Exodus: Empires at War: Book 12: Time Strike

by Doug Dandridge

  “Are you people crazy?” shouted Guatarrez, standing up from his chair and staring at each of the primary conspirators in turn. “You are talking about kidnapping the Emperor.”

  “And that little bastard was responsible for the death of my world,” roared Stumpfield, spittle flying from his lips as his eyes assumed a wild look. “I will use him to get my world back, but if it comes to killing him to do so, I will enjoy every minute of it. Now sit your little ass down. You will do as we say, unless you want to go back to your cell.”

  Kenji stared at the count open mouthed, then sat back in his chair as fast as he could. He did not want to go back to the cell. He especially did not want Okoye to work on him some more. He had thought he would not agree to work with these people when they first took him into their custody. She had, made him, see the light. Now he could deny them nothing.

  Guatarrez had thought himself a patriot, someone who wouldn’t do anything to harm the empire. He had an intellectual interest in time travel, and an idea about observing the past. There was never any intention to actually change the time line, something his calculations had told him could lead to disaster. There was no way he would ever go against his principles and harm the empire or the human species. But he hadn’t figured on someone like Okoye, who had learned interrogation in the harsh school of multispecies espionage and sabotage.

  “This is just in time,” said Stumpfield. “The other end of the wormhole will be at the point of decision in less than a week.”

  Which was perfect timing, as far as their plans were concerned. If they didn’t launch on time they would have to dance around in time, moving the wormhole back and forth between dimensions, and then there was always the chance it might collapse. They would be going ahead with their plan, and there seemed to be no way he could stop them.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Time travel used to be thought of as just science fiction, but Einstein's general theory of relativity allows for the possibility that we could warp space-time so much that you could go off in a rocket and return before you set out. Stephen Hawking

  “They’ve stopped in this system, Admiral. They’ve been there for almost five days, without any forward movement.”

  Lenkowski looked at the plot, trying to figure out what the Cacas were about. The entire flank had gathered, all three wings, into one massive force. That made it harder for them to overrun multiple systems, but also presented a united front against the allied forces. His main force had just arrived, ready to maneuver against the enemy to his advantage. But they weren’t maneuvering as well, which made his plan useless.

  “What are we going to do, sir?” asked Admiral Sheila Tonga, his scout force commander. “We can’t just sit here and do nothing.”

  “No, Sheila. We cannot.” The longer the enemy kept them waiting for a move, the further their offensive through Fenri space would advance. They couldn’t just sit here in a staring contest while the Fleet was waiting for his ships on Mgonda’s front. But their entire center gathered in a system was a problem. Being in the system was the problem. The defender had the advantage of knowing where everything was in the system, something Lenkowski had used to his advantage in past battles. They could lie hidden while powered down, waiting to strike when they were ready. They could set up their own wormholes as gates and bring across more ships and missiles.

  “We attack in three days,” said Lenkowski with finality, pointing to the system on the plot. “I want you to aggressively scout that system. Drop warp fighters and stealth/attack ships in the outer reaches. I want as much intelligence as we can gather before we go in, but I don’t want you to risk your ships for little gain. Understood?”

  “Yes, sir.” The admiral saluted, then the holo died.

  Lenkowski sat back in his seat, looking over his order of battle. It had taken time, and he had taken losses along the way, but now he had gathered the greatest single force in human history. There were seventy-one of the super heavy battleships, the sisters of Romanov, two thirds of all that were now in service. Add to them over two hundred of the twenty million ton superbattleships and three thousand standard battleships, VI and VII, and he had the mightiest heavy capital ship force ever gathered. There were almost four thousand battle cruisers and twenty-two thousand smaller vessels. Almost the entire Republic fleet was also available, over ten thousand ships. Crakista and Elysium had both contributed over eight thousand ships each, bringing his total to over fifty-five thousand warships, as well as ten thousand support vessels.

  He had fifteen thousand of the old standard fighters, all but obsolete at this point in the war. They still had a sting, and could also be used to capture the attention of the enemy. The four thousand inertialess fighters and fifteen hundred warp ships were the strength of his fighter force. He had enough warp missiles to rearm their carrying vessels with four reloads, but only enough inertia weapons to equip half of his inertialess craft at the start. More would be available in a couple of weeks. By then this battle would be over, one way or the other. And he had over a thousand wormholes, his greatest force multipliers. He would have even more when it was time to shift to Fenri space, but they were either there or on the way, and would do nothing in this fight.

  We would have been able to roll up both of their flank forces with ease, he thought, looking over his order of battle. Then hit their main force. They wouldn’t have stood a chance, and we would have sustained minimal casualties. But now he would have to slug it out with a heavy enemy force, and though he still thought he would win, he was sure to sustain massive losses.

  And I don’t even know what they have there. At least as many ships as were in their other wings? I would think so. Which means we’re going to get hammered taking them out.

  “I want a staff meeting to convene in one hour,” the admiral said into the com. If my brain trust can’t come up with something, we’re going to be sending a lot of sympathy messages home.

