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  Carthage Prime

  Ace Evans Trilogy Book 2

  by

  Toby Neighbors

  Carthage Prime - Ace Evans Trilogy 2

  © 2020, Toby Neighbors

  Published by Mythic Adventure Publishing, LLC

  Idaho, USA

  All Rights Reserved No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned or distributed in any print or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  Copy Editing by Julie Duke

  Books By Toby Neighbors

  Avondale

  Draggah

  Balestone

  Arcanius

  Avondale V

  Wizard Rising

  Magic Awakening

  Hidden Fire

  Fierce Loyalty

  Crying Havoc

  Evil Tide

  Wizard Falling

  Chaos Descending

  Into Chaos

  Chaos Reigning

  Chaos Raging

  Controlling Chaos

  Killing Chaos

  Elder Wizard

  Lorik

  Lorik the Defender

  Lorik the Protector

  Spartan Company

  Spartan Valor

  Spartan Guile

  The Vault Of Mysteries

  Lords Of Ascension

  The Elusive Executioner

  Regulators Revealed

  We Are The Wolf

  Welcome To The Wolfpack

  Embracing Oblivion

  Joined In Battle

  The Abyss Of Savagery

  Dragon Team Seven

  Uncommon Loyalty

  Total Allegiance

  Kestrel Class

  Jump Point

  Gravity Flux

  Modulus Echo

  Zero Friction

  Planet Fall

  Charter

  Jack & Roxie

  Third Prince

  Royal Destiny

  The Other Side

  The New World

  Zompocalypse Omnibus

  My Lady Sorceress

  The Man With No Hands

  ARC Angel

  Battle ARC

  Broken Crucible

  Lost Kingdom

  War INC

  For more about Toby’s novels visit

  www.TobyNeighbors.com

  Chapter 1

  Loman Haley, Vice President of Security for Ahzco, had just settled in behind his desk for the day. Looking out the big windows of the Ahzco building, he could see the sun glistening off the polished steel and reflective glass of thousands of structures. Arcadia was a popular planet. A safe planet. A good planet for doing business, thanks to Ahzco’s Corporate Defense Force.

  Loman wasn’t the type to bask in his accomplishments, but he was alive and still had a job—both things that had nearly been stolen from him—so he indulged himself for a brief moment. He pulled out a plain, stainless steel flask from the inside of his coat pocket. It was too early to start drinking, and it was against company policy for employees to keep hard spirits on the premises, but it was a flask just like the one that had saved his life on TROY in the Helena system. A flask and Alex Evans, Loman thought. He would check on the boy’s progress in the CDF soon, but first he slipped the flask among the files in the lower drawer of his desk.

  Things were starting to feel right again. His side still hurt from the laser blast that had pierced his side, but nothing serious was hurt—just some fat and skin. The wound would leave a nasty scar, but it would heal in time. The rest of the effects of the attack seemed to have subsided, and it was time to get back to work.

  Just as he was contemplating all he needed to accomplish, his computer beeped with an executive memo. The worst thing about being a VP was the almost constant interruptions. The real work had to be squeezed between meetings and appointments, most of which were a colossal waste of time.

  “Read it to me,” Loman ordered the AI-powered computer.

  “From the desk of Chief Executive Officer Ian Gentry to Vice President of Security Loman Haley. Mandatory meeting in Gentry’s office at 0722 this morning.”

  “Is that all?” Loman asked the machine.

  He didn’t expect an answer. Artificial Intelligence was limited by certain protocols so as not to appear too lifelike or powerful. He glanced at the memo displayed on his monitor. It was just like Gentry to be cryptic, but Loman could guess the reason for the meeting. He got to his feet and headed back out of his office, mumbling to himself about five minutes of peace.

