Empire's Birth (Empire Rising Book 9)

by D. J. Holmes

  “Damage report!” Emilie called as she tried to bring up information on her command chair and failed.

  “Engines and reactors are still online, though they went into emergency shut down,” Maguire reported.

  “I think we just skimmed the edge of the anti-matter explosion,” Jones said several seconds later. “The main damage reports are coming from the point defenses and sensors on our starboard nose. No internal damage has been detected yet.”

  Emilie let out a breath as she glanced at Alvarez. They had been lucky, very lucky. The last minute evasive maneuvers had bought them just enough room to avoid being taken out. “Right,” she said as she stood. “Inform Lieutenant Shaw that it is time to depart. Alvarez take your team and get going. We don’t know how much time we have, so make sure everything we just accomplished was worth it.”

  “Aye, Aye Captain,” Alvarez said as he jumped to his feet. He nodded to the members of his team on the bridge and gestured for them to get going.

  As they left, Emilie followed them out into the corridor beyond the bridge. “Hold on a moment Commander,” she called after Alvarez. Stopping, he turned back to her. Emilie waited for a few seconds until his team were out of sight. Then she reached out and grabbed his hand, pulling him close. Raising herself up on her tiptoes, she planted a kiss on his lips. “Make sure you are careful down there,” she said gently.

  Alvarez’s eyebrows rose in mock shock. “Me, be careful, after what you just did? That’s a little hypocritical isn’t it Captain?” He shot her a wide grin. “Don’t worry, I know what I’m coming back for,” he added as he gently patted her on the backside.

  Emilie swatted his hand away and hardened her tone. “Don’t let me down Commander. That’s an order.”

  “Yes ma’am,” Alvarez replied enthusiastically as he saluted.

  Emilie watched him leave before re-entering the bridge. “What are our last two friends up to?” she asked as she moved back to her command chair.

  “They have split up,” Jones reported. “One frigate is heading our way, the other is heading towards the system’s other shift passage.”

  “How long until our reactors can be powered up again?” Emilie asked as she began to think. If Phelps and Cameron brought their fighters in to be refueled now, she didn’t think they would have time to catch up with the fleeing frigate. And the other one will probably turn and run as well if we launch another attack. If she could, Emilie didn’t want any word of her presence leaving the system.

  “Five more minutes, they’re still cycling through their restart checklists,” Maguire answered.

  “Tell Chief Harkness to hold off on a full restart,” Emilie responded. “In fact, tell him to try a restart and then abort it halfway through. I want it to look like our reactors have completely failed. We’re going to launch a missile and detonate it as close to the ship as we can. Then we’ll jettison any excess cargo we have. Those frigates will be watching and recording the visual images from our battle with that cruiser. They know we took a hit. Let’s see if we can’t make them think we have suffered a reactor overload.”

  Within five minutes all of Emilie’s demands had been met so she nodded to Jones to begin the deception. First Intrepid’s number one reactor powered up to forty percent and suddenly cut off. Five seconds later the missile that had already been fired detonated. At that moment, hundreds of pieces of cargo containers, spent munition boxes and anything else that could be scraped together in such a short time were released out of the cargo hold. Less than a minute later, Intrepid’s two shuttles took off and made no effort to hide their descent to the Nanee’s colony surface. With any luck, they’ll think we abandoned ship, Emilie thought.

  She settled herself comfortably into her command chair. It would take fifteen minutes for the electromagnetic energy from reactor one and the visuals of the explosion to reach the nearest frigate. When it did, Emilie couldn’t help but smile. “We have them,” she said in excitement. Both frigates were altering course, they were going to rendezvous with one another and investigate Intrepid together. Emilie understood their Captains’ intentions perfectly. Neither of them would want to return to a superior with news of a surprise attack that destroyed the rest of their squadron without specific details about the attack. Jaranna was on the other side of the Karacknid Empire. It was about six months travel away in shift space. It was possible the ships Intrepid had just fought were not even aware of who Humanity was. Well, they are about to find out the hard way, Emilie said to herself. A part of her was tempted to wait and see if she could lure the frigates into energy weapon range. She had already expended a lot of Intrepid’s missile compliment. Intrepid’s heavy plasma cannons would destroy the ships in a single salvo. But it was too risky, as much as she suspected the frigates would want to investigate Intrepid rather than destroy her, she didn’t want to take the chance.

  “Go to full power,” she ordered when both frigates came into powered missile range. “Fire our first salvo.” The battle lasted just eighteen minutes. One frigate was taken out by multistage missiles before it could return fire. The second did not survive the first salvo of normal anti-ship missiles that came its way. Their two salvos of three missiles shot off in reply failed to penetrate Intrepid’s point defenses. Well, Emilie thought as she looked back towards the Nanee colony. We’ve cleared the system of Karacknid ships, now it’s over to you, she thought as she tried to imagine what Alverez was up to. “Put us in orbit and begin to scan the planet. If there are any Karacknid installations or troop concentrations down there, I want to know about it,” she ordered. If Alvarez needed orbital support, she intended to give it to him.

