“You are right, of course,” agreed Resmunt, seeing the logic in Ganth’s words. “The fleet we are gathering will be an iron fist aimed at the heart of the humans. There will be many opportunities for our warriors to gain honor in the coming battles. In the end, the humans will fall before the might of our Empire.”
“Honor will be ours,” Ganth responded.
“Honor will be ours,” Fleet Commodore Resmunt replied.
He just hoped everything worked out as First Leader Ganth had said. However, there was something about these humans and the way the AIs were going about this war that made him feel uneasy. He wished he knew what it was about the humans that worried the AIs. Resmunt stood at the command pedestal for a long time as he thought about the coming war. Deep inside of him something just didn’t feel right, and he knew it concerned the humans.
Chapter Four
Deep in Hocklyn controlled space was the heavily populated capital world of Calzen. On its surface in the ornate halls of the High Council Chambers, the ten members of the council were meeting.
“The fleet we’re sending against the humans is ridiculous,” Councilor Jarles complained as his cold, dark eyes looked at each of the other councilors seeking support. “We have stopped the expansion of the entire Empire for this foolish war against these few worlds.”
“We can’t anger the AIs,” Councilor Ruthan spoke up with deep concern in his voice. “They have already attacked us here as punishment for our failure to contain and report the presence of more humans. We can’t fail again!” The recent attack by the AIs on the orbiting habitats had deeply shaken the councilor.
“Our warriors grow restless from this inaction,” Jarles continued in disagreement. “Honor cannot be found unless we start to expand again. There are still tens of thousand of possible slave words waiting for our fleets to arrive; surely we don’t need all of our ships to fight these humans.”
“None of your family’s habitats were destroyed in the recent AI attack!” snarled Ruthan, angrily. “You would be speaking differently if they had been.” His own family had seen one of their ancestral habitats destroyed and tens of thousands had died.
“Enough!” roared High Leader Nartel, wanting this petty bickering to come to a stop. “The AIs have ordered us to undertake this war against the humans. They are to be annihilated. We have no choice but to obey, and once we have completed this war, the Empire will begin to expand once more. Many of our fleet units in the bordering sectors of the one the humans have attacked are being moved to protect our Empire from more attacks. Need I remind everyone on this council that the AIs are furnishing us with even more powerful weapons and shields for our ships?”
High Councilor Berken stood and looked around at the other council members. He folded his sinewy arms across the chest plate of his ceremonial light gray battle armor. “High Leader Nartel is right. With ships that are more powerful, we will be able to expand the Empire at an even greater pace than before. I want to remind all of you that we wouldn’t be in this current situation if it wasn’t for former High Leader Ankler and his distant relative who kept the survival of the humans a secret.”
“He paid with his life for his insolence,” Ruthan spoke, his large eyes flashing red. “Our former High Leader got what he deserved!”
“I agree with Berken,” High Councilor Desmonde added, rising to his feet and ignoring High Councilor Ruthan. “We need to decide on the War Leaders that will be accompanying Fleet Commodore Resmunt when he is finally ready to launch his attack on the humans. The sooner we can launch this attack, the sooner we can put this behind us.”
“War Leader Versith of the dreadnought Viden is an excellent tactician,” Berken spoke, thoughtfully. He had met the War Leader on several occasions and had been impressed by his knowledge of tactics.
“Former High Leader Ankler’s son Jaseth is the Second Leader on the Versith,” Ruthan reminded the councilors with a deep frown. “That may pose some problems in the future, particularly if he does well in this war.”
“He has fought enough honor duels recently to be allowed to maintain his position,” Nartel spoke, his eyes narrowing.
If Second Leader Jaseth were to achieve much honor in the coming war, it could pose a problem for Nartel later on. That was a situation he would deal with if and when it occurred. He could always assign Jaseth to some far and distant outpost in the Empire. Things like that had been done in the past.
“War Leader Osbith of the dreadnought BattleHand was with Resmunt at the fall of his base,” Desmonde reminded them all. “He should be included since he has already fought the humans and his ships are currently being updated.”