  Everything was changing at Ahzco’s universal headquarters. The board of directors had instituted a new dual head of each department. Loman hadn’t heard who would be joining him yet, and perhaps the meeting in CEO Ian Gentry’s office was about that very subject. The CEO was desperate to maintain what power he had, and the chair of the BOD was working relentlessly to snatch it away. Lynn Faulk was the chairwoman of Ahzco’s board, but she wanted complete, unfettered control of the company. To do that, she needed her own people in charge of actually running the company’s many divisions, including security. It was a classic power play, only Faulk had used the attack on Loman in the Helena system to push her agenda forward. Loman was determined to push back, but he had already stumbled into one trap. He wouldn’t underestimate Lynn Faulk again, no matter how desperate the CEO was.

  Most of the support staff didn’t come into the offices until 0800, but Gentry’s secretary was already there. She gave Loman a dazzling smile that made him feel almost giddy.

  “Good morning, Mr. Haley,” she said. Even her voice had been modified. It was low, almost sensual, and completely feminine. “Mr. Gentry is waiting for you. Please, go straight in.”

  “I will,” Loman said, forcing himself to look away. He knew that the secretary was meant to intimidate or distract whoever was coming to see the CEO. She was a product of the finest plastic surgery, with no more interest in him than one might have in a total stranger one passed on the street, and yet his mind tried to tell him otherwise. It took all his willpower, but he forced himself to forget about her.

  He entered Gentry’s huge office and discovered Immanuel Cortez sitting in front of Gentry’s neat desk. Cortez was vice president of planetary assets, essentially a corporate realtor. Loman’s job was to protect company assets, while Cortez coaxed and traded to make sure every division was profitable. It was a surprise to see Cortez, and it made Loman wonder what the meeting was about; it certainly wasn't a strategy session to deal with Lynn Faulk—not with Cortez present.

  “Loman, good,” Gentry said as he waved to an empty chair. “We have an opportunity, and I want to move on it quickly.”

  “Yes, sir,” Loman said, sitting down.

  “The Free Trade Association is about to open a new planet,” Cortez said. “My sources tell me it’s incredibly rich with resources.”

  “Don’t they always say that?” Loman replied.

  “The FTA does, of course,” Cortez replied. “But not my sources. They’re well-placed and well-compensated. If they say it’s a good planet, we should move immediately to get as large a stake as possible.”

  “It could be another Arcadia,” Gentry said. “We don’t want to share the planet with too many other companies. Skandia Seven could have been ours if we’d been more proactive.”

  “All right,” Loman said. “What do you need from me?”

  “A security team,” Cortez said. “The best you’ve got.”

  “For a free planet?” Loman said. “What would be the point?”

  “Word is, there’s Tormenium reserves in the southern hemisphere,” Cortez said.

  “We don’t ha
ve to tell you how valuable that could be,” Gentry said.

  Loman nodded. Tormenium was the elusive one hundred and twenty-first element, known by its number on the periodic table, 121. Loman wasn’t a chemist, but he knew 121 was believed to be an almost magical substance. There wasn’t enough of it to use in commercial products yet, but all the big companies were searching for it. The RDT department of his own division put in requests for the rare element on every quarterly report.

  “They’re calling it Carthage Prime,” Cortez continued. “It’s a level-two planet with an extreme axis. Only the northern hemisphere’s warm enough to live on. There’ll be settlers in the north, but the south will be less stable.”

  “You mean it’ll be a war zone,” Loman said.

  “Whoever gets the mineral rights will have legal standing,” Cortez said.

  “But every company with a CDF will want to take it from us,” Gentry said. “As soon as the contract is approved, we need boots on the ground and ships in orbit.”

  “You want a full engagement on-world with no infrastructure?” Loman said. “Right now? Don’t we have enough problems to worry about?”

  “It could be precisely for that reason—that we’ve been attacked,” Gentry said. “The only companies with the resources to bid with us are Zen Tech and Getty Enterprises. But if we’re too busy licking our wounds, we could miss the biggest prize of the century. Do that and we’re out of a job, Loman.”

