War Without Honor Read online

  Contents

  Title

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Part One - The Beginning

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Part Two - Stranded

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Part Three - Broken

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Part Four - Running

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Part Five - Imani

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Part Six - The Edge

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Part Seven - Learning

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Part Eight - Christening

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Resolve of Steel - Halloran's War Book Two

  About the Author

  WAR WITHOUT HONOR

  Book One of the Halloran’s War Series

  By J.R. Geoghan

  WAR WITHOUT HONOR is a work of fiction.

  All names, characters, organizations and situations depicted in this novel are fictitious within the context of larger historical events or drawn from the author’s imagination. Sometimes both. Any resemblance to actual events, names, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright ©2019 J.R. Geoghan and Adventus Press. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. If you would like permission to use material from this book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  Adventus Press supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  First U.S. edition, February 2019

  Dedication

  This work – and this series – is dedicated to all those who have encouraged me to write fiction throughout my life.

  www.JRGeoghan.com

  Part One - The Beginning

  Chapter 1

  The Distant Future - Sol System

  Near Occupied Earth’s Moon, Luna

  The Carillion was badly wounded and rolling uncontrollably. Through the wide forward viewport other ships appeared suddenly, only to pass by in moments. Upon every rotation Sol’s intense light filled the bridge with blinding illumination, causing every iris in the compartment to clamp down tight before the auto-dim feature kicked in. Then, just as violently, the dark of space returned and rendered one’s natural vision virtually inoperable. By the time the monitors brightened in response and the eye recovered, sunlight returned to strike again. That last hit had put the ship into this spin and the stabilizers hadn’t kicked in to keep it steady. The overwrought bridge crew were yelling over a fresh cacophony of alarm tones.

  “Get the thrusters back on line!”

  “Gravity is failing!”

  “Sir, atmospheric pressure drop in section Delta-Six!”

  “Main batteries are offline, Captain.”

  Kendra pulled herself forward over the rail, half-falling and half-stumbling into the operators’ pit. “Show me exactly where that hit.” She sounded calmer than she felt.

  Lorian pointed at his monitor, which displayed a schematic of the vessel. A bright, flashing red indicator marked the location in the hull where the breach had occurred. Kendra held up a hand to shield her eyes as she studied the display. She cursed under her breath. “They knew exactly where to do damage to us.”

  “That breach is too big to self-seal, Captain,” someone announced.

  Lorian’s body was rising from his station in the light artificial gravity. Kendra guessed about forty percent levels. With a grip on his monitor he forced himself back down, shaking his head. “Unknown.”

  Their eyes met. Kendra had wedged herself in underneath the rail adjusting to the new, semi-weightless environment. This wasn’t her first rodeo, but the Carillion had taken a direct hit from massed projectile fire in a section of the ship that simply couldn’t be compensated for…the artificial gravity inducer space. Without gravity, the crew would find movement restricted. “Lorian, I’ve got to go down and see what Travers needs.”

  Her first officer nodded, hanging his head after the second dip towards her. “As you wish.” She heard the unspoken comment just as clearly. No you don’t.

  Kendra pushed up, using Lorian’s thick shoulder as a boost for her hand. “I don’t wish—get the ship’s head up and stop this sickening roll! And get those power grids back online…we need to shoot back.”

  He looked across to their helmsman, Chandra. “You heard the Captain. Restart the gyros and get the compensators back online before we tumble into another ship!”

  Kendra didn’t look back but concentrated on getting across the large forebridge to the elevator banks. It was true enough that, in this melee of a battle, it was not uncommon for ships to collide with each other or with massive chunks of what were once ships…no, not now.

  She wasn’t sure if the elevators were affected by the concentrated attack on their engineering spaces, but if they even got her halfway to the lower decks they were worth the risk.

  Just as she bounced up to the bank, one of the doors rolled back for Ybarra. Her Second Officer. “Captain.” His face was close to hers. She could see the concern in his electric blue eyes. The question crossing his face. He was an outstanding officer and she knew he had an interest in her beyond professionally, but that was out of the question. Captains didn’t fraternize and as one of the only two female ship’s captains in the Sol Flotilla, she went out of her way to avoid potential grounds for concern among her peers. “I have to go. To see if Lieutenant Travers can get things back online.”

  He saw her distress and nodded grimly. “You go. I’ll get the guns firing again.”

  As the elevator doors rolled closed she caught sight of Ybarra half-stumbling half-floating across the bridge towards her command chair. Waving his arms and calling for power redirection.

