by D. J. Holmes
As his officers filed past him, Johnston was the last to leave. The look on his face wasn’t what James had been expecting. If James hadn’t believed it impossible, he would have said the marine General was nervous.
“There is something I have to tell you,” Johnston said, still standing where he was without coming any closer. “Before you hear it from anyone else.”
“Ok,” James said slowly, concerned about what was about to come.
“I was at New Shanghai when your warning about the Karacknid battlefleet arrived here,” Johnston explained. “I was actually here for a number of weeks before that as well. Clare was with me too.”
James’ frowned. “Did you and Koroylov guess what was going to happen?” Even as he asked the question, it didn’t make sense to him. How could they have known?
Johnston shook his head. “No, I wasn’t here as a General. I held the rank of Colonel. Technically I still do, I’m only an Acting General now.”
James shook his head as he moved to take hold of the back of one of the conference’ room’s seats. “You better explain, you’re not making any sense,” he requested.
Johnston nodded and told James everything that had happened. As James listened, his anger rose and kept rising. When Johnston described finding out about the plot to attack his wife again, his hands clenched into fists. When he got to his interrogation of Akhila, James felt torn. A part of him was glad of what had happened. Akhila deserved everything she had suffered and worse for what she had done to Christine and Jonathan. And yet, as Johnston told him how Christine had responded, he understood. Akhila was evil, what she had tried to do to his family deserved the death penalty. But she had been helpless when Johnston had tortured her. Unable to resist him, unable to fight back, she had been at his mercy.
As Johnston finished his story, he paused and looked at the ground. James knew what he was waiting for. He had seen the shame Johnston felt at his own actions as he had described them. Technically James should add his own reprimand to Christine’s. Johnston had betrayed everything James was supposed to stand for. Instead James moved over to Johnston. Then he did something he never would have expected to have to do for the toughest man he had ever met. Putting his arm around his friend’s shoulder, he began to lead him out of the conference room. “You kept your promise my friend,” James said in a low voice. “You protected my family. I will not forget what you have done for me.” Right or wrong, James was not going to rebuke one of his oldest friends. Not on the eve of the battle they would soon face. “The past is the past,” he added as he removed his arm and they turned towards the galley. “We have a battle to fight now. A battle for the survival of Christine, Jonathan and Clare; that is all that matters.”
Chapter 42
The Battle of New Shanghai has been analyzed thousands of times over the centuries. Many an Admiral has suggested strategies they would have employed. As they say, hindsight is twenty-twenty. We will never know if they would have proven more effective.
-Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD.
IS Drake, New Shanghai system, 29th May 2484 AD, (eight days later).
Finally, James thought as the Karacknid battlefleet appeared on Drake’s sensors. His opponent had waited eight days before bringing his fleet into the New Shanghai system. As much as he knew the longer the Karacknids delayed, the closer the promised Alliance reinforcements got, the waiting had been fraying his nerves. He had no doubt the Karacknids had been busy as they had waited, but so too had James and his Admirals. They had made all the preparations they could. Apart from the small trickle of warships that might still be expected to come in from Earth, there was nothing more they could do. Everything that could be arrayed against the Karacknids was in place. The ball is in your court, James thought towards his opponent. As the Karacknid fleet jumped into the system, James brought a hand up to his chin as he waited to see what the final count would be. It took five more minutes to find out, but eventually the Karacknid fleet formed up and moved towards New Shanghai. On the gravimetric plot, the count had risen to five thousand eight hundred warships. For an hour James watched them slowly approach as his subordinates analyzed every ship in the Karacknid fleet. “All right,” James said to his officers, “signal Tranquility. Inform Captain Kalong he may make his attempt.”
“Right away Admiral,” Lieutenant Martinez responded as she tapped on her COM console. “He has acknowledged,” she said moments later.
“Tranquility is powering up her engines,” Lieutenant Alfaro reported.
James nodded to his Flag Lieutenant. Several days ago Kalong had requested that he be allowed to move away from New Shanghai’s defenses before contacting the Karacknids, he wanted to at least give the appearance of neutrality. For ten minutes the giant worldship accelerated away from New Shanghai. Then she braked and broadcast on an unencrypted channel. Martinez sent it to the bridge’s main holo projector.
“Greetings Karacknid commander,” Kalong began in an overly friendly tone. It made James roll his eyes as he shared a glance with Fisher. “I am Captain Kalong of the Kulrean species. I understand that your Empire sent scouts to our sector of space several decades ago. No doubt you are aware of my species. I can assure you; we are aware of you. As well as attacking our friends, agents of your Empire armed one of our neighbors and pointed them against us as a weapon. Without the intervention of the Humans, a great many of my people might have been killed.
“However, all of that is in the past. My species have long considered ourselves pacifists. It is in that capacity that I wish to speak to you. My species wants nothing to do with your war. The ship you see before you is one of only a few warships that we have ever built. It is our desire to broker a peace treaty between the Humans, Alliance species and your Empire. The galaxy is more than big enough for all of us to coexist together. Please, hold your fleet’s advance and send a delegation to speak with me. I’m sure we can come to terms that will be agreeable for us all.”