  “Another company could knock us off the top of the mountain,” Cortez said, “if there’s as much Tormenium as the geologists suppose there is.”

  Loman sat back in his chair and crossed his legs. It wouldn’t take much to divert the freighter bound for Creedence Three. He could put together a security detail to escort the freighter, but he had moved most of their available teams to bolster security on the company’s other worlds. A full engagement would stretch his CDF thin.

  “And if there isn’t?” Loman asked. “If we spend billions on a world with nothing to show for it, we’ll be the laughingstock of every company in the galaxy. Not to mention we’ll be fired.”

  “We don’t have a choice,” Gentry said. “We have to commit and hold the planet. We can’t sit this one out and hope there’s nothing there. Tormenium is too rare and too valuable to take that chance.”

  “Fine, I’ll get started on putting a team together,” Loman said.

  He stood up, and Cortez followed his example. Gentry stayed at his desk, leaning back and looking up at them both.

  “This is the future, gentlemen,” the CEO said, “and perhaps our legacy. Let’s make it happen.”

  Chapter 2

  Learning to fly was more fun than Alex had imagined. The simulators were like a game, but he had quickly graduated to the Titan Trainer. The Fast-Attack Titan battle suit was the quintessential mechanized armor. It was over three meters tall, roughly the shape of a human, and had powerful weapons built into the arms and back. The suit used a variety of thrusters and repulsers to get off the ground, along with an electric minijet on the back for atmospheric flight.

  Flying was difficult to master, and Alex had learned to let the suit feed into his mind all the data he needed to keep the bulky battle suit in the air. It many ways, it was like learning to walk all over again. A person rarely thought about keeping their balance, avoiding obstacles, maintaining their pace, or navigating to their desired location—they just walked. The suit did all the hard work, and what Alex was learning to do was respond appropriately when needed. He let Nyx, his controller who was far away on an orbital ship, watch over all the suit’s readings like altitude, air speed, attitude, and radar. She fed him the information he needed. Some of it, such as navigation, was a transaction between the Implanted Neural Controller and his brain that he didn’t have to think about. She could download the coordinates, and then he simply knew where to go. Other things, such as other ships approaching, she told him via the suit’s communication system. He didn’t hear her voice through the speakers near his ears, but rather as a variation of his own voice inside his head.

  Ash and Sly are forming up behind you, Nyx told him.

  “Any sign of our targets?” Alex replied.

  Negative. Wherever they are, I can’t see them on the sat feed or pick them up on radar.

  “Are we even sure they’re down there?” Ashton Timmons wondered, her voice crystal clear to Alex though the Titan’s company channel of their com-link.

  “That’s what we’re supposed to find out,” Alex said.

  “And the best way to do that,” Sly added, “is to fly low enough to make them shoot at us.”

  He’s not wrong, Nyx said.

  “True,” Alex responded, “but that’s not exactly the way we’ve trained. We should just dive down and see if they shoot us.”

  “Well, cruising around and identifying possible target sights is boring,” Sly said. “We’re the big dogs. Why not send us in and let us do what we’re made to do?”

  “I’m with him,” Ashton said.

  Alex felt exactly the same way, but Chief Landry had hammered the team concept into them. The trio were flying Titan training suits, which had all the navigation controls but no weapons. They were bulky and awkward in the air, designed to make the operators flying them struggle—the idea being that if they could fly the Trainers, then they would have no trouble in actual FA Titans. Alex, Ash, Sly, and Newt—who was sitting this training session out as there were only three Titan Trainers—were the fliers and the best operators in the FA Titan battle suits. The rest of the company, nine fighters and one medic, would use the variety of other battle suits depending on what the mission called for. While Alex and his teammates would prefer to dive down and engage the enemy in a direct fight, their job was to identify possible targets and slowly spiral down until they coaxed the enemy to reveal their location. It was a reconnaissance mission, and as team leader, it was his job to call the shots in the air.

