The Guardian Directive: . . . And the First Battle for Earth - Softcover

Baumgaertner, Gene

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1466994495 ISBN 13: 9781466994492

Publisher: Trafford, 2013

Synopsis

Primitive humans on Earth have been eking out an existence as hunter-gatherers and farmers for millennia. Some live in large villages and small towns, while others haven't yet discovered the wheel. What could be a worse time for an alien invasion? But by a beneficial turn of fate, an altruistic race of space explorers discovers the coming invasion before it starts. Only twenty-five years earlier, they too had discovered the Earth and had been unobtrusively studying the local inhabitants. Although unprepared to stop an invasion, they move to intervene, hoping to save the innocents on Earth from domination and potential annihilation by a ravenous species of conquerors. The wormlike Rhulle want to colonize the rich planet as a springboard for further conquests, and they plan to cultivate the indigenous humans as a food source. The far-thinking Hasdradan want to protect Earth and allow its primitive humans to evolve into potential trading partners. The Rhulle and the Oligarchy of Hasdrada have been fighting a bitter war of attrition and annihilation for eighty years. Now, the latest battleground turns out to be Earth, in the year 4350 BC.

About this title

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Guardian Directive ... and the First Battle for Earth

Collected from a Series of Lectures Given at the War College on Paradise

By Gene Baumgaertner, Gian Jonmoth Bath IX

Trafford Publishing

Copyright © 2013 Gene Baumgaertner
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-4669-9449-2

Contents

Prologue: The Earlier Visitors.............................................
1
Lecture 1: The Guardians...................................................
5
Lecture 2: Reviewing a Prime Directive.....................................
20
Lecture 3: Enter the Rhulle................................................
31
Excursia 1: Early Xenological Notes........................................
45
Lecture 4: The Rhulle Destroyer............................................
48
Excursia 2: Excerpted and Abbreviated from The Encyclopedia Hasdradania....
65
Lecture 5: The Delaying Action.............................................
72
Excursia 3: Excerpted and Abbreviated from The Hasdradania Militatum.......
85
Lecture 6: The First Battle for Earth—Day One..............................
87
Excursia 4: Those That Bear Protecting.....................................
105
Lecture 7: Day Two—Repairs and Diversions..................................
111
Lecture 8: Day Three—Another Surprise......................................
136
Lecture 9: Day Three—Up's and Down's.......................................
165
Lecture 10: The Last Day—Desperate Situations..............................
182
Lecture 11:Call for Desperate Measures.....................................
215
Lecture 12: Evacuation.....................................................
236
Lecture 13: Inside Grumbolt................................................
253
Lecture 14: Epilogue—A Time to Prepare.....................................
274
Appendix A: Key Characters.................................................
281
Appendix B: Technical and Historical Notes.................................
285
Appendix C: The Oligarchy of Hasdrada......................................
295

CHAPTER 1

The Guardians

Roughly 6,335 years ago (or the Year 6414 CHE—of the CurrentHistrorical Era), the third "historically" important event occurred inthe Terran System. The first, of course, was the Elder Visitation (andSettlement?). The second, from our perspective, was our discovery ofEarth and its civilizations. The third follows, taken from a number ofpersonal accounts available to this lecturer.

The corvette Ixtel Avan lay silently at her post, circling the planetEarth. She lay not too far distant from the newly positioned satellitefortress Grumbolt. Due to its positioning, Grumbolt was invisible to theinhabitants of Earth. On the other hand, the inhabitants of the planetcould, under ideal conditions, actually see Ixtel Avan whisk across thenight-time sky. Of course, even if they noticed the IA, they'd have noconcept of what the rapidly moving light was.

Grumbolt was not in an Earth orbit. It had been towed from Paradise,and placed into a solar orbit only a year earlier. It was now stationedat the LaGrangian L1 point defined by the Sun-Earth system. AlthoughGrumbolt had mobility, and could move about in the Sol System, itwas very slow when compared to both merchantmen and war ships.It had no Faster-Than-Light (FTL) capabilities, and traveled ratherinefficiently. So, unless it needed to move to some other locationto better defend the planet Earth, it sat in relative stability at theSun-Earth L1 LaGrangian point.

[See Appendix B for a discussion of LaGrangian Points, especiallyrelated to the Sun-Earth System]

The captain of the Ixtel Avan was a man named Gian JonmothXiteroceph Bath. He was simply called Jon Bath by those who weren'tcompelled to call him either by his military position, Captain (of theIxtel Avan), or by his rank, Commander, or by his hereditary title, theHonorable Xiteroceph of Bathe.

Jon Bath sat at his command console, leisurely surveying the ninescreens he had displayed before him. Ixtel Avan's bridge was quiet.Six officers and spacers sat at other consoles, each monitoring aplethora of screens, displays, and devices, keeping tabs on all of theactivities and movements of a dynamic stellar system.