  * * *

  The great admiral paced his command deck with impatience. He had set his trap, but the humans had so far refused to stick their snouts into it. He had over twenty-five thousand warships in the system, his original force plus massive reinforcement from the home worlds, along with several thousand support vessels. The planet below was free of human infestation, though it was still a living world. It now swarmed with Cacada males, warriors, and millions of slaves who were fortifying the world to withstand an invasion. Win or lose here, he was going to make this system expensive for the humans.

  Five wormhole gates were established close to the planet. On the other side were millions of missiles, sitting in space a light hour from the gates, ready to start accelerating on command. In three hours they could be through the gate in staggered waves, pushing ahead at point eight light. The space around the system was planted with hundreds of thousands of mines. He had two thousand of the new inertialess fighters ready to go. I wish we had some of those warp fighters, but command is saying six months on the outside for deployment, he thought.

  Still, this was shaping up to be the largest single system space battle in the history of his Empire. So far this offensive had been a failure in that he had not achieved any of his objectives, one of which was to rise in the hierarchy of the Empire’s military. Being as this had always been seen as a decoy mission, to lure most of the enemy forces away from the true offensive, it had worked. And the great admiral could still count on his sons to achieve rank and prestige if he could gut this enemy force, win or lose.

  “We have another translation into normal space, my Lord. Sixteen light hours outside the system toward the Empire.”

  Another one, thought the great admiral, standing and pacing the deck. “Do we have anything out there to kill them.”

  “No, my Lord. And they are coming through with groups of their scout capitals. Anything we have on picket would be destroyed for no return.”

  The great admiral gave a head motion of acknowledgement. Up to a couple of years ago the Ca’cadasans were
always on attack mode. Any Ca’cadasan ship would take aggressive action at any time an enemy presented itself. But that had led to losses with no gain, and the Ca’cadasan military was changing its culture. They had once called the humans cowards for retreating from untenable situations, but the humans had proven over and over that they could be brave, when they needed to be, and cautious when it was to their benefit.

  “So they are getting a view of what we had sixteen hours before,” said the great admiral. They were still laying mines, but most of the defenses were already in place. Most had been hidden well before the scouts started showing up, so the humans shouldn’t be able to spot them before they came in force. If they come in, thought the great admiral, having his doubts. It might be the smart play to keep them bottled up here, waiting for smaller Ca’cadasan units to leave so they could swallow them up. But then again, they would not be able to use their new warp fighters in hyper. Or at least he hoped not.

  * * *

  “And that’s what we have so far, sir,” said Admiral Tonga. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a system with that much Caca firepower in it. And I have a feeling that they’re not letting us see all of it.”

  “I don’t think so either, Sheila. Unfortunately, we’re going to have to stick our noses in to find out what else they have. But we may have a way of tripping some of their hidden assets before they’re ready to show them.” At least I hope so, he thought.

  “We go in three days. We’ll launch our hidden assets today, if possible. All units will start moving to their assembly points tomorrow, and into the system on their paths of approach the day after.” And may God have mercy on all of us. Because win or lose, he was likely to be looking at the greatest loss of human life in any single battle, ever.

  “Sir,” said Commander Terrance McGurty, one of his bright young tactical wizards, raising a hand. “I have an idea.”

  Many fleet commanders would not have accepted advice from such a junior officer. The officer would have made his suggestion to his superiors, and it would have worked its way up the chain of command until it was presented by someone of flag rank. Lenkowski was not one of those fleet commanders. He had called his tactical people to this meeting so he could get the input of all of them. He knew McGurty by reputation. The man was probably the brightest in his command, and the sooner the man achieved flag rank the better. He nodded at the officer, ignoring the glares some of the senior staff gave the commander, which the young man dutifully ignored.

  “It strikes me, sir, that since ninety percent of all systems are oriented to the galactic plain of the ecliptic, traditionally most forces come in on that orientation. Also, if they know where the primary world of the system is, they come in from hyper on the least distance straight line approach to the planet.”

  “That’s so we have the least time and distance to travel to the planet,” growled a commodore who was in charge of an analyst section. “I’m not sure why anyone would try any other approach.”

  Lenkowski looked at the commodore, with a hand motion ordering him to shut up. Coming in above the plain of the ecliptic was also a strategy that had been used from time to time. He thought the young man might have something else in mind.

  “I believe the Cacas will think the same, sir,” continued McGurty, motioning with a hand and pulling up a holo schematic of the system. “They can sometimes pull a surprise, sir. But as we all know, they’re not the brightest stars in the galaxy. Even the space in the system is vast, and they can’t cover all of it with mines, if they are using them.”

  “I would if I were them,” said Len, nodding again.

  “And they are most likely to put them here,” said the commander, highlighting areas of space leading in from the most direct approach to the planet from hyper. “We can’t be sure how far out they will put them, but a good bet is they will be where their ships aren’t. Now, since the planet is moving, I’m guessing they will cover this swath to adjust for our arrival. They could have hundreds of thousands of mines out there.”

