by Jessie Wolf
Once again her wisdom and teachings give me the strength to regain control. She is right, this is a space battle. I may not like it, but I do not have the knowledge or skills to fight a battle like this. This is a battle for Fleet to handle. I wouldn’t want a Fleet Officer trying to tell me how to handle a ground battle or war. So I step back and let the pros do their jobs. When I return my attention back to the display it is just in time to see the torpedo’s from the destroyers start to slam home on their target. Out of the eighteen that were fired only seven actually get through the anti-torpedo fire. The fact that only seven made it through was a shock. There should have been more.
Not that it made any difference. When seven, five thousand pound warhead, torpedo’s hit a target, not even a dreadnought of the Iowa class can stand up to that. I watch as the enemy drop ship just disappears from the display. Turning my attention to the last remaining enemy drop ship I see it just explode. I watch as it rips itself apart from the inside out and the radiation readouts spike into the red zones on the display. The blast expands outward to overtake the remaining three heavy cruisers and what is left of the remains of two already destroyed drop ships. Only the three M class destroyers were far enough away to avoid being damaged.
It was the sound of the emergency claxon screaming out from its speakers that cleared up what just happened. “Warning! Detonation of a class ten nuclear warhead has been detected. Warning! Extreme radiation detected in near orbit of the second moon! Warning! Possible thermonuclear detonation in low lunar orbit of the second moon!” thank the Goddess Susana shut it off. I saw the look of horror on her face as she and a few others turned to look at me.
“Did they just detonate a one hundred megaton or bigger thermonuclear warhead?” everyone was looking at me to deny what every sensor in the room was showing them. Susana turned and looked at me asking. “Please, Lady Maiha, please tell me that is not what they just did?” the fear was thick as a brick wall in the room. And as much as I wanted to, I just couldn’t lie to them; it wasn’t in me to do that.
“I am sorry Susana, but I can’t lie to you or everyone else in here. That is exactly what they did. However, I don’t think they did it on purpose. If anything I would have to say that one of the torpedo or PPC hits set it off.”
“But those things are designed so they won’t explode unless they’re armed. Why would they be carrying an armed nuke like that?” she was doing everything she could to deny what was in front of her.
“Susana, no everyone, listen up. Here are the facts in a nutshell. A few hours ago the Empyreal City and Palace was attacked by an unknown drop ship from high Earth orbit. What we do know is this. The drop ship fired at least seven KK weapons and one thermonuclear weapon in the four hundred mega ton range. They effectively killed every last man, woman, and child for a distance of over fifty miles surrounding Empyreal City. Among them were the Emperor and his sons. As for what happened here I can only guess.”
“Excuse me, Lady Nakatoma. Why would they want to attack Hades with that kind of fire power?” asked a young man with the shoulder piping of a com-tech.
“The answer to your question is simple, Tech Williams. Her Imperial Majesty Daniela Sophia Dan, Empress of the Human Empire. They came here to kill her and destroy the one House that will support her claim to the Imperial Throne, House Nakatoma. That is what the nuke was most likely for.” Before I could say more or they could ask more questions a call came over the console.
“Hades Star Port, this is Indomitable we need to land and make repairs. Where do you want us?”
“Alright people we have ships and fighters out there we need to bring home. Let’s do our jobs.” A balding older man in his mid to late fifties called out. I could tell that he was the one normally in charge here. Turning to Susana. “Captain, if you would be so kind as to escort the Lady Nakatoma and her family to the briefing room you can fill her in on what happened out there tonight.”
“Thank you Chief Mizner. Lady Nakatoma if you’ll follow me please?” and with that Susana led me and my family out of the control room. I heard the old Chief getting his people back to work in taking care of the drop ships and everything else. We walked down a set of stairs and then down a short hallway to a small briefing room. Once there Susana walked over to a communication console and plugged in a jump drive that she must have picked up before we left the control room. The far wall lit up with a system map showing all the planets, patrol routes, and flight paths of all ships in system. It also showed the main and secondary Jump Gates. Hades System was your typical Sol type system with one exception, instead of having a meteor belt in the fourth fifth orbit there was a third M class planet.
Susana began her briefing. “Two hours ago the corsair Night Wing while on a routine anti-pirate patrol came across four unidentified drop ships on the far side of the fourth planet of this system. After engaging its stealth mode, the Night Wing closed to within four thousand meters before coming under fire from the drop ships. The Night Wing was able to get off a warning to Hades control before it was destroyed.”
“Excuse me Susana, but why were you here?” mama asked her.
