Arrival

Chapter 1

Commander Yermak Halpan paced in his cabin aboard Brak’s Revenge, the pride of the Tanlian space fleet. It had been eight lunar cycles since his ship had taken trophy. The last two raids on Earth colonies had been disastrous. The colonies had launched early warning satellites and installed ground defensive weapons with enough firepower to ward off his lightly armed ship.
The colonists were not only aware the raiders were coming, but also had their weapons powered and ready. Yermak had to call off the attacks before they could even start.
The Tanlians were renegades, descended from prisoners who had mutinied against their overseers and taken control of the planet, Tantalum 2, a Colonization Alliance of Independent Nations (CAIN) incarceration and mining camp. Yermak’s grandfather, Brak Halpan, had helped lead the revolt.

After capturing a fleet of deep-space Earth ships, it had not taken long for Tanlian…