Trail of Evil - eARC by Travis S. Taylor Read Free Book Online Page A

there was evidence in the archives that there had been a message of nonhuman origin from decades, maybe centuries, earlier, that needed investigating. That is all the history books would ever show.
    Alexander Moore had convinced his successor in the Oval Office to make it happen so he could lead his expeditionary force to investigate the potential alien signal. But the hand-picked crew aboard the Sienna Madira expeditionary vessel knew the mission was more sinister. For more than a century now, Alexander Moore and his family had been fighting an Artificial Intelligence Counterpart known as Copernicus, who was hell-bent on enslaving all living creatures in the universe and making them hosts for AICs like himself.
    Copernicus had been one of the first experimental AICs that the brilliant President, Sienna Madira, had allowed to be implanted within herself. Copernicus had twisted and confused the brilliant president’s mind, turning her into the revolutionary leader, El Ahmi, who eventually would have the daughter Sehera Ahmi, who would rescue one U.S. Marine Major Moore from hell under the thumb of her mother. The two of them thwarted El Ahmi’s plans—which were really Copernicus’ plans—over and over throughout the family’s hidden history. Even while Moore had retired from the Marine Corps and become a U.S. senator, and later on as president, the evil Copernicus still drove American history, unbeknownst to all of humanity but a handful.
    That handful, Moore had multiplied by a few tens, and brought aboard his expeditionary vessel. The rest of the crew were only enlightened to the fact that there were splinter cells of the former resistance that had established colonies throughout the local region of the galaxy as far as humanity had stretched, only twenty or so light-years, and that they were mopping up after the civil war.
    Moore watched the battle beneath him on the small planetoid as the Sienna Madira brought itself down and landed. He had given the order and decided he didn’t want to sit on the bridge any longer, so he donned his suit and made it to the hull. The artificial-intelligence-driven battlebots and fighter planes were relentless, but his crew was moving forward and beginning to overrun them. Having the Sienna Madira land in the middle of the battle, giving them cover and closer artillery support, changed the tide. Most of all, Moore was concerned for one set of Marines—the one unit that carried his daughter. He scanned across the battlescape looking for the hangar that showed the blue dot that was Deanna Moore.
    Abigail, he said in his mindvoice to his AIC, where is she?
    She’s on the move, sir. It looks to me like they’ve commandeered a spacecraft. But they’re overwhelmed with battlebots.
    Show me.
    Quickly, in Alexander’s mind, the direct-to-mind link created a virtual reality in his vision, showing a close-up of the shuttle that Dee’s crew had commandeered.
    Who’s flying that thing? It seems to be going nuts, he thought.
    DeathRay, was all the AIC replied.
    Moore knew immediately that there was no better pilot, and that if DeathRay was there, he would protect his little girl, even if it meant his life. DeathRay would always be his go-to man.
    All right, Abigail, let’s bounce to it.
    Moore hit the jump boots of his suit and shot almost a kilometer into the air. The low gravity gave him plenty of strength in the powered armor suit. With his HVAR at the ready and his full suite of quantum membrane sensors, IRs and radar pinging at him from every direction, he was painting a full picture of the battlescape in his mind. And if it came to the point where he was close enough to take out a target . . . well, there’s no such thing as a “former” Marine.
    Moore ran, pushing sixty kilometers per hour toward the shuttle, and he saw the glint of another suit, somersaulting through the air, firing multiple HVAR rounds in every direction, land on the vessel.
    That has to be Penzington, he