  My place is on my bridge. As the elevator carried her in the bowels of the ship she wiped away a tear of frustration. But, Travers will need my expertise. She knew this to be empirically true; their Propulsion Officer was the newest in the fleet and lacking combat triage experience. While Travers was solid in his knowledge, he just didn’t have the experience with the equipment that Kendra did. But leaving her bridge in the hands of her subordinates at the height of the battle, despite the appropriateness of the action, felt l
ike a betrayal of her crew. Ybarra and Lorian can hold their own until I get back.

  Thirty seconds later the elevator noticeably slowed, then ground to a halt. The electrical system took a hit, Kendra noted. The voltage regulator was fluctuating current to shipboard components, including the elevator units.

  The doors only opened partway and she had to use every ounce of strength to pry them apart enough to squeeze her thin frame through. Falling lightly through the gap, she found herself in a now-darkened passageway leading to the engineering spaces. She stumbled along, using her hands to pull herself when the gravity went light on her. Two crewmen came the opposite way, ignoring her as she passed. They blame me, she thought bitterly. Or maybe they just despise me for being Captain. She knew she was overreacting.

  She reached the engineering hatch and lurched through.

  Just as her feet touched the deck inside, the whole ship vibrated around her. She was displaced several meters to her right and slammed against a bulkhead. Very un-captainlike.

  Alician the assistant engineer saw her and called out from her monitor station. “Direct hit on the thruster array!”

  Travers looked at Alician, then followed her gaze to see Kendra rising to her feet across the engineering space. “Captain! What…”

  Kendra reached their workstation. “Status report.” She tried to sound calm but failed miserably. She realized that her hand was wet with blood. Her face was warm with it…

  “Commander Tarsa has called for a general withdrawal toward Mars.” Alician half-stood. “You’re bleeding!” The short, stocky woman had been with Kendra since her first Fleet assignment, after she’d been bumped from the Merchant Arm into warships.

  Travers paid no attention. “The reactor coupling cooler took a concentrated burst of fire.” He looked up. “How’d they know to hit us there?”

  Kendra grabbed the monitor in front of her for support. “Are the positron levels holding?”

  The engineer focused on a display. “Unclear. It looks as if the shielding was compromised.”

  “Then the compartment is flooded with gamma radiation. No getting back there to eyeball it.” Kendra forced her way in next to Travers, scanning the readouts. “You’ve done a great job patching the power around the breaks.” She didn’t mention the seven crewmen in the compartment whose battle stations were not irradiated. There was no point.

  “High praise coming from you…Captain.”

  She frowned, pointing at a number. “There.”

  He looked. “I didn’t even see that.” He called to Alician. “The number two graviton is misaligned. Compensate with the number one unit.”

  “Doing it now.”

  Kendra clapped Travers on the shoulder. “That’ll get us back on an even keel. Check in with the damage control parties on the hull breaches.”

  The comm unit next to Travers’ monitor flashed on. Ybarra on the video. His face was drawn. “Captain there?”

  Kendra leaned in. “Here.”

  “Captain, the last hit took out our main battery. We’re effectively unarmed, but the roll is easing up.”

  Travers, his eyes and fingers moving back and forth across his workstations in a flurry of activity, called “Thanks to the Captain.”

  Ybarra grinned. “Once an engineer, always an engineer.”

  Kendra didn’t feel like grinning. “Did Command call for a withdrawal?”

  Her Second’s grin faded. “Confirmed. The Kalinon took heavy fire and is disabled. They reported that they may need to abandon ship.”

  Another ship abandoned. Kendra gripped the engineer’s station and gritted her teeth. It was always the same; foray out from Mars with as many serviceable units as they had, take a beating from the superior Praxxan defensive flotilla in the vicinity of Earth’s Moon, then retire leaving several ships destroyed or unable to return under their own power. To be picked off by the alien gunners without honor.

  She looked around. Was Carillion next?

  “Orders, Captain?” Ybarra’s voice had an edge of impatience in it.

  She wasn’t going to lose her ship. If the Prax had figured out a way to target the soft spots in the fleet vessels, she didn’t want to stay around to find out what other tactical advantages the enemy would have up their sleeve. “Get her turned around and go to max speed until we’re clear of the battle.”

  “Attempting it now, Captain.”

  Travers called again. “The reactor output is unstable. Make that half speed at best.”

  Kendra nodded at Travers while keeping one eye on the comm unit. She suddenly noticed with horror the incoming blue-white bolt of plasma on the bridge screen directly behind Ybarra, displaying on the forward viewport. The auto-dim was overwhelmed by the illumination.

