Endeavor (The Mythrar War Book 1) Read online

  Contents

  Title

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Intrepid

  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

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Intrepid

  End of Book Shit

  About the Author

  More Reading

  Endeavor

  The Mythrar War Series

  Book One

  Luke Simms

  Douglas Wayne

  ENDEAVOR

  THE MYTHRAR WAR SERIES

  BOOK ONE

  Luke Simms

  Douglas Wayne

  Copyright © 2015 by Luke Simms and Douglas Wayne. All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, businesses, events or locales is purely coincidental. Reproduction in whole or part of this publication without express written consent is strictly prohibited.

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  douglaswayne.com

  To G and K,

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  You will also receive updates when new books in the series are released, including Infamy and Reliant in 2017

  Chapter One

  LaTierre Sector

  Bridge, NECS Aplin

  Captain Naomi Singer stared at her ship's viewscreen. Specifically at the speck of light nestled in the center. This was the best view of her home she would have on this run. Her family was there. That is to say, her children and parents lived there. Her husband was captain of a cruiser stationed halfway across the known galaxy, likely trying his best to stay awake as he patrolled imaginary borders from a threat focused back at humanity's true home.

  She longed to be back planetside with her family, sailing her yacht on one of the planet's three large oceans or perhaps taking her kids to the amusement park in Puerto Verdad. Of course, that meant Admiral Quentis would have to sign off on her husband's request for leave at the same time as hers. That feat would require an intense amount of planning and preparation to pull off. So much, it was just as likely she'd end up spending her leave with the kids and her parents while wishing her husband were there to join them.

  "Sector sweep clear, Captain," Midshipman Emilia Rogers said.

  Singer tapped her screen for confirmation, not that anything ever happened on these runs. It was odd enough to see something as mundane as space debris this far out, let alone another ship.

  "Superb, Midshipman. Ensign, make the swing past LaTierre Six and set us in line with the Milne Gate."

  "Aye, Captain. Making the swing now," Ensign Clark chirped, careful to keep his eyes from meeting Singer's gaze. He was a good kid, damn near as good a pilot as she expected fresh out of the academy. But the kid had a lot to learn about piloting a cruiser. Given enough time and ample amounts of patience from her and the rest of the bridge crew, he could get the ship into any position she required. But after six months of constant patrols, patience was in short supply.

  Singer understood her crew's mood. Shit, she echoed the mood herself. Every extra moment spent tweaking the ship's trajectory was another moment away from home. Another moment away from friends and family which was the only reason any of them had enlisted in the first place.

  Clark took control of the ship and began the swing around LaTierre Six as instructed. He'd spent most of the tour practicing the maneuver as a way to trim power usage by a few percent. The surplus power could then be used on other ship functions, but often meant Singer would dole out another few minutes of time in the comm room later in the week.

  Singer sat back in her chair and marveled at the sight of the planet looming by. LaTierre Six, a gas giant, was the largest planet in the system. If reports were true, the planet dwarfed the size of Sol's Jupiter by double. She had never seen Jupiter in person to make the comparison, but knowing the planets she had seen firsthand, she didn't doubt the claim. Few people alive today had seen the planet outside the images on the network.

  The truth was, nobody alive had seen any of the planets in Sol with their own eyes for almost a century. The gates into, and out of, the system had long since been destroyed, making the trip back to humanity's home a long and treacherous journey. As far as she knew, the closest any allied ship had come to the Sol system since the attack was three jumps out and even those trips were scarce. It seemed humanity's leadership was willing to write off their homeworld for the chance to survive.

  "Detecting two ship signatures near the gate," her XO, Ryan Adams said, breaking her from her daze. Adams tapped a few buttons on his console, projecting the image on the large viewscreen. "The EUS Belfast and EUS Lochlainn. Both ships appear stationary a few kilometers away from the gate."

  "What are two European Union ships doing this far away from LaTierre Base?" Singer asked. LaTierre Base was on the other side of the sector, closer to new Madrid than it was to the gate. It was odd enough to see another ship while patrolling the fringes of NEC space. So odd that the sight of two threw her off.

  "No idea, Captain. Perhaps they are there to see us off," Adams said with a smirk.

  "Hail the Belfast, Commander. I want to know why they are there before we get too close."

  Gate protection was something of a misnomer. Rules of engagement set forth by the EU, NEC, the Russian Confederation, and even the Chinese demanded that all parties give ships passing through the gates ample time to recover from a jump before engaging. Of course, pirates and smugglers rarely followed said rules, and as such the rules were rarely enforced. Still, the only reason to have two ships waiting outside a gate was to wait for the rest of the convoy, or to act in its defense.

