First Strike (Hammer's War Book 3) Read online

  “No, you wouldn’t,” Fiona said, and everyone laughed.

  “Excuse me Thaddeus, is there a place I can make a secure comm call?” Amanda asked.

  “Eve can make that happen for you,” Thad said.

  Amanda thanked him, left the table, and followed Eve out of the dining room as Thad was compelled by Fiona to tell the story of his whereabouts for the previous year. Eve lead Amanda to Thad’s office, “You can make your comm call from here. Just punch in the comm frequency, and wait for the encryption to complete.”

  “Thank you Eve,” she smiled. Eve left her alone to make her call. She hadn’t bothered to ask Amanda any questions about the nature of the call because she fully planned to monitor the outgoing communication.

  Amanda sat down in the leather chair and entered the comm frequency into the desk’s interface. The holo call took longer than normal to go through, which she figured was due to the remoteness of the area and the encryption process. She never guessed it was due to Eve’s snooping. Finally, the call connected and the holographic image of a tall and stout man appeared. His graying hair was a mess and he was dressed in nightclothes. “Damn it Admiral! Do you have any idea what time it is?”

  Amanda laughed, “Since I’m not on Isis at the moment, I really haven’t any idea of the time Sky Marshal.”

  “What do you want Amanda?” he sneered.

  “It appears that the change in power on Earth was a coup, as we suspected.”

  “This little piece of information was worth waking me?” The Sky Marshal looked even more irritated.

  “No, but I thought you would like to know who I got the information from,” Amanda replied calmly.

  “Well? Don’t leave me hanging!”

  “Emperor Conall Barros himself. He’s still alive,” she reported.

  “Really?”

  “Really! I just had dinner with him,” she replied in a mocking tone.

  “Interesting,” he paused, “So where are you now?”

  Not sure, why he wanted that information Amanda chose to be cautious, “I think it best to retain that information for now. As I recall, there’s still an active contract out on his life. We wouldn’t want to place him in any undue danger.”

  “I know. That is exactly why I want to know where you are. I’ll send some ships your way to protect you two.”

  “There’s no need to worry Quintus. I have the Damocles watching over us.”

  He folded his arms, and placed a hand on his chin, “Hmm, the Damocles. Isn’t that Wesson’s ship?”

  “Yes. So you see we’re already in good hands. I have also learned that there is some being, or thing, called a Nephilim that seems to behind the secret assassinations. It appears he’s pulling strings in an effort to prepare all the human governments for war,” Amanda reported.

  “I see,” Quintus said, his demeanor changed. “All right, if you won’t let me send ships to you then might I suggest that you convince his Highness that it’s in his best interest to come here to Isis. I’m sure the Federation and the RepCom government would stand with him to aid his return to power.”

  “I’ll relay your recommendation to him, but sir; I think we need to be careful here. I have a feeling this thing goes far deeper than what we have gleaned thus far. I think it would be best if you ran a discrete investigation out of your office. We need to know who within our ranks can be trusted, and who needs to be watched.”

  Sky Marshal Quintus Drake thought about what she was saying as he mulled it over in his head, “Understood. I’ll see to it. Now you just do your best to get the Emperor to come here where we can protect and help him.”

  “I will Sir.”

  “Oh, one more thing Amanda.”

  “Yes Sir?”

  “Good work.”

  “Thank you Sir.”

  “Now get off my comm, so I can good back to bed.”

  “Yes Sir,” she laughed and ended the call.

  On his end, he watched her image dissipate. He sat down at his desk and opened the top drawer, pulling out a glass and bottle that were tucked inside. He twisted the cap off the bottle of vodka and filled the glass half way. His thick and brawny hand shook a little as he held the glass, considering his next move. After twirling the clear liquid a few times in his glass, he put it to his lips and drained it. He repeated the process again then punched in the comm frequency to the duty officer for fleet command.

  The call connected and the hologram of a man in his mid thirties dressed in the crisp white duty uniform of a StarGuard Fleet Officer answered, “Fleet Com, Commander Shanks.”

