Solitude's End

  Solitude’s End

  (Book 1 of Echo’s Way)

  by

  Mike Waller

  Text Copyright © 2017 Michael D Waller

  All Rights Reserved

  Published by Rampart Publishing

  ISBN 9780994438676

  Cover by

  SelfPubBookCovers.com/SFcovers

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook 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 recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your eBook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction. All characters are fictional, and bare no relation to any person or persons living or dead.

  Solitudes End is the first book in the ‘Echo’s Way’ series. This book is a stand-alone story, but you may also like to read the second book:

  Dark World (Book 2 of ‘Echo’s Way’)

  Join my readers list for news on new releases in the ‘Echo’s Way’ series and other books.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 01

  Chapter 02

  Chapter 03

  Chapter 04

  Chapter 05

  Chapter 06

  Chapter 07

  Chapter 08

  Chapter 09

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Author Note

  Author Information

  Dark Word (preview)

  Chapter 01

  Barbus Koll, Sub-Flight Controller of Tollean Stealth Taskforce Three, eased forward in his seat and savoured the moment as he tightened a well-manicured claw on the trigger. From beneath his feet a radiant, pencil-thin beam lanced down and slammed into the alien patrol ship on the airfield below. A child-like giggle escaped his lips as the ship’s cockpit exploded in a cloud of glass, plastic and metal fragments. Seconds later a follow-up bolt affected equal damage on a second vessel parked beside the first.

  The job complete, he sat back and congratulated himself, his foot tapping out a vague, discordant rhythm on the metal floor plates of his own cockpit. Too easy, he thought. It eluded him why these human creatures warranted such a waste of effort, but one had to enjoy one’s self when the opportunity arose. The fleeting moment of elation faded as he eased back to normality.

  Damn this place, he thought. If there was one thing he found repugnant, it was these yellow-star worlds. His eyes watered from the intense light, and the heat – absolutely everything about the place annoyed him. Given the choice, he would have smashed the place from high orbit, but his superior did not believe in unnecessary destruction. One never knew when the Empire might need the resources this world offered, and even the second-rate human infrastructure might be useful.

  No such restriction applied to the specific target below, a military base protecting the planet’s three mining facilities. As the leader of a squad of six, one-man fighters, Koll’s appointed task was to use his stealth ships to sneak in and take down communications and defences before the enemy detected the mother ship’s arrival. Even now, the larger vessel would be approaching orbit, and would soon dispatch troop shuttles to complete the job.

  The planet’s communications satellites, and the dishes and towers around the base, had been Koll’s first priority; no warning of this attack would leak to the other colonies.

  The nearest actual mine was five kilometers away at the head of a deep gorge in the nearby mountains. The town servicing the operation lay a short distance to the east behind the coastal dunes; the nearby presence of this airbase made the small settlement the world’s principle commercial center and the first objective in this cleansing exercise.

  Each of the attack-fighters under Koll’s command was sufficient to level the colony alone if necessary, but tollean imperial forces rarely worked that way. The preferred strategy always involved overwhelming force for the simplest of operations.

  Self-congratulations were in order. Tasked with the specific job of neutralizing the human warships, Koll considered his objective already achieved with two shots.

  Positioned high up for safety, his squad quartered the base, picking off with ease the small human figures milling around on the ground. Infrared detection made it easy to pinpoint individual targets, even those inside buildings. The attackers destroyed each with needle-beams while remaining out of reach of ground fire. These settlements had no heavy armaments, and the weapons they did have could not seriously damage the shielded hulls of Koll's ships. The humans were helpless without the warships now destroyed on the ground.

  As expected, personnel carriers commenced landing in the nearby town and ground troops began to clear the buildings, shooting down every human regardless of sex or age. The task was simple and it would not take long.

  Clearing the mine presented a bigger problem. All workings on this planet were underground, requiring soldiers to enter the tunnels – tedious and time wasting, but not difficult. In a few hours, no alien would remain alive, no matter where it was.

  The war against humanity was still in its infancy and so far the Emperor's forces had met little resistance. Koll found that hardly surprising. The first intelligent alien species ever encountered, humans were undoubtedly civilized to a point, but they were little more than smart animals, and their technological advances in no way compared with the great achievements of the Empire.

  They tended to occupy warm, watery worlds orbiting yellow suns, unlike the Tolleani, who preferred cooler red-dwarf stars. In reality, the two races never clashed, but to the tollean mindset, the idea of sharing the galaxy with an inferior species was unthinkable.

  There was also the matter of resources: destined to last forever, the Empire would someday need all the wealth the galaxy offered. The human morass was expanding rapidly, and so a unilateral decision from the Emperor required the problem be dealt with permanently. A non-existent rival posed no threats.

