When Earth Reigned Supreme (The Human Chronicles Saga Book 12) Read online

  When Earth

  Reigned Supreme

  The Human Chronicles Saga

  #12

  an Adam Cain adventure

  by

  T.R. Harris

  Published by

  Copyright 2016 by T.R. Harris

  Edited by Lee Burton of oceansedgeediting.com

  ISBN: 978-0-9913465-9-2

  All rights reserved, without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanically, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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  Novels by T.R. Harris

  The Human Chronicles Saga

  The Fringe Worlds

  Alien Assassin

  The War of Pawns

  The Tactics of Revenge

  The Legend of Earth

  Cain’s Crusaders

  The Apex Predator

  A Galaxy to Conquer

  The Masters of War

  Prelude to War

  The Unreachable Stars

  When Earth Reigned Supreme

  A Clash of Aliens (coming April 2016)

  Jason King – Agent to the Stars Series

  The Enclaves of Sylox

  The Drone Wars Series

  Day of the Drone

  With author George Wier

  The Liberation Series

  Captains Malicious

  Contents

  Prologue

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  “I want that entire galaxy sterilized, beginning with the planet Earth!”

  “That is the goal, my Queen.”

  “You do not understand. I want every advanced race destroyed, whether we collect the harvest or not.”

  Councilmember Gori Bon shook his head. “You are correct. I do not understand.”

  “Somehow the Humans of Earth have corrupted the incredible mind of my special offspring, Panur. It is now highly doubtful that the Colony will have his contributions in the future. This will cause us great harm over time. I am being strictly vindictive. I want D-441 wiped clean. Subdue their major worlds—all of them—and leave the population to wither and die if we do not have the harvesters to reap the crop.”

  “You wish us to leave these crops to be ruined?”

  “I care not for the harvest. We will get as much as we can, let the rest rot. There will be plenty of food brought back to the Colony, and other galaxies within that dimension we will reach. But for now I want this … this Milky Way to be a dead galaxy.”

  Gori was thoughtful for a moment. “The limiting factor to the worlds we can consume has always been the number of harvesters within our fleets. It is such a momentous task to collect an entire planet worth of stock, especially before it rots…but if all you wish is for a population to be overcome by our pulse beams, that is a much simpler task. And as you say, we will still have the opportunity to take what we can with the existing harvesters. Still…it seems such a waste.”

  “Let them rot, beginning with the Humans.”

  “My Queen, you must value my counsel, since I have been allowed such access to you over the years.”

  “And you make a point?”

  “Yes…and it is that Earth will not be easy to subdue. It is the most closely guarded of all the advanced worlds in D-441. According to the history we have found, the planet has been attacked before, with devastating consequences. Hence, the population is in a state of continual guard. And then there is the possibility that the Humans may have the means to locate our transport portals. If this is the case, we may have limited resources available to accomplish your objective. By focusing primarily upon Earth, we may lose a fair number of our assets on a single target.”

  “Yet if the Humans can be eliminated, we can build more portals.”

  “Perhaps not. There is an unusual affiliation between the advanced races in D-441. I believe others will retain the ability to neutralize our ability to reinforce.”

  “Are you suggesting we leave Earth alone?” The Queen’s voice boomed throughout the huge birthing chamber. Gori knew her elite guard would be alerted and might even suspect her to be in danger. He stepped back from the huge bulk of his supreme mother so as not to appear a threat should the guards react without consent.

  “That is not what I am saying. All I suggest is that we attack Earth when the time is right and not press when it is not. Our priority should be to protect the existing portals and to build more. According to our Klin spies, it is now the objective of our enemies to close off all access to D-441.”

  The Queen snickered, sending a stream of blessed fluid from her mouth into the collecting basins below her massive head. “Yes, the Klin. They are a strange race. They come to us offering to be our allies in exchange for immunity from attack.”

  “They wish us to be the tool they need to destroy their enemies. They wish to reign supreme within D-441.”

  The Queen’s smile grew wider. “Do they not realize that if I grant their wish they would rule over a dead galaxy? How satisfying would that be, to be the only surviving race of advanced intelligence in an entire galaxy?”

  “It is obvious they do not believe we could harvest an entire galaxy of all advanced life. In normal circumstances, they would be correct. We would take a fair sampling and then move on. But with your new directive there will be nothing left for them to rule.”

  “Or they believe we can be defeated, either by them or others,” said the Queen. “They could be waiting for that time to come.”

  “They do not understand the time scale on which we operate. You, my Queen, have lived for over five thousand of their years. You will live many more multiples of that. D-441 will be conquered, either now or later.”

