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In the depths of the Lyren General Staff headquarters the generals had panicked and ordered the evacuation of the innermost three of the enslaved planets, the troops and their equipment were to be moved to the two Lyren colony worlds, the planets of Arcadia and Argos, where they would reinforce the already sizeable armies already on the planet. These two planets had been the first of the planets to be enslaved and sizeable colonies had been built up over the last one hundred and fifty years, Earth would find it difficult to take these two planets without a massive loss of life on both sides. To cover the evacuation the remaining four light cruisers of the Lyren space fleet had been despatched to cruise the area between the third and fourth enslaved planets. The three planets were to be surrendered without a shot being fired.
The local inhabitants on the three planets already freed by Earth were already out and about celebrating and praising the planet Earth, soon those on the next three planets would be joining them, leaving Lyre with just their home world and Argos and Arcadia.
Unfortunately for the four Lyren light space cruisers the Earth space cruiser Indomitable captained by John Stalker had already been despatched with a squadron of four light cruisers to make a lightning attack on the planet of Lyre itself, and he came across the Lyre squadron while on his way to the planet. He immediately ordered his squadron to attack the outgunned Lyren ships, the four Lyren starships were forced to run for the shelter of their home world with the heavy Phaser bolts from the Indomitable and the lighter ones of her consorts blasting away at their defence shields. The first Lyren ship to fall out of hyperspace was the Lector; she was the oldest of the four and was overdue for an upgrade, one she would never get now. With her shields gone, her hyper-drive engines destroyed and her Phasers smoking wrecks the captain of the Earth light cruiser Illustrious gave her crew the opportunity to abandon ship in their shuttlecraft and they took it, moments later the Earth ship Illustrious destroyed what was left of the Lector. The Indomitable had caught up with the Leander, a Lyren cruiser that had already taken terrible punishment from the Heavy Phasers of the Indomitable, and it too was abandoned to the destructive forces of the starships from Earth. Captain Stalker could see that the remaining two heavily damaged Lyren ships would reach the protection of their home world before his squadron could catch up with them. However, with his original mission of a quick strike now impossible, what with the Lyrens knowledge of his squadron, he continued to chase after the two light cruisers and so destroy whatever moral the Lyren space fleet had once possessed. He was almost upon the planet of Lyre when he decided to turn back for the planet of Rigel, where he would confer with his superiors regarding his future missions.
Galaxy Spies Page 33
