Galactic Empire Wars: Destruction (The Galactic Empire Wars)

by Raymond L. Weil

  “Yes,” Marken replied as reports began coming in from the assault ship’s powerful sensors. “The large space station above your planet is still operating. We are detecting active power sources on it as well as on your planet’s moon. There are also a number of spacecraft in operation.”

  “So there are survivors,” Beth spoke in a dull voice. One of the screens was showing a view of the Earth, and it looked disheartening. The planet was covered in a dark cloud layer. She knew the odds of her mother and fiancée having survived what the Kleese had done to the planet were slim. She had never felt so alone.

  “Vesta had a large colony on it,” Wade commented as he looked at more of the tactical screens showing other sections of the solar system. “It obviously survived intact as well as Holbrook Station and Luna City. I imagine Mars Central survived also.”

  “I would guess they have been performing rescue operations,” suggested Marken, hoping that meant a sizable Human population had survived.

  “We have a fleet of fifteen ships out near the orbit of the fourth planet that have suddenly begun accelerating rapidly toward Earth,” Taalon reported as more data continued to come in. “If I had to make a guess, they are probably some type of warships.”

  “Impossible,” uttered Wade, doubtfully. “Earth has no armed ships.”

  “You may have them now,” replied Marken, softly. “Could Vesta have built or modified some existing ships into warships to defend themselves with?”

  “Possibly,” Wade conceded as he thought it over. “Vesta reportedly has a large spacedock capable of building ships. They didn’t have any weapons, though. If those are indeed warships, the weapons would have to have come from Earth.”

  “Can we contact Vesta?” asked Marken, focusing his attention on Wade.

  He had no desire to come into range of any weapons the Humans might have placed on their ships since the Kleese disk ship had been here. After seeing the ferocity of how the Human military had fought in the battle suits, there was no doubt in his mind that the Humans by now might possess weapons that could be dangerous to the fleet.

  “Possibly,” Wade replied as he thought the question over. “I would suggest we let General Mitchell attempt communications; there may be someone there that knows him.”

  Marken nodded, sending orders to have General Mitchell flown over from his ship. That way Marken would be well aware of what was said between the general and the Human survivors. While he didn’t think the general would betray them, the Kleese had destroyed their world and Kiveans had been aboard the disk ship when it happened.

  -

  “Pamela, I’m picking up a broadcast from one of the alien ships,” Jessica Lang spoke with shock upon her face. “A General Mitchell is asking to speak with Mr. Randle.”

  Pamela looked over at Mason, “What the hell is going on? Who is General Mitchell?”

  “I don’t know,” replied Mason, feeling confused. “Contact General Wainright at Jornada and see if he has any idea.” This whole thing had just gotten even stranger. How could an army general be on one of the alien ships?

  Pamela quickly sent the message and a few minutes later, she had General Wainright on the com.

  “General Wainright, this is Mason Randle. As you may know, our long-range scanners have picked up a fleet of what appear to be alien ships on the perimeter of the solar system. We are receiving a message from one of the ships from someone claiming to be a General Mitchell.”

  “Alan Mitchell,” Wainright’s voice came back in shock. “He was one of the officers abducted by the aliens.”

  Mason looked over at Pamela as he considered Wainright’s words. “How well do you trust the man?”

  “He’s a good officer,” Wainright replied. “But if this is General Mitchell he has been with the aliens for close to a year. Who knows what they may have done to him? I would be very cautious, Mason.”

  “Thanks, General,” Mason replied as he reached a decision. “If you will stay on the line, I’m going to speak to this General Mitchell and see just what’s going on.”

  Mason nodded to Jessica and she transferred the alien ship’s message frequency over to the main com channel. “This is Mason Randle,” he spoke, waiting tensely for a response.

  “Mr. Randle, it’s good to hear your voice,” Mitchell replied. “I know this is going to be hard to believe, but we just escaped from the Kleese. They are the aliens that abducted us about a year ago.”

  “How did you escape?” asked Mason, finding it hard to believe what Mitchell had just said. He wondered if this was some type of ruse to finish abducting the rest of the survivors in the solar system. That might explain why they had brought so many ships.

  “We had help,” Mitchell replied over the com. “With your permission we would like to approach Vesta with just one ship and explain everything in person. You will need to see this in order to believe it.”

  Mason hesitated for a moment. He didn’t like the idea of one of the alien ships approaching Vesta. “Do you have a shuttle you could come in instead? I would prefer to know what we’re getting into before we allow one of the larger ships to approach.”

  “A wise precaution,” General Mitchell replied with approval in his voice. “With your permission, we will approach to ten thousand kilometers off Vesta in one of our larger ships and then take what we call a drop ship to come the rest of the way. Will that be acceptable?”

  Mason thought about it and then nodded. “Give us two hours to make our preparations and then you can come,” he replied.

  “Excellent,” General Mitchell answered in a pleased voice. “We are looking forward to meeting with you.”

  The communications ended and then Mason activated the other com line where General Wainright had been listening. “What do you think, General?”

