CODE
EXODUS
Book 4: Farewell Amity Station
Frank Kennedy
Dedicated to anyone who does what must be done
c. 2024 by Frank Kennedy
All rights reserved
ASIN: B0D5C1ZB8Y
A note from the author:
Farewell Amity Station is set in the universe of the Collectorate, which includes at least three other series. Reading them is not a prerequisite. However, if you want a wider look at the Collectorate, please check out those offerings.
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1
24 standard years ago – Swarm War
Philadelphia Redux, Earth
UNF MID-STAR LT. SHAD ABDELMANI heard the stories from those who once fought the Swarm in their native universe. “F-grounders don’t talk,” the veterans claimed. “Their God tells them to kill without question. The Scorpion does not debate. Hesitate, show even a flicker of mercy, and you will die.”
They fought as advertised.
After one enemy battle cruiser punched a hole through the UNF’s blockade, the ship crash-landed in the heart of Earth’s largest city. The splintered carcass of that monstrous vessel would never fly again, so its captain dispersed F-grounders into the alien surroundings with a simple order: Kill anything that moves.
Lt. Shad Abdelmani’s company arrived only minutes later, but the civilian carnage was well under way. The demons in lizard-green body armor spread into the vast residential towers surrounding the plaza where their ship lay.
Shad’s Captain also gave a simple order:
Hunt down and slaughter. Faster the better.
A few F-grounders defended the ship until their captain triggered the auto-destruct system. Fiery blossoms ejected the ship’s bulwark throughout the plaza and into hundreds of flats not already destroyed during the vessel’s wild descent. They distracted long enough for the bulk of their crew to enter the towers, go floor to floor, flat to flat, murdering anything with a heartbeat.
Their zeal made them as hard to kill as their armor or the steady barrage of blue gas balls from their Force Drums. Many times, Abdelmani felt the heat from an enemy blast miss him by inches. Usually, the Force Drums found a target.
The Lieutenant frequently stepped over the bodies of headless comrades or those with foot-wide tunnels through their chests.
The fighting lasted deep into the afternoon. There was, of course, no surrender. The Swarm knew they were done for, but their orders were inviolate. These humans deserved nothing but death.
Shad, as the highest-ranking officer on the ground, made the critical call when the enemy at last went silent:
Situation contained. Send in rescue and recovery.
That’s when civilian screams replaced the disgorging of Force Drums and the repetitive rumble of blast rifles. Desperate pleas arose from the trapped, the injured, and the dying.
Shad took a moment to survey this beautiful glass city he heard about growing up on Euphrates, two hundred light-years away. Small plumes of smoke and flame escaped from many of the neighboring towers. The tall oaks of Templar Park burned like funeral pyres.
The worst damage came to Obersson Tower 17. The enemy cruiser sheared away most of its park-facing facade during descent. Glass, structural metal, furniture, and dozens of bodies littered the heart of the combat zone.
The work had only just begun, and Shad didn’t have the soldiers to handle it alone. Yet he had little choice. The warships which defended Philadelphia Redux were recalled to the blockade or even, as he later learned, dispatched to distant star systems. His Captain sent a second small platoon to assist in recovery then jumped the warship away.
He set up an improvised command center inside a Scramjet and contacted local authorities to join the rescue operation. As the sun slipped away, a tiny dog’s endless barking grabbed his attention.
“What is that?” He asked Sgt. Alexi Babb, who pointed.
“At the pedestrian bridge, sir.”
A huge piece of the enemy cruiser had flattened the bridge, which once crossed a narrow stream and led into the park.
The dog couldn’t have weighed three kilograms.
“Have we checked for survivors, Sergeant?”
“Don’t know how anyone could have lived through that, sir.”
“The animal seems to think someone did.”
Abdelmani approached the rubble with pistol drawn; anyone down there could just as easily have been the enemy.
He kneeled beside the dog.