  Len nodded again. It was what he would do if he had the resources and was in a defensive position. Mines were actually small satellites that mounted a sensor suit and contained one or more missiles. When something entered their range they went active, targeted the enemy, then released the missile. One in ten might get a hit, but ten thousand of them could theoretically kill a thousand ships. A hundred thousand could rip the heart out of his fleet.

  “So, what are you suggesting, Commander?”

  “I think we could vary our approach, and basically take their assets out of the picture.” The chamber erupted in speech and some yelling. Someone was calling the young man an idiot. Many more were supportive of his idea. McGurty smiled at Lenkowski. “And about those wormholes of theirs.”

  * * *

  JUNE 9th, 1003.

  The task group entered normal space twenty-two light hours out, just beyond the hyper V barrier, about two light hours above the ecliptic. All hyper VII vessels, the group was made up of fifteen battle cruisers and twenty-five destroyers, and they appeared to the Cacas to be just another scout group, somewhat larger than most. They entered at point three light and coasted forward.

  Moments after entering they released the cargo that had been attached to their hulls. Six hundred warp fighters, they coasted forward at point three light, propulsion and sensor systems powered down. The enemy would be lucky to spot them with active sensors if they got within fifteen light minutes, and they happened to be sending pulses right at them. Their only job for the next couple of days was to coast inward, getting as close as they could to their targets before they activated their systems.

  The scout group started to decelerate fifteen minutes after releasing the fighters, changing their vectors to skirt along the hyper barrier. An hour later they were making the jump to hyper and accelerating again.

  An hour later another scout group jumped into normal space fourteen light hours above the ecliptic. These released three hundred inertialess fighters, also coasting forward at point three light. All through the day other scout groups jumped in and out, releasing their cargoes, until two thousand inertialess fighters and twelve hundred of the warp birds were on their way into the system. The first act of the play had been set in motion, and the Cacas were not even aware of it.

  * * *

  “Why in the hell don’t they attack?” growled the great admiral, pacing the command deck of his flagship. Everything was ready for the great decisive battle. The enemy had been dancing around the system for days now, so he was sure they knew what he had, or at least thought they did. When they came into the system he would hit them with more than they bargained for. Or at least that was his plan.

  “They have to attack, my Lord,” said his chief of staff. “They cannot wait forever outside this system while our other fleet rampages along the other flank.”

  And if they do that, we still win, thought the great admiral. If it tied up so much of their military force, the other prong of the attack would continue to move forward. And when the offensive in the center kicked off, they would overwhelm what the humans were able to amass on that front.

  If they actually have that much of a force outside this system, he thought, anxiously. His best bet might be to attack out of this system, fanning out and overrunning as many worlds of this smaller human empire as possible. Maybe meet them in hyper, where their new fighters wouldn’t be effective, or so he hoped.

  But no, the Emperor himself had ordered him to hold here, on the assumption that the humans and their allies would amass the necessary force to bring him to battle and destroy his force.

  Two million mines, millions of wormhole launched missiles. How can we fail, if the damnable creatures actually attack us?

  “We’re picking up ships incoming in hyper, my Lord,” called out the chief tactical officer for the fleet. “On predicted approach.”

  That’s different, thought the great admiral, who had been watching their scout forces pop up in all
kinds of unexpected positions outside the system over the past couple of days. There had seemed to be no real pattern to their entries. Along the plain of the ecliptic, above and below it, on all angles of approach to the star. It made him wonder if they were going to try something unusual. Maybe something that bypassed his mines. But they would not be able to bypass his wormhole launched missiles, since the gates could be turned to cover any approach on this side of the star.

  “How many ships?”

  “Two thousand so far, with more appearing each minute. It looks like a major force, my Lord.”

  And so it begins, thought the great admiral.

  * * *

  “We are moving toward the system through hyper, Admiral Lenkowski,” said the reptilian female on the holo. “Estimated time of jump to normal space, six hours.”

  “Good work, Admiral,” said Lenkowski to the alien commander. All of her people’s forces were in that approach, as well as a good portion of the Elysium fleet. Fourteen thousand ships, sure to get the attention of the enemy. He only hoped the Cacas didn’t have a major force out there waiting for them. There was no indication of such, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t something lying hidden in that space. The disposition of the known Caca forces argued against it. They seemed to be setting up an ambush further in. But if he was mistaken, the allies could end up taking heavy losses, something the Emperor had ordered him to avoid.

  His own force, the heart of his fleet, made up of most of his Terran Empire combat units, were still ten hours from reaching the hyper barrier. Only they had been in normal space for over forty hours, coasting ahead at point five light. They had entered normal space just outside of detection range, then boosted up to their present velocity, out of the range of grabber detection. It helped that they were coming in on the other side of the star, using its interference to hide them from the sensor arrays the enemy had placed near the planet. Of course there were ships on this side as well, watching, but their sensors were not in the class of the system arrays the Cacas had brought in.