James had to fight back a groan as he listened to Kalong. Telling the Karacknids that his species didn’t like war, that they only had a few warships, it was like waving a red flag in front of a raging bull. Miyagi, clearly thinking the same thing shook his head as he turned to James, “If anything, Kalong’s speech is going to encourage the Karacknids to attack Kulthar as soon as they conquer Earth.”
“You may be right,” James admitted. “But he has to try. He has his own orders to follow.” And he does believe it, James thought. He had only spoken to Kalong twice since coming to New Shanghai. Given the Kulrean’s desire for diplomacy, he hadn’t wanted to waste any more time with him. Even in those two meetings, he had been more concerned with confirming that Tranquility would stay in the system even if attempts to open talks failed.
“The Karacknids are sending a reply,” Martinez said moments later, her voice full of amazement.
James found his eyebrows rising in shock. The Karacknids never communicated with their enemies. For a split second, James thought that Kalong had gotten through to the enemy commander. That perhaps the Karacknids knew more about the Kulreans’ advanced technologies than he had thought. Then the Karacknid commander appeared in front of him. Sitting in a large cold looking metallic command chair, more akin to a throne than a seat on a warship, the Karacknid bared his fangs, his claws unsheathed and pointed directly at the recording device. He looked the furthest thing from someone who wanted to open diplomatic talks. “Captain Kalong,” the Karacknid commander began, speaking so slow it had to be mockery. “You’re right, we know of your species. You are next in our line of conquest. I welcome you here to this system. Your ship can die with the rest of those who have gathered here. Then we will pick through the wreckage and take your technologies for ourselves. We will take great delight in using them to conquer your species’ homeworld. You will make excellent slaves for my Emperor.”
“The Karacknid fleet is accelerating,” Anderson reported before anyone could respond to the Karacknid commander’s words. �
�Several hundred ships are breaking away from them as well.”
James swallowed hard. His hope that diplomacy might actually work had evaporated as soon as the Karacknid commander had spoken. Now he feared that Kalong had goaded the Karacknids into attacking right away. That was the last thing they wanted. “Signal Tranquility, tell Kalong to get back here immediately,” James snapped. “Where are those other ships going?”
“It looks like they’re heading for the shift passage that leads deeper into our territory,” Anderson answered moments later. “There are three hundred and sixty of them, it looks like they have already split into three smaller squadrons.”
“They’re going to raid our colonies,” Fisher guessed. “While we are all trapped here, they’re going to run riot behind our frontlines.”
James let out a deep breath as he calmed himself. “There’s nothing we can do about that now,” he reluctantly admitted. He had scouts positioned on the edge of the system. Some of them would power up their shift drives to jump out and bring a warning to the other colonies. Beyond that there was nothing he could do. At least with all of our warships and freighters in New Shanghai, they won’t have too many targets, he consoled himself. Though with so many of our battlestations here, maybe they will. Nearly half of the Empire’s colonies had had most of their orbital defenses stripped. They would be vulnerable. Yet if New Shanghai fell, they would be conquered eventually anyway. As much damage as the Karacknid raiding squadrons might do, letting them go was the best of a bunch of bad outcomes. And we won’t have to fight them here, James thought.
“More ships are breaking away from the Karacknid fleet,” Anderson reported. “They’re not going towards any shift passage though… I think they’re heading towards two of the outer asteroid fields.”
“They’re going to use our own strategy against us,” James commented. He actually felt relieved when he saw the warships and freighters head towards the asteroid fields. It meant the Karacknid battlefleet wasn’t going to attack New Shanghai immediately. They were going to mine as many asteroids as they could and then hurl them at the colony. James had been worried that the Karacknid’s delay meant they had been mining asteroids in other systems. The sudden increase in the Karacknid battlefleet’s speed had made him think they were ready to launch asteroids right now. “It means we still have some time,” he said to his officers. “Stand our ships down from battlestations. Though keep everyone on high alert.”
Over the next three hours, James’ prediction was proven correct. The Karacknid battlefleet of five thousand warships split up into five large fleets and surrounded New Shanghai. Keeping well out of missile range, they enclosed the colony in a tight blockade. All of Humanity’s warships and many of those of her allies were trapped. There was no way for them to break out without being surrounded and destroyed. Yet so too was the Karacknid battlefleet, it could not advance further without taking out James’ fleet. If they gave him an opening, James was ready to break out of orbit and destroy every supply convoy the Karacknids had trailing behind their battlefleet. And so the stalemate begins, James thought as the Karacknid fleet settled into stable orbits around New Shanghai. His ships couldn’t escape, but the Karacknids were not ready to attack yet. The question now was, how long would it be until they were ready to crush his forces?
*
Orbital Hanger Twelve, New Shanghai system, 3rd June 2484 AD (five days later).
“Wing Commander, Drake has just sent us a flash alert. They think one of our stealth drones detected fighter launches,” a Flight Lieutenant called out to Chen.