Three maroons were also assigned to the IA's bridge. One, MaroonShield Sergeant Yosho Quinridge, stood directly behind Bath'scommand chair. He was Bath's aide, and in charge of Bath's personalguard. In the short hallway between the bridge and the remainder ofthe ship were stationed Maroon Flag Corporal Tartis Korollian andMaroon Corporal Tollo Yertigas. They were there to guard the bridge,and as the remainder of Bath's security detail.

Despite himself, Bath could not stifle a yawn. It was just another routinewatch ... on a boring day ... above a barely inhabited planet ... in abackwater star system.

Jon Bath was a man of his times, of his planet of birth, and of hisbreeding. He was born in year 6375 CHE (Current Historical Era),in Castle Rhising, on the Isle of Bathe. Bathe, of course, lies nearthe equator of the planet Annanabi, in the heart of the HasdradanHome Worlds. Born to the Cephe of Bathe, Jon Bath was raised andeducated as an aristocrat.

[See Appendix B for a clarification of "Oligarch" and "Hasdradan",and Appendix C for a more detailed discussion of the Oligarchy ofHasdrada.]

As a young man, he had excelled through much of his educationand training—a double major of Astro-Navigation and Exo-PlanetaryEngineering at the University of Trothbert, and post-graduate work insub-atomic bonding at Deems. Then he took the mandatory tour in themilitary (something a Xiteroceph could easily have avoided if he choseto), where he did adequately well in ground-trooper training at theWarbanks Outpost. The next three years were spent first commandinga small ground unit in the Arfgot Conflict, and then acting as adjutant toa one-star admiral in the Higby system.

This latter was followed by a nomination to officer candidate schoolin the Higby system's Space Navy Academy. The nomination wasprobably due to his boundless energy, his attention to detail, and hisbetter than average intelligence, as well as his impeccable lineage,his hereditary title of Xiteroceph, and the admiral's good will. At theNaval Academy he finally excelled, especially in his favorite subjects,those involving both the logistics and operations of space navies, andthe fighting tactics of individual ships. These latter skills got both theattention of the Admiralty Staff, and admission to Oligarch Jane WarCollege, located on Higby. Jon Bath graduated from the War Collegewith honors, and showed a particularly brilliant flare for battle fleetmaneuvers in the midst of a hot fight. He won most of the war gameshe participated in, ranging from ship against ship, all the way throughtask force versus task force. He was thereafter watched as potentialadmiral material, although his career was anything but assured.

Because of his credentials, his education and training, and especiallyhis achievements at Oligarch Jane War College, Jon Bath soon foundhimself an officer (ensign, grade 1, progressing to lieutenant, grade1) on the heavy frigate Rhajjah, under Captain Tehbe Codyth. Aftertwo years as the executive officer (lieutenant, grade 2) of the Rhajjah,he was given the command of a patrol sloop (lieutenant commander,grade 1). Command of the patrol sloop lasted a little over three years,and then he was promoted to command of a corvette (lieutenantcommander, grade 2) for another year.

Then Jon Bath made a major career move. He jumped at the chance ofcommanding one of the corvettes in the escort fleet of the third colonialexpedition to the Paradise Bubble, with the promise of a promotion tocommander, grade 1, within five years. The corvette Ixtel Avan was hisfirst command outside of the Hasdradan Home Worlds.

VT Ixtel Avan—(meaning of the ship name: in the ancient dialect, "ixtelavan" means "oligarch's revenge")—corvette, 7.3 kilotons in mass,and capable of reaching cruising speeds of 18.5 TSL in interstellarspace, outside of gravity wells, with unsustainable short bursts of upto 21.5 TSL. The IA has a compliment of 72 personnel, a combinationof officers, spacers, and maroons; with an additional complement of12 warrior grint and an equal number of worker-grooms. Ixtel Avancarries two continuous energy beam weapons, two high energy particlebeams, projectile guns (two large, four medium, and thirty-two small),and a significant compliment of missiles. It has twenty-eight missilelaunching tubes: two each in the bow and stern, and twenty-four alongthe hull, six each port, starboard, ceiling, and deck-side. Ixtel Avan alsocarries four fighter craft and two patrol-torpedo craft.

[See Appendix B for the definition of a corvette.]

Bath's eyes flickered from one screen to another, lingering as heexamined details, before moving on to the next. With just a strongthought (amplified by his command helmet), or with the bare movementof a finger tip, he changed screens at will, or zoomed in on an image,or changed from natural light to infrared or ultraviolet. At the moment,he had a variety of subjects displayed—including two exterior viewsand three revolving interior views of his own ship.

