Citation Series 1: Naero's War: The Annexation War

NAERO’S WAR:

THE ANNEXATION WAR

THE CITATION SERIES, BOOK ONE

Mason Elliott

High Mark Publishing

www
.
highmarkpublishing
.
com

Seattle & Portland,   Chicago,   London

Naero’s War:

THE ANNEXATION WAR

THE CITATION SERIES, BOOK ONE

by

Mason Elliott

Kindle Edition

© 2014 by Mason Elliott. All rights reserved.

Published by High Mark Publishing

ISBN 978-1-930451-08-7

Watch for other titles by this author in the future.

Cover Art by

Frank Miller

frankmillerdesign.com

License Notes:

This book or ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This work in any format may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Titles by Mason Elliott

The Spacer Clans Adventures

Naero’s Run

Naero’s Gambit

Naero’s Fury*

The Citation Series

Naero’s War, Book One: THE ANNEXATION WAR

Naero’s War, Book Two: THE HIGH CRUSADE
*

Short Fiction in ebook format

The Permit

(*Forthcoming)

Author’s Note

Please note that this book is the first volume in a new companion series to
The Spacer Clans Adventures.
That original series takes place throughout the pages of
Naero’s Run, Naero’s Gambit, Naero’s Fury
, etc., and is primarily, straight-forward, Science Fiction Adventure.

This new companion series, called
The Citation Series
, begins with Book One:
The Annexation War
, describing Naero’s military service with The Alliance Navy, as the intrepid strike fleet captain of Strike Fleet Six. In the existing timeline, The Annexation War took place during the course of several months, and is described briefly in the last chapters of
Naero’s Run.
Therefore, chronologically, the events in this book take place between books one and two of the original series—before Naero’s Cosmic powers began to return.

Please keep that in mind when you are reading
The Annexation War
. You could even read this book before you read
Naero’s Gambit
, if you are inclined to do so. But this companion series was created both to stand on its own, and to supplement the original series, with further information and events that would not fit therein.

Many fans contacted the author, disappointed that they were not given a more detailed account of Naero’s exciting naval service during those missing, several months. Each November, many authors take the “NANOWRIMO” challenge to draft a complete novel within the space of those 30 days. The author chose to take that challenge in 2013, and wrote a 300 page first draft of this book, filling in the gaps of that missing account. The book was later accepted for publication, and presented in this format
.

In a similar vein, Book Two in
The Citation Series, Naero’s War: The High Crusade
(forthcoming) will detail Naero’s military service attached with General Walker and the doughty Spacer Marines of Bravo Command, during the course of the Ejjai Invasion. As before, these events (which also covered several months) were touched upon briefly toward the end of
Naero’s Gambit
. A more detailed account of the invasion, therefore, will be made in:
The High Crusade
.

Enjoy!

1

Naero’s flagship,
The
Hippolyta
,
was one of the latest, Dromon Class dreadnaughts. These warships were fashioned out of dense, iron-nickel planetoids, not less than half a kilometer in diameter. Incredibly tough and rugged on their own.

It took the most powerful mining plasma-borers–working in precise conjunction with construction fixers and an army of teks–months to hollow out armored crew quarters, lift and transport tubes, launching and loading bays. Next came space for power cores, sublight engines, jump drives,
backups, gravitics, life support, sensor arrays, communications, navigation, weapons, main bridge and backup bridge.

Set in the exact heart of
The
Hippolyta
were its signature big guns. A quad of the largest production guns ever constructed on any ship of war: Four,
16 meter
, rapid-fire, particle beam cannons.

Cannons any larger than that exploded, melted, or otherwise were not feasible within the limits of current tek and materials. Thirty-six secondary batteries
, assorted specialized weapons and gun emplacements, and forty-five advanced fighters.

Seven hundred and forty able crew, including a full Rifle Company of two hundred and forty Spacer Marines, and all of their equipment, vehicles, and gear for ship’s security and rapid response deployment. Strike Fleet Six’s Marines came from the 3
rd
Spacer Marine Division–known as
The Death Eyes–
because of their superb snipers and their overall, excellent marksmanship ratings. Marines made up a third of the warship’s complement.

