Edge of the Splintered Galaxy Quadrilogy Read online

  Edge of the Splintered Galaxy Quadrilogy

  Eddie R. Hicks

  Edge of the Splintered Galaxy Quadrilogy

  By Eddie R. Hicks

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  Copyright © 2017, 2018, 2019 Eddie R. Hicks

  All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  No aliens were harmed in the writing of this novel.

  Cover Art by: Jeff Brown Graphics

  Contents

  The Siege of Sirius

  Prologue

  1. Foster

  2. EISS agent 19, Codename: Test

  3. Chevallier

  4. Williams

  5. Foster

  6. Foster

  7. Chevallier

  8. Williams

  9. Foster

  10. Foster

  11. Chevallier

  12. Williams

  13. McDowell

  14. Foster

  15. Chevallier

  16. Williams

  17. Williams

  18. Chevallier

  19. Williams

  20. Foster

  21. Nereid

  22. Williams

  23. Chevallier

  24. Williams

  25. Foster

  26. Foster

  27. Rivera

  28. Kostelecky

  29. Bailey

  30. Kostelecky

  31. Chang

  32. Bailey

  33. Rivera

  34. Pierce

  35. Foster

  36. Foster

  37. Eve

  38. Foster

  39. Chevallier

  40. Foster

  41. Chevallier

  Epilogue

  Celestial Incursion

  Dramatis personæ

  Timeline

  Prologue

  1. Foster

  2. Odelea

  3. Peiun

  4. Foster

  5. Chevallier

  6. Foster

  7. Odelea

  8. Moriston

  9. Peiun

  10. Odelea

  11. Foster

  12. Chevallier

  13. Foster

  14. Chevallier

  15. Foster

  16. Peiun

  17. Williams

  18. Foster

  19. Chevallier

  20. Chevallier

  21. Foster

  22. Peiun

  23. Odelea

  24. Chevallier

  25. Peiun

  26. Foster

  27. Foster

  28. Odelea

  29. Chevallier

  30. Williams

  31. Foster

  32. Odelea

  33. Foster

  34. Foster

  35. Fighter Number 3,482

  36. Williams

  37. Peiun

  38. Williams

  39. Foster

  40. Peiun

  41. Odelea

  42. Foster

  Epilogue

  Unsanctioned Reprisal

  Dramatis personæ

  Previously on Splintered Galaxy . . .

  Prologue

  1. Foster

  2. Peiun

  3. Foster

  4. Peiun

  5. Foster

  6. Avearan

  7. Foster

  8. Pierce

  9. Avearan

  10. Pierce

  11. Foster

  12. Avearan

  13. Foster

  14. Peiun

  15. Foster

  16. Peiun

  17. Pierce

  18. Foster

  19. Pierce

  20. Peiun

  21. Penelope

  22. Peiun

  23. Foster

  24. Peiun

  25. Foster

  26. Lahmu

  27. Foster

  28. Peiun

  29. Foster

  30. Avearan

  31. Peiun

  32. Foster

  33. Pierce

  34. Avearan

  35. Peiun

  36. Foster

  37. Pierce

  38. Peiun

  39. Foster

  40. Peiun

  41. Moriston

  42. Foster

  43. Peiun

  44. Foster

  45. Peiun

  46. Foster

  47. Pierce

  48. Foster

  49. Peiun

  50. Foster

  51. Avearan

  52. Foster

  53. Avearan

  54. Foster

  55. Foster

  Epilogue

  Hallowed Nebula

  Dramatis personæ

  Previously on Splintered Galaxy . . .