He also had a distant view of the fortress Grumbolt. He had chosen toalso have two separate views of the Earth, one each from observationsatellites circling the planet. As his final screen choice, he had a viewof the Sun from the Earth's solar orbit, transmitted from an Observation/ Surveillance Drone (OSD) located in the Sun-Earth LaGrangian L4point, sixty degrees ahead of and in the same orbit as the Earth. Thislatter view came from one of several score of OSD's scattered aboutthe star system.

[See Appendix B for a description of the operation and deployment ofOSD's in the Solar System.]

The quiet on the bridge of Ixtel Avan was unexpectedly broken.

"Sir," said Lieutenant Commander (grade 1) Alue Cuksen, the ship'sExecutive Officer, "the north polar OSD (NP02) is reporting anomalousactivity just within the inner edge of the Oort Cloud, located outwardand marginally above the ecliptic."

Jon Bath immediately switched to OSD NP02's data stream, anddisplayed a number of screen outputs from it. In the middle of allthose screens (his screen 5 being a triple-sized screen), he displayedan optical view of the suspected anomaly. It was a blurry patch ofdarkness, with a barely perceptible tell-tale glow at its posterior end. Itwas barely visible in front of the star field behind it.

Bath immediately switched to another OSD, this one in the directionof the anomaly, and furthest to outward ("outward" in this casebeing outbound or outward from the Sun). This OSD was closer tothe anomaly, but its view was blocked by Kuiper Belt material. Herequested that it maneuver to get a better view of the anomaly.

Meanwhile, Bath inspected other data. The anomaly was easier tosee in the infrared. It also was streaming neutrinos, had a magneticsignature, and was creating a gravitational disturbance. This latterphenomenon is probably what attracted the NP02 OSD to the anomaly,Bath thought.

Hasdradan ships, indeed most known ship-types, used graviticwaves as part of their interstellar propulsion systems. Such systemscreated easily detectable gravity disturbances, and gravity propulsiondisturbances almost always preceded the arrival of a ship frominterstellar space.

"Sir," said Spacer Deanne Holhoth, the communications tech,"Grumbolt is confirming identification of the anomaly."

"Sir," added Lt. Cdr. Cuksen, the executive officer, "similar data is nowstreaming in from OA03, the OSD located furthest to outward". Thatwas the OSD that Bath had asked to re-locate.

"Sir," echoed Spacer Holhoth, "Grumbolt confirms the new data."

There was a minute of silence as everyone on the bridge in acommand chair examined their screens and instruments. Bathcompared the data from the two OSD's with that from Grumbolt. Heglanced at the blurry dark oblong shape on his main screen. In infraredit had an eerily recognizable shape.

"Sir," observed Lieutenant Sude Phobett, the ship's science officer,"I've found something unusual. The neutrino—anti-neutrino pathtrailing from the anomaly would seem to indicate that the object iscoming from the direction of the Dark Zone."

Bath pondered this for a moment. Then he called up backgroundinformation on his screen eight: "Dark Zone. Layman's language." Thescreen read:

The Dark Zone is the void between the Iradani SpiralArm and Rhullian Spiral Arm (the next spiral armoutward from the Iradani Spiral Arm, clockwise) inthe Milky Way Galaxy. In this region of the galaxy,between the two spiral arms, there are extremely fewstar systems, and comparatively very little star formingmaterial. The Dark Zone, ironically, also holds a dearthof both dark matter and dark energy. It is a very emptyvoid in space. Most of that void makes the Empty Zoneseem well-populated.

One of the interesting aspects of the Paradise Bubbleis that it actually forms a bulge or bubble in the IradaniSpiral Arm, protruding into the Dark Zone. This bulgeplaces the Paradise Bubble closer to the RhullianSpiral Arm, creating the shortest distance between theIradani and Rhullian Spiral Arms for ten thousand lightyears in either direction.

Closer is still a relative term. While it might take theaverage Hasdradan merchantman close to 4 years tocross the Empty Zone, at this point the space betweenthe two spiral arms would take over 30 years to cross.No recorded attempts have yet been made by eitherthe Oligarchy or the Grand Confederation to cross theDark Zone.

Jon Bath sat back in his command chair. This was very unusual.

Anything at all coming out of the Dark Zone was quite a surprise. Morelikely, he mused, something had approached the Terran System froma different direction, and had circled around to the east, where it wasleast likely that there would be observation devices.

"Spacer Holhoth," Bath finally spoke, "raise the ship to ALCON 4".

"Yes, captain, raise to ALCON 4."

Klaxons echoed throughout the ship, announcing the upgrade in theship's Alert Condition, or battle readiness. This was followed by fourquick, short whistles, and the announcement: "ALCON 4. ALCON 4.Key personnel to duty stations."

