McCullom nodded, then grunted her acknowledgement as she realized the Emperor would not see the head nod over a link com. She understood the problem. Missiles could transit over a wormhole at just about any velocity, since they were robust enough to handle the stresses. Ships could also transit at a high velocity, if not as great as unmanned missiles. A person was another matter. The wormhole could absorb maybe a tenth of the speed of light differential between origin and target. Anything over and the person would come through traveling at too high a velocity to survive, and would most likely be splattered against the nearest surface.
“We will try our best to hold down the damage, your Majesty.”
“I know you will, Admiral. Save the Donut, eject the Cacas from our home system, and rescue my family.”
The link died, leaving McCullom to stare into space and think about the task before her. Not much, really. Just defeat a force of unknown size and capabilities, while trying to save the capital planet, a good portion of the shipbuilding capacity of the Empire, and the supreme weapon without which they would be the losers of this war. Yeah, simple.
* * *
“If you take those ships away from me, your Majesty,” said Vice Admiral Naomi Okafor, her brown eyes staring in disbelief out of her ebony face, “I’m not sure my force can accomplish our part of the mission.”
“And if they destroy too much of the home system, it probably won’t matter if you do,” said Sean, closing his eyes and running his hand across his forehead, stopping to rub his temples. “Those are the only ships that could make a difference in small numbers. We don’t have time to get an entire battle fleet back to them, but those carriers might be able to do the job.”
“I’ve ordered the ships back to the wormhole gate to the Supersystem,” the Admiral said, nodding her head. She still wasn’t sure about the order, but her Monarch had spoken, and it was her job to obey. I’ve got the other ships, she thought, looking at the plot that showed her five hundred vessels sitting in front of another wormhole gate, while the three vital units that had been her ace in the hole were in transit back to the gate that led back to the Supersystem that was the heart of the Empire. “It will take them almost an hour to get into position to transit. What orders would you like me to give, your Majesty? Which target should they move to aid?”
“And what order would you give, Admiral? The Donut, or the capital and Central Docks?”
It was a shocking decision, and she could see why the Emperor was so stressed at the moment. The Capital System was the center of everything, not just the seat of government, but the heart and soul of the Empire. And Central Docks was still the largest shipbuilding and repair facility in human space. With it gone, the Empire would find it much more difficult to keep up with the Caca in numbers. But the Donut? If it were gone, the war was lost.
“I would order them to launch their fighters as soon as they entered the proximity of the Donut.”
“And, God help me, that is the order I am going to give. My heart is telling me to come to the aid of the Capital system, but the cost of losing the Donut is just too great.”
“We are sending the orders now, your Majesty. Is the primary operation still on?”
“Of course, Admiral. Make sure your people know what the Cacas are doing in our home. Then hit them as hard as you can.”
The holo went dead, and the Klassekian Com Tech looked back at the Admiral, the strain of transmitting complete video from his sibling showing on his alien features.
Admiral Okafor looked at the timer over the plot. Less than fifteen minutes till they jumped. Hopefully into the trapping position the staff had planned. And she thought once again of the Emperor, who was on the verge of fighting two battles within his mind. The one against the Cacas, as dangerous as it was still cut and dried. And the battle within his own soul, as he chose what was best for his Empire, even at the cost of his own family.
* * *
The ground shook underfoot moments after the soft crumps of some explosion sounded in the far distance. Here and there one of the weaker trees toppled, while rocks fell from the mountain range into the multiple valleys, smashing through the forest, crushing the villas the rich and the houses of the common people with no regard for wealth or worth. Whole mountain villages disappeared under megatons of rock, rivers were damned up to flood their upper reaches, animals fled for their lives, often running to their own doom.
“What the hell is happening?” shouted Devera as the ground threw her off her feet, then tried to bounce her. “Is this an earthquake?”
Rebecca looked at her adoptive mother with an expression of panic on her face. From what she had learned in school geography, this part of the planet was not tectonically active. If the ground was shaking there was something other than the movement of tectonic plates to blame.
The shaking stopped as soon as it started, then another shock hit, and another, with no rhythm that she could discern.
“Those are kinetics dropping,” yelled out Cornelius, his own reflexes keeping him on his feet. “Someone is hitting the capital.”
“Who?” asked Rebecca, reaching out and grabbing Junior where he had toppled to the ground, crying in panic. She wrapped her arms around the child and hugged him close, comforting the toddler.
“I don’t think we need many guesses,” said Cornelius, kneeling at the side of his children. “I…”
A crack of wood and a scream behind them cut the Ranger short, and he jumped to his feet, turning in the air to orient himself on the source of the cry. Rebecca looked over, to see her adoptive mother lying on the ground, a large branch lying on top of her. Cornelius grabbed the branch, which would have required the strength of several men to lift, and pulled it off her with his adrenaline fueled augmented musculature. Throwing the thick branch aside, he knelt down at the side of his wife.
“She’s still alive,” said Cornelius, placing gentle hands on her chest.