  “It sure sounded like General Mitchell,” Wainright responded, still sounding concerned. “Just be careful Mason; we still don’t know what or who we’re dealing with. Mitchell could have been brainwashed and may be entirely under the control of the aliens. Don’t take anything for granted.”

  “We won’t,” Mason promised, fully in agreement. “I have a plan that will ensure this first meeting will go as scheduled.”

  Mason ended the communication and smiled to himself. The Armageddon might not be ready to fully deploy, but it could still be stationed just outside the tunnel that led to the spacedock. With its large railguns, it should be able to handle one alien ship if need be.

  -

  Wade breathed an excited sigh of relief as the assault ship dropped back into normal space ten thousand kilometers from Vesta. If the asteroid colony still survived that meant a sizable Human population did also. He knew from former media reports that the city of Smithfield inside the asteroid had a large number of inhabitants and Wade hoped that number had grown considerably since the destruction of Earth. It was a logical place to bring survivors.

  “We may have a problem,” Marken commented as he gestured toward the main viewscreen. His eyes looked concerned.

  Wade looked up and saw a large ship hovering just above the asteroid. As the viewscreen enlarged the picture, he was surprised to see the ship was covered with weapons turrets and what looked like four very large cannons mounted on the bow.

  “It’s a warship!” Beth uttered in amazement. “They’ve built a warship to protect themselves from future attacks.”

  “What type of weapons are those?” General Mitchell asked with interest. It made him feel relieved to know that Vesta was not as defenseless as they had thought.

  “Railguns,” Marken replied nervously as several of his people spoke to him over the com system. “The four large ones on the bow could probably destroy this assault vessel. There are also a number deployed elsewhere on the asteroid.” It didn’t really surprise him that the Humans had armed themselves. He knew he should have expected it after being around Major Nelson and his marines.

  “I’m impressed,” General Mitchell spoke with a pleased nod
. “I knew Vesta had the ability to construct ships in their spacedock, but I didn’t expect anything like this. Just how large is that ship?”

  “Five hundred meters in length, fifty meters high, and ninety meters wide,” Marken reported as he thought about the possibilities. “If our engineers could equip that ship with modern space drives, an energy shield, and our new particle weapons, it could possibly take on one of the Kleese disk ships on its own and win.”

  “Let’s concentrate on the matter at hand,” General Mitchell cautioned. “We’ll go down to the drop ship and take a little trip. It’s time we find out just what’s happened since we were taken and who is actually in charge.”

  Beth looked over at Wade with a glimmer of hope in her eyes. “If they have been rescuing survivors, do you think there’s any chance my family survived?” It had been weighing heavily on her mind that she might now be all alone.

  “I don’t know,” replied Wade, feeling her pain. Everyone had freaked out when they had learned about Earth. There had even been a few suicides. It had been bad enough being captives of the Kleese, but then to learn that their families might also be dead had been a devastating blow. Wade couldn’t help wondering about his own family.

  -

  Mason was standing in the spacedock watching the small alien ship set down in the designated berth. A full company of heavily armed marines were on hand to form a greeting party in case anything threatening occurred. General Wainright had sent nearly twenty five hundred troops to Vesta to help Mason keep control of the growing civilian population as well as to protect the valuable asteroid from attack.

  With growing apprehension, Mason waited for a hatch to open on the side of the vessel, expecting to see aliens. Instead, a large hatch in the back of the alien ship opened and a ramp quickly extended until it touched the floor of the bay. Then out walked three people in marine uniforms as well as what obviously was an alien.

  Mason took in a sharp breath and watched as a squad of marines approached the four. He could sense an air of anxiety from the other troops in the spacedock. No one was sure what to expect.

  The sergeant in charge of the squad stopped, saluted the general, and then began speaking to him. Mason saw the general reply and then the sergeant gestured toward Mason. After some discussion, the general nodded and the marines took up escorting positions around the four and began walking toward where Mason was waiting.

  As they approached, Mason noticed that the marine general was an older man, but the other two Humans looked to be much younger. One wore the rank of major and the woman was a lieutenant. The alien was a different story entirely. He was well over six feet tall and his skin had an unhealthy red tinge to it. His face was humanoid with narrow eyes with no eyebrows, a wide nose, and small ears. The top of his head was bald and his arms were longer than a Human’s with long, narrow fingers.

  “I’m General Mitchell,” spoke the general, extending his hand toward Mason.

  “I’m Mason Randle,” responded Mason, reaching out and firmly shaking the general’s hand.

  “The people with me are Major Nelson, Lieutenant Williams, and Marken of the Kivean race.”

  Mason nodded at the others, doing his best not to stare at the alien. “I have a conference room set up nearby for us to meet in. Several of my key people will be there also.”

  “Excellent,” General Mitchell replied. “We have a lot to talk about.”

  The group made their way across the spacedock and passed through a hatch into a long corridor. Along the corridor were several doors, with only one standing open. Reaching it, Mason gestured for the others to enter. Then, turning to the marine sergeant, “I want you and two more of your marines inside with us; the rest are to stand guard in this corridor and make sure we are not bothered.

  “Yes, Sir,” the sergeant replied.

