I want to share with you the opening scene in Children of the Guardians, which is Book Two in the Harmonic Wars series. I like the use of "Flashbacks" to tell the story, and in the first scene of the Prologue I do just that. Here's the set up:
In my SciFi series Harmonic Wars I describe an ongoing war between the Balsarius and Masu`ri against the G'Alad based Warrior Guild. All of these human races settled in this solar system over 12,000 years ago. These human races all originated from a Biblical Earth from the other side of the galaxy. When space travel became possible, they settled on new homeworlds as people had outgrown the resources on Biblical Earth. In time, these human races began to drift apart and developed different values, but still needed resources to support the growing populations. They discovered a rich new solar system that was uninhabited, so they sent Deep Space Exploration ships (DSEs) to begin the colonization. Since it took many thousands of years to make the journey, the majority of the ships crews were placed into stasis. Skeleton crews rotated out of stasis to monitor and maintain the ships on their journey. When they finally arrived at the new solar system, the quickly colonized the planets and constructed portals back to their homeworlds. These "Pyraportals" used the natural energies of the planets for a variety of capabilities. They created energy, provided planetary defenses, and at the center of the pyramid structure was a small portal system.
After the races had made initial contact with their homeworlds, they enjoyed the continued flow of aid to and from their homeworlds. New technologies spilled into the colony as a massive space portal was constructed to bring the planet-based Arks through the portal. This giant space portal took just over a thousand years to create. In the meantime, the relationships between the races deteriorated as the objectives of each began to compete against the others. The Harmonic War began with the destruction of this space portal by the G`Alad when they discovered that the third Ark to make the journey would not bring more forces to the mighty Warrior Guild. Knowing that they would soon be outnumbered in the new solar system, they attacked the other races, both in the new solar system and at the homeworlds.
This war was fought to a standstill 10,000 years before the Guardians of the Crystal Skulls. The planets of Typhon, Martius, and Nibiru were changed forever. We know these planets as Earth, Mars and what was once Nibiru is now the asteroid field between Mars and Jupiter, at least in my SciFi book! The scene you are about to read shows the results of that last battle, and is the beginning of our story:
People rushed to the ships as the giant globe of Ark II loomed in the sky above. The planet shuddered as the gravitational forces pulled at the tectonic plates of the mostly crystal world. The command crews of the last warships had already been loaded and were busy prepping for take-off as the remaining soldiers, scientists, maintenance workers and then family members boarded in that order. They quickly moved as they knew that failure to board was a certain death sentence.
“Ark II, please respond,” Major Blane pleaded. “You’re on a collision course and must change immediately!”
“There’s no response, Major,” Vice Admiral Hektor replied. The powerfully built man had a determined look on his darkly tanned face. “They’re approaching the point of no return. We must assume that the Balsarius killed the Command Crew of Ark II and put the ship on a crash course with us. Continue the evacuation from the Command Module aboard the Theia.”
“Admiral, we only have 12 hours before Ark II slams into us. Any ship not off-world in 10 hours won't escape the blast zone. We can't get the entire colony out of here in time,” Blane answered desperately.
“Admiral Ares is well aware of that. Keep pushing them and get those transport ships off the ground,” Hektor replied grimly.
As each ship reached its capacity, they departed for the safety of space. But as the ships left the remaining colonists became more and more frantic to board. Chaos soon took over until the heavy hand of the Warrior Guild took over. Gunfire erupted into the growing mob as a spray of bullets murdered the scared civilians. The remaining transports departed half filled as the angry mob of frightened civilians descended upon the loading docks. Unspeakable atrocities began as the realization of certain death settled on the stranded citizens. Ares watched the display from the comfort of his command ship the Argus, as the last transport departed 30 minutes early.
“Vice Admiral Hektor, did we meet our baseline objectives?” Ares asked over the Vidlink between the two ships.