  Prologue

  1. Karklosea

  2. Foster

  3. Saressea

  4. Rivera

  5. Foster

  6. Saressea

  7. Foster

  8. Rivera

  9. Foster

  10. Rivera

  11. Saressea

  12. Karklosea

  13. Foster

  14. Rivera

  15. Foster

  16. Karklosea

  17. Foster

  18. Rivera

  19. Karklosea

  20. Rivera

  21. Foster

  22. Rivera

  23. Karklosea

  24. Rivera

  25. Foster

  26. Rivera

  27. Foster

  28. Rivera

  29. Foster

  30. Saressea

  31. Foster

  32. Karklosea

  33. Foster

  34. Karklosea

  35. Foster

  36. Rivera

  37. Foster

  38. Rivera

  39. Foster

  40. Rivera

  41. Foster

  42. Rivera

  43. Foster

  44. Saressea

  45. Foster

  46. Saressea

  47. Foster

  48. Rivera

  49. Karklosea

  50. Rivera

  51. Foster

  52. Karklosea

  53. Foster

  54. Saressea

  55. Foster

  56. Saressea

  57. Rivera

  58. Karklosea

  59. Foster

  60. Karklosea

  61. Foster

  62. Rivera

  63. Foster

  64. Saressea

  65. Foster

  66. Rivera

  67. Foster

  68. Karklosea

  69. Saressea

  70. Rivera

  71. Foster

  72. Saressea

  73. Karklosea

  74. Foster

  75. Rivera

  76. Foster

  Epilogue

  Next time on Splintered Galaxy . . .

  Keep in touch

  Also by Eddie R. Hicks

  About the Author

  The Siege of Sirius

  Prologue

  Foster residence

  Nashville, Tennessee

  August 2, 2018, 04:53 EST

  A strong storm front pushed onto the east coast of America . . . and the rest of the world.

  Plasma rained from the skies, it didn’t stop. Its thunderous roars leveled entire cities in a matter of minutes. Rebecca’s home was no longer safe.

  Her
eyes opened, her head throbbed with pain, her hair a disaster, and her teenage body pinned under a bookshelf. Every window shattered into thousands of fragments. The TV crashed onto the burning floor; seconds earlier it was playing the Emergency Alert System. Her home glowed red and orange as raging fires ripped through it, releasing intense heat and choking smoke in its wake. The ground rumbled, over and over.

  Expensive posh curtains had been reduced to charred material, the staircase leading upstairs had all but collapsed. Her mother frantically yanked Rebecca back up after unburying her from the fallen bookshelf and debris amidst the hellfire inferno. Rebecca staggered slightly upon seeing the state of their once upscale neighborhood. It was as if the apocalypse was upon them.

  Alien space ships appeared before the rising sun, spilling orbs of green plasma down onto the city of Nashville.

  Her mother tugged on her arm trying to drag her out of the burning house and out and into her car. Only it’s not where Rebecca wanted to go, not yet at least. She broke free from her mother’s grip and darted to their backyard patio, past the searing, hot flames and black smoke. She couldn’t leave it behind, not after all the work she had put into earning enough money to buy it for her father. The telescope had to come with them during their escape, alien invaders were not going to take it away.

  Rebecca had fond memories of growing up in this house over the last eighteen years of her life. She ran through its halls and rooms enough times to know how long it would take to run to the patio, then run back into the house and out the front door to freedom. Ignore the fire, heat, and smoke, and you got this, she told herself. Yes, there was no reason why she shouldn’t try to get the telescope before turning tail and fleeing.

  Her mother panicked and pleaded with her to return as Rebecca made her way through the flames; pleading that went unanswered, Rebecca needed to focus on the task at hand. She arrived at the deck, it too was set ablaze. Her bare feet bled; she forgot to take into account the hot shards of glass littering the floor. Rebecca secured the telescope in her hands, refusing to look at and assess the damage done to her body.

  There was one final task left; to escape with the telescope in hand. A task she didn’t plan out very well as she saw the flames that engulfed her home spread quickly. There was no safe route back to the driveway up front. The heat caused her to sweat profusely and the smoke forced her to cough nonstop.

