“Amanda, the survivors of Admiral Gaines’s fleet will be split between First and Second Fleet. We will fight a retreating battle back toward the defensive satellite grid until we can activate the missile platforms in the outer two defensive rings. Once that has been accomplished, we will form a defensive envelope around Third Fleet and fight our way to the edge of the planet’s gravity well. When we reach it, we will jump.”
“We’re going to be leaving some damaged ships behind,” Jacob warned in a low voice.
“I know,” replied Hedon, letting out a heavy sigh. “We can’t try to rescue them, or we could lose the entire Ready Reserve Fleet.”
Everyone was silent as they thought about the battle that was soon to come. They knew that many of the people they had come to know over the past few months of Operation First Strike might not make it back home.
“James, I want your fleet out of here today,” Hedon ordered in an even voice. “I don’t want to risk the Hocklyns or the AIs detecting your presence.”
“How many warships will be going with me?” Admiral Kimmel asked.
“Ten destroyers, one battlecruiser, one strikecruiser, and two Monarchs,” Hedon answered. “I will need the rest.”
James nodded. He stood up and saluted Fleet Admiral Streth. “Good luck, Sir,” he spoke. “We will be waiting for you.” With that, Rear Admiral Kimmel left the conference room to get his fleet ready for immediate departure.
“I had better return to the Wasp,” Jacob said as he stood up, then he paused, giving the admiral a serious look. “Hedon, don’t do anything heroic when the AIs and the Hocklyns show up. The Federation still needs you.”
Hedon didn’t reply, only nodded his acknowledgment of Jacob’s words.
Amanda watched Admiral Adler leave and then she turned to Hedon. “You know they’re coming, don’t you,” she said, her deep blue eyes focusing on the admiral. “You can feel it.”
Well did she know about the intuitions Hedon had at times. He had sensed the destruction of the original Federation worlds days before they were able to return from their search mission deep into Hocklyn space. Upon their return, they had found the old Federation worlds in ruins.
Hedon was silent for a long moment. Only Amanda and a few others knew how at times he could sense events. “Yes,” he spoke in a soft voice. “The Hocklyns are coming, and the AIs are with them. They should arrive in just a few more days; that’s why James has to leave today.”
Amanda nodded in understanding. She knew that Hedon suffered severe headaches when he had these intuitions. “We will be ready for them,” she promised. Amanda for once was glad that Richard wasn’t here, at least for now, her husband was safe back at New Tellus.
-
Newly promoted Fleet Commodore Krilen watched as the fleets making up his new command began to make rendezvous. He watched his sensor screens in deep satisfaction as fleet after fleet exited hundreds of white spatial vortexes as their individual ships made an appearance.
“Eight hundred and twenty warships,” Krilen spoke in elation as the final ships arrived.
“Much honor will come from this command,” First Leader Angoth stated as he watched the various fleets moving into formation.
“Enough honor for all of us,” Krilen responded, pleased that the High Council had chosen this honor for him.
Only Fleet Commodore Resmunt had command of a fleet as large as this one. Krilen was confident that someday he would sit upon the Hocklyn High Council; he suspected that Resmunt might also have the same goal.
First Leader Angoth nodded in agreement. He fully expected to be raised in rank to War Leader when this campaign against the humans was over. He also suspected that Fleet Commodore Krilen had even higher aspirations for his own future.
“How soon before Fleet Commodore Resmunt arrives?” Angoth asked. He knew that along with Resmunt’s fleet there would be ten of the massive AI ships.
“Within the hour,” responded Krilen, recalling the latest FTL message from Resmunt. “Fleet Commodore Resmunt informed me earlier that the AIs were pushing his fleet to the limits of their jump drives. He also said they would be spending an entire day in this system to retune them and do a complete check of their drive systems before moving on to begin their attack on the human controlled fleet base.”
“And our own attack?” asked Angoth, feeling anxious to engage the humans and acquire more honor.