Their motto:
If We Can See It…We Can Kill It!

The main bridge was a massive armored dome constructed on top of the dreadnaught’s big metal, rough-hewn orb, protected by heavy blast doors, and the latest, most advanced shielding in the fleet. Within, the circular bridge was laid out in four levels under the huge dome,
a dome sixty meters high.

Each bridge tier was separated by the height of a few steps from one to the next. The inner three levels could rotate in any direction, independent of the others
.

The fleet captain’s command
nanochair and station occupied the highest tier. Each bridge station had its own secondary shielding, in case enemy fire penetrated the shields, the blast screens, and the hull.

In combat, bridges were routinely targeted, for obvious reasons
.

From that primary vantage point, the strike fleet captain could direct battles in three hundred and sixty degrees, through an advanced, battleholo display surrounding her, full zoom data-feeds, constantly updated by battle AIs. Naero could manipulate the displays by nanosensors programmed into the fingertips of her nanosuit gloves
.

The battle display system also recognized her voice pattern, and would respond to voice commands, or commands punched in manually through pads on her command chair, or via other backups
.

The next bridge level down
from hers held the secondary bridge stations: Helm, Weapons, Communications, Navigation, and Scanning, spaced out equally along their ring.

The third ring held all of the twelve tertiary bridge stations, that monitored, controlled, and coordinated all of the ship’s other important functions:

Engineering

Gravitics

Life Support

Power Supply

Security

Shields

Medical

Jump and Sub-light Drives

Damage Control

Alliance Fleet and Intel Communications

Main Computer

Launching Bays

The fourth ring went to the two powerlifts, leading from the bridge to the other movers, decks, and levels of the ship. All lift and access points throughout the ship were constantly guarded by two battle-ready Marines, stationed on either side.

If a warship was boarded by enemy assault craft during a battle, invaders could be cut off and eliminated between decks, before they could reach a vital area
.

Today, Strike Fleet Six had a mission–a simple one
.

Captain Naero Maeris and her fifty warships proceeded to probe the next system on the outer, port arcwall of the Alliance advance at Beleron-4
.

A routine run. Current intel assured them to expect little or no Triaxian presence or resistance
.

By any stretch of the imagination, Beleron-4 was a nothing world, in the middle of nowhere, with zero, nacha–absolutely no strategic or tactical value whatsoever
.

Checking it off the list on the pacified worlds of the Alliance system-hopping schedule was more-or-less just a formality
.

But it still had to be done. And Naero and her lot drew the duty at random
.

So why did Naero’s sense of warning go bonkers?

After they jumped in, simple three-stack, Delta-India-3 formation, the reasons for alarm grew perfectly clear.

They came in right on top of twenty Triaxian fleets of the enemy’s latest warships
.

And a gigantic new flagship–as huge as
The
Hippolyta
–the advanced design of which did not even register as existing.

It had never been seen before
.

Naero shot to her feet, kicked her command nanochair back out the way and sent it down into the nanofloor of her top-tier bridge control station
.

She instantly called her battle display holos up in spinning, horizontal glowing ribbons and rings all around her
.

Data relays went wild. Her fingers flashed among the highlighted screen arcs, taking control of them and their parameters
.

Multiple warnings sounded, and with excellent reason
.

Nothing about this was good in any way
.

Haisha!
Twenty enemy fleets could chop them into confetti–well before any other Alliance forces could even jump in to help.

No strategy, no formation could possibly save them against superior numbers such as these
.

“All ships, full withdraw. Emergency retreat on this vector, in Charlie-Romeo-7, cone-ring formation. Shields and all weapons full front and hot. Maximize all targeting profiles on the lead attacking enemy elements–they’ll be on us in seconds. Whatever happens–we fight until
our carriers and some of our ships can break free and jump out behind us. Get the carriers out first!”

For a split second, everyone braced for the sheets of flame that would quickly overtake and overwhelm them
.

