Armada Read online

  “On screen now, sir,” said Lieutenant Yau. The display updated to show a cloud of the tiny mines, picked out in blue against the darkness of the void. “Closest mines are approximately three thousand metres from Vengeance.”

  “Hmm,” said Vernon, frowning at the screen. “It looks very much as if Target Two will have to traverse the minefield to reach us.”

  “Yes,” said Stansfield as a smile tugged at his lips. “Yes, that’s exactly how it looks.”

  “Do you think they’ll fall for it?” asked Vernon.

  Stansfield shrugged. “Our engines are out, our weapons are offline, our allies destroyed, and our fighters depleted to the point of collapse. At this point, all we can do is wait and hope.”

  Vernon snorted. “When has hoping ever got us anywhere?”

  “There’s a first time for everything,” muttered Stansfield as the distance counter on the main display counted steadily down and Target Two came ever closer. “If this works, drinks are on me.”

  “Done,” said Vernon, “but it’ll need to be the Laphroaig. None of that blended rubbish they drink in the crew’s mess.”

  Stansfield snorted. “Then it’ll need to be a solid victory,” said the admiral. “I’ve only got one bottle left.”

  Vernon clapped his hands together, and they settled back to wait. There was nothing more they could do.

  “Thirty seconds to impact,” said Pickering a little later as Target Two crept steadily closer. The bridge was silent except for the background whir of the life support systems.

  Pickering counted down the last few seconds. “Three, two, one. Contact,” she said. “Two strikes on her bow and another dozen or more on her flanks.”

  “How long till the first–” began Vernon. Then a mine exploded. “Never mind,” he said as the rest of the mines blew in quick succession.

  Target Two didn’t slow or change direction; it just went dark. A hole in one side of the hull began emitting a fountain of gas, and the ship slowly began to twist as it flew on. She drew steadily closer, passing within a thousand metres of Vengeance before sailing off into the darkness.

  For several seconds nobody spoke, as they waited for the impact of railgun rounds or missiles. After twenty seconds, Pickering said, “No evidence of offensive fire. Target Two destroyed.”

  There was a brief cheer from around the bridge, and Stansfield sat back in relief.

  “That was too close for comfort,” he whispered as some of the tension drained away.

  “That’s the end of the good news, though,” said Vernon. Stansfield turned and saw the commander was grinning. “Because it means you have to crack open the Laphroaig.”

  “Captain Ryan,” came Stansfield’s unwelcome voice over the command channel, “are you there?”

  “Yes, Admiral,” said Ryan coldly. He was in no mood to talk. His return to Orion with Lieutenant Woodhall and a Marine rescue team had left him angry and in shock, and he felt like doing nothing more taxing than drinking himself into a stupor.

  “Target Two has been destroyed,” reported Stansfield. Ryan grimaced and imagined punching the smug bastard’s face.

  “Congratulations,” he hissed as he imagined Stansfield’s frozen corpse floating across the void.

  “There’s still work to do,” said Stansfield, as if Ryan might possibly be unaware. The rescue team had forced entry via an emergency access hatch, and were now hunting through the ship for survivors. The emergency lighting systems were functioning intermittently, giving the giant ship a haunting atmosphere, and the power to the life support systems had failed. They needed to find survivors quickly, and escape before the oxygen ran out.

  “What do you want, Admiral?” said Ryan, not bothering to mask his frustration and anger. “This isn’t really a good time to talk.”

  “I’ll come straight to the point,” said Stansfield.

  I wish you would, thought Ryan.

  “Target Six is lying about a thousand metres from Orion,” said Stansfield, pushing a package of data to Ryan. The package unfolded in Ryan’s HUD to show the orientation of Orion and the relative position of Target Six. “A sudden broadside might be enough to end this engagement, if you could manage it?”

  “A broadside?” said Ryan, tone flat. Was this idiot really asking him to fire on the enemy? Did he not realise the forlorn state of Orion? “Sorry, Admiral, that isn’t going to be possible. Nothing’s working over here, not even the doors.”

  “Disappointing,” said Stansfield, his tone darkening. “Let me know if your situation improves. Stansfield out.”

  Ryan stared at the wall in disbelief for a few seconds. “You arrogant fucker,” he hissed to himself. “This is all your fault. I’ll have my revenge,” he swore, eyes burning in the darkness. “One way or the other, I will be avenged.”

  28

  “A pity,” said Vernon as the channel closed, “but not a surprise.”

  Stansfield grunted. Needling Ryan probably wasn’t a good idea, but even admirals can be petty sometimes, and there was always a chance that Orion might still have had a few tricks left up her sleeve.

  “Give me a full status report on Resolution,” said Stansfield. “Is there anything left at all?”

  “No, sir,” said Lieutenant Yau. “She’s gone, completely destroyed.”

  Stansfield nodded slowly, thinking hard.

  “The portal has closed, sir,” said Yau. “We have no way to communicate with Sol or Kingdom 10. We’re on our own.”