Nartel nodded and then spoke. “We have some very dependable War Leaders at Kenward Seven already. War Leaders Daseth, Zenth, Perth, Crytho, and Hilden will remain in command of their fleets. In addition, Commodores Aanith and Maseth will serve as Fleet Commodore Resmunt’s second and third in command of the attack fleets.”
“How soon before the attack is launched?” asked Councilor Jarles, knowing he had no choice but to support the war against the humans. The sooner the war was over with and the human worlds destroyed, the sooner they could begin expanding the Empire once again.
“The fleets will be ready in six weeks, then another five to travel to the sector the humans took from us,” High Leader Nartel answered. “Once we have driven them from that sector we will continue onward to conquer and destroy their worlds.”
“Do we know where their worlds are?” Desmonde asked, his black eyes growing even wider.
“We know where one of their worlds is located,” High Leader Nartel replied. “The others will be close by. There will be enough ships in the attacking fleets that it will not take long to locate them.”
“How many AI ships will be accompanying the fleet?” asked Ruthan, nervously. The AIs scared him because of what they could do to the Empire if they were displeased. They had already demonstrated their wrath and Ruthan didn’t want to risk seeing that happen again.
“At least five,” Nartel replied as he recalled what the AIs had said previously. “Perhaps more.”
The council spent hours more discussing the upcoming war and then finally departed the Council Chambers. Only High Councilor Berken remained.
“Why are the AIs so afraid of these humans, High Leader?” demanded Berken in his rasping voice as the six digits of his left hand rested on the light gray battle armor that covered his chest. The two had known each other for many years and had kept few secrets from one another.
“I don’t know,” replied Nartel, shaking his head. “Something happened in the remote past that made the AIs feel these humans could pose a threat to them. In our first encounter with the humans four hundred years ago, we were not allowed to attempt to conquer their worlds. The AIs demanded that we destroy them immediately and even sent two of their warships to ensure that happened.”
“And we failed because Ankler’s ancestor allowed a large number of humans to escape,” Berken commented with a deep frown spreading across his face. “If the AIs are afraid of these humans, shouldn’t we be worried about the possible consequences of this upcoming war? I wish the AIs were more open about why these humans pose such a threat. Granted they have powerful warships, but our Empire should be able to crush them when the full force of our fleet is marshaled against their worlds.”
“The human ships are more powerful than ours,” Nartel conceded. “That gave them an initial advantage in our first engagements against them and when they attacked our Empire. However, with the new weapons and updated energy shields the AIs are giving us we should be on an even footing. Our Empire is large, and I can’t imagine the humans being able to stop us once we attack. We have the resources of a major portion of the galaxy; the humans can only have a few worlds to draw upon.”
Berken nodded and then, standing up, exited the High Council Chambers. Nartel retired to his office and stepped out onto the balcony. It was nearly dark, and he gazed upward t
oward space. He could still see the shattered remains of the habitats the AIs had destroyed when they had decided to punish the Hocklyn High Council for not telling them about the humans. Millions of innocent Hocklyns had died due to High Leader Ankler keeping the humans existence a secret from the AIs. It would still be several long months before all the wreckage was cleared from orbit.
Nartel would not make that fatal mistake. He would send the most powerful fleet ever assembled by the Hocklyn Slave Empire to destroy the humans. Perhaps after they had won the war, the AIs would allow the Hocklyns to colonize the new worlds they had agreed to earlier and then abruptly taken away. If not, then High Leader Nartel would have to pass a law limiting the number of births allowed to Hocklyn families, one that would be highly unpopular and probably have to be enforced by the Protectors in the Hocklyn military.
Nartel let out a deep, rasping breath and touched the blade he always carried at his side. It had served him well in numerous honor duels in his younger days. He wished he knew what secrets the humans held and why the AIs were so determined to see them destroyed. There was a mystery there, and he hoped someday to know the answer.