  “Commander Shanks, Sky Marshal Drake here.”

  The Commander having never met or dealt directly with the supreme commander of the Federation fleet before was visibly nervous, “Ah, Sir, Sky Marshal, what can I do for you this morning?”

  “For starters Commander, I need to know where the Damocles is right now.”

  “Just a moment Sir, let me check the board,” the hologram disappeared as the commander had left the view of the cameras. The Sky Marshal took advantage of the hold time to pour and down another drink. The commander came back into view, “I’m sorry Sir she has turned off her location beacon. The last position we have for her was the space dock at Nova Texas.”

  The Sky Marshal slammed his glass down on his desk, “Damn it!” The commander flinched. “Alright son, I want you to do a fleet wide beacon ping.”

  “I’m sorry Sir, but a what?”

  “A fleet wide ping. I want you to ping the location beacons of every ship in the fleet and tell me where the Damocles is,” he barked.

  “I’m sorry Sir, but how do you do that?”

  Drake was frustrated with the commander. However, he really couldn’t hold it against him. Only a top few officers knew that a fleet wide ping was possible, and he also knew that he was violating standing orders from the federation council, which stated fleet wide pings were only to be used to locate all ships in the event of war or other similar emergency as defined by them. “Okay Commander do you have an interface in front of you?”

  “Yes Sir,” he replied.

  “Good, now enter in what I tell you, exactly as I tell you, do you understand?”

  “Yes Sir.”

  The Commander punched the authorization codes as it was told to him by the Sky Marshal, and within minutes, the Commander was able to get the precise position of the Damocles. “Thank you Commander, oh and son this never happened. That’s an order.”

  “Yes Sir,” and with that the Commander was gone, replaced by the soft warm light of the Sky Marshal’s desk lamp.

  One more drink and he punched in another comm frequency. It took a minute to connect, and when it did, only a massive hooded head appeared in front of him, “My Lord, I’m sorry to bother you, but I have information for you.”

  The giant hooded head looked right at him with his glowing red eyes, “Yes!”

  “I have the location of the Terrain Emperor. I am sending the coordinates to you now. However, I have one of my officers and ships there, and I have given her orders to bring him to me. Once they are here, I will be able to take care of him once and for all.”

  “No. There is no need for you to chance exposing yourself. We have suffered enough due to that rouge operative turned humanitarian.”

  “You mean Thaddeus Hammer, my Lord.”

  “Yes Thaddeus, or whatever he calls himself now. His exposure of our little program almost finished my peoples return before it ever began.”

  “You will be happy to know that according to Thorne’s files, Thaddeus Hammer lives on that little moon the Emperor is currently on.”

  “Good, then I can kill two problems at once.”

  “What would you have me do about this problem my Lord?”

  “Nothing. I have forces massing near their system. They can be there in a matter of hours. I want you to keep the pressure on your professor McEwan. I need the way to unlock the door. Without it, the Nephilim will not rise again.�
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  “My operatives on Earth are working him now. They say that it won’t be long before they get the information from him,” Drake said.

  “Good, because I will not tolerate another failure,” and with that the transmission ended.

  Chapter 2

  In high orbit above the moon of Nome, the Damocles’ first Officer, Commander Piper Perry, was sitting in the captain’s chair. She was tall for a woman, over six feet, and could stand toe to toe with any officer in the fleet, yet she still found a way to retain her femininity. She had only served as first officer of the Damocles for the last six months and she counted herself lucky to serve under Captain Wesson. However, she hated moments like this, sitting orbiting a moon with absolutely nothing going on. She was a woman of action and was relieved that her bridge shift was about to end.

  Commander Perry was looking forward to dinner with Captain Higgins, the strapping Marine Captain who was in command of the Marines assigned to the Damocles, and then a nice hot cup of coco before getting some rack time. She was watching the seconds tick away on the ship’s clock. She looked at the tactical display for the hundredth time that shift, nothing, “Argh! Could this be any more boring?”