  “All in good time,” Alex said, hoping he didn’t sound as frustrated as he felt. “Stick to your assigned quadrant and perform the slow, spiral descent, just the way we trained.”

  “Man, what a killjoy,” Sly said.

  “What do you expect? He’s the CO’s favorite,” Ash said.

  They banked away from Alex in opposite directions. He knew they were teasing him, yet there was a vein of truth in what they said. Alex was indeed Chief Landry’s favorite, but he was also the best flyer of the group. Ashton was a daredevil and completely fearless. She loved going as fast as she possibly could in any environment, but she didn’t have the ability to adapt to changing conditions that Alex had. Sly and Newt were both capable, but Alex was the best. Even in the bulky trainers, he could do things the others couldn’t. Chief Landry had made him team leader A, while Oggy was team leader B. Alex was in charge of the group of Titans, while Oggy took charge of the rest of the company on the ground. Being team leader wasn’t an actual promotion; it was just a way to give a little more structure to Echo Company. Landry gave the orders, and Master Sergeant Gellar made sure they were carried out, but once they were on a mission, Alex had some say in the way they did their assigned tasks.

  Does it bother you when they talk like that? Nyx asked.

  “Not really,” Alex replied. “It’s the burden of being a team leader, I guess. They would do the same thing in my place, but they don’t have that burden, so they can voice how they really feel.”

  How do you really feel?

  “Like doing something other than circling around up here waiting for something that probably won’t ever happen.”

  They were on a training mission with no live fire. The rest of Echo Company were on a completely different field exercise. Everything was simulated, which in Alex’s opinion was boring. He wanted to bank and dive, perform loops, and relish in the freedom of flying, but instead he was going slow and by the book.

  Never happen? You don’t think we’ll get an assignment soon?

  “Maybe, once they trai
n us to make orbital insertions,” Alex said.

  It will be ni—Wait! I’ve got something.

  “Where?”

  Movement, on the ground. Looks like ground-to-air missiles.

  Nyx didn’t tell Alex where the ground unit was. Instead, she sent it to him and his INC translated the data. He banked to his right and started climbing.

  “We must be in range,” Alex said. “Titans, climb to five thousand meters.”

  “Copy that,” Sly said. “Climbing to five thousand meters.”

  “I’ve got bogeys on the ground,” Ash said. “Three groups.”

  Incoming, Nyx warned Alex.

  “I see them,” Alex said.

  What he saw were puffs of smoke from the missiles being fired. The missiles were moving too fast to see, even with the suit’s enhanced visual system.

  “Evasive maneuvers,” Alex reminded his team. “Mark the locations of the ground units and climb.”

  Alex, I can’t identify the missiles, but I have flight speed. Contact in thirty-five seconds.

  “Okay, get high, everyone,” Alex said. “We’ve done our part.”

  “Great, we get to miss the fun part,” Ash said. “I’m ready to kick some ass.”

  “When are we getting weapons on these tin cans, anyway?” Sly added.

  A beeping sound began, and Alex suddenly felt the urge to escape. He was racing straight up, but the collision alarm was ringing in his ear.

  You’re passing ten thousand meters, Nyx said.

  “And the missiles?”

  Still tracking you. Contact is fourteen seconds.

  “We can’t outrun them this way,” Alex said. “Dive! Make them work for it.”

  He knew it was just an exercise. There weren’t actual missiles chasing them—just computer blips. Losing them would be difficult, but he wasn’t going to out-climb them.

  “Roger that!” Sly said.

  “It’s about time,” Ash said.

  Alex tipped his Titan over, letting his momentum slow him as he silently counted the seconds in his head. He was down to four when the suit began to descend. He maxed the Titan’s power and went in a downward spin. Gravity was suddenly on his side. He went from a slow climb to a fast dive, the g-forces squeezing him so hard he had trouble breathing. His head felt light. Even though he was upside-down, the sudden change in gravity was pulling his blood from his head toward his feet.