  Stansfield was quiet, thinking things through, assessing the options. Conqueror was on her way, but until she arrived, Vengeance was alone with Target Six. Three ships destroyed. The Admiralty couldn’t afford this rate of loss, not with the Deathless pressing hard on a different front.

  Vernon was visibly shaken. They were seeing destruction on a scale usually reserved for all-out war.

  “What are our options, Ed?” asked Stansfield quietly, hoping his friend could produce some miracle that might get them home.

  Vernon sighed. “They always taught at the Academy to look at what’s available around you. What are your resources? What do you have left?”

  Stansfield snorted. “Back to basics, eh? Very well.” He ticked off the points on his fingers. “We have Vengeance, disabled; Orion, almost destroyed; Colossus and Resolution, completely destroyed; a compromised Battle Sphere; a few Raptors; maybe a few of Orion’s support fleet, if they haven’t all been destroyed.”

  Vernon nodded along, looking vaguely sick. “When you put it like that,” he said with a helpless shrug.

  “We need to crack this malware and purge our systems,” said Stansfield. “We do that, we get our guns back and we can deal with our present opposition.”

  Vernon nodded; it was the only way ahead. “Or try to, at least.”

  “Target Six is manoeuvring,” said Yau. “I think she’s looking for something to eat.”

  “What the hell are they doing?” muttered Vernon.

  “Doesn’t matter,” said Stansfield with a shake of his head as he opened another channel. “Davies, we need to fix this malware. How do we do it?”

  “The control package is locked down, sir,” said Davies, his voice tight with stress. “Sorry, hold on.” There was a pause for a few seconds. “Bit of a firefight here. Mechs,” said Davies by way of explanation.

  “The malware?” said Stansfield.

  “Yes, it shouldn’t be doing anything new now that we locked out the control routines, so it’s just a case of rebooting or rebuilding all the affected computer systems.”

  “Can you do that?” said Vernon.

  “Not from here, sir, no,” said Davies. “It’ll need to be done from within Vengeance by someone with physical access to the machines, and the efforts will need to be coordinated to ensure that there’s no back-contamination of cleaned systems.”

  Stansfield glanced at Yau, who nodded to show that he’d understood. “I agree, sir,” said the lieutenant. “Straightforward, but time-consuming.”


  “Then get on with it,” snapped Vernon.

  “Sir,” said Yau, focussing on his console as he began to plan.

  “Stay alive, Davies,” said Stansfield. “We’re not out of this fight yet.”

  “Roger,” said Davies, “we’ll do our best.”

  Stansfield closed the channel. “Get Fernandez on the case as well, and as many other people as are required. I want this fixed!”

  “Sir,” said Campbell, “I have Captain Ryan for you.”

  Stansfield stared at the midshipman for a few seconds until the poor man wilted. “Put him through.”

  Ryan’s avatar appeared on the main screen. “Admiral,” he said in a tone that lacked all respect. “We’ve found a working railgun battery.”

  “Indeed?” said Stansfield, eyebrows raised.

  “Orion’s batteries are independently powered,” said Ryan, ignoring the admiral’s interruption, “and Target Six has settled right over the top of it.”

  “Interesting,” said Stansfield. “So you’ll be firing at the enemy, I take it?”

  “In just a few moments, sir,” said Ryan. “Stand by.”

  Stansfield muted the channel and turned to Vernon. “They’ve found a working railgun battery,” he said needlessly, since the entire bridge had heard the conversation. “What are the odds?”

  “We’re seeing some activity in Orion,” said Pickering. “Could be weapons firing, but our sensors aren’t all that good.”

  All eyes turned to the screens, as if Target Six was about to shatter and disappear.

  “That’s unexpected,” said Vernon mildly. Target Six had shuddered, as if rent by internal explosions. “Maybe they hit something critical?”

  The shuddering went on for several more seconds; then the few externally visible lights on Target Six went out.

  “Target Six’s emissions just dropped to almost nothing, sir,” said Pickering. “Looks like she’s dead.”

  There was a cheer across the bridge, and Stansfield sat back in his chair, eyes closed. He blew out a long breath, then turned to Vernon.

  “I’ll take that as a win,” said the admiral, “at least for now.”

  “Agreed, sir,” said Vernon. “Now all we have to worry about is the rest of the armada, which arrives in” – he glanced up at the counter, which still ticked steadily down in the corner of the main screen – “a little over forty-four hours. No worries.”

  “That,” said Stansfield with a grin, “is quite literally a problem for another day, my friend.”

  He stood up and stretched, looking around his battered and blood-stained bridge for the first time in what felt like days.

  “For now,” he said, “let’s just claim it as a victory.”

  “A victory,” agreed Vernon, “but by the very narrowest of margins.”

  Epilogue

  Ten smashed his armoured foot onto the neck of the Mech, placed his rifle carefully against the machine’s head, and pulled the trigger. The execution was quick and clean, and he’d lost count of how many times he’d done something similar in the last few hours.