  A young ensign who was manning the comm station spoke up, “Uh Sir? I don’t know if this qualifies as exciting, but our locator beacon just activated.”

  “What?” She asked confused.

  “Our beacon Sir. The one we activate when we’re engaging with other friendly ships so we don’t shoot each other,” he replied.

  “I know what the beacon is and what it’s used for, what I need to know is why it just activated. Was it activated by any of the crew?”

  “Sorry Sir, of course you know what it is. I was just…” he was quickly interrupted through his rambling.

  “Ensign! Just find out why it turned on please,” Commander Perry snapped.

  He nodded and his fingers flew over the console. After a minute, he spoke, “It’s off now!”

  “Ensign?”

  “Sorry Sir, it’s just weird. The data shows that no one on board activated it. It shows here that the signal originated from fleet command. I didn’t know that they could do that.”

  “Neither did I. It seems that they can, however, and someone at fleet wanted to know where all their toys were.”

  “Sir, do you want me to report this to the captain?”

  “No, I don’t think that warrants interrupting the captain’s evening. Mark it in the log and inform your relief to keep an eye on the beacon. Let me know if it activates again.”

  “Aye Sir,” the ensign said.

  Down on Nome the night was getting late and dinner was long since over. Thad was starting to wonder what had happened to Freya and Ruby. He wandered towards the holosuite when he spotted Ruby and Freya exiting it.

  Ruby saw him and ran straight for him. He couldn’t help but notice the black beanie cap on her head with two large black circles attached to it, and her name elegantly embroidered on the front in gold lettering. He also noticed Freya was wearing a matching cap with her name on it. “Daddy!” She squealed as she hugged him. “Daddy, Freya took me to the most magical place! It was so much fun. We road on rides and I played games. We ate something sweet called cotton candy, and it was all fluffy and sticky. Then mommy Freya got me a burger and fries,” however because of the way she pronounced “burger” it sounded like “booger” and fries instead. She read his mind and laughed, “Not booger silly, a burger,” she corrected, this time emphasizing the word better.

  Freya looked at Thad, “Hun?”

  “She can read minds, so watch your thoughts around her,” Thad said, responding to Freya’s quizzical look.

  “Did you have a soda too?” The question came from behind them.

  “Grandma it was so much fun,” Ruby squealed as she saw her grandmother walking towards them, “and Freya said I can go back any time I want!”

  “And where is that my little princess?” Amanda asked, now officially part of the conversation.

  “It’s a place on Earth, Florida I think,” Ruby said with big eyes.

  “I like your hat,” Thad said.

  “Oh, a big mouse gave it to me and he even gave me a hug,” she replied, but then she corrected him, “They are mouse ears not a hat.”

  “Oh, I see,” Thad said with a smile, trying not to laugh at being corrected by a six year old.

  “Florida?” Amanda asked.

  “Yeah, it was a state located on the South Eastern point of North America, but the place I took her to no longer exists. It was a theme park that was destroyed in the great Days of Empire War. The company that ran it somehow survived though. Now they put out holosuite programs for every theme park they ever owned, in every era. This was one of my favorites as a child, circa 2020,” Freya explained.

  “It was so much fun, but it was so quiet there. The only person I could hear in my head was mommy Freya,” Ruby said.

  “First time in a holosuite I take it?” Thad asked. Ruby nodded her head. “Well I’m glad you had a great time. I can’t wait to go with you, but right now it’s getting late and I think it’s about time for little girls to get ready for bed. I think you’ll like your new room.”

  “My room? All mine?” She squealed again.

  “Yes, your room. Right this way little lady,” Thad took her hand and led her to her newly fabricated room. It still smelled of fresh flash dried paint. The room was filled with pink and white furniture that was made to size. Her bed was covered in stuffed animals and dolls. Ruby screamed and dove into the pile of toys.

  Before Thad could ask, Ruby poked her little head out from the under the toys and smiled, “I love it!”

  “Good, but you need to get into your…”

  She interrupted him, “Jammies, yes I know.”