“I was called in to act as the coordination’s officer seeing as how there were three Death Dealer destroyers in system and could help out.”
“Thank you, dear. That explains why you were there. Please continue.”
“Yes, Lady Dai Etsu. The PDF controller dispatched the dreadnought HMS Indomitable along with four corsairs to engage the unknown drop ships. It was at that time all four unknowns executed a high-g attack run toward the planet Hades. At that time I issued the orders to attack and destroy all four unknowns. The Indomitable, along with the corsairs Ravens Claw, Snake Rider, Nighthawk, and Sky Dancer intercepted the four unknowns just beyond the third moon. They exchanged fire before being able to break up the unknown’s formation. At this time the heavy cruisers, Indefatigable, Insidious, Iniquitous, and Invincible were on the far side of Hades made a high-g acceleration burn and moved to assist. As the unknowns and what I had tagged as attack group Alpha cleared the first moon the unknowns had been split into two groups. Attack group Bravo which I tagged the cruisers as attack the group furthest from Hades. With the unknowns in two groups I marked them as bogie group one and two. I sent Alpha group after bogie group two, and Bravo group after bogie one. It was shortly after this that you entered the Command and Control room, my Lady.”
“Thank you Susana. Do you or anyone else have any idea of how the unknowns were able to get this close?” I asked of her.
“I am afraid that we know exactly how they got that close, my Lady.” she turned and entered something on the key pad for the console. A bright spot appeared between the fourth and fifth planet. The spot was smack dab in the middle of the gravity wells between both planets. I know it for what is was the moment I saw the marker. “This is a pirate jump point. Thankfully it is only open once every few rotations. It will be open for another week, but I have placed the new dreadnought Rodger Young to cover it, just in case someone else wants to try sneaking in.”
“Good work Captain Walking Water. Now, I want you to take the next two weeks off and go home and visit your parents. I am tired of hearing that you don’t visit anymore.” I have more than one reason for this but she doesn’t need to know that. “Before you take off though, where did the Roger Young come from? I don’t remember it being on the roster for our PDF.”
“It’s not part of the PDF, Lady Maiha. That beast belongs to the Death Dealers, and it is one of the new Hero Class super dreadnoughts. It is almost twice the size of the old battle platforms, with more than four times the firepower and three times the fighter support. One of those is worth two of the old Battle platforms.” She just shook her head and added. “They’re pissed off at me because I won’t let them inside of the third moons orbit.”
“Why is that Susana?”
“I don’t trust anyone with that much firepower. I know they’re Death Dealers, but that doesn’t mean I have
to trust them. Like my daddy always said ‘War hero warning. Never turn your back on the Ripper.’ And that beast is a Ripper.” With that warning Susana left the room leaving just me and my family. For the first time I have all of my advisors to myself and I take advantage of it.
“Ok, family, we have a nice secure room here and I want to hear what you’re all thinking.” I say as I throw open the floor for their thoughts. For the next two hours we discuss what has happened over the last few days. Everything from the formation of the Temple orders, the attack at our Family Temple, the bombing of the Empyreal City, all of it gets discussed. When finally decide to call an end to it mama looks over at me and asks me. “So my dear what are you going to do?”
I sit there and go over all my options. The one that stands out the most is the only real one that I have. No matter how bad I want to do it, I just can’t turn the Death Dealers loose on the Temple of Holy Light. I know for a fact that the Roger Young would just stand off and pour KK strikes into Temple Mount. They would flatten everything for seventy square miles surrounding it, before going and ripping out the heart of the Imperial Temples. As much as I would love to let them I can’t.
“The answer to that mama is simple. I am going to take the next four months and forge the Knights of Ida-ten into a sword. Then and only then, I am going to ram it down the throats of the Imperial Temple Elders.”
“And what of the Empire child?” papa asked me.
“I will restore the true Red Empress to the Ruby Sky Throne and bring death by my hand to any who would challenge her claim.”
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To be continued in the final series of the Death Dealer Saga coming soon. Look for “The Knights of Death”.
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Credits
All pictures taken from www.freecyclepics.com ..
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Other books by the Author:
The Death Dealers Saga - Death’s Own Daughter
Book 1: Into the Fire once more
Book 2: Out of the Ashes
Book 3: Birth of a New Legend
The Death Dealers Saga - School Time for Death
Book 4: Tendrils of Control
Book 5: Resurrection
The Death Dealers Saga - Knights of Death
Book 6: Knights of Death – TBA – Current project.
The Marshals Saga
Book 1: Embracing Justice – TBA – Current Project.
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