  “All clear down here,” he said, waving his arm at a pair of Marines from Figgis’ company who were checking the other end of the corridor. The clean-up was going well, but it was long, slow work, and risky.

  Since Orion’s surprise resurrection and the destruction of the enemy battleship known as Target Six, the Marines had been working their way through the Battle Sphere, eliminating Mechs as they went.

  It was a big job. There were hundreds of them, but numbers mattered little in the narrow corridors and confined spaces of the Sphere. The Marines, long experienced in the art of urban warfare, were systematically clearing the Sphere. Another few hours, and the last of the Mechs would be eliminated. And at least the Marines now had working mind-state capture devices and decent comms links, even if they were a bit fragile.

  But beyond it all, out there in the void, Ten knew that the real enemy was yet to be fought. The regular pulse that had plagued them ever since they’d come through the portal was still present, even in the Sphere’s damaged systems.

  They might have won the battle, but the war had yet to begin.

  And Ten whistled as he worked, secure in the knowledge that tomorrow would bring new foes.

  Thank you for Reading

  Thank you for reading Armada Book 2 of By Strength and Guile, set in the Royal Marine Space Commandos universe.

  We hope you enjoyed the book and that you’re looking forward to the next entry in the series, Armada.

  It would help us immensely if you would leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads, or even tell a friend you think would enjoy the series, about the books.

  Armada is the second book in the By Strength & Guile series with our new co-author, Paul Teague. Paul is the author of many books, including the popular Secret Bunker & The Grid series.

  We think you’ll love this trilogy that opens the door into the world of special forces operations in our Royal Marine Space Commandos universe.

  Devastation (Book 3) will be available for pre-order soon and will be released on Jan 31st 2020.

  Jon Evans & James Evans

  Subscribe and get a Free Book

  Want to know when the next book is coming and what it’s called?

  Would you like to hear about how we write the books?

  Maybe you’d like the free book, Ten Tales: Journey to the West?

  You can get all this and more at imaginarybrother.com/journeytothewest where you can sign up to the newsletter for our publishing company, Imaginary Brother.

  When you join, we’ll send you a free copy of Journey to the West, direct to your inbox*.

  There will be more short stories about Ten and his many and varied adventures, including more exclusive ones, just for our newsletter readers as a thank you for their support.

  Happy reading,

  Jon Evans & James Evans

  We hope you’ll stay on our mailing list but if you choose not to, you can follow us on Facebook or visit our website instead.

  imaginarybrother.com

  * We use Bookfunnel to send out our free books. It’s painless but if you need help, they’ll guide you through so you can get reading.

  About The Authors Paul Teague

  Paul Teague is the author of The Secret Bunker Trilogy, The Grid Trilogy and the standalone sci-fi novel, Phase 6.

  He’s a former broadcaster and journalist with the BBC but has also worked as a primary school teacher, a disc jockey, a shopkeeper, a waiter and a sales rep.

  The Secret Bunker Trilogy was inspired by a family visit to a remarkable, real-life secret bunker at Troywood, Fife, known as 'Scotland's Secret Bunker'.

  It paints a picture of a planet in crisis and is a fast-paced story with lots of twists and turns, all told through the voice of Dan Tracy who stumbles into an amazing and hazardous adventure.

  The Grid Trilogy takes place in a future world where everything has gone to ruin.

  Joe Parsons must fight for survival in the gamified Grid, from which no person has ever escaped with their life.

  The standalone novel Phase 6 bridges the worlds of The Secret Bunker and The Grid, revealing what happens between Regeneration and Fall of Justice.

  It depicts the world as we know it falling under a dark and sinister force - things will never be the same again.

  Paul has been enjoying sci-fi since he was a child, cutting his teeth on Star Trek, Doctor Who, Space 1999, Blake’s 7, Logan’s Run and every other TV series that featured aliens, space ships and futuristic landscapes.

  This collaboration with Jon and James Evans has allowed Paul to unleash his love of space ships and their crews.

  He’s a lover of Battlestar Galactica, Babylon 5, most iterations of Star Trek and Red Dwarf, and this series of books incorporate influences from all of those franchises and more.

  Paul has also written thirteen psychological thrillers, including the best-selling, Don’t Tell Meg trilogy and t
he brand new Morecambe Bay trilogy.

  The Secret Bunker website can be found at thesecretbunker.net

  The Grid website can be found at thegridtrilogy.com

  You can find out more about Paul’s sci-fi and thrillers at paulteague.net

  Follow Paul on Facebook: facebook.com/paulteagueauthor

  About The Authors Jon Evans

  Jon is a sci-fi author & fantasy author, whose first book, Thieftaker is awaiting its sequel. He lives and works in Cardiff. He has some other projects waiting in the wings, once the RMSC series takes shape.

  You can follow Jon’s Facebook page where you’ll be able to find out more about the first five books of the Royal Marine Space Commandos series.

  If you join the mailing list on the website, you’ll get updates about how the new books are coming as well as information about new releases and the odd insight into the life of an author.

  jonevansbooks.com