  Mason went on inside and was soon joined by the sergeant and two of his marines. The marines took up positions on each side of the now closed door holding their assault rifles at the ready. The sergeant followed Mason.

  Sean Miller, Pamela Cairns, and Lori Wright were already seated at the long conference table. All were looking in astonishment at Marken, realizing they were seeing their first true alien.

  “Have a seat,” spoke Mason, pointing toward a number of empty chairs at the table. Mason sat down with the marine sergeant standing several feet behind him where he could keep a watchful eye on the four newcomers.

  General Mitchell sat down and looked over appraisingly at Mason. It was obvious this man was in control and was very confident about his ability to run things. He had expected to see a member of the Earth government in charge of Vesta; he wondered why that had not happened.

  “As you know, the Earth has been destroyed; or I should say made nearly uninhabitable,” Mason began in a carefully controlled voice, keeping his anger in check. He still didn’t know if he could trust these people. “For the past year we have been conducting rescue operations, trying to save as many people as possible. Now you show up with a fleet of spaceships. I guess the main questions I have for you is why now, and what do you want?”

  General Mitchell nodded and then spoke. “It’s a long story, and much of it will be difficult to believe, but I assure you everything I am about to tell you is the truth.” Mitchell then began explaining to Mason and the others in the conference room what had occurred to them since being abducted from Earth.

  Several times he was interrupted as Mason or his people asked pointed questions. Mitchell tried to answer as fully as he could, knowing he needed to win these people’s trust. If Mason turned them away, they had no place else to go.

  After nearly two hours of explanations, he stopped and looked at Mason inquiringly. “That’s it. Marken and his people helped us to escape and we returned home. It was only on the return voyage that Marken revealed to us what the Kleese had done to Earth.”

  Mason nodded, letting out a deep breath. The general’s story seemed fantastic, but Marken was sitting here in front of him and there was a large alien fleet out on the edge of the solar system. Mason turned his attention to Marken and asked the alien a direct question. “What do your people expect to get out of this, and why should we help you? You were on the Kleese ship when it destroyed Earth.”

  “We have much to offer,” replied Marken, carefully. He was one of the few people of his race that could actually speak English. He had put in a lot of time and effort learning to be able to speak it fluently. “We have advanced medical techniques, we are familiar with the Kleese and their Empire, and we are willing to turn over to you all of our technical advances, including the Space Fold drive. You must understand that my race also has been a prisoner of the Kleese and forced to obey their commands.”

  Mason’s eyes lit up at being able to get an FTL drive for the Phoenix and the Armageddon. The thought of having an actual star drive for the ships made the offer very tempting. “I understand your plight,” he said evenly, trying to hide his excitement. “But we are short on space and still have millions of survivors trapped on Earth. I just don’t know where we will put your people.”

  “I think we can help there,” Marken replied with an honest smile. “With the technology we have available on our ships, we can help you to construct new habitats for your people as well as offer our ships as a means to move them off the planet. The passenger ships we brought are fully capable of landing upon Earth.”

  Mason leaned back in his chair placing his right hand upon the table as he thought this over. The biggest problem they had was building new habitats to hold all of the survivors. The passenger ships would also be a big help in getting people off the planet. People were dying daily on Earth due to the harsh conditions upon the surface. “What if the Kleese come looking for you?”

  Marken looked over at General Mitchell, who nodded. “We have developed a new weapon that the Kleese are not aware of,” replied Marken, evenly. “It is a particle beam which we believe their large disk ships will have no defense ag
ainst.”

  “We have two large warships of our own,” Mason spoke as he thought over the possibilities. “Would it be possible to install these particle beam weapons on them?”

  “Yes,” replied Marken, nodding his head. “I have engineers that could build and install the beams, as well as upgrade your ships with faster sublight drives and the Space Fold drive. We would have to see your ships first, but it could probably be done very quickly. We would also be willing to upgrade all of your weapons systems. The Kleese also have a sublight antimatter missile they use which we can provide you.”

  “We could bring the Armageddon back inside the spacedock and allow your engineers to make the modifications there,” Sean suggested, excited about the possibility of upgrading the battlecruiser to something far more deadly. He was also extremely interested in the advanced technology that Marken seemed to be offering access to.

  “We have some military scientists and a few engineers that were abducted as well,” General Mitchell added. “They have been studying the Kleese technology for months and should be able to help explain it to your people.”

  “That would be helpful,” responded Sean, thinking of the possibilities. He would also like to see the inside of some of the alien ships in Marken’s fleet.

  “At some point in time the Kleese are going to find us again,” Wade spoke for the first time. He had been listening and knew this needed to be brought up. “They will be searching for us after our escape from their station, and we must be ready for that confrontation. I will never go back to serve them. None of us will!”

  Mason nodded in understanding. “If these Kleese are as bad as you say they are, then we need to be prepared. I have no intention of allowing them anywhere near any of our installations. I’ll want all the information you have on what types of weapons they possess and what we can do to defend ourselves from them.”

  “You will have it,” promised Marken, leaning forward. “Given enough time, I firmly believe we can defend this system from the Kleese.”