They had learned much from the operation. Stealth/attack were only useful that close in if they could make a quick kill. If the attack was delayed the ships lost their stealth, their main combat advantage. They had also discovered that warp fighters couldn’t go over light speed within the dense particle field around the star while also dealing with the deep gravity well. And wormhole launched missiles were a nonstarter, both those fired from a distance and those released close up. They were going too fast to handle the dense particle field and lost all of their sensor capability. Sean was willing to let them kill the platforms that had gone dark. Maybe they had surrendered, but he had not been willing to take that chance. Fortunately for the Cacas every one of the missiles had missed, flying into the star.
“We did kill them, your Majesty,” said McCullom, looking off the holo for a moment. “And with very light losses, all things considered.”
“The stealth/attack squadron lost twenty-one ships out of twenty-four, an eighty-seven percent casualty rate. The three ships that survived were all badly damaged. And the warp fighter squadrons faired even worse. And don’t even start on our long range missile fire. It was useless. The only bright point was our major ship actions, and that was mainly thanks to the Cacas having so few real warships in the system. It wasn’t a satisfactory conclusion. So we need to look at our tech, and more importantly, our tactics when dealing with those things. Because we could have lost everything we committed to that system just as easily as we won.”
“I can think of some programming changes we can make that will let the missiles close at the proper velocity, your Majesty,” said Chan, pulling up a holo at her end that appeared over the table, showing missile attack profiles at different velocities. “Maybe even install some electromagnetic fields.”
“That’s great. Work on that. And try to come up with some other things. I want to be able to fix and kill those platforms before they can initiate the event. I want to be able to do that without putting our own people into the basket of their trap. And I want to lose no more planets full of intelligent beings to that bastard of an Emperor.”
“From what our prisoners told us, I doubt he will be able to get too many of his males to acquiesce to participation in an attack like that,” said Ekaterina Sergiov, looking straight into the eyes of the monarch. For her part, she had been right on target with her intelligence analyses. With the exception of how the Cacas had hidden their assets near the star, and frankly her sources had no way of knowing how the enemy had changed their tactics.
“But there are other ways of manning the platforms,” said Sean, annunciating each word. “Robotic systems for one.”
“And we’ve seen how that can work out,” said McCullom with a sigh. There were nods all about the table, all thinking of the Machines their forces were fighting out in far space against monstrosities of their own making.
“Which isn’t to say that they won’t use them,” said Chan, gaining the attention of all. “If the AIs don’t have access to the drives, or if the drives are disabled, then they won’t be able to leave the proximity of the star. They would only be capable of following their instructions, or not. And if enough of them follow orders, the star goes up.”
“Good point, Admiral,” said Sean. “So, we need to find a way to kill them without deploying ships to the system. If we can’t do that, I need a way to fix the enemy at the earliest opportunity so we can send in a squadron of stealth ships too take them out. Which means we need to know where they are well before they activate their hyperdrives.”
“A tall order, your Majesty,” said McCullom, looking around to see the agreement on the faces of the others around the table.
“And the kind of order I expect the talent in this room to find a way to obey. It might not be easy, but then, if it was easy we could have anyone doing our jobs.”
“On the positive side, your Majesty, our friends are very happy with us,” said Sergiov with a smile. “That was a good call. Even the most loyal of their leaders can now see the Ca’cadasan Empire for what they really are. Slavers with no care for those they enslave, even the ones that have served them with their best efforts.”
“A billion of them,” said McCullom in a soft voice, shaking her head. “What can we do with them in our landing forces?”
“More like twenty or thirty million of them,” said Grand Marshal Mishori Yamakuri, speaking for the first time. “We can’t expect the entire population to sign on as soldiers.”
“Still more than we had,” said the CNO, giving the Grand Marshal a quick glare for spoiling her flight of fancy.
“Unfortunately, we have no more Maurids placed in positions in their command structure,” said Sergiov, glancing at the two service leaders before fixing her gaze on the Emperor. “That intelligence pipeline has more or less dried up.”
“More or less?” asked McCullom, her eyes narrowing in thought.
“Quite a few of them have faded into the woodwork,” said the intelligence chief. “They’re very stealthy creatures, and they thought ahead to the day when they might break with their masters. When they feel the time is right, they will strike. But the pipeline we had into the Caca high command is gone.”
“We still have our signal intelligence into their system, correct?” asked Sean.
“Correct, your Majesty,” said Sergiov. “The stealth ship is lying low. The last report was there was a lot of signal traffic in their home fleet. Electromagnetic and grav. Unfortunately, they have changed their codes, so we aren’t sure what the hell they’re saying.”