“We attack Careth a few hours after Resmunt begins his attack,” Krilen replied, his cold eyes looking across the War Room. “We have been ordered to destroy everything in the system and nuke Careth until nothing living remains on its surface.”
“The Carethians were a good slave world with their technology,” Angoth replied. “It seems foolish to destroy such an asset to the Empire.”
“The AIs have ordered it,” Krilen replied, his eyes growing even darker. “They are our masters, and we must obey. Careth will be destroyed.”
“We must obey,” agreed Angoth, acknowledging the AIs rule over the Empire. “After Careth, what are our orders?”
“We will sweep this entire section of space to ensure that no human ship has escaped us,” Krilen answered. He had very explicit orders from the High Council concerning that. “Then we will follow Fleet Commodore Resmunt to the human worlds, ensuring that no humans have managed to elude him. We will spend some time in human space searching every star system, world, moon, and asteroid to ensure they are all dead. This time there must not be any human survivors!”
“Genocide,” Angoth muttered. He had never agreed with the wholesale destruction of a race. “It seems wasteful to destroy both the Carethians and the Humans instead of making them into obedient slave races.” Angoth knew the AIs must have their reasons for doing this, and it was not his position to question the masters.
“The AIs have ordered it,” Krilen responded, and he would see to it that their orders were carried out to the fullest.
-
An hour later, Fleet Commodore Krilen watched nervously as Resmunt’s fleets began to drop out of hyperspace. Hundreds of swirling white spatial vortexes formed, and Hocklyn warship after warship emerged. He noticed that a large number emerged thousands and even millions of kilometers outside the rendezvous area; an obvious sign of poorly tuned jump drives.
He took in a deep breath and held it as ten larger white space vortexes formed and the 1,500-meter AI ships emerged. All ten of the AI ships came out of hyperspace within ten kilometers of one another. Krilen shuddered and let his breath out. He had never been in the presence of an AI ship before, let alone ten of the monstrous craft. The AIs must really want the humans dead.
-
On the outer edge of the system, a human stealth scout was watching the emerging Hocklyn fleets. Admiral Streth had ordered all the scouts deployed toward the section of space where he thought the Hocklyns would come from.
“How can we fight that?” Lieutenant Dunbar asked with fear in her eyes as she watched her sensor screens as they continually updated as even more Hocklyn ships continued to arrive.
“That is Fleet Admiral Streth’s job,” Captain Allison replied as she nervously watched the glowing cloud of red threat icons on one of the sensor screens. “Our job is to observe and get this information back to the admiral.”
“There are ten AI ships in that formation,” spoke Dunbar, shaking her head. “Admiral Streth barely destroyed two when they attacked the fleet base the last time.”
“We are better prepared this time around,” responded Captain Allison, knowing it was getting close to time for them to jump out. She knew there was a distinct possibility the AI ships would be able to detect her stealth scout.
-
On board the AI command ship, the stealth scout had indeed been detected. The AI operating the sphere’s powerful sensors turned toward the AI commander in the center of the massive room. “A human scout ship has been located,” the AI reported. “It is operating in stealth mode and has been observing the arrival
of the Hocklyn fleets as well as our own ships.”
“Unfortunate that they have detected us,” the command AI spoke as it moved slowly toward the sensor screens using its antigravity field. “I will order sphere seven to jump to the human scout’s position and destroy it.”
“Too late,” the AI at the sensors replied as the human stealth scout vanished. “The human ship has jumped into hyperspace and is no longer being detected.”
“It is not important,” the command AI responded as it turned to float back to the center of the room. “Even with advanced warning we will destroy them.”
-
Admiral Teleck was far from the Federation visiting one of their key allies. His fleet was fifty-seven light years from the Federation in the area of space controlled by the Kessels. The Kessels were an advanced culture whose science was roughly at the same level as the humans.
“The Kessel ambassador will be coming on board shortly,” Colonel Kathryn Barnes reported. Kathryn was Senator Barnes’ daughter and had opted to join the Ceres military rather than go into politics like her father.