  She heard what sounded like her father calling out to her from inside. She tried to follow the source of his voice, in hopes that he might have found a safe route to travel inside the burning house. Her frantic search for her father’s voice came to an end when she was once again knocked backward in the wake of plasma bombardment from the alien invaders.

  * * *

  I-40 westbound

  August 2, 2018, 14:23 CST

  Rebecca’s body pulsated with throbbing pain. She opened her eyes and discovered she was sitting on the front passenger’s side of her mother, Liana’s SUV. She saw a whole lot of nothing that surrounded the empty lane of Interstate 40, as she looked away from the crumpled NASA rejection letter addressed to her father. The state of the highway wasn’t a good sign, neither were the roaring sounds of fighter jets flying high above them followed by the tumbling noise of one, or two military helicopters. The aliens were still a threat.

  Dad, she thought and looked about. Her father ideally should have been in the passengers’ side of the SUV, she should have been in the backseat.

  “Mom!” Rebecca cried out.

  “Not now, hon,” she replied in her southern accent just like hers.

  “Where’s Dad?”

  “Give me time to focus,” Liana’s eyes stayed forward at the highway that lay ahead. “You know how I am about talkin’ and driving.”

  Rebecca’s hand reached over to activate the radio, in hopes of learning what transpired after she was knocked out during their dramatic escape from Nashville. Static. She switched stations several times, each one transmitted static or an emergency broadcast message asking everyone to take shelter or travel west.

  “Don’t bother, it ain’t workin’,” Liana said.

  Rebecca pulled her cell phone out from the pocket of her blackened blue jeans, decorated with small droplets of blood, her blood. The wallpaper of the phone displayed a selfie of her she took two months earlier during her eighteenth birthday party. She wondered if the happy girl with brown hair and blonde highlights would be able to achieve such a level of happiness again as the human race entered a new dark era, one they might not recover from.

  Life as she knew it was falling apart.

  2018 marked the year everything changed for the human race in the aftermath of the Hashmedai Empire’s failed invasion. Advanced alien technology found its way into the hands of brilliant human engineers and scientists who quickly learned how to reproduce it and adapt it to human society. In a few short years, the human race united to become a new and dominant superpower capable of interstellar travel and building alliances with alien species throughout the galaxy. A dangerous galaxy at that.

  A Splintered Galaxy.

  1 Foster

  Interstellar Expedition Space Agency HQ (IESA)

  Paris, Earth, Sol system

  February 19, 2033, 08:21 SST (Sol Standard Time)

  Rebecca Foster strode into IESA HQ, a tall, white, and pristine building in Paris. It was formerly the location of the ESA before it was badly damaged during the Hashmedai invasion of Earth some fifteen years ago. The elevators made a digital dinging noise as they slid open giving her access to the top floor of the facility. Rays of sunlight beamed through the skywalk as she moved away from the elevator and toward the office of director James Barker.

  She took one last glance through the windows and fixed her eyes on the Paris skyline amazed at how fast the human race was able to rebuild this city and many others across the globe. Most people born after the war had no idea of the amount of devastation that transpired during that dark moment when two billion human souls came to a sudden end. Only a history book provided them with that knowledge unless they traveled to the regions of Earth that society hadn’t gotten around to restoring, or the many glass craters that scarred the world in some regions like the east coast of North America.

  She stepped away from the window and the reflection of her short brown hair and dark-blue IESA uniform with the flag of the United States stitched onto the shoulders of it. Many of the personnel she passed in the hallways had a uniform like hers; each had a flag of their birth nation. She entered the director’s office where Barker sat at his desk with his hands folded. The flag of the United Nations of Earth hung on the wall behind him, while two chairs were parked in front of his desk. In one of the chairs a familiar face Foster hadn’t seen in years was seated. A young man with dark skin, short black hair, thin and nicely trimmed beard also wearing an IESA uniform, Dominic Williams.

  “Foster, glad you could make it,” Barker said as she took a seat next to Williams.

  “Dom too?” she gestured to him with a smile. “We in trouble?”