Wings of Steele: Revenge and Retribution Read online

  “I don't know how he does it but each book just keeps getting better... The dialogue between Jack and Lisa is worth the price of the book. A really good story, well written. Keep it going Mr. Burger, I am already anxious for Book 4.” Robert H.

  “I just finished reading Revenge and Retribution and loved it. It is very fast paced and flows well. I loved your assessment of the world situation and in particular what is happening here in the U.S. I realize that this is a work of fiction but I think you are right-on with what occurs with the alphabet agencies. I look forward to reading the further adventures...” K. S. P.

  “All I can say is... WHAT A RIDE!!! This was definitely an edge of the seater... It's going to be hard to wait for the next book. I'm going to read it again and savor it. Thanks for another WOWZER of a story.” Jolene E.

  “Book three kept up the high standards of the preceding volumes in the series. The cliffhanger ending left me wanting more.” Gary K. R.

  “Love love love love - Lisa's smart-assed character. She's bright, hard-headed and has Jack's back through thick and thin. It's what family SHOULD be like! Great read, I didn't want it to be over and I can't wait for the next exciting installment.” Gail A.

  “I could have read this in one sitting... I wanted to read this in one sitting... but my wife had other plans. All through dinner with our friends, all I could think of was getting back to this book!” Mark W.

  “Intense. Relentless. Fun. Exciting. Couldn't put it down and loved every minute of it. Jack Steele is the character you want to be, but I'd be happy just being on his crew.” Bobby, R

  “The universe unfolds before my eyes and it feels so real, like I get to actually be a part of it, living it. Mr. Burger switches from space to current events on Earth and back again, weaving reality and science fiction together so naturally it's almost frightening. Love the tidbits of history! I really look forward to the continuation of the series.” Tony S.

  WINGS of STEELE

  REVENGE and RETRIBUTION

  A NOVEL BY

  JEFFREY J. BURGER

  Other books in the series...

  Book 1 - WINGS of STEELE - Destination Unknown

  Book 2 - WINGS of STEELE - Flight of Freedom

  Coming in 2015 - WINGS of STEELE - Dark Cover

  www.wingsofsteele.com

  E-Book Edition

  Published in the United States by Templar Press. Templar Press and the mounted Templar Knight colophon are registered trademarks and may not be reproduced.

  Wings of Steele - Revenge and Retribution

  Copyright © 2014 Jeffrey J. Burger

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the US. Copyright Act of 1976, no

  part of this publication may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever, without the expressed written consent of the author or publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  This book and contents are a work of fiction. The characters and events portrayed in

  this book are fictitious. Any similarity to events, places, or persons, living or dead,

  is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Registered with the Library of Congress

  ISBN-13: 978-0692258750 (Templar Press)

  ISBN-10: 0692258752

  Cover artwork, copyright © 2014 Jeffrey J. Burger

  WINGS of STEELE logo, copyright © 2014 Jeffrey J. Burger

  www.wingsofsteele.com

  DEDICATION

  I want to thank all my readers who have enjoyed the Wings of Steele Series of adventures and offered their support, enthusiasm, and interest in the continuation of the story. You will be happy to know that as promised, this projected trilogy has progressed into a true series with a total of five books planned so far. Book 4, Wings of Steele - Dark Cover is the next planned edition.

  A huge thanks to Cheryl Stepp, for her expert care and effort in editing the series, she's done a wonderful job.

  To Fritz... my buddy, who is turning 10 this summer but never seems to grow up, entertaining me with his skillful silliness and affection.

  To my friend Mike, who has had an exceptionally tough year, losing lifelong friends; Bobby, Mark, John and Tony... all while having to fight his own medical issues. I've known you for 35 years, you've never been a quitter, keep going.

  To Leslie, for all the things you do, for everyone but yourself, your strength and endless energy never ceases to amaze me... thank you. For all of it.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Copyright © 2014 Jeffrey J Burger

  DEDICATION

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTY THREE

  EPILOGUE

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  PROLOGUE

  CARILOON SYSTEM, FREERANGER – DD217 : FOLLOW THE GOLD

  The DD217, a Miro Class Destroyer cruising under the FreeRanger banner, had cleared the gate from Zender's Trek into Cariloon, en-route to Velora Prime to join the FreeRanger flotilla. Her captain, Commander T. B. Yafuscko, was taking a little time to update his command logs in his ready room, paging though his notes on his e-Pad, enjoying a moment of peace and quiet with a cup of dark tea. Reviewing the profit and loss statements for their current set of missions sent from Council Dispatch, Tibby was still hoping to cash in on part of the bounty offered on the Freedom to push them a little further into the black. Granted, the 217's accounts were out of the red, but even a portion of the bounty would be a juicy addition. And a little action would be nice... Ever since they had left Raefer Station he'd felt like a glorified taxi driver. He sighed and leaned back against the arm of the sofa to close his eyes for a moment...