“Let’s see the data,” Commodore Chen requested. The C&C center in the orbital hanger was far smaller than what Chen had grown accustomed to, yet with all of his carriers elsewhere, it was the best place from which to command all of the fighters and bombers under his charge. As the sensor data appeared in front of him, Chen tightened his lips together as he considered what he was seeing. Admiral Somerville had positioned hundreds of stealth drones all around the approaches to New Shanghai. The Karacknids had been hunting them down and destroying them, but many were still operational. Even so, the drone had only captured thirty seconds worth of data. Either another ship had moved in between the drone and what it had been detecting, or the Karacknid carrier had turned away. In those thirty seconds, four small power fluctuations were picked up. There were only three things they could really be, missile launches, shuttle launches or fighter launches. As he replayed the data, he decided the latter made the most sense. “Let’s assume they have launched all the fighters we know they have,” he said to his command staff. “Where will they try and hit us?”
Seconds later, several targets flashed around New Shanghai. Chen and his command staff had been trying to predict where the Karacknids would launch their first probing attack. Everyone had been expecting it. Given the skills the Karacknid commander had shown, there was no way he would launch a full fleet battle without testing New Shanghai’s defenses and getting a sense of what he was up against. “Let’s see the angle those launches were from,” Chen asked next. Though it was only an estimate, the angle from the sensor data narrowed the list of targets down slightly. “Taitou,” Chen said as his gaze settled on one of New Shanghai’s moons. The Karacknids had no way of knowing the kind of weaponry and defenses the moon had. Probing the moon’s defenses to find out made the most sense. But what to do about it? Chen asked himself. The entire point of a probing attack was to test an enemy’s defenses. That meant he didn’t want to give anything away he didn’t have to. At the same time though, the mark V missile launchers on Taitou needed to be protected. “Slow launch one squadron from each of our orbital hangers,” Chen ordered after taking several moments to think through his response. Slow launching fighters meant that they would drop out of the hangars’ landing bays rather than be launched from their launch tubes. Such launches would have no energy spikes to give them away and there was enough time for the fighters to get up to speed using their own engines. “Have another squadron on standby ready for immediate powered launch. Signal our bulk carriers as well, have them prep all of their fighters for immediate launch. Have our squadrons that slow launch remain in stealth and maneuver to this location,” Chen said as he entered the coordinates for a point not far from Taitou. “If we need them, we’ll bring them into play. First we’ll wait and see just what force the Karacknids are sending against us,” he ordered. Within seconds his officers were busy contacting every one of the orbital hangers and the bulk carriers that housed most of his fighters. We’ll keep the ground-based fighters in our back pocket for now, Chen said to himself.
Ten minutes later contact alarms blared and three hundred Karacknid fighters appeared as they powered up their engines. They were halfway from the Karacknid fleet to Taitou. They are testing us, Chen thought. If they had wanted to, the Karacknid fighters could have gotten a lot closer before revealing themselves. The Karacknid commander wants to see our response.
“Commander, shall we order the fighters we have prepped to launch?” one of his tactical officers asked.
Chen shook his head. “Not yet, let’s wait a moment.” Slowly in his head he counted to thirty. “Okay, have every other hanger begin to launch. Wait two minutes and then give the order to the other hangers. Our bulk carriers can begin launching now as well.” Such a delay wouldn’t allow the Karacknid fighters to get their attack in before he could counter them, but it would make his reaction times look a lot sloppier than they actually were.
On the holographic display, many new contacts appeared as several squadrons were launched from each bulk carrier and one squadron from each hanger bay. It took ten minutes, but eventually they formed up into one large formation of two hundred and forty. It wasn’t even a quarter of Chen’s force, but combined with Admiral Lightfoot’s battle squadron, it would be enough to see off the Karacknid fighters. His fighters rendezvoused with Lightfoot’s battle squadron who were already maneuvering to put themselves between the Karacknid fighters and T
aitou.
“You think they will still try and strike the moon base?” one of Chen’s officers asked.
Chen paused as he assessed the new tactical situation. Unless he sent more fighters, it was possible some of the Karacknid fighters would get through. Even just a squadron of their fighters with their particle beam cannons would wreak havoc among the surface missile launchers. But the Karacknids would have to sacrifice all of the fighters in their attacking force to do so. “No,” Chen said as he shook his head, “It’s a probe. They’ll decelerate soon and turn back.” That, or they’ll try and lure our fighters out, but that is not happening, Chen knew. Even if Admiral Somerville already hadn’t drummed it into him, he had no intention of risking his fighters until the real battle began. Then another thought popped into his head and made Chen pause. He had heard more than one of the senior fleet Admirals talking about the caliber of the enemy commander. They were all impressed with the tactical abilities he had displayed. Still no one knew what had happened to the gravity well cruisers Admiral Somerville had used to slow the Karacknid battlefleet. We are expecting this to be a probing attack, Chen thought, it’s what every competent commander would do. But what about a more than competent one? “Show me a map of all the stealth recon drones we’ve lost over the last five days,” Chen requested. “Focus on the approaches to Taitou.”
