EMPIRE: Conqueror (EMPIRE SERIES Book 6)

by Richard F. Weyand

  “Second missile separation. Same formations firing. Estimate ten million incoming.”

  “Vectors clarifying now, Sir. They’re targeting our missiles, not the ships.”

  Twenty million missiles met across a broad front a hundred thousand miles on a side. They neutralized each other in an orgy of nuclear destruction, only to be followed five minutes later by a repeat of the same mutual annihilation.

  A few thousand missiles somehow made it through all the destruction. The Sintaran missiles exploded, while the DP missiles were easily picked off by the point-defense lasers of the massive Sintaran fleet.

  “They’ve aborted their own leakers, Sir. Point-defense lasers have destroyed all our leakers. No impacts.”

  “You have a message, Sir.”

  Aden watched the message in VR.

  “This is Fleet Admiral Natalia Shvets. I have forty million missiles left, Admiral Aden. I can play this game all day. Do you want me to fire one more round, or would you prefer to surrender and go home to your family? Please advise. Shvets out.”

  Natalia Shvets! She was the Sintaran admiral who had wiped out Admiral Beckert’s squadron in Balmoral after the destruction of Imperial Fleet Base Balmoral. Before that, she had wiped out the attack force Garland, Annalia, and Berinia had sent against Estvia. And before that, she had wiped out the Alliance attack force mustering in Nederling.

  Nobody in the DPN needed any briefing on Fleet Admiral Natalia Shvets, and Aden had no doubt she would wipe his force out as well if she said she would.

  “Comm, message to Admiral Shvets. We surrender. Please communicate your instructions. Send it.”

  Returning Home

  In the recording, the Emperor sat behind his desk in a simulation of his office on Sintar. He wore a business suit, with the Sintar Cross, the Empire’s highest award for valor, on the lapel of his suit jacket.

  “My fellow servicemen:

  “I call you my fellow servicemen because I have been a member of the Imperial Marines for over twenty years. I have been seriously wounded in battle, and almost died, defending my country. Like you, I swore oath to defend my country at the cost of my own life if it came to that. It very nearly did.

  “We have been locked in battle for two years. That war is now over. The people who started that war, who ordered that war, are now dead. They lost. You did not lose. You followed your orders, remained true to your oaths, and honored your home planets.

  “The planets you were born on, the planets you came from, still need defending. The Imperial Navy will need additional manpower to fulfill the Navy’s traditional roles, outside of war, for your homes: suppression of piracy, disaster relief, search and rescue. You may wish to extend your service in that way, becoming members of the Imperial Navy, or you may wish to leave the service now.

  “Either way, your time in service will be honored. Promised pensions will be paid, as will promised death benefits for those of your comrades who have fallen. Your seniority, service rank, and time in service are unchanged. For right now, while you consider your options, you should consider yourself bound for home on furlough.

  “For it is time now to go home. Go back to your families. Consider your future.

  “And thank you for your service.”

  The Emperor bowed to the camera, and the recording ended.

  “Status change, Sir. Down-transition of a single ship. She’s transponding she is Sintar’s HMS Loba. She’s also transponding a white flag.”

  “Sir, you’re being hailed by Fleet Admiral Maria della Espinoza.”

  “Put her through, Comm,” Fleet Admiral Joseph Armbruster said.

  Armbruster switched VR channels to the comm channel, and sat facing Admiral Espinoza in her command chair.

  “I’m Fleet Admiral Joseph Armbruster, Admiral Espinoza.”

  “Good morning, Admiral Armbruster. If my intelligence is correct, your fleet is stuck here without hope of resupply, which means you will soon run out of reaction mass and food.

  “I can also tell you the four million warships of the DP invasion of Sintar are in the same situation, and are being resupplied by Sintar so their crews do not starve. They are now surrendering.

  “The one million warships mustering for another attack of Sintar have all been met by overwhelming force and have surrendered rather than be destroyed.