  “Red Alert! All hands to battle stations! All hands to battle stations!”

  Lights flashed red and the alarm klaxon blared, launching the Commander out of his comfortable recline, his e-Pad clattering to the floor as he hustled out onto the bridge. “Report!” he shouted, sliding into his command chair.

  “A cruiser just dropped out of a GOD jump, sir.” Gate on Demand.

  Yafuscko initiated his command and control screens, trying to retrieve data on the target. “What do you mean dropped out of GOD, how is that possible?”

  “She's heavily damaged, sir, I'm guessing her GOD systems failed and it dumped her here...”

  The Commander glanced up at the big screen, “All stop! Whose is she?”

  “Ours...” replied the tactical officer. “It's... it's the CC64.”

  Yafuscko felt a sudden rush of heat across his body, the CC64 had been in Velora Prime... By the Gods, she is absolutely shredded... “Open communications!”

  “She's not responding, sir, her comms are down.
..”

  Ensign Grinah appeared at the Commander's side, her hand resting on his shoulder, “What's going on Tibby?” she whispered.

  “It's the CC64, it just dropped out of GOD in front of us...”

  “Hellion, she looks horrible... She was in...”

  “Velora Prime...” said the Commander with a wince, finishing her sentence.

  The tactical officer looked back over his shoulder, “Sir, she's got a runaway core... she's launching E-pods.”

  “Dammit! Helm, pull us back, get us clear.”

  “Aye, sir. Full reverse thrusters.”

  He pointed at the empty First Mate's seat, “Grinah, get the boys ready to run the shuttles on emergency pod recoveries...”

  “Think any of those pods will survive?” she asked, dropping herself into the seat.

  “Depends on how long that core holds out...”

  “About thirty seconds,” called the science officer.

  Streaks of light extended out on both sides of the stricken cruiser's hull, the pods racing away, invisible in the darkness except for the brilliant tails of their engines.

  “Tracking pods...” Small green markers winked into view, drifting across the big screen, showing the location of each pod as it raced across the void.

  “We're reaching clear radius, sir.”

  “Fine. All stop at clear radius.” He rose from his seat and walked toward the big screen, watching the emergency pods jet across space, his hands resting on his hips. “C'mon people,” he breathed, “hurry up, there's not much time...”

  Even on the view screen, the flash lit up the bridge as clearly as if it had been viewed first-hand and the Commander scrunched his eyes shut, the crew momentarily shielded their faces. T.B. Yafuscko blinked away the white, watching the sphere of energy, debris and light, grow outward, dissipating as the shock wave did its best to catch the retreating escape pods. “How many did we lose?” he asked grimly.

  “About half of them.”

  “Dammit.” He took a deep breath and held it for a moment, letting it out slowly, as the weakening wave passed over the DD217, barely affecting it, the deck rolling gently underneath his feet. “Launch the shuttles for recovery,” he said quietly.

  “Aye,” replied Grinah, “launching shuttles.”

  “Sir! We have another ship entering the system... It's coming in from the gate to Velora Prime.”

  “Identify.”

  “Stand by.” The science officer narrowed the sensors, his fingers dancing across the glass keyboard. “She's one of ours... It's the DD158, sir. She's damaged but mostly intact. Looks like she's operating on one engine.”

  What the Hellion went on in Velora Prime? “Hail, please.” The Commander was still standing in the middle of the bridge facing the screen, his arms now folded across his chest.

  “This is Commander Boxxe, FreeRanger DD158...”

  Tibby looked over his shoulder, “Where's the picture?”

  “Audio only, sir.”

  He nodded and turned back, staring at the mess of debris littering the center of the system. “Commander T. B. Yafuscko, FreeRanger DD217. Can we be of assistance?”

  “I think we'll make it, Commander... can't say as much for some of our other ships...”

  “What happened out there, Commander Boxxe?”

  “Damned if I know. We had them by the numbers, but they knew we were coming, they jumped us coming through the gate. We went through with DD99 and we both got hit from behind. She got hit first, shields down, and it took her stern clean off. It cracked her core and she went almost immediately. We deployed countermeasures so I'm not sure if we were hit or were damaged by the 99 when she went nova, it took one of our engines off and destroyed shields and turrets on that side. We turned right around and headed back into the gate...”

  Tibby frowned, “You said you were hit from behind?”

  “That's right. There was a Halceón Class Missile Frigate behind us most of the way through the transition from Cariloon to Velora Prime. She pinged FreeRanger, we didn't think anything of it.”

  “So we have a rogue Ranger out there?”

  “Or a spy...”

  Tibby dropped his head and let it hang, rolling his neck. “This is not good.”

  “Sir! Fighters coming through the gate!”

  “Relax,” called Commander Boxxe over the comm, “they're ours. They had no choice but to try to follow us through, they lost their carrier.”

  Yafuscko blinked hard, “We lost a carrier?”

  “Yeah, it went nova right after we jumped in. We never did see what hit it...”

