Fire on the Frontline Read online

  Table of Contents

  Fire On The Front Line

  Dedication

  Description

  Historians Note

  Also By Trevor Wyatt

  The Mariner

  Connect with Trevor on Facebook

  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

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  The Mariner

  First Contact

  The Omarian Gambit

  Homefront

  High Crimes

  Tales From The Sonali War Vol. 1

  Encyclopedia Aeterna Volume 1

  Encyclopedia Aeterna Volume 2

  Acknowledgments

  Sign Up for My Newsletter

  About the Author

  Fire On The Front Line

  A Pax Aeterna Novel

  By Trevor Wyatt

  Copyright 2018 by Pax Aeterna Press

  All rights reserved

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or persons is entirely coincidental. This work intended for adults only.

  Want Trevor Wyatt in your inbox? Get freebies, new release updates, bonus chapters, and more!

  Sign up for my newsletter!

  Dedication

  To Tomas

  Description

  An enslaved planet,

  Ruthless invaders,

  And dozens of unanswered questions.

  Add in Captain Jeryl Montgomery,

  And you have a recipe for disaster.

  He did it all.

  Put a stop to a five-year war.

  Made the Galactic Council a reality.

  But how long will peace last?

  How long till he feels the burden of command?

  How long till he has to fight?

  Not long.

  When a woman and her child beg The Seeker for help,

  Captain Montgomery can’t help it...

  He joins the fray, and takes up arms against the Udenar.

  But there are secrets to be uncovered,

  And decisions to be made.

  When the frontline is on fire,

  What matters the most?

  A Captain’s duty…

  Or a Captain’s honor?

  Historians Note

  Events in this story occur in 2205, 3 years after the events of The Seeker, which concluded the Earth-Sonali war

  2197

  The Mariner is mysteriously destroyed. Captain Jeryl Montgomery investigates, sparking the Earth-Sonali War.

  2202

  The Earth-Sonali War ends.

  2205

  Vice-Admiral Jeryl Montgomery begins forming the Galactic Council

  2207

  Captain Jeryl Montgomery, demoted from his position as Vice-Admiral, returns to his position as The Seeker’s captain.

  Also By Trevor Wyatt

  The Pax Aeterna Universe

  Call of Command Series:

  First Contact

  The Omarian Gambit

  Shadow Agent Chronicles:

  Homefront

  High Crimes

  The Mariner

  See where it all started. Read The Mariner, A Pax Aeterna Prequel, for free, exclusively at this link: https://claims.instafreebie.com/free/yaoQE

  Connect with Trevor on Facebook

  https://www.facebook.com/trevor.wyatt.3154

  WAIT!

  Please use the TOC (Table of Contents located in the upper left area of your screen) to navigate your way through this book. If you’re zoomed out and you’re seeing a smaller version of the book and it is flipping through that way, please press the center of your screen to get you out of page flip mode.

  Thanks!

  Trevor Wyatt

  Prologue

  Gunfire shattered the night’s silence.

  Lydia threw her back against the wall of one of the buildings in the alleyway, her heart beating fast. Holding her breath, she pressed the blankets she was holding with one hand against her chest.

  “Shhh,” she whispered as something—someone—cooed from inside the blankets, a tiny hand reaching out to grasp her thumb. “We’re almost there.”

  In the distance, she heard another laser rifle going off, the sound of it like the crack of a whip. Sounds like these weren’t that unusual nowadays, but Lydia had never managed to grow accustomed to them. As far as she was concerned, there were some things no human being should ever grow accustomed to.

  Of course, the Udenar didn’t really care about what Lydia—or any other human being, for that matter—thought. They only seemed to care about two things: making humans do whatever task they deemed necessary and instilling fear in everyone’s heart. And not necessarily in that order.

  She still remembered the day the Udenar arrived. She was tending to the fields, running a small army of crop-bots, when the sun was blotted out by thousands of raiders flying in close formation. She didn’t exactly know what was going on, but she was certain that it couldn’t be good—and she was right. The Udenar took over Galea in just one day, spreading over the surface of the small farming colony like cancer.

  A few more days and everyone on the planet had been enslaved. What for, Lydia wasn’t entirely sure. All she knew was that the Udenar were running a tight ship, making every single able-bodied person on the planet work on some kind of mining operation.

  Lydia had done her fair share of work under the Udenar, rewiring her own crop-bots to haul dirt back and forth, but she had enough. She wouldn’t live in fear.

  Peering from the alleyway into the deserted road, she took a deep breath and turned around the corner of the building. Keeping herself close to the wall, she hurried down the street, mindfully placing one foot before the other and trying to make sure she didn’t do more noise than necessary.

