Free Space Corps - Explorer (Book 1) by K. W. Matthews

said in Chinese, “That’s no communication. You should have listened.”
    Six more ports opened across the alien vessel. Each glowed brightly.
    Even before receiving the order, Lieutenant Harris moved the ship to the right as fast as it could manage. As six beams of light raced forward, only two caught a glancing blow of the Explorer.
    “Tactical, fire!” Ashley shouted.
    Holt and Tran worked their fingers as fast as they could. In seconds, the space between the alien vessel and the Explorer filled with missiles and flashes of light.
    “Admiral, nothing’s getting through. Everything we fire is stopped by their weapons.”
    Ashley grabbed her radio. “This is the admiral to the Guardian, get in the air immediately. Try to get them to spread their firepower.”
    One of the sensor team shouted out, “We’re not seeing any open ports on the side of their vessel!”
    “Fantastic,” Ashley said. “Harris, get us off to the side. Scanning team, keep checking for any weak points.”
    As the Explorer moved, the alien vessel turned. The Guardian took advantage of this and bombarded the side of the alien vessel with a barrage of missiles.
    Four of the six weapon ports on the alien vessel pointed directly at the Explorer when they fired again. As soon as she saw the glow, Ashley grabbed her seat as tight as she could.
    The four beams of light ripped through the Explorer. Pieces went flying off into space and explosions rocked the hallways. Harris did everything he could to get the vessel out of harm’s way, but to no avail.
    Out of a port at the back of the alien vessel, a small cylinder ejected. Once clear, the alien vessel jumped back up to its previous speed and continued on its path for Earth.
    Commander Hong stood, shocked that he and most of the crew of the Explorer were still alive. How the Explorer fared better than the Fu Zing was beyond him, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the cylinder the aliens left behind. He hadn’t seen the cylinder after the lander’s run-in with the aliens, and wondered what it could possibly be.
    The cylinder didn't keep Hong waiting long.
    While the crew of the Explorer did their best to scan the object, it began to spin. Slowly at first, but the spinning sped up to the point that it looked like a small sphere. The sphere then exploded, releasing a wave of blue light in all directions.
    The explosion left the Guardian and Explorer to float in space. The once intense light from the engines slowly faded away into darkness.

Chapter 12
    Admiral’s Foresight
     
    Gibbs couldn’t believe his eyes.
    “Rewind the video feed. Make it as large as you can without ruining the image.”
    On the monitor at the front of the main area of the Protector, the sensor team displayed troubling video. A bright flash of light enveloped the Guardian and Explorer, leaving them helpless.
    “What was that?” whispered the comm. officer.
    “Is anyone detecting any power signatures on either the Explorer or Guardian?”
    “Negative, sir.”
    “Tactical, are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
    “Electromagnetic pulse bomb?”
    “Exactly.”
    The tactical officer looked at his console. Looking through his database, he pulled up everything available about EMP bombs. Frustrated, he turned to the commander.
    “Sir, that’s what it looks like, but it can’t be. We’ve never seen an EMP bomb release a visible blast.”
    Gibbs shook his head. “That doesn’t change anything. We’ve never seen it on Earth, but there’s no telling how the alien technology works. We need to provide assistance, but tell the engineers to do their best to shield us against a similar blast. It looks like our current shielding won’t be good enough.”
    Tactical still couldn’t find anything useful. “Sir, we’ve never seen an EMP blast strong enough to get past our shielding before. How can we prepare?”
    “I don’t know. Have them work on it. If worse comes to worst, I want you to discharge everything holding a