  Tibby turned around and headed back to his seat, having a difficult time fathoming the loss of one of their carriers. “By the Gods...” He dropped into his seat. “Did they get the Freedom?”

  “I honestly don't know, Commander. When we jumped, she was still in the fight as far as we could tell, and there was a fresh UFW battleship and carrier entering the engagement... we counted almost a hundred fighters coming from that carrier...”

  “Hellion. Where did these new ships come from?”

  “No idea. And we weren't in any shape to stick around.”

  Tibby leaned back in his command chair. “Understood. Where are you headed?”

  “Raefer Station for some initial repairs. Enough to get us to the rear for major repairs.”

  “Safe travels, Mr. Boxxe.”

  “Thank you. Will you be able to pick up these pilots? They are most certainly out of fuel, many of them barely coasted through the gate. We lost several in transition, dropping out into null space when they fell below transition speed protocols. Poor bastards.”

  “Of course, we won't leave any of them behind.” Yafuscko motioned to Ensign Grinah and she nodded her understanding, relaying the orders to the rescue shuttles.

  “Thank you. One piece of advice...”

  “Yes?”

  “Good hunting. But stay out of Velora Prime, Commander. It's ugly. Very ugly. DD158, out.”

  ■ ■ ■

  Retreating to the relative quiet of his office, T. B. Yafuscko paused at the e-Pad laying on the floor, staring down at it, having a severe desire to stomp on it or kick it across the floor in his frustration. He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, and bent over to pick it up instead.

  What was it about this ship, the Freedom, that made it so indestructible? She was becoming a phenom, not only to the UFW but to the FreeRangers... revered by one, detested by the other. It was nothing more than a ship, but Tibby was concerned that it was somehow becoming bigger than life, a mystical Messiah of sorts. And when it was finally destroyed, the ship and crew were going to take on some kind of ethereal martyr status. This whole bounty plan could very well backfire on the FreeRanger Council. In a big way. It may already have...

  He dropped himself down on the sofa, extending his legs and leaned back against the armrest. When the door chimed, he resisted the urge to throw the e-Pad against it. “Come...” he called.

  Ensign Grinah entered, slightly apprehensive, but she relaxed some when he offered her up a warm smile, the corners of his pale blue eyes crinkling up at the corners. “The senior pilot would like a moment of your time, if you have a minute, Tibby.”

  “Sure,” he replied. “How are the recoveries going?”

  “Good progress, but we'll be another few hours...”

  The Commander nodded, “S'okay. We're in no hurry. After seeing what's coming out of the meat grinder in Velora Prime, we're not going near that system...”

  “It's not worth it.”

  “No, it's not,” he sighed. “Though I think I'd like to meet the Captain of that ship some day... have a drink with him...”

  “By the Gods,” she breathed, “why would you ever...”

  “To ask him how he does it...”

  WINGS of STEELE – REVENGE and RETRIBUTION

  CHAPTER ONE

  VELORA PRIME, VELORIA, AIR AND SPACE PORT : NEW BEGINNINGS

  Rear Admiral Jack S
teele stood at the fourth-floor windows of the ASP main-terminal in the executive conference room, arms crossed, overlooking the runways. Long morning shadows stretched across the tarmac from the terminal buildings and control tower, the sky a clear turquoise blue, not a cloud in sight. His sleek, black, UFW frigate, Revenge sitting over on the landing pad on the far side of the facility, closest to the tree line, looked small in comparison to the cargo ship unloading on the pad just north of the control tower. Hover trucks unloaded supplies and equipment for the facility and for the Velorian recovery efforts, courtesy of the UFW Directorate. Steele wondered how much of that new-found love and attention being showered on the planet was guilt and how much was self-serving... probably about 50-50, he figured.

  The UFW had been terribly slow in responding to the events on Veloria, only thinking to dispatch the task force to investigate months after the planet had fallen off the UFW communications network, their orbital station destroyed, the planet heavily embedded with pirate infiltrators, the Velorian citizens enslaved by a criminally-run mining consortium, a total planetary socio-economic breakdown... The place was a mess, plain and simple.

  But then the UFW found out how valuable the mines were, and suddenly aid and assistance was immediate and plentiful. Shameful pandering. But there it was. If the Queen and the Prime Minister could maintain a handle on the situation, they'd be able to manipulate the UFW Directorate and get whatever they needed, whenever they wished.

  With the assistance from the Prime Minister, Veloria's Peacekeepers were making a comeback, the UFW Army Engineers at the ASP, supplying weapons, ammunition and equipment to get them back into operation. So far, the Peacekeepers had been making pretty fair progress, rounding up infiltrators on the list found at Mine 02. It was too bad that Mine 01 had been sanitized so well before it was abandoned, Steele was sure there were additional people on their list as well. It meant interrogations were going to be critical in finding out who was on the missing list. Prime Minister Nitram Marconus had his own techniques and talents for that... a little out of the ordinary, but effective.