“The Kessels are an important part of our alliance,” Admiral Telleck responded as he recalled what he knew about their worlds. “They have four highly developed colony worlds and seven smaller ones. They also have science and mining outposts on a dozen more. They maintain a defensive space fleet of approximately 210 vessels. The Kessels have surrounded their worlds with dense minefields and defensive satellites.”
“I have always liked the Kessels,” Colonel Barnes replied with a smile. “They remind me of cats.”
“They do have some feline ancestry in them,” Teleck admitted with a nod. The Kessels were slightly shorter than humans with a thick coat of body hair. Even their faces were feline, with thick whiskers and catlike yellow eyes.
A few minutes later, the Kessel ambassador arrived in the Command Center of the Ceres. He came up to Admiral Teleck’s shoulder, and his body hair was a light tan in color. “It is a pleasure to see more human ships so far from your Federation,” Ambassador Ulrich spoke in a rich purring voice. “Our people will be pleased to see we have such powerful allies.”
“We are also pleased that your people are staunch allies in the coming war with the Hocklyns and the AIs,” Admiral Teleck responded politely.
“Your protection fleet with the strikecruisers arrived last week,” continued Ambassador Ulrich. “We have stationed it in our home system as from there they can rapidly jump to any of our four main colony worlds. Our military has also assigned a force of twenty of our own warships to accompany your fleet if an AI ship does indeed make an appearance in our space.”
“Hopefully that will not occur, Ambassador,” Teleck said. “The AIs should attack the Federation first, and we hope we can stop them there. If we can do that, then all you will have to be concerned with is an occasional foray into your space of regular Hocklyn warships which your own fleet should be able to handle.”
“As you say, Admiral, we can only hope not to have to face one of these monstrous AI ships which the Federation has shown us videos of,” Ulrich responded with a nod of his head. “They are truly frightening.”
“We will be jumping into your home system shortly,” Admiral Teleck informed the ambassador. “Would you like to return to your own ship, or stay on board the Ceres? We have accommodations ready for you if you desire to remain.”
“I will remain,” Ulrich replied his yellow eyes focusing on Admiral Teleck. “It will be good for me to see how one of your warships functions.”
Admiral Teleck was pleased that the Kessels were a friendly race; a lot of beneficial trade had developed between their worlds and the human ones. Since both civilizations had similar levels of technology, very few things were restricted.
-
Two hours later, the battlecruiser Ceres and her accompanying escorts exited swirling spatial vortexes just outside of the Kessel’s home planet. On the main viewscreen of the Ceres, a beautiful blue-white world filled the screen. The planet Kessel was covered by forty percent water, with the rest of the planet consisting of nine main landmasses. Most of those were covered in green as the Kessels were very self-conscious of their planet’s ecology. Everything they did was aimed at minimizing the impact of their civilization on the biosphere of their world.
“We are just outside of the gravity well of Kessel,” Colonel Barnes reported as she confirmed their position with Navigation.
“Move us in at ten percent sublight,” Admiral Teleck ordered. Looking over at the tactical display, he was satisfied to see half a dozen small Kessel warships breaking orbit above the planet to escort them in. It was good to see that the Kessels were taking this war threat seriously.
Admiral Teleck knew that in order for his ships to go into orbit they would have to pass through several very dense minefields. The Kessels had left paths through the mines, and these were heavily guarded by defensive satellites. In addition to the minefields, there was a massive defensive net of satellites surrounding the planet. In orbit, there were also two large, heavily armed shipyards that were used by the Kessels to produce both civilian and military ships.
Ambassador Ulrich stepped back into the Command Center with his small, catlike ears standing up sharply as he strode over to Admiral Teleck. “I see that we have arrived,” spoke Ulrich, smiling as he saw his world on the main viewscreen.
“Yes, Ambassador,” Admiral Teleck responded. “We will be going into orbit in a few more hours.”