-
Fleet Admiral Hedon Streth stood in the Command Center of the Vanquisher class battleship StarStrike behind his command console. He gazed at the busy crew as the ship continued to orbit the planet he was using as his primary base. The StarStrike was the only battleship ever built by the Federation and now, with the new programming that Clarissa, Ariel, and Lieutenant Johnson had designed, was capable of engaging an AI ship and winning. The StarStrike was 1,600 meters long and had a crew of 2,900. It was the most powerful fleet vessel the Federation had ever built.
The day before, he had spent a considerable amount of time talking to Senator Arden and Admiral Teleck about the events on New Providence. Since Admiral Streth knew the locations of most of the secret military bunkers from back when he was at New Providence with General Allister, the senator had confided in him that there were over 60 million people in the deep underground cities on the planet. Hedon had just shaken his head in amazement when he heard the numbers. It was unbelievable that so many people could have stayed hidden from the AIs and the Hocklyns for so long.
It made him feel good knowing one of the original Federation worlds had survived. It made him even more determined than ever to return home one day and make all the old Federation worlds safe for humans once more. From New Providence, they could spread out and repopulate the old worlds. Perhaps one day he would be able to rebuild that cabin by the lake on Maken. There was not a day that went by that he didn’t think about that or his brother Taylor. However, before that could happen, he had to destroy a major portion of the Hocklyn fleet and if all of his plans came together, he might just be able to do that.
His original plan had been to fortify all six of the former Hocklyn planets they had been using as fleet bases and bleed them above each one in limited fleet actions. Now he’d changed his strategy. He was only fortifying the main base and doing so heavily. He had emplaced layer after layer of defensive satellites in orbit above the planet and set up a carefully concealed trap that would make the Hocklyns pay heavily to retake the base.
On the planet’s surface at the spaceport, he had built concentric rings of offensive weapons. High-powered lasers, missile launchers, and railgun batteries provided the offensive threat he needed to heavily damage or destroy any Hocklyn ship that entered the atmosphere. There were also numerous Hunter interceptor missile batteries to take out enemy missiles, assault shuttles, or fighters. The entire system around the spaceport was automated and had several failsafe devices wired into it. Once the Hocklyns managed to destroy ninety percent of the offensive and defensive weapons, the failsafes would activate. Four ten-kiloton nukes would detonate, destroying the spaceport complex and ensuring that the Hocklyns would never be able to use it in the future.
He had twenty-four of the defensive battle stations from Ceres to command his defensive satellites. He had placed all twenty-four in one of the outer satellite rings. If things worked as he hoped, the Hocklyn attack would falter against this section of his defenses, giving him an excellent opportunity to attack their fleet.
At the moment, he was meeting with Admiral Adler and Admiral Gaines to discuss some recent reconnaissance information the stealth scouts had returned with. There was another operation he had decided to set in motion to further weaken the Hocklyn Fleet in this sector. The scouts had been tasked with observing the area of space that bordered the Hocklyn Empire in order to detect any major Hocklyn ship movements.
“The fleet that attacked Admiral Sheen is continuing to reconquer their freed slave worlds one by one,” commented Hedon, motioning for the two admirals to follow him. He walked over to one of the large tactical holograms and had the two officers sitting in front of it project an image of the area of space the fleet had freed from the Hocklyns.
“Once they conquer a world they land a large number of Protectors on the planet to ensure it stays under their control,” he continued. “From what our stealth scouts have reported there has been some minor fighting on several of the worlds, but nothing major.”
“At this rate they will reconquer all of their former slave worlds in just a matter of a few weeks,” stated Admiral Adler, frowning heavily. “Are we going to allow that?”
“No,” responded Hedon, drawing in a sharp breath. “I believe that the Hocklyns may have been furnished with some advanced technology from the AIs which allow them to at least partially detect our stealth scouts. As a result, I have ordered them to stay at least ten million kilometers away from any Hocklyn ship or installation on their reconnaissance missions. However, from the way this large Hocklyn fleet is moving I believe we can predict its next few targets. I want to destroy it before it reaches the bears’ system. It is vital that they don’t discover what Admiral Strong and the Carethians are doing, at least not yet.”
