REV- Rebirth Read online

  REV: Rebirth

  The REV Warriors Series

  T.R. Harris

  Book 3

  Contents

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  Novels by T.R. Harris

  REV: Rebirth

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Epilogue

  The End

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  Novels by T.R. Harris

  Copyright 2018 by T.R. Harris

  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

  Battlelines

  The Copernicus Deception

  Scorched Earth

  Alien Games

  The Cain Legacy

  The Andromeda Mission

  Last Species Standing

  Invasion Force

  Force of Gravity

  Mission Critical

  REV Warriors Series

  Rev

  REV: Renegades

  REV: Rebirth

  The Drone Wars Series

  Day of the Drone

  Jason King – Agent to the Stars Series

  The Enclaves of Sylox

  Treasure of the Galactic Lights

  In collaboration with George Wier…

  The Liberation Series

  Captains Malicious

  Available exclusively on Amazon.com

  and Kindle Unlimited.

  REV: Rebirth

  Prologue

  Forty-one days prior to the present.

  “Holy crap! That didn’t take long,” exclaimed Gunnery Sergeant Angus Price. “We just sent the bloody video four hours ago.”

  General Bill Smith was at the proximity screen, watching as a dozen Antaere warships closed on their position. “We knew this would happen,” he grunted. “Wormhole communications are notorious for spotlighting the source of transmissions. I thought by bolting out of the area at the speed of the Zanzibar we’d get a little head start. But I guess being this deep in Qwin space put the kibosh on that idea.”

  Ashley Hunter, the last of the three Humans aboard the starship, entered the pilothouse. “I guess all the alarms and flashing lights mean we’re in some sort of trouble?” she said, almost with a yawn.

  Angus admired her apparent calm demeanor, figuring a life as a deep-cover spy had steeled her psyche to situations like this.

  “I recommend going dark to avoid being blasted to atoms,” said the ship’s artificial intelligence, an entity known as Amber.

  “Do you need permission?” General Smith barked out.

  “I was just being polite,” the AI replied. “Cutting all power. Hold on to something.”

  Angus felt his stomach well up in his throat as the ship lost gravity. The sensation only lasted a moment before the feeling of falling was replaced with that of floating.

  “Damn, they’re not wasting time,” General Smith—Smitty—said, still staring at the threat board. “They’ve laid down a spread of plasma bolts targeting our last known position.”

  “I gave us a small burst of gas to move us away once we went dark,” Amber reported. “This first barrage will miss us, but the Antaere are sure to widen both the drop zone and the search grid. They’ll also use mass detectors.”

  Everyone aboard knew what she meant. Although they’d cut power and would be leaving no energy signatures, it was impossible to hide the magnetics and mass of the metallic hull.

  “The pitted surface of the Zanzibar will confuse the signals initially, appearing first as a cloud of dust” Amber said. “But as more scans are made and overlaid, our shape will appear on the Antaere screens.”

  “Another two ships have arrived,” Smitty announced. “The yellow-skinned bastards seem determine to find us.”

  “And can you blame them?” Angus asked, rhetorically.

  The mood was tense aboard the Zanzibar, and it would only get worse from here on out.

  A day before, the crew of the Zanzibar had absconded from the planet Iz’zar with only the second-known copy of the Corollaries of Mentar, the thirteen documents instructing the Antaere on how to treat their alien followers at the time of their ascension to Heaven. Most of the sections were innocuous enough, until it came to number thirteen, the Final Glory text. The simple three-paragraphs on the page instructed the Guardians of the Order to exterminate all non-Antaere followers of the Order prior to their merging into the Universal Order, the point where all living beings would join in harmony with all others. Of course, what this really meant was that only the Antaere were to experience the merge, representing the only intelligence in the glorious tossed salad that was to become Eternity.

  Understandably, disclosure of this Thirteenth Corollary—indeed its very existence—was forbidden and the document closely guarded. That was until Angus and his friends stole the complete set. Now the Antaere were pulling out all the stops to keep Angus and the others from getting the stolen documents back to Earth for authentication and dissemination.