“Any chance of decryption?”
“There’s always a chance, your Majesty. However, decryption is always a hit or miss proposition. We’re not always sure if what we get is accurate, or just wishful thinking. We need another source to verify, and that is what we’re missing.”
Sean looked at her for a moment, then nodded in acknowledgment. He might not have liked hearing it, but he had to accept that his people were doing all they could to get information. The other side would do everything they could to prevent that information from getting to their enemy’s command structure.
“Okay. I think that does it for now. We’ll meet again in two days to discuss our options for the next stage of the offensive. I think…”
Sean stopped in midsentence when he realized that three of his people had stopped paying attention to him. He felt a short flash of anger as Sergiov, McCullom and Yamakuri all stared off into space, until he realized that they were receiving information over their implants.
“I think you need to see this, your Majesty,” said Sergiov, the first to come out of the trance.
The main holo switched views from the overall look at the front to a single system. It took the Emperor a moment to recognize the system, but when he did his eyes widened. There was a mass of ships, a large blob at this level, around one of the inner planets. And an even larger mass out near where the hyper barrier would be, over a thousand contacts, with scores more appearing every couple of seconds.
“What are we looking at?”
“We’re still trying to come up with an answer, your Majesty,” said Sergiov, a slight smile on her face. “But we think this might be the beginning of a civil war. Or a revolution.”
Sean leaned forward, zooming in on the mass near the planet. The contacts separated, and now he could see that many of the ships were maneuvering. He could tell little else, since the information was restricted to graviton emissions. When a hundred new icons appeared, small but pushing out a lot of gravitons, he realized that he was looking at ships in combat with each other.
“Our asset in the system is reporting a lot of com traffic, from planet to planet, from naval force to naval force. Some of it the clear using their standard grav pulse code. One from the incoming fleet to the home world.”
“Any idea what they’re saying?”
“We’re here,” said Sergiov, her smile growing.
* * *
CA’CADASAN HOME SYSTEM.
“Where are all of my people?” growled the Emperor, standing up from his throne and sending a glare toward his advisors.
The palace seemed to be devoid of life. Normally there were scurrying servants and slaves everywhere, running their errands, or maybe just trying to look busy. The guards were still in place, at least they holding to their oaths of duty. Many of the administrators who ran the government from the palace were also still at their posts, but many weren’t.
“I asked, where are my people?” asked Jresstratta, jumping from his throne and running down the steps, striding across the huge chamber and taking a turn toward a door at the midline of the room. He flew through the door, down the long corridor, then through the opening that led to one of the many balconies on the side of the palace.
The balcony was abnormally quiet as well, even the guards missing. The Emperor stared in disbelief, then ran to the edge of the balcony, looking out over his city. Normally busy at this time of the night, full with Ca’cadasans on their way to and from their nightly revels at taverns and houses, the streets were empty. It was still hours before the curfew, and no reason for people to not be about.
“Where are all my people?”
“I, don’t know, your Majesty,” said Supreme Admiral Kelgarasse, the Naval Chief of Staff, his own eyes wide.
“Where is Pellishar?” asked a now panicking Jressratta, running up to the admiral and grabbing his uniform front with all four hands. “Where is my chief of the secret police?”
“I have not seen him for many hours, your Majesty,” stammered the male, looking around as if he would spot the missing secret policeman hiding in the few spaces in the shadows of the platform.
“Supreme Lord,” yelled a male in the livery of Palace communications, running onto the balcony, his eyes wide. “There is a fleet entering the system.”
“Whose fleet?”
“One of ours. Several thousand ships. We have no idea why they are here.”
“What are they doing here, Supreme Admiral? What in the hells are you doing?”
“I have no idea, your Majesty,” said the male, taking a step back as soon as the monarch released the front of his tunic.
“It’s your fleet. Why don’t you know why it’s here?”
“They sent one grav wave signal, Supreme Lord,” said the com officer.
“Well, what in the hell did they say, you idiot?” growled the youngest male on the balcony.
“We’re here,” said the lower ranking male.
“That’s all. What in the hell does that mean?”
“Your Majesty. Look,” yelled one of the palace guard who had followed the group out onto the balcony. He pointed up at the sky, where lights and flashes were appearing outside of the atmosphere.
The Emperor looked up, mouth open in shock. Bright pinpoints of flashes worked their way across the heavens, then a flurry near bursts. Something flashing with hits moved quickly across the heavens, while something to the south flared as it fell into the atmosphere.
“That’s a battle,” yelled Jressratta, pointing up. “But who’s fighting.”
“Those are all our ships,” said the deflated Naval Chief of Staff. “It’s a revolt.”