“What are your orders?” Admiral Adler asked as he studied the hologram. Even he could see from the systems the Hocklyn fleet had already reconquered what its next few targets would be.
“Jacob, I want to destroy or damage this fleet as much as possible,” Hedon spoke in a determined voice, his eyes focusing on his old friend. “If we can do that, they might not bother us again until they’re ready to launch their counterattack. They already believe they have stopped our advance into more of their territory.”
Admiral Gaines studied the hologram for a moment and then pointed to a system that was eighty-two light years away. “That system would make an ideal place to bushwhack this Hocklyn fleet. It’s far enough away from their current border to prevent them from getting reinforcements, and we can make it there in four jumps.”
“I agree,” Hedon spoke with a nod of his head. “This will be a joint operation involving Second, Third, and Fifth Fleets. Second Fleet and Fifth Fleet will be leaving their destroyers behind. Only Third Fleet will retain their destroyers to serve as protection for the carriers. During this attack, Second and Fifth Fleet carriers will be reassigned to Third Fleet.”
“When do we attack?” Jacob asked, ready for battle. He also wondered how far along Second Fleet was in having all of its ships repaired from their previous battle. It was still in the Careth system undergoing repairs.
“The Hocklyn fleet should arrive in system 664-L in four more days,” Admiral Streth replied. “Your fleets will leave the day after tomorrow.”
Jacob nodded and then turned to Admiral Gains. “I will contact Admiral Sheen, and we will come up with a tentative battle plan. We need to mousetrap this Hocklyn Fleet and drive it back out of our space or destroy it.”
“I agree,” replied Gaines as he thought about the fleet units they would have available.
Admiral Sheen would be in charge of the combined Second and Fifth Fleets, while Admiral Adler would carry out the carrier operations. They would have sixteen battlecarriers available for this battle. Their force was powerful enough that they shou
ld be able to hold fleet losses down to a minimum. Gaines would be acting as second in command behind Admiral Sheen of Second and Fifth fleets while Admiral Adler would be in overall command.
Hedon watched the two seasoned admirals leave the Command Center. Letting out a deep sigh, he went back to his command console and sat down. He wanted badly to take the StarStrike and command this battle, but he had full faith in his admirals. It was also necessary for him to remain here and finish getting this system ready for the inevitable Hocklyn attack.
-
The next day Admiral Streth was in a shuttle with Admiral Teleck, Admiral Andrews, Colonel Trist, and Colonel Anne Grissom. Grissom was from Military Intelligence on Ceres and Hedon had added her to his crew at the start of Operation First Strike. They were currently touring the defenses that were being put in place around the planet. The New Ashton had left for Earth the day before under the escort of two battlecruisers and four light cruisers. The rest of the supply fleet and the ships that had come with Admiral Teleck would be leaving shortly.
“We have four rings of defensive satellites,” Colonel Grissom informed them as they gazed at the tactical display in the special shuttle. She had helped design the makeup of the satellites in the different rings, taking into account Hocklyn tactics and the type and number of ships they might be facing.
The shuttle had been designed specifically to inspect the planet’s defenses. In its main cabin, there were two large tactical holograms. One was currently showing the defenses around the planet, and the other was showing the fleet units in the system.
“The outer ring is not as thick as the next one,” Admiral Teleck noted as he gazed at the tactical display. “Is there a reason for that?”
“The outer ring is seeded with Klave missile platforms,” Grissom replied as she looked respectfully over at the admiral. “Each platform has six Klave class missiles with a one-kiloton nuclear warhead. There are one hundred and twenty of these platforms hidden amongst the defensive satellites. Their primary task will be damaging or taking out the Hocklyn escort cruisers.”
The Slaver Wars: Retaliation (The Slaver Wars Book Five) Page 6