  Four hours earlier, Smitty had sent a burst video of the Corollaries to Earth as a preview. The transmission would arrive, eventually, but without authentication, the Qwin would just deny the video was real. And the aliens weren’t interested in merely retrieving the documents from the thieves. If destroying them meant keeping the Corollaries from reaching Earth, then that was fine, too. That made the small, private space yacht Zanzibar expendable…along with her occupants.

  “Can we fight our way out,” Angus asked?

  Angus was a REV, a chemically-enhanced super warrior, yet all his combat experience came from ground-level, in-your-face, man-on-alien action. He wasn’t a space warrior by any stretch of the imagination. Besides, odds of fourteen-to-one seemed a little over
the top, even for a REV.

  “I could effectively take out five of the survey ships with a coordinated and surprise attack,” said Amber.

  “And what of the other eleven?” asked Angus.

  “They will destroy us.”

  The finality of the statement hung in the air for a moment. Even Ashley appeared crestfallen.

  “We have to get to the edge of the search grid and make a run for it,” Angus stated. “It looks to be only about two hundred thousand miles away.”

  “You are correct,” Amber replied. “At minimum impulse jets, we could reach the boundary in three days.”

  To Angus, taking three days to cover a distance of a few hundred thousand miles seemed almost inconceivable in the age of gravity-drives. That was like a jump from the Earth to the Moon. But then he had to smile. A hundred years ago that was the time it took to cover such distances. And like back then, all the crew had to work with would be reactive gas jets to get the ship moving. Any chemical exhaust or gravity-drive singularities would alert their hunters, and that would be it.

  “I have a solution,” Amber announced. “I shall plot the course…and then tumble the ship.” There was a trace of pride in the sexy artificial voice.

  “Tumble the ship?” Ashley asked.

  “Yes. By tumbling, our orientation to the scans will be constantly changing, and therefore our image will remain diffused.”

  “Great idea, Amber!” Angus exclaimed. The computer’s sexy female voice affected Angus in ways he didn’t want to admit. He figured that was why the AI had two distinct persona, one male, one female. Although she could be a bitch at times, Angus still felt a strange attraction to the voice….

  “Although I recommend we take the risk of periodic and controlled release of gas jets to move the vessel, I must warn you of a problem.”

  “What’s that,” Angus asked.

  “Our cloud-image will begin to move. The Antaere will notice this. They will realize only two things could cause this to happen. One: There is another gravity source in the area. Or two: The cloud of debris is not a cloud after all. It will be a matter of timing as to whether we reach the boundary before the Antaere decide on the latter.”

  “But we have—”

  “Silence,” Amber called out.

  Angus stopped speaking and held his breath, just as the other Humans on the bridge were doing. The ship was being scanned, and although sound waves didn’t promulgate through space, the hull did vibrate, which would cause a slight rippling effect within the diffused readings of the cloud.

  A moment later, the alien ship had passed.

  “As I was saying,” Angus continued, “we can’t stay here. The only reason the Antaere don’t have a hundred ships scanning for us right now is because it takes time to get them here. They’re going all out to keep us from getting away with the Corollaries. We may have sent a video, but that won’t be enough to convince too many people about what the Qwin are up to. We have to get the originals to Earth where they can be verified.”

  “A statement of the obvious wasn’t necessary, Angus,” Amber chided. “Everyone aboard knows the situation.”

  “So what do we do, smartass?” Angus snapped.

  “We engage the jets and begin to tumble. My plan is our only option, even with its inherent risks. There is even a slight chance it will succeed.”

  “And then what?” Ashley asked. “We’re still deep in Antaere territory and with a long way to go before we can expect any friendly cover.”

  “The Zanzibar is faster than any of the ships hunting us. If we are able to reach the boundary undetected, we will get a jump on our pursuers.”

  “That’s what we tried to do in the first place,” Smitty pointed out. “You see how well that worked out.”

  “That was because we were being cautious. If we do not care about our gravity wave, we can maintain separation. However that does not take into account any ships ahead of us or arriving from an oblique.”

  Angus knew what she was talking about. It was like a linebacker racing after a much-faster wide receiver. If you had the angle, it was possible to catch up to a swifter target.

  “How long until we get to Human space?” he asked.

  “Barring any time-consuming diversions, thirty-eight days. And then another twenty-eight to Earth.”

  “Thirty-eight days trying to stay ahead of a phalanx of enemy warships close on our tail,” Angus said. “Sounds like fun. When do we start?”