ALCON 4 was a heightened state of readiness. All key personnel wereto report to duty stations immediately; increased surveillance wasimmediately implemented; and initial steps were taken for preparingkey weapons systems for battle. Although not technically required byAlcon 4, spacers and maroons raced to don their battle armor. Theworker grint became agitated, while the warrior grint stared blankly atthe ship's walls, their large, horned and spiked pincers opened andclosed involuntarily.

"LC," Bath said to his XO, Lt. Cdr. Cuksen, "Where exactly is Defiant?Also, please pinpoint the location of Striker. Make sure both ships areaware of the anomaly. And with my respects to Captains Korvan andJorss, ask when each might be able to rendezvous with the IA. Advisethem that we will be heading outward towards the anomaly once weare certain it is more than a technical hiccup. Give them our presentcoordinates. Advise them we will be sending our projected trajectory tothem within the next 15 minutes."

DR Defiant—destroyer, 22 kilotons in mass, and capable of reachingcruising speeds of 15.0 TSL in interstellar space, outside of gravitywells, with short bursts of up to 17.0 TSL. Defiant carries 280personnel, a combination of officers, spacers, maroons, and supportpersonnel, with an additional complement of 36 warrior grint and anequal number of worker-grooms. Defiant carries one mercury plasmagun, two heavy continuous energy beam and two high energy particlebeam weapons, eighty projectile guns (eight large, twelve medium,and sixty small), and a variety of missiles. It has thirty-eight missilelaunching tubes: three each in the bow and stern, and thirty-two alongthe hull, eight each port, starboard, ceiling, and deck-side. Defiant alsocarries eight fighter craft and six patrol-torpedo craft.

SP Striker—patrol sloop; 3.3 kilotons in mass, capable of reachingcruising speeds of 20.0 TSL in interstellar space, outside of gravitywells, with short bursts of 23.0 TSL. It has 32 personnel (a combinationof spacers and maroons). Striker carries two light continuous energybeam weapons, projectile guns (four medium and sixteen small), anda variety of missiles. She has eighteen missile launching tubes: oneeach in the bow and stern, and sixteen along the hull, four each port,starboard, ceiling, and deck-side. Striker also carries two patrol-torpedoboats, piggybacked on its hull.

"Yes sir," answered the XO.

"Ensign Kane, did you get that?" asked Bath. Ensign Mikka Kane wasthe pilot of Ixtel Avan.

"Yes, Captain, I am to immediately begin plotting an interceptiontrajectory."

"Thank you, ensign."

"XO," added Bath, "also send my respects to Commodore Fritzbain,and advise him of our intentions. I'm sure that if he has any advice,he'll let us know."

"Yes sir," echoed Cuksen.

"Ensign Parkar," Bath next ordered, "assist Ensign Kane in makingIxtel Avan ready for high speed in-system travel."

Captain Jon Bath didn't hear the response. His mind was alreadycontemplating a high speed jaunt through something as crowded withdebris as a stellar system. It was likely to be simultaneously excitingand nerve-wracking.

Striker, captained by Lieutenant Commander Gian Jorss, was apatrol sloop assigned guardian duties in the Terran System. Defiantwas a destroyer, also assigned guardian duties. It's commandingoffice, Captain Etmunt Korvan, was the second highest ranking navalofficer in the system. The commander of Grumbolt, Commodore HariFritzbain, was the highest ranking officer in the system. CommanderGian Jonmoth Xiteroceph Bath of the IA was the third ranking officerin the system.

Within a few minutes, Grumbolt had responded. The message cameas an official command transmittal from Commodore Fritzbain. SpacerHolhoth forwarded the message to Bath's and the other officerscommand helmets (CH's). As a redundancy, it also played softly onspeakers in the bridge, and the message in text form scrolled acrossone of the lesser screens at each command chair.

"Striker is to proceed to the planet Earth, to assist Grumbolt in itsdefense, in anticipation of the anomalous ship being either a decoyor distraction. Ixtel Avan and Defiant are to proceed with all due hasteto an interception point with the anomalous ship. Be forewarned, theanomalous ship appears to bear characteristics of a Rhulle frigateclass or destroyer class warship. Do not fire first, unless provoked.If a Rhulle ship, demand immediate departure from the vicinity of theTerran System. Use of deadly force is authorized, if found necessary todefend either Oligarchy ships or the planetary system."

(Continues...)

Excerpted from The Guardian Directive ... and the First Battle for Earth by Gene Baumgaertner, Gian Jonmoth Bath IX. Copyright © 2013 Gene Baumgaertner. Excerpted by permission of Trafford Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: Trafford
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1466994495
• ISBN 13: 9781466994492
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 306