Yet those seconds passed
.

The enemy firestorm never came
.

Leftenant Commander Nethan Donovan called out from his
fleet communication station. “Sir, full status report and all initial data reads rushed to Intel and Alliance relays.”

“Scanning–why aren’t we under attack yet
?”

Everyone looked on in stunned wonder
.

Nobody knew
.

To their stunned surprise—all twenty enemy fleets broke off in all directions and jumped away…like ghosts vanishing
.

Not a single shot fired by either side
.

In a matter of seconds, Naero and her people were left all alone in the black, still retreating from Beleron-4.

*

The day hadn’t started out so strangely.
Strike Captain Naero Amashin Maeris went to PT–physical training–every morning as the Annexation War both continued and permitted.

Each day, she worked out, practiced, and sparred alongside her crew
s, among the fifty assorted warships of Strike Fleet Six.

Sometimes she remained on board her immense, planetoid flagship–
The
Hippolyta
.
On other mornings, she visited different ships, from enormous fleet carriers like
The
Condor
,
The
Bulldog
,
and
The
Starfall
,
to heavy battleships such as
The
Python
,
The
Athena
,
The
Choturri
,
and
The
Wombat
.

It could be one of her ten heavy cruisers such as
The
Mohawk
,
Jim
Bowie
,
or
The
Michigan
.
Perhaps one of her twenty destroyers, such as:
The
Jack
of
Spades
,
The
Iron
Clown
,
The
Duelist
,
or
The
Beehive
.
Missile frigates like
The
Seraph
and
The
Wizard, or g
unships like
The
Ravager
and
The
Hammerhead
.

Today
, Naero needed to stay close to home, so she joined in with her primary bridge crew in one of the big, arena-like practice rooms on the 24
th
level. They warmed up and stretched under the watchful control of the current instructors–half of them tough, 3
rd
Division Spacer Marines.

After
calisthenics, they ran nine laps around the outer track–three laps per klick. They ran each of the three klicks at a different speed: slow, fast as they could, and then fast. Then an extra slower lap at the very end to wind down.

Next, they padded up and took turns sparring together in pairs, or two, three, and four
on one. Sometimes they sparred in zero-G.

Naero
smiled, finally starting to work up a sweat.

She always loved this part anyway
–mixing it up.

Many of
her people relished pitting themselves against the fearless daughter of
The Annihilator
and
The Invincible Cyclone
. Most Spacers enjoyed a challenge.

One of her four-person Marine bridge teams came at her with everything they had
.

And
from past experience, these 3
rd
Division people could really scrap.

Pfc. Khaeber Wilde got in close and tried
to hit her with powerful elbow and knee strikes.

Naero blocked and dodge
d, grunted, taking hits.

Khaeber
drove his knee painfully into her right thigh.

She whirled, backhanded him, then knocked
him aside with an outward wheelkick, lightning fast.

Lance Corporal Zhon Keller and Corporal Risa Li
i tackled her high and low. The three of them tumbled and fought, grappling and striking, rolling and surging as Naero struggled to break free.

Staff Sergeant Jellien Patton and Khaeber jumped in, trying to stomp and kick her into submission
.

A heel grazed her head
.

Jellien punched her
hard in the jaw.

Naero spun on the floor and kicked Zhon away
. She rolled , punched, winded, and flipped Risa off to one side.

Jellien executed a perfect flying kick, thrusting her forward from behind. Khaeber jumped in toe-to-toe and exchanged rapid combinations of punches, palm strikes,
and elbows.

Naero knocked Jellien down with double sidekicks, blocked and grappled with Khaeber, flipped him into Risa as she charged back in
.

All f
our rose up and circled in once more.

Intense looks on their
flaring faces.

Naero laughed and held up both hands
.

“Hold, guys. Let’s take a break. I need a slug of Jett
.”

She handed out icy-cold borb
bles all around.

They drank freely, laughing and chatting while they watched the other matches unfold
.

Like most Spacers, her bridge crew were accomplished athletes and martial artists. Some of them
possessed serious skills.