Guardian (War Angel Book 1) by David Hallquist (best contemporary novels .TXT) 📕

Armored battlecruisers designed to withstand the terrible fury of nuclear assault break apart into glowing fragments and plasma.

The damage it took earlier has already healed.

Everyone works together to kill the thing. Concentrated laser fire from our frigates, drones, and Angels hammers the thing from every angle. The remaining Venusian ships and Saturnine vessels open fire on it as well, drenching it in UV, x-rays, and high-energy gamma beams. All three of the Tharsis Plateau ground bases open up with their heavy beam weapons as the three planetary powers become allies by necessity. A few holes open up here and there but begin to seal up immediately after. We only make the hull glow, first white hot in spots that rapidly cool in expanding patches of yellow and red. The heat dissipation on the hull is astonishing; we’ll never get through with low-energy beams.

The next wave of alien plasma orbs launches. Some descend to the Martian surface to strike the ground bases of Saturn, Venus…and ours. The blasts radiate far out into space, and the three volcano bases are now seething calderas of lava. Nothing could have survived that.

We move forward, firing the whole way, right through the swarms of deadly orbs it’s throwing at us. If we get closer, maybe we’ll be able to hit with our particle beams and railguns. Maybe the alien energy orbs won’t be able to engage us, maybe we can actually get in under whatever strange shield is protecting it. Maybe—

Laser fire comes in from behind. They need to watch who they’re shooting at; they could hit someone…

One of our frames detonates as an x-ray laser hits him in the back. Looking around, I see an antimatter beam slice one of our frigates in half.

What?

That beam came from a Saturnine Hades-class battle cruiser. Venusian Harpy fighters swarm our ships now that our exo-frames are deployed against the alien craft, leaving us exposed to the rear and flanks.

A cold rage ignites in me as it becomes clear. Saturn waited until we were fully committed against the alien ship, then fired into our flanks. Seeing the opportunity, Venus joined in, too.

The battle turns into a chaotic four-way brawl in space, with weapons designed to work across interplanetary distances hammering away at point-blank range.

The various peoples of humanity have turned on each other once again, ignoring the real enemy, even when it’s right in front of us.

A small alien ship darts through the battle. It’s coming up from Ophir and is on track to dock with the big ship. It dodges the fire nearby ships throw at it with absurd ease.

Meanwhile, the big alien takes advantage of our division and the chaos of the battlespace and opens up again. A whole new swarm of energy orbs fly out at us in a throng of deadly blue stars.

Some of the spheres continue to attack the large ships, but simply bore through them, one by one, taking a path that hits every critical system on the way through before going on to the next ship. The Westie loses her entire rear engineering section and tumbles aimlessly through space.

Other orbs detonate in the middle of formations of fighters, drones, gunships, or exo-frames. An eye-searing blast eliminates an entire squadron of ours. There are also orbs that split up into smaller, even faster orbs which pursue individual small craft, burn through them, and then keep going after other ships.

The whole time, more and more of the deadly orbs keep coming out of the monster ship as space fills up with blazing spheres of killing fire.

The fleets are falling apart, unable to deal with this kind of otherworldly fury. Some are actively retreating, while others are falling into disorganized chaos.

That can’t happen. If this thing gets loose and goes somewhere else, like Jupiter, there’s no end to the destruction it could cause. Somehow, it must be stopped here.

“Concentrate x-ray laser fire on any damaged hull sections!” I send to my squadron.

The incredible damage the giant monstrosity is doing to us finally reminds us who the real threat is. Everyone turns their fire back on the giant alien ship. Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, and even a few ships from Luna and the Asteroids work together for the first and likely the last time, with one purpose—to blot the monstrous thing from the sky.

Everyone throws everything they’ve got left at the giant alien ship. Lasers, rail cannon, and antimatter beams fire until they overheat. Swarms of missiles and cluster munitions detonate with plasma, fusion, and antimatter warheads. We do some damage; the carapace hull is glowing hot over most of its surface, and several holes are bored into it.

It’s not going to be enough.

The alien ship is already healing, and our fire is steadily flagging as casualties mount. The ruined hulks of warships tumble through space in clouds of wreckage and ionized gas.

Chimera spots the small alien craft dodging through all the fire to dock with the big craft. I move in closer to see, and—

Incoming.

One of the smaller orbs zooms in close to our squadron and detonates. The universe turns a blinding white-violet, and damage alarms light up all over my frame. Main drive…x-ray lance…frontal armor…all gone. My Angel has lost his wings. Only a few point-defense lasers and maneuvering jets remain on my crippled frame.

When the plasma glare fades, half of my squadron is gone.

I try to reach them by laser or radio.

Nothing.

What comes in over radio is a hissing static that shifts and flows in a pattern that sounds eerily like distorted laughter.

Ice forms around my heart—this is it.

We’ve lost, and this thing is going to be loose on the solar system.

Still, even separated and crippled, we fight on. I open up with my nearly useless UV lasers on the alien ship, and the rest of my squadron follows suit,