Beyond the Frontier - Leviathan E-Book

Jack Campbell

• Herausgeber: Titan Books
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

Two Syndicate World star systems have fallen prey to a mysterious fleet of warships controlled entirely by artificial intelligence. Geary knows that the warships were developed by his government to ensure security, but malfunctioned. If the Syndics learn the truth, the war with the Alliance will resume with a vengeance. Now Geary must track the A.I. ships to their secret base in the Unity Alternate star system and end the conflict—at any cost.

Leseprobe

Contents

Cover

Also by Jack Campbell

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

The First Fleet of the Alliance

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Available now from Titan Books

ALSO BY JACK CAMPBELLAND AVAILABLE FROM TITAN BOOKS:

THE LOST FLEET SERIES:

THE LOST FLEET: DAUNTLESS

THE LOST FLEET: FEARLESS

THE LOST FLEET: COURAGEOUS

THE LOST FLEET: VALIANT

THE LOST FLEET: RELENTLESS

THE LOST FLEET: VICTORIOUS

THE LOST FLEET: BEYOND THE FRONTIER: DREADNAUGHT

THE LOST FLEET: BEYOND THE FRONTIER: INVINCIBLE

THE LOST FLEET: BEYOND THE FRONTIER: GUARDIAN

THE LOST FLEET: BEYOND THE FRONTIER: STEADFAST

THE LOST STARS SERIES:

THE LOST STARS: TARNISHED KNIGHT

THE LOST STARS: PERILOUS SHIELD

THE LOST STARS: IMPERFECT SWORD

THE LOST STARS: SHATTERED SPEAR (May 2016)

STARK’S WAR SERIES (AS JOHN G. HEMRY):

STARK’S WAR

STARK’S COMMAND

STARK’S CRUSADE

JAG IN SPACE SERIES (AS JOHN G. HEMRY):

A JUST DETERMINATION

BURDEN OF PROOF

RULE OF EVIDENCE

AGAINST ALL ENEMIES

The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: LeviathanPrint edition ISBN: 9781781164686E-book edition ISBN: 9781781164693

Published by Titan BooksA division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd144 Southwark Street, London SE1 0UP

First edition: May 201510 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

The right of John G. Hemry to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.

Copyright © 2015 by John G. Hemry writing as Jack Campbell.

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No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

To Glenn L. Sparks, an old friend who lived a very good life and left this a better world for his having been here. There is never time enough.

For S., as always.

THE FIRST FLEET OF THE ALLIANCE

ADMIRAL JOHN GEARY, COMMANDING

Second Battleship Division

Gallant

Indomitable

Glorious

Magnificent

Third Battleship Division

Dreadnaught

Orion (lost at Sobek)

Dependable

Conqueror

Fourth Battleship Division

Warspite

Vengeance

Revenge

Guardian

Fifth Battleship Division

Fearless

Resolution

Redoubtable

Seventh Battleship Division

Colossus

Encroach

Amazon

Spartan

Eighth Battleship Division

Relentless

Reprisal (returned to Callas Republic)

Superb

Splendid

First Battle Cruiser Division

Inspire

Formidable

Brilliant (lost at Honor)

Implacable

Second Battle Cruiser Division

Leviathan

Dragon

Steadfast

Valiant

Fourth Battle Cruiser Division

Dauntless (Flagship)

Daring

Victorious

Intemperate

Fifth Battle Cruiser Division

Adroit (lost at Atalia)

Sixth Battle Cruiser Division

Illustrious

Incredible

Invincible (lost at Pandora)

