Relics of Utopia (Starship Gilead Book 1) by John Graves

Relics of Utopia (Starship Gilead Book 1) by John Graves

Author:John Graves [Graves, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aethon Books
Published: 2022-02-28T16:00:00+00:00


Windham stepped through a portal in the arena and appeared in a corridor just outside the bridge. He rushed to astrometrics, where a holographic model of Vanguard Station floated in the space before him. The station orbited a blue-green planet that had the richest deposits of mithril in the Barony of Gilead, along with numerous other natural resources. Mithril was a vital component in the adamantine alloy used in starship construction among its many uses. Gilead had had to defend this system on numerous occasions during her long history, mostly from pirates that viewed the lonely outpost as an easy target if Windham and his crew were patrolling on the other side of the barony. Is that what’s happening now? Windham had a bad feeling as he took his place on the bridge.

A battle-ready starship hovered between Gilead and the space station.

“What happened?” Windham demanded.

“That ship decloaked as soon as we came into sensor range,” said Kat Evans.

“It’s the Azazel,” Tully Silk added. “A Leviathan-class destroyer.”

Windham was unfamiliar with the Azazel, but starships didn’t decloak like that if they were friendly. Gilead was equipped with a cloaking device, but Windham only engaged it when he was trying to hide or ambush somebody.

“Hail them,” he said.

Several moments passed before a bearded face appeared on the view screen. The man wore no helm, but he was dressed in the white armor of the Brethren. He had a long beard that partially obscured the insignia painted on his breastplate, but Windham could tell that it was the nine-pointed star of the Brethren.

“I’m Captain Windham Manthus of the—”

“I know who you are, Captain. I’ve been waiting for you.”

“Waiting? Who are you, and what are you doing here?”

The Brethren smiled. “I am Captain Elbryian Anderson, a servant of the emperor, and I am here to witness the birth of a new age.” He turned to someone on his bridge and gave a signal with his hand.

“Captain,” said Evans, “we’ve got more ships decloaking out there.”

“How many?”

Evans’s face went pale. She minimized the Brethren’s face and brought up another screen, revealing a computer-generated image of the space outside of Gilead. Scores of ships were decloaking all around them.

“How many?” Windham said again.

“Seventy-four,” she said at last. “Sai, there are five destroyers.”

“Raise shields!”

Windham stared in horror at the fleet of hostile ships. The Brethren had increased their activity in the past few months, but he’d had no indication they might be planning something like this. Their cult was generally factionalized, with various sects often in open conflict with the others over some obscure piece of doctrine. Yet now here they were, a unified force, apparently set on conquering Vanguard—and destroying Gilead.

Captain Anderson spoke from his minimized screen, and Windham returned the Brethren’s face to prominence with a flick of his fingers.

“As you can see, Captain, your ship is hopelessly outnumbered. If you surrender now, I will show your crew leniency. But if you resist. . .”

Anderson let the words hang in the air.

Windham was brutally aware of how the Brethren treated their prisoners.



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