“Aye Sir,” Hektor replied from the Theia with a stern look on his face. “We evacuated all the warriors and their gear, a five year supply of food and materials and enough engineers and maintenance workers to make needed repairs on the Warships. The last 10 transport ships were all civilians.”
“Do we have an estimate of civilian casualties?” Ares asked.
“We left behind nearly seven million men, women, and children.”
Ares swore, “The Balsarius will pay for this.”
“Should we attempt an assault on Martius or Typhon?”
“Negative. Martius will never survive the blast, and Typhon may still be too close. Send the fleet to Titan. Hopefully, it will be far enough away to escape the majority of the damage. I sent Captain Linus ahead to secure the abandoned colony there. I believe the Balsarius and Masu`ri both still have contingents of scientists. I’m sure we can change their loyalty to our cause,” Ares said with a sick smile. “Execute!”
“Aye-aye, Sir,” Hektor replied and nodded before the Vidlink ended.
Hours later a tremendous explosion rocked the small solar system as Nibiru, the fifth planet from the sun, was obliterated by the massive migration ship, the Ark II. The explosion was so intense that the fourth planet Martius was caught in the blast as debris rained down so violently that it all but blew the atmosphere into space, destroying the millions of people stranded there. Even the third planet, Typhon did not escape the damage, though it would survive.
The G`Alad-based Warrior Guild had lost the battle, and their remaining forces were now in full retreat from the colonists. Admiral Ares was the last remaining tie to the vision of glory given to him as his real mission on this voyage. He had not overestimated his opponents, but his commanders certainly had done so. At least he had been able to send off one last message before they were cut off from home. With the Space Portal destroyed and no way of being able to determine the solar system’s new harmonic frequencies, it was impossible to reopen them to bring reinforcements. Any reinforcements would have to travel here from the other side of the galaxy, and that would take thousands of years, but at least they were on their way. The remaining forces here were at a standoff from a weapons’ standpoint. The Warrior Guild could not attack Typhon and survive, but at least they had destroyed the Balsarius’ mobility without hope of being able to rebuild or repair. However, the cost had been tremendous. Now they had to rebuild what they could.
Ares sat at his desk and planned the campaign with his Political Advisor Commander Menelaos that his remaining forces would have to execute over the next several centuries as they waited for reinforcements. At least he had youth on his side, and with the use of the stasis pods and the Klah weapons, he could prolong his life span over the centuries. As Ares thought about his Klah weapons, he heard Klaxon’s song. The voices of Klaxon were always there in his head, but they sang a little louder whenever Ares thought about them. Now Klaxon seemed irritated at his reluctance to act sooner. He had never failed at a mission, and he only considered this a setback. It was a serious setback, but he could still turn this in his favor and claim victory in the end. Their lack of accurate intelligence on the advancements in the colonists’ weaponry had been the one thing they could not overcome. Well, that and the colonists’ resolve against being overrun. He had to admit their plan was an uncharacteristic move that caught them all off guard. Now, he would have to rely on subterfuge and espionage. He was much better at that than his opponents were, so it was only a matter of time and for now.
He was confident that the Balsarius had also been able to get a message off to their home world, too. That meant that they expected reinforcements as well. Now, his mission was to upset the balance of power before any forces arrived for either side. This would be a challenge, and he loved a challenge. His superiors in the G’Alad ruling council had made it clear in their last Pyraportal transmission, that failure would be his “undoing”. Being G’Alad had its rewards, but it certainly had its downside as well. Inability to meet an objective could mean either the end of his career or the end of his life – and that had a tendency to motivate people.
Klaxon sang loudly now as images formed in Ares’ mind. They needed a different approach. Images flowed freely into his thoughts as the plan developed. This was going to take a long time, but the promise of success was very compelling.
I hope you enjoyed that sneak peek! Dimensional Warriors is on track for release in the Spring of 2017. You can still get copies of Guardians of the Crystal Skulls on Amazon, Kindle, Nook, and iBooks.
SciFi, Science Fiction, Tesla, Ancient Aliens, pyramids, space wars, space.
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