  Oblivious, Ybarra was beginning a sentence. “Captain, do you—”

  The comm screen clicked off with a sharp finality as the ship was rocked again by more enemy fire. Kendra was still processing as she was thrown backward into the monitor station behind her with raw violence. She felt her back crack viciously as her head bounced off the metal. Alician was strapped in and held on, maintaining herself as the ship torqued and groaned.

  Travers had spotted the glare in the comm screen himself and braced against the chair. Even so, the force of the hit shook him loose.

  “Get the bridge back!” Kendra slammed the control with her palm, leaving a swipe of blood across the keys.

  “Let me try…” Alician frowned for a moment before “Unresponsive on their end.”

  “I’m going back up.” Kendra stretched the stiff back and felt a cracked rib immediately. Maybe more than one.

  Travers got up from the deck. “I’ll look at the reactor core and get the team on repairs.”

  “I’ve rebooted the gravity generators,” Alician announced. Kendra immediately felt her feet planted more solidly on the metal and picked up speed in her half-limp, half-run to the lift elevators.

  “Captain! Elevators are non-operable,” called Alician. The lift system connected the engineering spaces to the bridge, which were located at opposite ends of the ship. In between, there were twelve stops at an average of thirty meters. The main elevator dyno was located on the deck immediately below the bridge.

  Kendra turned. “Can you locate the source?” Perhaps she could stop and get them online again on her way back to the bridge through the maze of corridors that she’d have to navigate without the lift.

  A crewman in the space called out, “Navigation offline! We’re drifting, Captain!”

  The comm panel on the wall next to the elevator doors beeped just as the ship shuddered under Kendra’s feet. She had never felt a vessel this size shudder like that. She punched the button to open the channel.

  “Engineering! We’re having trouble…”

  Kendra put her hands on the bulkhead on either side of the comm. “Captain here. What is it? I’m about to come up.”

  “Terrel here, Captain. We’re…we’re on D deck and seeing stress cracks in our compartment. Have you had communication with the bridge? They took a big hit a minute ago that threw us all from our stations.”

  “I’m going there now.” Dread was filling Kendra’s insides.

  “Captain, I think we may have lost the bridge decks.”

  “I’m coming.” Kendra repeated and went to close the channel.

  “Captain!”Alician was waving. “You need to see this.”

  She came back to her friend’s workstation reluctantly, knowing what she would see.

  Alician pointed at the monitor. “Patched in to the Tribul’s feed of the battle. There’s us.”

  The Tribul was a command cruiser that held back to direct the action of the fleet vessels when in action. By patching to their forward cameras, other ships could get a broad sense of the situation. Now, the view from that ship was that of the curve of the moon in the immediate foreground with the white/blue Earth filling the background. Near yet impossibly far for the fleet. Like a simulation, Kendra could pick o
ut the ships engaged with each other over the space of several hundred thousand kilometers, some closer that others. Alicia was pointing out the Carillion—their own vessel—on the screen. Kendra guessed they were 50,000 kilometers from the Tribul.

  “Magnifying.” The screen jumped to expand the view of their ship.

  “No…” The top decks of the Carillion were all but gone. In their place was a massive gash that extended up and over the hump that comprised the structure supporting the bridge decks. D deck, where Terrel had just reported from, was probably exposed to space and doing the job the outer hull was supposed to do.

  “Kendra, we’ve only got moments before total hull failure.” Alician was rising from her seat, placing her hands on the top of her screen. “We’ve got to abandon ship and now.”

  Kendra exhaled slowly, feeling the weight of inevitability. “Do it.”

  The crewman nearby called, “D deck collapse! E deck collapse!” The fear in his voice was palpable. Kendra knew that the next major bulkhead was between F and G decks, but that those were only designed to temporarily stop total decompression of the atmosphere while the crew made their escape. She did a quick mental calculation; there were thirty-four crew stationed on the other side of G deck. Out of the total complement of fifty-nine souls…twenty-one less than optimal strength, due to the shortage of crew after the recent losses against the enemy.

  “Everyone to the pod!” yelled Alician. Each major compartment had an escape pod.

  Travers was at Kendra’s side. “Can we save the G bulkhead by evacuating atmosphere?” Once, in a battle near Mars, another ship had managed to survive bulkhead collapse by adjusting their pressure to match the vacuum as best as possible. The gambit had worked and the Captain had brought the ship back to the station on autopilot with most of the crew—the living ones—huddling in their evac suits.

  Almost as if in response, the ship shuddered beneath them.

  Kendra hesitantly shook her head. “That broadside was one too many—compromised the hull integrity by slicing through those centerline sections.” She knew every meter of the Carillion. “We’ve got bigger problems than loss of atmosphere right now. Can we get propulsion online? Set her on autopilot towards the station and out of the battle area?”