  “You are correct, Gori Bon. Use the Klin to gather what information you can. Promise them…whatever it takes. If you see a point where they may become a threat to our operation, harvest them. I understand they built the first transport portal into their universe. Their brains should be of a superior quality.”

  “There are very few of them, my Queen.”

  “Then when the time comes, I shall place the harvest in my private reserve, to be consumed only on special occasions.” The smile vanished from the Queen’s face. “But now we must focus on overcoming the true threat in D-441, the Humans…and to a lesser degree the Juireans. I concur that it may be wise to bide our time for the right opportunity to strike Earth, yet let us begin stripping the galaxy of all who
support and protect them. Let the planet stand alone against us. Then we shall see who will reign supreme in the Milky Way galaxy.”

  Adam Cain is an alien with an attitude.

  His adventures continue…

  Chapter 1

  Adam Cain held one Sol-Kor warrior around the neck while firing his MK-17 bolt launcher into the face of the other rushing towards him, leaving only the wriggling creature caught in his grip to contend with. The Sol-Kor were not used to being physically subdued—or at least this one wasn’t. He continued to struggle, refusing to accept that he was defeated. Adam needed information from the alien, but the effort was becoming intolerable.

  Besides, the thing really smelled. Some other bad guy wandering around the battlefield might be more cooperative.

  Flexing his powerful biceps, he felt alien’s neck snap and the beast grow limp. He let the creature slump to the floor before moving further down the hallway in search of more aliens to either kill or interrogate. Frankly, he didn’t care which.

  This was the first trans-dimensional portal array to be attacked using information from Panur’s diamond-core detector, and the resistance here was proving to be more determined than he and his team had expected. Alien reinforcements had apparently arrived through the portal since the last intel update, so Adam and his seventeen remaining commandos had their hands full.

  In pre-operation planning, Adam had argued for a simple orbital nuke attack on the array, but more pragmatic minds had prevailed. Admiral of the Fleet Andy Tobias and his cohorts wanted the facility intact—at least this one—so they could learn from it, since Human scientists had been unable to construct portal arrays of their own. It could even be used to launch a counterattack against the Sol-Kor in their home universe, if the opportunity presented itself.

  For now, Adam’s goal was to shut down or gain control of every alien portal in the Milky Way galaxy, a total of nine at last count. Since Panur had completed his detector, another array had come online. Having analyzed what Adam and the Humans were attempting, the invaders were in a mad rush to get as many additional portals completed as possible. To that end, most of the large construction was now being done in the Sol-Kor universe, the parts then shipped in through another gateway, saving both time and alien-power. Already, allied forces had intercepted the supporting towers for another three arrays. And these were just the ones they’d found. There was no telling how many more were making it through to their final destination.

  And that was what Adam needed to learn from these Sol-Kor warriors. Most of the defenders were drone workers who didn’t know much beyond their own particular job on the project, so Adam needed to find a bigwig, a Noslead or higher…

  At an intersection further along the corridor, Adam ran headlong into four more defenders, these dressed in black armor. Without thinking, he dove across the floor for cover, startled as much by their sudden appearance as they were to see him. Fortunately for the outgunned Human, the Sol-Kor relied on targeting computers before firing, and the moment’s delay as their handguns locked on target was all Adam needed. Forgoing his own T.C., he released four precisely placed bolts at the enemy before even one return shot could be launched.

  Still on the floor, Adam fingered his throat mic. “Beta squad, where are you?”

  “Main control building, second floor,” came the rushed reply from the squad leader, Sergeant Jack Newsome. “The scalies have us boxed in outside the main stairwell and down the hallway. We’re keeping them at bay around a corner, but it’s a good bet they’re going to charge us from the stairwell. They’re also firing their damn mind-numbing beams at us.”

  “How are you holding up?”

  “Fine, mostly. The dampeners are working, but we’re still getting some badass headaches. Where are you, Cap?”

  “I’m three floors above you. Lost my escort, so I’m alone. I’ll make my way down the stairwell and relieve the pressure on you from the top down.”

  “Be careful, sir. There are a lot more of these bastards than we counted on.”

  “Understood. I’m coming up on the stairwell now. Be looking for my influence.”

  “Roger that. Newsome out.”

  When Adam carefully opened the door to the stairway and glanced in, he was confronted immediately by a press of alien bodies filling the room. There had to be fifty of them standing on the stairs and platforms, preparing to take on Sergeant Newsome and the other fifteen members of his squad. They weren’t looking in Adam’s direction, waiting their turn to engage the enemy below. The Humans wouldn’t stand a chance once the Sol-Kor charged, willing to sacrifice a fair number of their strength to take out the commandos.