  “Your fleet here is the sole remaining DP fleet currently at least nominally at war with Sintar. I have come therefore to request your surrender.”

  “You come here with a single light cruiser to demand my surrender, Admiral Espinoza?”

  “No, Admiral Armbruster. I’ve come with a single light cruiser to request your surrender. This cruiser has its own hyperspace generator, and is, in any case, unmanned. I myself am located elsewhere, thousands of light-years away, commanding this ship in VR. This ship, its crew, and I myself are in no danger.

  “Your crews, however, are in danger, in danger of starving to death on the near term. My proposal is that you surrender, that Sintar then supplies your ships with food and reaction mass and you all go home in peace.”

  “Olympia was my home planet, Admiral. My home was destroyed in Sintar’s attack on the planet, and my wife, my brother, and his wife were all killed.”

  “You have my deepest sympathies, Admiral. Truly, you do. All of the more than twenty billion servicemen involved in theater had families at risk during this war. There were three hundred and eighty thousand planets at risk, with over a quadrillion human beings, also at risk. At this point, hundreds of millions of servicemen have died, and billions of civilians.

  “This war was started by the DP’s decision-makers on Olympia. They aimed to attack our capital planet of Sintar. Surely you cannot blame us for striking first once the DP’s intentions of attacking Sintar became clear? We had the capability and the assets in place to attack Olympia at any time over the last two years. We refrained until the attack on Sintar was ordered by the new DP government.

  “In any case, I would propose to you that enough people have died. I would not have the servicemen of your fleet be added to those rolls. Let’s just call it quits, shall we? The alternative is that this cruiser depart Olympia, and leave you and your three billion men here to die. That is not my preference. Enough is enough.”

  Armbruster looked down at his hands in his lap. Espinoza was right, he knew. His anger at the deaths of his wife and relatives had been increasingly directed at the corrupt politicians who initiated and manipulated this war to serve their own political ends, and at their corporate sponsors who pursued the war for their own economic ends. He and his men and even his family had been thrown into the meat grinder in the most calculatedly disinterested way, mere pawns on their chessboard.

  Still, it was hard. The need to strike out in his grief and anger was almost palpable, but he knew Espinoza – and Sintar, for that matter – was the wrong target. The politicians were all dead. Their corporate sponsors, however, were a different matter.

  Something clicked, something he had heard or read about this Emperor. He looked up at Espinoza.

  “Admiral, I am prepared to surrender my forces here, all remaining DP forces in Olympia, and accept your help in getting everybody home, on one condition.”

  “Name it, Admiral Armbruster. If I can, I will agree.”

  “I want a one-hour VR meeting with the Emperor Trajan.”

  Dunham and Leicester met in VR channel 22, the simulation of the Emperor’s office. It was ten in the evening in Imperial City.

  “Be seated, Admiral Leicester.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty.”

  Leicester sat in one of the chairs before the Emperor’s desk.

  “Proceed, Admiral Leicester.”

  “Yes, Sire. I apologize for interrupting your evening, but the situation deserves your immediate attention. I have received a mail directly from Fleet Admiral Espinoza. DP Fleet Admiral Joseph Armbruster, the commanding officer of all DP forces in the Olympia system – that’s the las
t one million DP warships, with three billion crew aboard – has agreed to surrender on one condition. He wants a one-hour VR meeting with Your Majesty.”

  “Before surrender, Admiral Leicester, or is the commitment enough right now and we can take care of it while we resupply his ships?”

  “According to Admiral Espinoza, the commitment right now is sufficient, Sire.”

  “Very well. Of course, I will meet with him, Admiral Leicester. I will send Fleet Admiral Espinoza a confirmation under Imperial header.”

  “Thank you, Sire.”

  Fleet Admiral Espinoza contacted Fleet Admiral Joseph Armbruster less than an hour after they had cleared their previous communication.