Rebecca got to her feet, picking Junior up and moving toward her parents. She could see that Devera’s chest was rising, and that her breathing wasn’t regular. Blood was bubbling at her lips. Even Rebecca knew that these were signs of internal injuries, and not something they could treat out here in the woods.
“Hang in there, honey,” said Cornelius in a quiet voice. He looked up a Rebecca, his face a shifting mask of emotion. “I’m going to have to get her to the car. I can put her into cryostasis with the bag I have in the trunk.”
“Should you move her?” asked the concerned child. “What if she has a spine injury?”
“That can be repaired, as long as I can keep her brain intact.” Cornelius bent down and picked up his wife in his arms, then straightened up and shifted her into a more comfortable carry. “I’m going to run back to the car with her. You follow with Junior as fast as you can.”
Rebecca nodded, a chill running down her spine. I shouldn’t have any trouble getting me and Junior back to the car, she thought as she watched Cornelius turn away and start off down the path at a dead run, faster than any normal person could move. Devera groaned as he ran, and the child said a quick prayer that her adoptive mother would make it. Even as fast as the Ranger could run, it was at least ten minutes back to the car. If she stopped breathing she had five minutes before brain deterioration started. They could still save her, but with some of her memories gone. There would be no telling which of those memories would be missing. It might be enough for the military to get a functional soldier back, who could be retrained to make up for what they had lost. It might not be enough for a family member.
“Let’s go, stinker,” she told Junior, picking him up into a side carry and walking down the path. At his size, and her still being a child with the strength of a pre-improvement sixteen year old, there was no way she would be able to run with the child. In fact, she was pretty sure she wouldn’t be carrying him the whole way. Part would be him walking beside her while she held his hand. It would be slow going, but it would be the only way to go.
The ground continued to shake with the arhythmical beat of bombardment. They weren’t as strong as before, which probably meant they were further away. She had no idea what was going on in the city right now, but she was more than happy that she wasn’t there at this time.
* * *
“Captain von Rittersdorf would like to speak with you ma’am,” said the Com Tech.
“Put him on,” said Mei Lei. “You have a plan, Maurice?”
“Yes, ma’am,” said the dashing young Duke on the other side of the com holo. “It seems that the capital planet is also catching hell. I suggest that I and my squadron head for the planet, to help them out.”
“And how do you intend to do that?” asked the Admiral, leaning forward in her seat.
As the young Captain explained his plan, something unorthodox but not unheard of, she found herself nodding. “You have my permission. Just make sure you don’t drop any of your ships onto the surface.” Since each vessel carried enough antimatter to explode like a hundred gigaton bomb, a breach close to the planet would be catastrophic. But the Admiral was willing to take that risk at this point. Still…
“Jettison all of the antimatter you have aboard except for enough for a couple of working hours at full energy usage,” she ordered the Captain. “Set them for a course outside of the Jewel/New Terra system. Program their tracking devices to come on in twelve hours.”
“You think that will be enough, ma’am.”
“If it isn’t, I think retrieving that antimatter will be the least of our problems.”
* * *
The Empress looked out the side of the car toward the palace, and the mountainside to the west of it. There was already one crater on the palace grounds, with the partial collapse of one of the large wings of the building. There were mushroom clouds rising from the foothills of the mountains, where the villas of the Lords and the rich commoners who lobbied the government lay. It looked like over a score of penetrators had come down, taking out maybe thirty of the villas, not a very good return for the investment. As far as she knew, most of the villas were unoccupied by all but the service staffs, and all the elites were elsewhere, enjoying the break that Imperial Day Weekend brought.
What puzzled her were the heavy strikes on the eastern side of the mountains, the ridges overlooking the city. The mushroom clouds rising there were thicker than those on the foothills. What in the hell are they aiming at? she thought. As far as she knew there was nothing there, unless the Cacas had received some faulty intelligence, or unless there was some significance to mountains overlooking cities in their culture.
“Keep your suit locked up, your Majesty,” said her Chief of Detail. “We just got word that some Caca fighters might be coming in on us from the east.”
“Can we outrun them?” asked a frightened Jennifer, more afraid for her twins than herself.
“Not a chance, ma’am,” said the frowning agent, reaching over and activating the interlocks on the baby carrier, making sure it was sealed up.
Jennifer looked nervously at the carrier, knowing that the precious cargo inside was as protected as could be. The armor of the sphere was actually thicker than that on her suit, and its rounded shape gave it more intrinsic strength as well. It also had the state of the art electronic systems that would protect the occupant from concussion, inertia, and falls. Still, she would have felt better with the baby in her arms. With both of her children with her actually.
“Here they come,” yelled out the pilot from the forward compartment.
The aircar suddenly juked in space, down and to the side, while the others in the convoy followed suit. The top cover of Marine fighters turned around in the air, flying backwards and putting every weapon they had onto the enemy craft. The rearmost aircar exploded in the air, hit with a missile, while the rest continued to scatter and their fighter cover started weaving through the sky in dogfights with the enemy.
“We should have gone on as singletons’,” said the Chief of Detail under his breath, just loud enough for the Empress to hear. “We’re attracting too much attention.”