  "On screen," Adams said after a few tense minutes.

  Chapter Two

  LaTierre Sector

  Bridge, NECS Aplin

  The view on the screen shifted from the image of the gate to the bridge of the EUS Belfast. From her
ship's scans, she could tell the Belfast was the same as hers. She imagined it came from the same shipyard that built the Aplin, near a planet allied to the EU.

  The man in the center of the screen wore the stars of the captain above his left pocket on a pressed black uniform shirt similar to her own. It was a stark contrast to the buttoned-up white shirt she wore most days. Thankfully, today she dressed in her military uniform, otherwise the communication could've gotten awkward in a hurry.

  The man standing in front of the screen looked almost too young to be a captain. Either the EU promoted them young, or he spent a governor's ransom on skin treatments. His hair was cut short in the tradition of the EU marines, but unlike the grunts he had onboard, there wasn't so much as a single hair out of place.

  "Belfast, this is Captain Naomi Singer of the NECS Aplin. Is there a problem in Milne I need to be aware of?"

  "Captain Singer," the man said with a perfect smile. "From our reports Milne is clear. Nothing more than a few dozen of our mining vessels and a few dozen from your NEC."

  He held the smile a moment too long, making Singer more than a bit nervous. Something seemed off with this guy, she could feel it in her bones. It wasn't just the extended smile that made her uneasy.

  It was also his tone. The captain seemed happy, almost jovial to see another ship nearby. More than any EU vessel should be of an NEC ship outside battle. While he was onscreen, she would take care to keep her suspicions to herself, but she intended to have her crew at the ready.

  "Thank you, Captain. Hoping our route wasn't taking us into trouble."

  "Of course, Captain Singer. I know firsthand how boring patrol runs can be. We wish you safe travels and Godspeed."

  "Same to you, Captain." Singer tapped her screen ending the transmission. She sat back in her chair for a long moment contemplating her next move.

  "Permission to speak openly, Captain?" Commander Adams said. The XO was no longer sitting in his chair. Instead he was standing close to Ensign Clark's station with a grave look on his face.

  "Commander."

  "Sir, something doesn't feel right."

  Naomi nodded for him to continue.

  "The only reason to sit this close to a gate is to protect it from attack or to scan the ships passing through the sector. Either way, there's something the Belfast isn't telling us."

  Singer smirked. She had the same odd feeling about the EU ships holding close, but not once had the thought of attack crossed her mind. The two factions had been allies since the nineteenth century and showed no signs of changing that. Even with the rest of the European Union, the strong bond between their peoples hadn't faded. What started as a means to strengthen the defense of the western hemisphere of earth followed the factions into the stars. That fact was evident today as her ship prepared to patrol their joint space.

  "I agree something isn't right, Commander, but I don't believe the EU would attack us without provocation. Our peoples have lived peacefully for over six hundred years. I doubt they intend to change that now. There has to be an explanation for their positioning. Perhaps they are waiting on another ship."

  Adams rubbed his chin in contemplation. "Then you should know the ships haven't moved since we arrived in LaTierre." He reached over and pressed a few buttons on Clark's console bringing up an image of the sector time dated for six hours ago. "This is the scan of the sector from when we arrived." He pointed to the Milne gate on the edge of the screen for reference. "The Belfast and Lochlainn were at the same spot the moment we arrived in the sector." To emphasize his point, he played the feed of the system scan at triple speed, proving the ships hadn't so much as started an engine, let alone moved.

  "Interesting," Singer said, studying the screen. She wasn't quite sold on Adams' story, but she admitted his theory held merit. Enough it was worth putting the crew on alert as a precaution. Besides, it had been a few weeks since their last readiness drill. Today was as good a day as any for one. "Commander, put all weapon crews on alert. They are not to power up without my command. Inform them anyone who so much as flips a light switch without my command will spend the next twenty years in the brig before we release them to the Brits."

  "Aye, Captain," Adams acknowledged.

  "Midshipman Rogers, focus your scans on the Belfast and Lochlainn. Specifically I want you to keep a close eye on their weapons systems. If they so much as shift an ounce of power to any of those systems, I want to know."

  "Aye, Captain."

  "Ensign, continue our approach to the gate. Maintain our current speed and heading. When we get close to the gate, I want you to have a hair trigger on the controls to open the wormhole. I don't want to be caught with our pants around our ankles out here."