  When Armbruster appeared in the VR, Espinoza handed him a document, the simulation’s way of denoting the file transfer that had taken place. A single sheet, under the Imperial header, and crypto-signed by the Emperor himself.

  ‘I would be pleased to meet with Democracy of Planets Fleet Admiral Joseph Armbruster for a one-hour VR meeting at a time of mutual convenience no later than one week from today. Trajan Imp.’

  Armbruster scanned the document, then looked up at Espinoza.

  “We surrender, Admiral Espinoza.”

  The DP fleet, one million warships strong, fired its box launchers once, then again. Two massive salvos of one hundred and twenty million missiles each, headed out into empty space. Halfway through their run, they exploded in response to the abort signals sent out by the launching ships. Not nuclear fire but chemical explosions tore through their ranks, until not a single one remained.

  The ships then fired their impellers, four million missiles per salvo, and kept firing until their magazines were dry. First destroyers, then light cruisers, then heavy cruisers ran out of missiles until it was only the battleships, firing one million missiles per salvo. They, too, eventually ran out their magazines. All these missiles, too, were aborted as they neared the middle of their runs.

  Four thousand freighters, running very heavy with three thousand containers apiece of food and reaction mass, down-transitioned into the Olympia system. Their first goal was to make sure everyone had enough to eat, then they began loading up whole squadrons with enough reaction mass and food to get back to their home planets.

  Squadron after squadron, in threes and fours and tens, the declawed DP warships passed through the system hypergates and started for home.

  Fleet Admiral Conrad Benton and Fleet Admiral Maria della Espinoza faced each other in VR for the last time.

  “I called to take my leave of you, Admiral Espinoza, and to thank you. For saving our lives. For being gracious in victory.”

  “You’re very welcome, Admiral Benton. It was a pleasure working with you.”

  “I was doing a little accounting here, Admiral. There were twenty billion DP spacers in theater by the time it was all over. Of those, three hundred million died. That’s a remarkably low fatality count.”

  “There were also all those killed in the destruction of the DP’s orbital infrastructure, Admiral. I don’t have counts there, but I have to think they run into billions. And three billion on Olympia, most of them civilians.”

  “You did what you had to do, Admiral. And if you hadn’t, the deaths in theater, on both sides, would have been much, much higher.

  Espinoza waved a hand on the arm of her command chair, conceding the point.

  “In any case, Admiral, we’re getting ready to space. If you ever find yourself in the Esmeralda Precinct, look me up. We have some wonderful wines.”

  “And there’s always VR, Admiral. Stay in touch. Will you be joining the Imperial Navy?”

  “I suspect not, Admiral Espinoza. I have my retirement credits, which the Emperor will honor. My wife and I have been looking forward to some time together, and, after all her patience through all the years, she deserves it.”

  “Understood, Admiral Benton. Good spacing to you.”

  While they were the same rank, Benton had time-in-grade seniority on her, and Espinoza stood and saluted him. Benton nodded, said “Au revoir, mon amie,” and cut the connection.

  The DPN Parliament entered the hypergate and disappeared.

  One hundred and thirteen thousand carriers, which had been held behind the lines during the war, spaced for the Sintaran border with the DP and its satellites Annalia, Berinia, and Terre Autre. They loaded up with food, fuel, and reaction mass, and then they spaced into the DP together with one squadron each of battleships, heavy cruisers, and light cruisers, a supply ship, and two dozen picket ships. One such group headed to every single planet in the DP and its satellites, a total of five and a half million ships.

  Conquering the Democracy of Planets was over. Consolidating it into the Empire was just beginning.

  With the surrender of the capital system, the Democracy of Planets per se was defunct. Its charters – for banking, communications, and other quasi-governmental and utility services – were gone.

  The Imperial Bank annexed the DP Bank, issuing Imperial Bank shares to existing DP Bank shareholders. The Empire’s network operations groups also took over the DP’s QE and VR networks, as relatively primitive and low-bandwidth as they were due to the much lower penetration of VR in the population.