  Chapter 33

  Every world Humanity has chosen to inhabit is beautiful in its own way. That doesn’t mean some aren’t more beautiful than others. Usually it is not surprising to find one arguing for the merits of their own homeworld. Rarely is this the case with those who have been able to visit The Homeworld. Earth has a beauty to the Human eye that has yet to be matched anywhere else.

  -Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD.

  Rulen Colony

  “I don’t think we want to touch down there,” the shuttle pilot said as they passed over the largest city in the Nanee colony. In reality, it was the only city. Their initial scans suggested the planet had not been inhabited for long. Perhaps a century or so.

  “No,” Alvarez agreed as he looked at the city through the shuttle sensors. There looked to be three Karacknid military bases around the outskirts of the city. There were multiple targeting scanners tracking the shuttle as it passed overhead in orbit. If they got any closer, they would likely be met by a hail of hyper velocity missiles. “Let’s keep looking, find us a smaller town.”

  “How about this?” The pilot asked a couple of minutes later. “It’s a reasonable size, but there only looks to be a small Karacknid installation.”

  And there are no signs of nuclear strikes, Alvarez thought. Thankfully there didn’t seem to be any elevated levels of radiation coming from the planet. However, within the main city and at several other sites there were large craters, clear signs of an orbital bombardment. If the town below them had been spared such an attack, it was more likely some of their leaders were still alive. “Shaw?” he asked as he turned to the marine Lieutenant. When he looked over her shoulder, he saw she had a datapad out and zoomed in on the Karacknid base.

  “It’s doable,” she said as she looked up. “But we’ll have to be fast. Land us here,” she continued as she tapped her datapad, sending the coordinates to the pilot. “We’ll take Walker with us and the rest of you can remain at the LZ.”

  “I’ll come too,” Alvarez insisted. “I have the training. Don’t worry though, I’ll help lay down covering fire if you need it. That’s all.”

  Shaw nodded. “Okay then. Just make sure you keep your head down. I don’t want to be the one to have to explain to Emilie if you don’t.”

  “Taking us in,” the pilot reported. Suddenly Alvarez fo
und himself grabbing onto his harness as the shuttle dove towards the planet’s surface. The sudden blare of an alarm told him something was locking onto the shuttle. Just seconds later it disappeared as the shuttle pulled up and levelled off. They had already reached the ground and ducked under the targeting radar. The rear access ramp immediately descended. “Go, go, go!” the pilot shouted.

  Alvarez let the marines get out first, then he quickly ushered his team out of the shuttle. As he stepped off himself, he saw the second shuttle hovering a couple of meters in the air just to his right. The rest of Shaw’s marines were already out of it. “Move out,” Shaw ordered as the two shuttles lifted off. They quickly accelerated away from the Karacknid base. Looking around, Alvarez saw Shaw had picked an LZ behind a small hill. There was a collection of small shrub like trees at the very bottom of the hill, but everything else around him seemed to be cultivated land.

  “Over there,” Alvarez said as he pointed towards the shrubs, “Take cover over there,” he said to Spence and Matthews. “We’ll be back to get you as soon as the fight is over.” Not waiting for them to acknowledge his order, he took off sprinting after the marines. Within ten seconds he realized his folly. The marines were all in their full combat armor. While he had his on, it was not quite up to their standards. Able to run more than twice as fast as he could, they were quickly disappearing out of sight. Shaw had split them into two groups, each was contouring around the hill to attack the Karacknid base from two directions. With a groan, Alvarez looked up to the top of the hill, then he lowered his head and focused on pumping his legs and maintaining a steady breathing rate.

  “You can open fire any time Commander,” Shaw’s sarcastic voice came over the COM channel. “If you wait any longer, the battle might be over.”

  Alvarez didn’t have the breath to reply, instead he kept running until he crested the hill. He threw himself to the ground and sighted his plasma rifle onto the Karacknid base just beyond the bottom of the hill. Even without the rifle’s magnification lens, he could see Karacknid soldiers within compound near the small three buildings and several more who were already outside the base moving towards cover. Aiming at those outside, he pulled the trigger and sent a spread of plasma bolts down the hill. He quickly changed from one target to another and another as they dove for cover. Then, as return fire started coming in, he pushed himself back behind the crest of the hill. On his hands and knees, he crawled sideways for several meters before bobbing his head back up. He was just in time to see Walker and Shaw’s marines begin their assault. The Karacknids, most of them looking to the top of the hill, didn’t see the initial attack. Those who were outside the base were caught in a crossfire and two quickly died. Then, in the blink of an eye, hyper velocity missiles zipped out towards the Karacknid base. Fire flared into the air. The marines who had fired were moving forward. A familiar sound made Alvarez look back over his shoulder. Both shuttles had returned. Using the hill to cover their approach, they barely missed his head as they raced past him and pummeled the base with their heavy laser cannons. In one pass they reduced what was left of the three buildings in their base to melted slag. As soon as the shuttles passed by, Shaw’s marines broke from cover and raced forward. Unsurprisingly, Walker with his enhanced abilities was the first there. Alvarez’s mouth fell open when he saw Walker hurdle the Karacknid base’s outer perimeter wall. Before his feet touched the ground, he began shooting. It happened too fast for Alverez to be sure, but he thought he saw three Karacknids fall to Walker’s attack. Then he disappeared from sight as he raced deeper into the Karacknid base.