“We will be preparing a feast to celebrate your visit,” Ambassador Ulrich said as he turned to face the admiral. “I hope you will approve.”
“I am sure I will,” Teleck replied with a smile of appreciation. He had heard from others that the hospitality of the Kessels was outstanding.
Looking over at Colonel Barnes, Admiral Teleck said, “Colonel Barnes, I am sure you are familiar with state dinners so you will be attending also. It will be good experience for you.”
“Yes, Sir,” Colonel Barnes replied. Kathryn had attended a number of state dinners with her father. This would be her first one away from Ceres and Earth.
Satisfied, Admiral Teleck turned back to the Kessel ambassador. Now if the Hocklyns would just hold off their attack on Admiral’s Streth and Strong until he returned to Ceres. However, he also knew that time for the admirals of Operation First Strike was rapidly running out.
Chapter Thirteen
High Leader Nartel was sitting in his office high above the ground in the massive government building that housed the High Council Chambers. He knew from the latest communication from Fleet Commodore Resmunt if they had maintained their current jump pace that within only a matter of a few hours they would be launching their attack against the humans.
Nartel stood up, walked over to the balcony, and stepped outside to gaze at the busy city below him. Part of it was obscured by pollutants in the air as there was very little wind blowing. Looking down, he could see that the grass in front of the building was turning an unhealthy brown.
There were thirty-two billion Hocklyns crowded together on the planet. Most lived in very small rooms in large buildings designed to maximize the use of space. Some of the buildings had underground sections that housed even more of the planet's large population. Every year space grew less and less and civilian unrest steadily grew. Already, food was being rationed to the lower classes, and there was constant complaining about its lack of quality. Fortunately, a few Protectors stationed at key locations were keeping the problem from getting any worse.
The population was still increasing and would soon reach the point where it was no longer sustainable. Letting out a deep breath, Nartel knew this war against the humans had to be a success. If it was, then he would ask the AIs to allow the Hocklyn race to colonize the ten star systems they had asked about in the past. At that time, the AIs had granted access to three of them until High Leader Ankler’s betrayal had wiped that promise out.
Nartel’s right hand slipped dow
n to the long blade at his waist, pulling it from its jeweled scabbard. He watched as the dim sunlight glistened off its hard metal surface. Turning it over, he could see his own reflection in the highly polished metal. Looking up, his gaze turned toward space and what it was hiding. Somewhere in toward the center of the galaxy lay the civilization of the AIs. No space faring race was allowed to enter their domain. Daily, hundreds of cargo vessels loaded with special metals and parts were shipped to the very edge of their space to be unloaded at massive space stations. What the AIs were doing with those materials was unknown, even though vague rumors hinted about some giant construction project near the massive black hole at the galaxy’s core.
Nartel replaced his blade in its scabbard and returned to his desk, sitting back down. Looking over at the wall, a huge map of the known galaxy depicted the space controlled by the Hocklyn Slave Empire. Nearly a sixth of the galaxy was under their control. He was deeply concerned that the AIs were keeping something from him. There was some secret about these humans that they were refusing to reveal, and that worried him. He greatly feared what would happen if this war against the humans failed.
-
The last jump had been made, and now Resmunt’s fleets were in position to attack the human forces. At his insistence, the AIs had allowed him a full day to prepare for the attack and some much needed maintenance on the Hocklyn warships. The long journey and multiple jumps had been hard on the fleet, and engineers had scrambled trying to get all their maintenance done before the AIs demanded they jump again.
“I have a communication from the lead AI ship,” Third Leader Vrill spoke in his rasping voice. “They are reporting that all the human ships are in the gravity well of the planet and have not moved out of it since we arrived in this system.”
“Strange,” First Leader Ganth spoke, his dark eyes growing even wider. “I would have thought they would have positioned their fleets just outside the gravity well so they could escape if necessary. Their previous tactics seem to indicate they would not make this serious a mistake.”
The Slaver Wars: Retaliation (The Slaver Wars Book Five) Page 19