  These moves occurred very quickly on the surrender of the DPN forces in the Olympia system. Indeed, they were well under way before the restocking freighters from Sintar even reached Olympia.

  Warnings

  Otto Stauss was puzzled. Not about his freight business, which was running at capacity keeping up with all the commercial freight traffic that was ramping up as the war ramped down. Not about his freighter leasing business, which had every single freighter he had bought either sold to the Empire or leased out to the Empire or commercial shipping concerns.

  Not even about his salvage business, which was in full operation now and making huge amounts of money grinding up destroyed Alliance warships at the two mustering points on which he had an exclusive salvage contract, even as they were interring with military honors the thousands upon thousands of bodies they were recovering.

  No, what had him puzzled was the options markets. Someone or some group of someones was betting big against the stocks of the Empire’s biggest companies. That didn’t make sense, not unless someone thought something very bad was going to happen to Sintar.

  He started digging into trading records. When in doubt, follow the money.

  Otto Stauss knew how to do that.

  Dunham and Fleet Admiral Joseph Armbruster met in the simulation Dunham preferred for meeting other heads of state. He was the surviving senior official in the DP’s capital system, after all. The office simulation didn’t seem right.

  Dunham was waiting when Armbruster appeared, on time. He waved a hand at the two club chairs.

  “Let’s be seated, shall we, Admiral Armbruster?”

  “Thank you, Your Majesty.”

  Armbruster waited until the Emperor was seated before sitting himself.

  “You asked for this meeting, Admiral Armbruster. Before you begin, however, I want to convey my condolences on the passing of your wife, brother, and sister-in-law. While the destruction of Olympia was at my order, it was not from any animosity or anger. I simply could not any longer justify putting the people of Sintar at risk of the DP’s continuing offensive operations.”

  “I appreciate that, Sire. My anger is directed at the people who started this war, and put us all at risk. That is actually what I want to address. The people who started this war are still at large.”

  “Go on, Admiral Armbruster.”

  “The government of the Democracy of Planets was nothing but a front, Sire. An elaborate stage play for the amusement of the masses. The people who controlled the DP, the actual government of the DP, were the financial and corporate interests that manipulated the politicians. They considered themselves above the DP government, and, I would maintain, consider themselves above the Imperial government as well. And they were not damaged by the
war. On the contrary, they profited by it and are stronger than ever. They are the cause of all that has happened, from the Sintar-Alliance War through the Sintar-DP War.”

  “I have some experience in dealing with these sorts of issues, Admiral Armbruster.”

  “I know you do, Sire, and that is why I am bringing the issue to you. Warning you. They survived the war. They are still out there. They did very well by the war, and they have lots more money to spend now, twisting all humanity to the path they want to take. More money for themselves, and more serfdom for everyone else. Based on your history, you stand in their way. I would not be surprised if they made an attempt to remove you. To kill you.”

  Dunham nodded. He knew more about the DP’s governance than Armbruster thought he did. Which was fine.

  “If you were to look for them, Admiral Armbruster, where would you look?”

  “Follow the money, Sire. Donations to candidates and parties are one thing. There were a lot of other transfers as well. Give somebody a huge advance on a book that will never sell. Hire their brother’s firm for some project at hugely inflated costs. Give their kid a seat on a corporate board with a high salary.”

  “All the standard methods then, Admiral Armbruster.”

  “Yes, Sire. If you’ve been through this exercise once already, you already have the people who know how to track that stuff down.”

  “Indeed I do, Admiral Armbruster.”

  “Well, that’s really what I wanted to tell you, Sire.”

  Dunham checked the time in VR.

  “I don’t think we’ve quite used up your hour, Admiral Armbruster. Was there anything else?”

  “Just one thing, Sire. Thank you for treating my men so well. Your message was very powerful, and it helped a lot to ease the transition. People are starting to talk about ‘our’ Emperor, in a way they never talked about ‘our’ prime minister.”