  “That is going to take some getting used to,” Freya commented.

  “Yes, it does,” Thad agreed.

  Ruby went to the closet and opened it. Her eyes grew the size of dinner plates as she looked at all the clothing, shoes, and toys stuffed in the closet, “Is all this mine?”

  Fiona had entered the room just in time to see her reaction, “Yep, it’s all yours, and there’s plenty more where that came from.”

  Ruby pulled open a drawer that held nightgowns and pajamas, “Which one should I wear?” She asked as she held up two different nightgowns.

  “I think this is a job for Grandma,” Amanda said as she crossed the room to her granddaughter, “Besides I think you three have some other things to attend to.”

  Thad raised an eyebrow at his mother’s implication; however, Fiona didn’t bat an eye, “You are so right. Come sister, we have much to discuss with our lost boy here.” Freya laughed and the two of them grabbed Thad by his arms and dragged him from the room.

  Thad was happier than he’d been in a very long time. He couldn’t remember when he’d felt so happy. He had made it home, his past was finally in the past, and out of the chaos, he had found his mother and his daughter. Now his family was all together. He followed his two beautiful wives down the hall to his own room and a smile found its way across his face. As they entered the room Freya turned around in time to see his smile, “And just what are you smiling about?”

  “Do I have to have a reason?” Thad replied. She grabbed him and pulled him close, closing the door behind them.

  Hours later Thad had done his husbandly duty and found himself on the edge of sleep. Fiona was on his left, sound asleep. He had no idea where Freya was at the moment. Thad found himself watching Fiona sleep, her face soft and delicate. Satiated and heavy with sleep, Thad had finally given in and closed his eyes, when the bedroom door flew open.

  “Daddy, Daddy, the monsters are coming! The monsters are coming!” Ruby screamed as she burst into the room.

  Instantly Thad was awake, and out of bed in a flash. He scooped up the frightened child and hugged her tight. She in turn wrapped her little arms around his neck and squeezed. He sat down on th
e bed with her still around his neck crying about the monsters, while Fiona stirred, but didn’t wake. “Hush now Ruby, there are no monsters here,” Thad tried to calm the little girl.

  “No Daddy, they aren’t here. They are coming here. They’re coming soon,” Ruby said with incredible resolve.

  “Ruby, you don’t have to worry about monsters, I can handle any monsters,” he said, kissing her head and stroking her hair.

  “There are so many of them, Daddy! They’re so loud. Please Daddy, I’m scared.”

  “Okay Ruby, everything’s going to be fine. Stay here with mommy Fiona and I’ll go check on the monsters. Okay? Can you do that for me?” Thad asked her as he nudged Fiona.

  Ruby nodded her head while Fiona groaned. Thad nudged her again, “Fie, hey wake up.”

  Fiona opened her blood shot eyes, “What is it dear?”

  “I need you to stay with Ruby while I go check something out,” Thad said as he passed Ruby off to her.

  Fiona perked up right away, “What’s up?”

  He pulled on a black silk robe and tied the belt, “Just a nightmare, I hope. Stay here.”

  “Okay,” she replied, taking Ruby into her arms, “Hey sweetie, how about we watch some cartoons?”

  Ruby said nothing, but nodded and hugged Fiona back. Thad left the room and went to look for Freya. Even though Thad was married to the twin sisters, and they shared his bed, they didn’t share rooms, each having their own. He checked Freya’s room, but it was empty, so he asked Eve, “Eve, where’s Freya?”

  Eve’s voice hummed over the room’s speakers, “She is in your office dear.”

  “Thanks,” he said as he turned to leave.

  “You’re welcome,” she replied as he left the room.

  As Thad entered his office, he found Freya sitting in his chair, feet up on the desk, cup of coffee in one hand, and a tablet in her other. “A bit early in the morning for reading isn’t it?”

  Freya looked up from the tablet, “Hey there handsome. What you doing awake? I would have thought we wore you out. I figured you would be sleeping until at least noon.”