  These colonies mined Aspolin 43 – the human creatures referred to it as Trilatenite. The mineral’s presence on this world was the sole reason for this campaign; it was arguably the greatest prize in the galaxy, alone making interstellar travel possible. Several empire worlds possessed vast quantities of the substance, making this planet superfluous for the time being. The enemy apparently had a less ready supply, and destruction of the mines would affect their ability to resist the relentless tollean war machine.

  Regardless of immediate need, the mission was to leave this planet unoccupied. The invasion force employed a 'scorched world' policy: leave no human alive as the front advanced. Koll’s team excelled at its job.

  Several of the large hangers at the rear of the field showed severe damage, one of them in flames. Other structures fared less well: many human targets were destroyed by shooting down into the buildings, setting fire to the roof insulation and leaving more than half fiercely ablaze. Only a handful stood untouched, including a small office structure near the entrance, unoccupied maintenance buildings around the perimeter, and a few storage buildings.

  One of the smaller hangers, situated in a far corner of the field, was also barely damaged. Koll flew his ship lower and hovered over the structure. No heat signatures showed. After a moment’s consideration, he decided to leave it intact. There was no telling what might be inside, and orders must be obeyed, within reason.

  For Koll, the term ‘unnecessary destruction’ was a relative thing, dependant on how easily he could explain his actions to his su
perior. Too much senseless damage would result in a black mark on his record.

  When the first laser-blasts hit the ships on the tarmac, many of the humans had rushed into the open. Burned and charred bodies now lay scattered everywhere, and no movement disturbed the target area. Satisfied there was no more resistance, he ordered all but one of his craft to land.

  The brilliant daylight blinded, shimmering waves of heat rising from the hard-baked ground. Koll jumped to the ground and waited as the polarisers on his helmet adjusted.

  These humans chose to live in the worst kind of environment. The temperature was intolerable and the humidity oppressive. The air stank. A plague of insects swarmed about the field drawn by the smell of death, but then ignored the bodies and instead attacked him and his men the second they stepped from their ships.

  Thankful for his armour’s protection from the worst of the annoying pests, Koll directed his team to check the buildings in case some of the enemy were hiding where heat detectors could not find them. He strolled towards the undamaged hanger as his men dispersed.

  A heavy, steel padlock secured a small personnel door at the front of the structure. Koll contemplated the massive main doors for a moment, then raised his handgun and shattered the lock with a single blast. Weapon at the ready he stepped into the gloomy interior.

  At the center of the floor, a sleek, matt-black ship stood amidst a maze of maintenance machinery. The state of the vessel was obvious. One engine was under repair, with various pieces of equipment on service benches around the hull. A quick glance through the open hatch showed the pilot console in disarray, wires and cables hanging down in tangled confusion. It was clear the craft was not space worthy.

  Koll's mind began ticking over, searching for ways to benefit from this discovery. Unarmed, the ship posed no threat to the invasion force, but it might be useful for clandestine operations. Its black, light-absorbing hull marked it clearly as a terran military vessel. With the two ships outside beyond repair, this one might be an appeasement for the Flag Controller, and he might well show extra favour. One never knew.

  Minutes later, Koll stood once more beneath his own vessel listening to reports on his helmet radio. The rout of the town was almost complete and soldiers at the mine were already entering the shafts. This phase of the operation would soon be over.

  Without this military base, the next settlement one hundred kilometers inland was defenceless, and ground troops alone would suffice. At the third site, a short distance south along the coast, all facilities centred on a single location and again, a small force would take out the lot without difficulty.

  Koll decided to divide his ships, sending half to the second site, and the rest, including himself, to the third. With no more military opposition, his role was now to supervise, and provide backup as needed. He cursed the heat and the insects as he climbed back into his ship’s cool cockpit and closed the hatch.

  This place disgusted him!

  * * * * *

  It was the best season of the year, but not today. At thirty-five degrees centigrade, the atypical Corros spring day was a little hotter than usual, and thanks to the always-present humidity, only just bearable.

  Echo stepped down from the veranda to the gravel path at the front of the house. With a quick wave over her shoulder to farewell her mother she walked to the gate, her book satchel slung under one arm.

  The daughter of the mine manager and chief engineer in the small mining settlement of Casta, she had grown up in this place. Life had been charmed, so far. In this town, her father was the power. Mother, whom she adored, was the opposite, a calm, collected and long-suffering woman who lived life intent on raising both her children as models of perfection, but with little success: Echo and her younger brother possessed minds of their own.

  She peered along the dirt road towards the town square, where the schoolhouse was located. For her, learning was a passion; the teachers often commented that she was too bright for a place like Corros. Childhood was almost over; at seventeen years of age, and with final assessments a week away, she would soon be leaving school to take her place in the community.