  Alvarez shook his head at the sight. He knew special forces marines were lethal killers. He knew they had enhancements, but he had never seen one in action. As Shaw’s marines poured into the Karacknids’ base, their efforts to root out the last Karacknids looked childish in comparison. For a couple of minutes Alverez watched the marines clear the compound. Then movement from the town itself caught his eye. The compound was about half a kilometer from the nearest Nanee building. A small group of Nanee were tentatively approaching Shaw’s marines. We are up, Alvarez thought. Jumping to his feet he hurried back down the side of the hill. “It’s all clear,” he said to Spence when he found them. “Time to meet the locals.” Instead of heading over the hill again, Alvarez led them around it. By the time they got to the Karacknid compound, Shaw, Walker and a couple of marines were standing face-to-face with the Nanee.

  “This is the leader of our party,” Shaw said as Alvarez stepped up beside her.

  “Greetings,” Alvarez said as he bowed his head slightly to the Nanee. “I am Commander Alvarez.”

  “My name is Koran’ka,” the tall slender alien replied. His forearms remained motionless at his side but his head moved back and forth as it spoke. “You are enemies of the Karacknids?”

  Alvarez nodded, “We are. They attacked our worlds and have tried to invade our space. I am from an exploration ship that is in orbit. We have come to this part of space to bring warning about the Karacknids and seek out new allies. We know your world was recently conquered by them. We have just come from Damial.”

  “You know the Folians?” Koran’ka asked. “Then you know what has happened to my species. Have they too been conquered?”

  “Not yet,” Alvarez replied with a shake of his head. “The Karacknids have given them an ultimatum. I believe their time runs out tomorrow. They and the other species in this sector of space were given an offer. Either accept vassalage or be conquered like your species was. My Captain and I tried to convince them of the folly of simply surrendering, but when we left, it appeared that was the course they intended to take.”

  A strange shriek came from Koran’ka and the other Nanee at his side. “They are making a mistake.”

  Alvarez glanced at Spence, it seemed the aliens and they were of the same mind. That was a very good start. “That is why we are here,” he said as he decided to lay his cards on the table. “As I said, we are looking for new allies to help us fight the Karacknids. We hoped your neighbors would band together to fight. When they would not listen to us, we came here. They know your species, they would listen to your people. We would like to bring some of you to Damial to speak to the Folians and the others.”

  “You are not here to liberate us?” Koran’ka asked.

  “I’m afraid not, we have only one ship,” Alverez said as he pointed to space. “One day it is our goal to liberate all species from the Karacknids, but we do not have the strength at the minute to aid you,” he explained. “We are in a war for our very survival. Without aid, my civilization may suffer the same fate as yours.”

  The Nanee made the same shrieking noise, though it was louder and lasted longer. “We had hoped…” Koran’ka trailed off. “When you attacked their base… No,” he said after a few moments. “Our liberation has not yet come. We must face reality as it is. You have given us one pleasure at least. We have lived long enough to see these Karacknids killed. They have harassed us for months. Now we will take their weapons and make their brethren pay.”

  “If I may ask,” Alvarez said, “how have they treated you?”

  “When the central government on our homeworld surrendered, the Karacknids promised they would disarm us but otherwise allow us to continue our lives. They lied. As soon as our ships and weapons were gone, they began their true work. Ruel is a small colony on the edge of our territory, yet even here they have attempted to erase every historical record and defining feature of our culture. All of our communication devices have been confiscated and every town and village isolated from one another. Now, almost all of us have been reduced to menial laborers. I believe it is their intention to transform us from a highly civilized culture to savages in one generation. Our children will grow up in a world that we will not recognize. They will have nothing.”

  “I fear they will do the same to the Folians and the others, despite the promises they have made,” Alvarez responded.

  “Of that I have no doubt,” Kor
an’ka replied.

  “Would you be willing to come with us back to Damial?” Alvarez asked. “The Folians would not believe us when we told them about the true nature of the Karacknids. They thought we were lying because they are our enemies. They will believe you.”

  “I am a no one,” Koran’ka responded as he waved his slender arms. “I was a simple farmer before the Karacknids came. Now I help my people here yes, but to the Folians I am no one. The Triad still live in Salamac, the capital of our colony. One of them may go with you. If they would, the Folians would listen to them.”

  “The capital?” Alvarez asked. Taking on the small Karacknid compound here was one thing, trying to go to the capital was another matter entirely.

  “Yes, I can contact them for you,” Koran’ka showed his teeth. “The Karacknids have not confiscated all our communication devices. We must move quickly. They will no doubt have forces on the way here already. We should leave, I know somewhere where we can hide until we hear back from the Triad. Karacknid shuttles could arrive at any moment.”