  She knew that at this time of the night, she’d be shot on sight. No warnings, no questions, no anything; just a laser burning a hole through her skull. And, come morning, her body would probably be hung in the town’s small square. Whatever could be said of the Udenar’s intellect, they sure had a flair for the dramatic.

  “Almost there,” she whispered to the baby, stealing a quick glance at his rosy cheeks. He looked back at her with his pale blue eyes, and his lips curled into an innocent smile. Lydia wanted to smile back, but the anxiety cramping all her muscles had turned her face into a marble block.

  Out in the distance, an old warehouse rose against the pale moonlight. The ceiling was riddled with holes, and the old hangar doors were on the verge of falling off from their hinges⸺but Lydia didn’t care about any of that. She knew she’d find what she was looking for inside those four walls.

  Looking at both sides of the road, Lydia crossed it hurriedly and then stepped out of it, the tall grass reaching for her waist and brushing against the blankets she had wrapped the baby in. Furtively, she made her way toward the
warehouse and then circled the building.

  Although she was almost sure there’d be no Udenar patrol in the surrounding streets for another half an hour or so, she didn’t want to be reckless. And so she did as instructed, heading toward the back of the building, then going straight for the metallic door and fishing a keycard out from one of her pockets. She pressed it against the card reader, and the red glow coming from the small panel turned green.

  Pushing the door open with her sore right shoulder (lately, her whole body always felt sore), she stepped inside the warehouse and narrowed her eyes into slits. She waited for a few heartbeats, and as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she finally sighed. There, in the middle of all the junk and discarded metal parts, was a large shape covered by a green canvas.

  She was reaching for the canvas when she heard an aircar in the distance. This late at night, it had to be an Udenar patrol. She froze for what seemed like an eternity, hoping that the aircar would simply fly by, but that didn’t happen. Instead, she heard it stop right from across the street, the swoosh of the car’s hydraulics as it landed on the ground sounding just like a death sentence.

  “No, no, no,” she repeated quietly to herself, holding the baby so tight against her chest that her ribs felt as if they were burning. “Please go away, just go away,” she insisted on her silent prayer, closing her eyes and biting down on her lower lip.

  Her prayer didn’t work—she heard the aircar’s door swing open, and the echo of heavy footsteps reached her ears shortly after. When the baby stirred and then cried out, Lydia was almost sure she’d faint there and then.

  Instead, adrenaline kicked in.

  She turned on her feet as fast as she could and pulled the canvas back with the other while still holding the baby with her other hand. She allowed herself a panicked smile as she saw the small shuttle that had been hidden under the canvas and then simply pressed the keycard against the panel of one of the side doors.

  Moving as fast as she could, she jumped inside. Although her heart was beating like a war drum, she could still hear the Udenar’s heavy footsteps rushing toward the warehouse. From the gaps on the battered hangar door, she saw the shaky glow of at least three flashlights.

  Slowing down for just a second, she laid the baby down on the passenger’s seat and cursed under her breath as she tried to work the belts around his tiny body.

  With that done, she finally sat on the pilot’s chair and glanced at the panel and all the electronics—the shuttle was an old HB70 model, used for simple orbiting transfers, and she was familiar with it. Two quick taps of her fingers on the panel, and she waited to hear the familiar rumble of the shuttle’s engines.

  Instead, what she heard was the sound of laser rifles poking holes on the warehouse’s door. She sank in her seat instinctively, the lasers leaving a red glow inside the dark warehouse, and punched the controls one more time.

  And then another. And another.

  “For fuck’s sake!” she hissed, almost on the verge of tears. Some God up above must have taken pity on her, as the engines finally came alive, and the whole cockpit lit up at once, the glow from the control panel and dashboard almost too much for her eyes.

  Grabbing the controls, she forced the shuttle upward, raising it just a few centimeters in the air, and then she held her breath. Tilting the controls forward, she gritted her teeth as the front of the shuttle smashed against the large warehouse’s door, sending them flying back in an arch.

  Right in front of her were three Udenar, all of them fully equipped and wearing laser rifles. Despite their helmets and body gear, she could still make their grotesque humanoid shapes⸺almost like a human, but with awkwardly angled limbs and a permanent hunched back.

  They pointed their rifles straight at the shuttle, and Lydia made a split second decision. Instead of attempting to fly upward and risk being shot at, she just upped the shuttle’s speed. By the time the Udenar realized what she was about to do, most of their blood was already covering the front of the shuttle.

  “Serves you right, assholes,” she cried out suddenly as one of the Udenar flew over the cockpit, rolling over it like a ragdoll. Gripping the controls so tight that she felt the blood run out from her fingers, she wiped the sweat off her brow with her right hand and forced the shuttle to trace an upward arch toward the distant stars.