  Most boys, when leaving school, apprenticed in the mines, a dangerous job leading to an oft-times short life span. They would become hard men dedicated to their occupation, with a pride born from the knowledge their dirty, grey rock kept the Federation functioning, and the interstellar spaceships flying.

  In recent years, a few of the young boys had gone away to train for the military because of the war, but most remained: the work of this mining community was critical to civilization and the war effort.

  Young girls went to work in the town facilities or the mine offices, or tended the crops and stock. Expected to marry within a year or two of finishing school, they became homemakers and mothers, caring for the next generation of colonists and helping their husbands cope with a difficult and dangerous existence. Many women became widows at an early age. Echo considered it almost feudal, and many of the colonists agreed, both men and women, but such was the reality of the border mining colonies.

  She sometimes dreamed of moving to one of the bigger cities on a primary world, perhaps Cymbel 3 or even Earth. Well no, perhaps not Earth: word was, the origin planet was environmentally unhealthy and only career politicians and bureaucrats made that choice, choosing advancement in the vast Federation machine over personal well being.

  Echo accepted it was unlikely she would ever see any of the prime worlds. In a place like this, the life choices of a young person, even one as intelligent as her, remained limited.

  She hesitated by the gate. The merciless sun beat down onto the roadway, sending small heat ripples into the air. The school had no air conditioning, and the usual daytime breeze from the nearby ocean was late this morning. At this time of year, rain fell only in the evening or night, and for most of the day, the temperature and humidity made concentration in class difficult.

  On a sudden impulse, she peeked over her shoulder to make sure her mother had gone inside, then turned and walked in the opposite direction, towards the watercourse that skirted the edge of the settlement.

  The last few weeks had been constant study. Echo knew the exam material as well as she ever would and had no concerns about her ability to pass the final assessments. Under the circumstances, some free time struck her as more appropriate than sweltering all morning in a hot room for no reason. She would attend the afternoon classes, with an excuse about helping her mother.

  Delays like that were common. In this town, education always came second to the realities of life. The teacher would never dare doubt her, with her father the boss of mining operations and therefore the most prominent figure in the community. Even the mayor deferred to him. Of course, he would never condone skipping classes if he knew about it. He was a fair but strict man who believed strongly in the value of education, even in a place like Casta.

  The stream along the far side of the fields provided water for the town, crops, animals and the mine. It also served as a popular form of relaxation for the younger inhabitants. Waterholes, some natural, others created by small dams, were scattered every few hundred yards, all the way around the settlement.

  To reach the stream Echo cut across the market gardens. The crops, products of the finest genetics laboratories of the Federation, flourished in this alien environment, despite the biology of this world being marginally incompatible with terran life.

  Echo's favourite swimming spot was beyond the airfield, a quiet, deep pool surrounded by shady trees, where the water tumbled down from the higher gorges in the surrounding shattered mountains. It was perfect for spending the morning, and with her friends in class, she had the place to herself.

  School clothes folded and placed on a dry rock, she slid into the clear, cool water. Nothing gave her more joy than swimming; she wondered how she would cope without access to places like this.

  Elevated a few metres above the tarmac she lay in the shallows at the outflow, looking across tow
ards the distant compound. She could see her father's office, and prayed he would not spot her. His doing so would mean an unpleasant scene when she returned home.

  At the back of the compound, beyond a broad apron, she could see the entrance tunnel to the workings. The Casta mine was one of three on Corros that mined Trilatenite. At first glance, the raw ore looked like any other rock, but beneath the dull exterior lay the key to limitless power. Worth more than gold, the processed metal was essential in the construction of fusion reactors and the field generators that allowed access to interstellar wormholes. Father once told her the dull silver-grey metal had formed the basis of numerous fortunes, and ruined even more good souls.

  Rare in most human occupied planetary systems, the substance existed here in vast quantities. It was the only reason, her father maintained, that the Federation built settlements way out here at all.

  Floating on her back in the shallow water, she stared up into the treetops. The faintest of ripples stirred through the branches, bringing hope that the much-missed morning breeze had at last arrived to relieve the humidity.

  Small, bird-like creatures flitted through the canopy, dropping down on leathery wings to flap around in the shallow water. Named Pterosaurs after an ancient creature of Earth, they were indigenous to this world and grew to enormous sizes. Only the smaller ones came to the pools, but even the largest gave no concern to the colonists. Few of the native animals on the planet ever caused problems. Corros was a benign world.

  Without warning, the little creatures took wing and fled, spooked by a loud rumble from the direction of the coastal dunes. Echo watched, puzzled, as five spaceships descended over the town and settled onto the airfield.