A missile sped in at another car, which fired its countermeasure at just the right moment to lure it away.
“We’re losing our top cover,” shouted the pilot.
“Where the hell are they going?” shouted the Chief of Detail.
“They’re pursuing enemy fighters, getting drawn off,” replied the pilot.
“Well, get on the damned com and get them back here. They have one mission, and they’re not performing it.”
“Why are they coming after us?” asked Jennifer, resting a hand on Glen’s carrier, as if she could give him more protection.
“We have the look of something important,” said the Chief of Detail.
“That’s why you think we should have separated?”
“Yes, your Majesty. And I’m sorry I made the wrong call. But we still have a chance.”
“They got the rearmost bird,” called out the pilot over the intercom. “Splashed her.”
The rear car was one of the Marine chase vehicles, heavily armored and armed, with six Marines in heavy combat armor aboard.
“Did anyone get out?” asked the wide eyed Chief of Detail.
“It looks like five of the Marines are levitating down, sir,” answered the Pilot. The car banked furiously and shivered as it released some of its own countermeasures, small drones that would mimic the heat and electronic signature of the car for several minutes. One of the drones lured in the missile that had been tracking the car, blowing up on the closest approach of the weapon and taking it out as well.
Jennifer stared at the explosion that was a hundred meters from the window she was looking out of. She was thinking that if the Marines could survive a hit like that, she and her babies all had a good chance of surviving as well. Not anything approaching certainty, but enough to give hope.
“We just lost the Prince’s car,” came the stricken voice of the Pilot over the com. “It ate a missile.”
“Anything come out?” yelled the Chief of Detail, while Jennifer opened her mouth in a silent scream.
“I think we got a camera shot of some bodies.”
“And the carrier?”
“I didn’t see the carrier, sir,” chimed in the Copilot. “And we’ve got another enemy fighter locking us up.”
Jennifer leaned her helmeted head against the carrier that contained the only baby she was sure was still alive, wondering how long he would still be among the living.
* * *
“No you don’t, you sons of bitches,” growled Chief Warrant Visserman as she got a lock on one of the two Caca fighters boring in on the attack. She didn’t know what that group of aircars was carrying, but from the look of that many official vehicles it must have been something important. She pulled the trigger on her joystick and released one of her missiles, watching what looked like a streak of light jump from her fighter to the rear of the enemy craft ten kilometers ahead. The enemy ship went up in a flash as the kinetic force of the missile drove the warhead deep into the craft before detonation.
Visserman locked onto the other fighter as it started to veer away. She checked her six for an instant, the fear that something might creep up on her rear sending a shiver down her spine. She had already seen a score of her own people go down to Cacas coming in from the rear. With a pull of her trigger she sent a missile at the other Caca ship, which released its countermeasure drones just before her own weapon left its bay. The missile only had a flight time measured in microseconds, but was curving in the wrong direction as soon as it was out, striking the decoy.
“Shit,” yelled Visserman as she pulled her fighter back onto the tail of the enemy, switching over to beam weapons. As her nose swept past the enemy fighter she engaged, sweeping twin particle beams and her nose laser through the enemy fighter, slicing off a wing and sending the Caca into the ground. The Caca was able to cut in enough thrust to make a soft landing, but his ship wouldn’t be flying anywhere
else this day.
“I’ll let the Marines handle you,” hissed Visserman as she pulled back up and looped her plane over. That had been her sixth kill of the day, one past ace. But she was thinking of how great it would be to make double ace in one day, since this could be her only day of combat.
* * *
“That hotshot took both of them off our tail,” shouted the Pilot. “We’re clear, for the moment.”
“Are we going back to look for Augustine?” asked Jennifer, raising her faceplate to wipe away the tears.
“We’ll drop back one Marine vehicle to search,” said the Chief of Detail, shaking his head. “They’ll call in help.”
If they can get it, thought the Empress, about to protest, then thinking better of it. She knew the focus now would be on getting the only remaining heir out of the danger zone. She was just an afterthought, important enough, but nowhere near as vital as the next Emperor.
“Just get Glen to safety,” she replied, not even sure that her other child still even existed. There was a hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach, as if her whole life had gone.
* * *
“Should we tell the Emperor about his heir” asked Captain Xiun, looking into the eyes of Admiral McCullom.
The War Room aboard the Donut was just as spacious as that in the Hexagon. The building had taken some hits, and a lot of damage, but so far it was still standing. How long that would be true no one knew, since the enemy was still attacking Jewel. Their attack on Central Docks was still going strong as well, and there was no telling how many ships they would lose before this day was over. The first wave to hit New Terra had gone in, and so far the preliminary reports were that the Cacas had run into a buzz saw. New Terra was a complex of military bases and training facilities, and there were plenty of weapons to be used by enthusiastic if not totally trained recruits.
“Let’s leave the Emperor in peace for now, said McCullom, shaking her head. “How soon until the first enemy missiles are in striking range?”
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 11: Day of Infamy (Exodus: Empires at War.) Page 16