  "Yes, Captain. Maintaining current trajectory."

  Singer sat up in her chair as she watched the view of the gate grow larger, keeping her eyes focused on the two ships stationed a few kilometers outside the gate's reactive field. She wasn't sure what to think about the two ships, or why the EU would waste precious resources by having two of their larger cruisers on a pointless defensive position in the edge of NEA space. In her last five years of patrols, she hadn't so much as seen a single pirate vessel. Shit, it had been months since she'd even seen another combat capable ship.

  She watched as her ship closed the gap to the gate, awaiting an attack she believed would never come. Within a matter of minutes the Aplin was in range of the gate, close enough to send the command to engage.

  "Ensign, send the signal and get us the hell out of here the moment we're in range."

  They were a kilometer from the gate when the proximity alarms blared. Seconds later the ship shuddered as the object collided with the hull, causing any loose objects to rattle around or fall to the floor. Adams, still out of his seat, was nearly thrown into Clark until he grabbed onto his seat to steady himself.

  "What the hell was that?" Singer demanded. She got to her feet and scanned her bridge crew for the person with the answer. Something impacted the hull. That much was clear. What she needed to know was what had done it and why. More importantly, she wanted to know if their friends on the EU ships were involved.

  Chapter Three

  Europa Sector

  Europa Base, Admiral's Quarters

  Admiral Gordan Holman shifted through the ever-growing stack of folders on his desk. Each of the folders contained a report of a missing ship from his fleet. He considered most of the reports were hastily conceived by loved ones awaiting family to return from a lengthy patrol. Many things could delay a return, from engine failure to an unexpected encounter. Things like that happened so often it wasn't unheard of for patrol ships to return to base weeks if not months past schedule.

  As easy as it would be to write off the entire stack this way, a few of the reports were proving troublesome. Reports have been filing in about space debris around various gates in EU space, including some a few jumps away from Europa itself. He'd sent a few ships to investigate the debris fields, but each of them came up empty, leaving him with more questions than answers. Even now, as he fumbled through two new reports, it wasn't any different.

  The first file he received was about the EUS Belfast, one of the EU's most powerful cruisers. From the report he knew the ship was on routine patrol mission six jumps outside of Europa, well within the European Union's controlled space. Unlike the rest of the folders on his desk, he had signed the orders for the ship's patrol just three weeks ago, making this the freshest report of a missing vessel yet.

  Frustrated, Holman pressed the button on his desk to summon his assistant from outside. A minute later, Cadet LaFleur knocked on the door before making his way inside.

  "Problem, Admiral?" the kid asked as he took a position on the other side of Holman's desk.

  "Indeed," Holman replied. "I am in need of some information about one of our cruisers, the Belfast. I want to know everything there is to know about the ship. Crew rosters, where it was built, and anything else you come across about the ship.
"

  "The Belfast, sir? Didn't Prime Minister Edwards just Christen her a few months ago?"

  "She did, Cadet," Holman said, thumbing through the file. The EU had been putting ships into service at a rate of two per week for the last five years, making it difficult for even him to keep up with. The push to retake Earth had both the EU and the NEA working overtime to staff the massive number of ships needed for the effort, which often meant recruits that would've been shipped to the marines or even planetary defense were being placed in vital positions inside a starship. After all, ground troops would only come into play once they took control of the planetary airspace which would only happen if they overwhelmed the Mythrar.

  "How soon do you need the report?" LaFleur asked, eyes flipping between Holman's gaze and the clock perched on the wall behind his desk. Holman noticed the cadet's eyes and shook his head in disbelief.

  "As soon as possible, Cadet. I expect you to put this at the front of whatever queue you have in mind for the evening."

  "But sir, I have tickets to the see the Stings play tonight."

  "Sorry son, you'll have to catch the next match. The Belfast is the priority. I am not at liberty to discuss the nature of why I need that information, but suffice it to say time is of the essence."

  LaFleur sighed, but gave the Admiral a reluctant nod. "I'll have everything I find on your desk by 0600 hours."

  Holman nodded in return. "No detail is too small, Cadet. I expect anything and everything you find to be in the report."

  "Understood, sir."

  "Very well. Dismissed."

  And with that, Cadet LaFleur saluted Holman before turning to head for the door.

  "And son," Holman said before LaFleur left the office. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry about your tickets. Get me what I need and I'll make sure you get to see another."

  Chapter Four

  LaTierre Sector