  Adam could feel the effects of the Sol-Kor mind-suppressor beam, if to a lesser degree. Like the rest of the strike team, he was wearing a compact neutralizer on his utility belt. The tiny device formed an effective screen around him in all directions, keeping him and the rest of the Humans from falling completely under the beam’s influence. However, it couldn’t protect them from the aforementioned migraine-like headaches.

  That was a problem. In some cases the headaches were so severe the men became impatient to finish off the defenders just to make the pain go away, resulting in fatal lapses in judgement.

  Adam had landed with a force of one hundred and twenty. He was down to just seventeen, and still the site was not secure. The control building was the last holdout, but it was also where most of the defenders had retreated. The damn place was swarming with the gray scalies.

  After slipping back into the corridor outside the stairwell, Adam checked the power reading on his MK. He’d run out of ammo for his M-91 carbine about thirty minutes earlier. All he had left was the damn plasma bolt launcher and its hybrid power pack. The upgraded charge box did give him twenty shots rather than the standard ten, but he only had four bolts left on his current pack, and only one spare remaining.

  He replaced the existing pack with the fresh one, and then placed his black-bladed KaBar combat knife between his teeth for easy access. Once the bolt launcher drained, he was pretty sure some good old-fashion hand-to-hand combat would be called for in the crowded stairwell.

  Adam reminded himself that these were just aliens—like so many who had come before—and if he just kept a level head, even fifty of them were no match for a combat-trained Human.

  With that thought in mind, he took three quick breaths…and then barged through the doorway.

  His aim was true with the MK as he laid bolt after deadly bolt into the backs of the aliens at point-blank range. The dead tumbled forward, falling on their comrades further down the stairs. Within seconds, his pack was drained, the bodies of the dead now blocking his access to the rest of the stairwell. Wild return bolts rose up from the lower levels, ricocheting off the metal walls and striking the still-living or wounded Sol-Kor on the stairs. Below him, a large number of the bastards were still alive and dangerous. Getting to them was now the problem.

  Adam tossed the useless plasma weapon aside, took the vicious combat knife from his mouth, and jumped, landing heavily on top of the mass of Sol-Kor warriors below. Most of them were already dead, so he rolled over and further down the mountain of alien bodies, his blade lashing out and finding compliant flesh along the way.

  Screams of excruciating pain echoed off the walls of the stairwell.

  Adam’s movements became a blur as panicked defenders fought to get out of the way of the mad, tumbling Human. Scaly hands grabbed for him, to which he instinctively reacted with savage swipes of his blade. More often than not, the tender flesh and brittle bones of the light-gravity creatures succumbed to the razor-sharp weapon; hands were severed completely from alien arms, accompanied by more agonizing screams.

  Still, their numbers were incredible, and Adam soon found himself pressed against the hard metal of the stairs with about a dozen aliens on top of him. A plasma bolt then lit up the stairwell, impacting his combat vest with a sizzle. Most of the level-two bolt was absorbed, but at this range s
ome of it did manage to reach his skin. It burned, but didn’t penetrate.

  Adam let out a primal scream of his own, while at the same time embedding his blade into the neck of the nearest alien above him. He ripped it out sideways and directly into the chest of another, and kicked out, sending a Sol-Kor fighter tumbling over the railing and down four flights to the hard deck at ground level.

  The stack of aliens began to lighten as he used knees, elbows and a free fist to engage, slashing wildly with the blood-covered knife. Having seen the Human survive a point-blank plasma bolt, most of the Sol-Kor were staring at him, wide-eyed, mesmerized by his fluid and deadly movements.

  Then a tipping point was reached. The rapidly dwindling number of alien defenders realized they were fighting a losing battle against their rabid opponent. There were other Humans in the hallway outside the stairwell, and many chose to confront them rather than this crazed killing machine.

  Ten of the aliens raced through the doorway on Sergeant Newsome’s level, only to be met with a barrage of flash bolts, as well as hot lead from the few commandos who still had conventional ammo for their assault rifles.

  That left only five aliens in the stairwell. They were armed with bolt weapons, yet to a creature not a single one fired, backing away as Adam stood up straight, rolled his shoulders and threw out his chest. He was painted completely in the red blood of the aliens, all but for the cobalt blue of his eyes, which were surrounded by a sea of brilliant white. He grinned, baring his pure white teeth in a display of savage ferocity, conveying to the aliens what most of them already took a smile to mean: a death challenge.