  “Please hold on to something,” Amber ordered. “When I begin the tumble, there will be a form of artificial gravity at the ends of the ship, with an area of zero gravity at the focus.”

  Angus felt the ship surge as Amber activated the gas jets that would get the Zanzibar moving out of the search grid. Then the view through the forward window began to shift, with the distance stars suddenly moving up before rotating back around a few seconds later. Angus felt his body pulled toward the viewport at the forward section of the pilothouse. The orientation for everything was now off. Bulkheads became floors, while others formed ceilings. The center-point was near the common room and the galley, where there would be no gravity. This would only last a few days, if they were lucky. After that, it would be an all-out sprint for Human space using the ship’s prototype gravity-drive. It would be a long time having to maintain constant vigil of an enemy force nipping at their heels. Fortunately, Amber would do most of the heavy lifting, using her considerable computing power to keep them one step ahead of the Antaere.

  It was a good plan.

  And it almost worked.

  Angus Price was on the bridge when Amber initiated the gravity-drive and inertia compensators. A moment later, the Zanzibar was in a deep well, bolting away from the search grid.

  Angus was planted face-first onto the deck when the artificial gravity kicked in. He climbed to his feet and staggered to the pilot seat.

  “What happened?” he asked the otherwise empty room.

  “We were scanned by three simultaneous beams and the Antaere ships began to change course. We have been identified,” the AI answered. “Oh, and there were also three plasma bolts closing on our position.”

  Angus called up the threat board on his screen. Of course, that was after he first cued up the food inventory for the Zanzibar; he wasn’t that familiar with the controls.

  The three markers indicating the roiling balls of intense plasma energy were falling behind, unable to link with a starship in a gravity well. But there was a boatload of much larger Qwin warships engaging their own gravity-drives and giving chase. If they got close enough, they could knock the Zanzibar out of the well and fire their flash cannon again. At the moment, Amber had them just barely out of range. But they had a hell of a long way to go.

  Ashley appeared at the door to the pilothouse. “Wasn’t that too soon?” she asked.

  “Yes,” said Amber. “Because of the premature nature of our escape, our location is now known. It will be more difficult to avoid blocking forces while in Antaere space.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I have plotted a rather complicated course to confuse our pursuers. We should be able to avoid most direct contact, yet it will add a minimum of nine days to our transit through Antaere space.”

  Another nine days added to a journey of over six hundred light-years. Angus sighed. It will be a miracle if we make it out of this one alive….

  1

  Sergeant Peter Savage floated near the forward viewport of the shuttle, watching as the huge battle-carrier came into view. The Eldorado—the Big EL—was a Valhalla-class starship, one of nine such vessels in the Human fleet. She carried a crew compliment of over five thousand, not counting a Marine strike force of two thousand and the sixty fighter craft in her hangars. For the past seven months—ever since the mad retreat of Human forces from the bulk of the Grid—she’d been on sentry duty near the closer-in Colony Worlds protecting against a potential Antaere attack on Earth.

  It had take
n Pete fourteen days to catch up to the ship after leaving Crious, and since his orders were to the starship—and not a location—he had no idea where the carrier was at the moment. He was sure he’d find out in due time.

  Valhalla-class warships were the most-powerful in the Fleet, and from his vantage point, Pete could see a dozen protruding flash turrets dotting the hull, along with multiple barrels for the projectile weapons. The Humans had been slow to accept the energy devices as their weapon of choice, since ballistics were much more effective against charged diffusion shields. Yet the drawback with armored shells came from the fact that once deployed, the battlefield was littered with millions of tiny metallic objects—which at the speeds experienced during a firefight—could pulverize a ship’s hull in a matter of seconds. Energy weapons didn’t have that issue. After about a thousand miles, they dissipated, with no residual effect.

  Most of Pete’s Marine career had been spent aboard ships like this. They were the preferred launch platforms for the REVs while on deployment, and deep within the mighty ship, a small compliment of approximately one hundred military and medical personnel were tasked with the maintenance and well-being of people like him. That wasn’t a lot for the impact the REVs had on most assault operations. But that was a testament to their effectiveness. Nothing aboard the mighty warcraft packed more punch for its size than did the REVs and their support teams.