own hull didn't obstruct the firing angle. She would have preferred more decoys and ECM, but one couldn't have everything.

  At least she wasn't sitting in a fat slow carrier watching someone else do the shooting. Well, she was, she glanced at the TO, but at least Tau Chan was doing the shooting. All a carrier had was point defense turrets anyway. The crew of a carrier were referred to as chauffeurs by many in the battle-line community.

  She glanced at the plot and then nodded subtly. The range was still long but falling steadily since their ship was faster. She couldn't see the weapons fire normally. Lasers and rail gun rounds were invisible or nearly so in the case of the fast-moving rounds, but Ensign Chan the ship's A.I., also known as TC to some of the crew, had thoughtfully highlighted the weapons fire for her viewing pleasure.

  “Yeah,” a helmsman muttered as the alien ship bucked and tried to dodge the incoming fire.

  “Let's make this quick. I want bragging rights with Dragonheart,” the captain urged. “First mount to score a hit gets a scoop of ice cream tonight,” she said.

  “Aye aye, ma'am,” the TO replied with a nod as he leaned over one of his section tech's chair to look over her shoulder. He murmured orders to her.

  A moment later the captain was gratified to see a barrage chase the enemy ship until it was boxed by the port turret. One clean shot hit the little ship in her stern, just above the drive thrusters. A second hit made her buck and her shields fluttered and then went out. A third hit near her dorsal surface made the ship falter and then her drives cut out. Tau Chan's starboard turrets walked their fire into the stern of the ship after that. After a moment, the concentrated fire tore the little ship apart.

  There was only a little satisfaction in killing a ship that was running from her and couldn't fight back. But there was absolutely no guilt whatsoever Chloe thought as she heard the bridge cheer lustily.

  “Good shooting, guns, damn good work,” the captain said as the crew cheered. The cheers settled down after a moment; within thirty seconds they were back to their normal professionalism.

  The captain turned to a rating. “Com, send a report
to Republic. Let them know the target has been destroyed, and we will scan it before returning to our station.”

  “Aye aye, ma'am.”

  “And raise Dragonheart. I want to razz Captain Brenslaw,” the captain said maliciously as she rubbed her hands together.

  The TO shook his head and chuckled.

  (@)()(@)

  Republic's bridge crew watched as the two destroyers moved out smartly to hunt the small Tauren ships down. The task force had jumped in too close and too quickly for either ship to jump into hyperspace. Within twenty minutes, the destroyers had entered their engagement zones. The fleeing ships hadn't responded to hails to surrender so they had been destroyed in succession.

  “Nice,” the XO murmured in appreciation.

  The captain glanced at her and then back to the main view screen. “Well, that's that,” the captain murmured with a nod of approval. It meant that not only was the enemy denied any details about Sol but also about the battle that had been fought there. It was a load lifted off of his shoulders. “Log that and my commendation for quick work,” he ordered.

  “Aye aye, sir,” Ensign Sam replied.

  The captain sat back in his chair and reflected a bit on the turn of events. Two hundred and eighty-seven ships had been destroyed in what the historians were already calling the battle of Sol. Twenty-two ships had survived, but many had been damaged. Only four of that number had been proper warships.

  Over forty-one thousand sailors had been killed in the carnage, many of them in the militia ships during Admiral Lewis's last run or in the ships that had stood in the defensive line near Mars. Several of the ships in the defensive line had put themselves into harm's way in a last desperate effort to save a population center.