Fifth Assault Transport Division

Tsunami

Typhoon

Mistral

Haboob

First Auxiliaries Division

Titan

Tanuki

Kupua

Domovoi

Second Auxiliaries Division

Witch

Jinn

Alchemist

Cyclops

Thirty-one heavy cruisers in six divisions

First Heavy Cruiser Division

Third Heavy Cruiser Division

Fourth Heavy Cruiser Division

Fifth Heavy Cruiser Division

Eighth Heavy Cruiser Division

Tenth Heavy Cruiser Division

Emerald and Hoplon lost at Honor

Fifty-five light cruisers in ten squadrons

First Light Cruiser Squadron

Second Light Cruiser Squadron

Third Light Cruiser Squadron

Fifth Light Cruiser Squadron

Sixth Light Cruiser Squadron

Eighth Light Cruiser Squadron

Ninth Light Cruiser Squadron

Tenth Light Cruiser Squadron

Eleventh Light Cruiser Squadron

Fourteenth Light Cruiser Squadron

Balestra lost at Honor

Lancer lost at Atalia

One hundred sixty destroyers in eighteen squadrons

First Destroyer Squadron

Second Destroyer Squadron

Third Destroyer Squadron

Fourth Destroyer Squadron

Sixth Destroyer Squadron

Seventh Destroyer Squadron

Ninth Destroyer Squadron

Tenth Destroyer Squadron

Twelfth Destroyer Squadron

Fourteenth Destroyer Squadron

Sixteenth Destroyer Squadron

Seventeenth Destroyer Squadron

Twentieth Destroyer Squadron

Twenty-first Destroyer Squadron

Twenty-third Destroyer Squadron

Twenty-seventh Destroyer Squadron

Twenty-eighth Destroyer Squadron

Thirty-second Destroyer Squadron

Zaghnal lost at Pandora

Plumbatae, Bolo, Bangalore, and Morningstar lost at Honor

Musket lost at Midway

Kururi and Sabar lost at Atalia

FIRST FLEET MARINE FORCE

MAJOR GENERAL CARABALI, COMMANDING

3,000 Marines on assault transports and divided into detachments on battle cruisers and battleships

1

“Five minutes to exit from jump space,” Captain Tanya Desjani said from her seat next to Admiral John “Black Jack” Geary on the bridge of the Alliance battle cruiser Dauntless. “All systems at maximum combat readiness.”

The warships commanded by Geary had left the blood and fire of Atalia Star System in pursuit of the dark ships that had carried out the destruction there. Geary and the others called them “dark ships” because their hulls were a duskier shade than most warships’, perhaps because of special stealth materials. It hadn’t been the crews of the dark ships that had committed the atrocities at Atalia and at Indras Star System but the dark ships themselves. The dark ships lacked human crews who could have overridden automated systems that had developed deadly glitches or perhaps been deliberately sabotaged by any of a variety of malware. Having finally won the century-long war against the Syndicate Worlds, the Alliance government had decided not to place its faith in the men and women who had paid the price for that victory, instead placing its trust in robotic systems that had already set ablaze two star systems.

Geary’s Task Force Dancer had left Varandal with twelve battle cruisers, eight heavy cruisers, thirteen light cruisers, and twenty-five destroyers. The battle cruiser Adroit had been lost in the fighting at Atalia, along with the light cruiser Lancer and the destroyers Kururi and Sabar. Four battle cruisers, Leviathan, Dragon, Steadfast, and Valiant, along with some heavy cruisers and destroyers, had remained at Atalia to assist damaged ships and recover wreckage from destroyed dark ships.

Only seven battle cruisers were left in the pursuit force.

That would be enough. If they could catch the surviving dark ships, which had fled from the destruction they had wrought at Atalia.

* * *

“Are automatic software updates disabled for Dauntless’s systems?” Geary asked.

“Yes, sir.” Tanya could be informal at other times, but now she was sharp, precise, and dangerous, a human weapon honed by the last decades of the brutal war with the Syndics. “My people are actively monitoring all systems, and if something tries overriding the block on updates, they have orders to shut down those systems and do a cold reboot from last-day backups.”

“Good,” Geary said. “It’s a hell of a thing not to be able to trust our own software.”

Desjani shook her head. “We could never completely trust our software. It wasn’t just flaws and glitches, it was also all the malware that enemy hackers could come up with to cause our software to misbehave. Humans separate from the machines are the only firewalls proven to be reliable enough. That’s why we always kept humans in the loop, for those times when the software got its artificial little brains twisted.”

“‘Always’ until those dark ships were built,” Geary said, his tones tight with anger.

“Yes.” She leaned closer and spoke more quietly. “If the dark ships went berserk after they arrived at Varandal, like they did at Atalia, stopping them from doing a lot of damage might be impossible for us. They were nearly two hours ahead of us when they jumped for Varandal, and if they accelerated after they left jump space, they will have opened that lead. And none of the defenses at Varandal will be able to see the dark ships at all to counter them.”

“I know,” Geary said, trying not to let his frustration sound too clearly. “Thanks to official software updates designed to keep us blind to the dark ships. Are the software patches that fix the damage caused by those updates ready to send as soon as we arrive at Varandal?”