  Soot and smog that now covered the planet’s surface made it impossible for her to see them, but she knew they were there anyway.

  And somewhere among those stars, she’d have a new beginning for her and her child.

  She didn’t care if that happened on Human Confederation or Terran Union space. Hell, as far as she was concerned, she could start from scratch right among the Sonali. As long as her baby was safe, the rest was nothing more than background noise.

  As she finally escaped Galea’s atmosphere, she held her breath as she saw the star-sprinkled firmament. How long had it been since she had seen a sky like that? Too long, that was for sure.

  She just stared out into space as the shuttle slowly entered orbit, almost hypnotized by the moment. “Wake up, Lydia,” she told herself, sitting straight in her seat.

  She hadn’t had anything to eat in two days, and she hadn’t had any sleep for at least three. But as much as she wanted to rest, she couldn’t do it on Galea’s orbit. The Udenar kept the whole planet under lock and key, and although she was off the ground, she still had to escape the star system.

  She was about to input the coordinates onto the control panel when the whole dashboard turned red. She looked at the shuttle’s sensors and gritted her teeth as she saw a dozen red blips on the screen. A fleet of Udenar raiders, all approaching at a fast clip.

  “God, if you’re out there,” she whispered as she manned the controls once more, “Now would be a good time to give me a hand.”

  Chapter 1

  Jeryl

  “Nothing?”

  “Nothing at all, sir. The galaxy has never been this quiet.”

  “Good,” Jeryl whispered as he sat on the captain’s chair, glancing at the viewscreen with a soft smile on his lips. He never thought he’d be happy about the boredom of a border patrol, but after five years of war with the Sonali, he now saw things differently.

  He still remembered the days when The Seeker’s sensors picked up hostiles every single day, and he didn’t miss them for a single minute. Sure, when he was younger he had enjoyed the rush, but after seeing the hefty price humanity had to pay for such a conflict…

  “Start plotting a course back to the Edoris Station,” he said as he glanced at his navigation officer, Lieutenant Docherty.

  “On it, sir,” the lieutenant replied quickly.

  Jeryl’s gaze wandered back to the viewscreen. He breathed in deeply, taking in the vastness of all the empty space that surrounded The Seeker, and he found himself smiling once more.

  Being promoted to Vice-Admiral after the war had felt good, but he couldn’t deny the fact that he felt more at home as Captain of The Seeker. Sure, it had been a demotion, but what did he care? He had his ship, Ashley was by his side both as his wife and First Officer, and the galaxy was at peace.

  Of course, the Tyreesians were probably nursing their anger in some far corner of the galaxy, but they had been keeping to themselves. That probably wouldn’t last long, knowing how the race operated, but Jeryl simply refused to agonize over the future. He’d take it one day at a time, and he’d relish every single day of his life.

  “Engineering says FTL drives will be ready in about five minutes,” Lieutenant Docherty proclaimed from his workstation—a complete mess of blinking screens, all of them littered with navigation formulas and coordinates.

  “Thank you, Lieutenant.”

  Leaning back on his chair, Jeryl ran his fingertips over all the assorted buttons on both arms of the chair. And to think that with a push of a button, he could decimate thousands of lives⸺all without breaking a sweat and hearing a single cry of agony. A shiver ran up his spine as he r
emembered the days of the war.

  How many lives had perished because Jeryl had issued a command? How many had suffered because of him?

  Stop it, he commanded his brain, choking the life out of those thoughts. No good will come of that.

  He had spent enough sleepless nights thinking about the war to know that it’d do him no good. After all, he had done his best to put the galaxy on the right track. From brokering the peace between the Terran Union and the Sonali to making the Galactic Council a reality, Jeryl knew he had done everything he could to do some good.

  Now it was up to others to decide on the fate of the galaxy.

  As far as he was concerned, he was content to mind nothing but the fate of his ship and his crew. Maybe one day, perhaps not that far down the road, he’d have the urge to settle somewhere nice. Somewhere warm preferably, where he could trade off his uniform for a pair of khaki shorts and one of those tacky shirts sold at spaceports everywhere.

  It’d be nice to have one or two kids running around and a place to call home. Sure, The Seeker was Jeryl and Ashley’s home, and had been for a long time, but it wasn’t exactly the place to raise a family—a functional one, at least.

  Despite his devotion to the Terran Armada, Jeryl would never go to the lengths Admiral Pierce had gone—to raise a child only so that he could turn her into a perfect military machine. At least those were the rumors.

  “Lieutenant, you have the bridge,” Jeryl said as he stood up, nodding at Docherty. “Await my return to jump into FTL.”

  “Yes, sir,” Docherty replied, his tone so perfectly clipped he almost sounded like one of those officers part of the Armada recruiting campaign.