“Why weren’t your people tracking that incoming force, Supreme Admiral?” yelled the Emperor, taking a step in his direction and raising both upper arms, hands curled into fists.
“I, don’t know. Unless the people on the outer system tracking stations have gone over to the side of the rebellion.”
“I will have their heads. I will have all of their heads. Order all of those fools killed, and their heads gathered. I will put them on pikes, every couple of meters, from here to Jaffara,” he said, naming a city a hundred kilometers to the east.
All of the other males on the balcony stared at their monarch, who to them had seemed to have lost his mind. It was all well and good to give orders, but it was looking like these would not be carried out anytime soon.
“We need to get you out of here, your Majesty,” said General Fresstas, the male in charge of the Ca’cadasan Army.
“And where are your people, General? Where are your soldiers when your Emperor needs them?”
“I sent out an order to the local garrison, and have received no response,” said the male, letting out a breath. “I don’t think they are on our side.”
“I will have them all killed,” yelled Jressratta, stomping along the floor of the balcony, waving all four fists in the air. Throwing a tantrum, as if that would change the facts of what was happening.
“I think we have more immediate problems, Supreme Lord,” shouted the general, walking to the edge of the balcony and pointing to the east, toward the city of Jaffara.
A long line of lights could be seen along the road leading to that city, the closest a mere few kilometers from the palace, already in the city. The line stretched into the distance along the road, to the horizon.
“What is that? What are those lights?”
“I think they are every portable light source those people could gather,” said the general, closing his eyes for a moment. “And every citizen they could gather to carry them.” He opened his eyes and looked over at the Emperor. “We need to get you out of here, Supreme Lord.”
“Where would I go?” whined the child Emperor, starting to quiver with fear. He was no longer the supreme ruler of the Empire, every life his to end as he wished, his every whim to be obeyed. Now he was again an adolescent Ca’cadasan, one who had gone through none of the trials that had been included in the upbringing of Emperor’s past. Including an education in the Ca’cadasan fleet as a junior officer. “The bunker?”
“That would just become a death trap,” said the general. “We must get you someplace where they won’t look, until we can gather the loyalists to our side.”
“Loyalists,” gasped the Supreme Admiral, looking on in disbelief. “This young fool has alienated the populace and the military with his orders and actions. He has killed us all.”
The Emperor was not paying attention to them, his eyes locked on the landing field to the north, where a line of shuttles was coming in to roost. He didn’t think those shuttles were filled with troops come to save him.
“Arguing isn’t going to help,” growled the general, glaring at the naval commander. “The rebels aren’t going to give us any more consideration than the Emperor. Or do you think they are going to forgive us for the deaths of so many of our own?”
“They might,” said the Supreme Admiral, gesturing to one of the elite guards, who gave head motions to his compatriots.
That warrior brought his rifle to his shoulder, aimed, and fired. The sound of loud buzzing continued for minutes as the angry red light of the beams lit the balcony.
The End
About the Author
Doug Dandridge is the author of over thirty self-published books on Amazon, including the very successful, Exodus: Empires at War series, the Refuge techno-fantasy series, The Deep Dark Well Trilogy, as well as numerous standalone science fiction and fantasy novels. In a five and a half year period as a self-published author, Doug has sold well over two hundred and fifty thousand eBooks, paperbacks and audio books. He has amassed over 6,000 reviews across his books on Amazon, with a 4.6 star average, and a similar number of ratings on Goodreads with a 4.12 star average. His first traditionally published series, Kinship War, should be out in 2019, and he had written a novel, When Eagles Dare, in Chris Kenndy and Mark Wandrey’s Four Horsemen series. He served in the US Army as an infantryman, as well as several years in the Florida National Guard in the same MOS. Doug, who holds degrees from Florida State University and the University of Alabama, lives with his four cats in Tallahassee Florida. He is a sports enthusiast and a self-proclaimed amateur military historian.
Books by Doug Dandridge
Science Fiction
The Deep Dark Well Trilogy
The Deep Dark Well: An Adventure 40,000 years in the making. Pandora Latham was a Kui
per Belt Miner from Alabama. She’s used to landing on her feet, even when the next surface is through a wormhole, halfway across the Galaxy and 46,000 years in the Future. Pandora must discover the secret behind the end of civilization, and the enigma of the Immortal Watcher, the last survivor of the Empire that once ruled the stars. Her decisions will set the path for Galactic recovery, or a continuation down the roads of Barbarism.
To Well and Back: Pandora Latham is back, working Watcher’s plan to restore Galactic Civilization. But first she has to deal with the Xenophobes of the Nation of Humanity, back in the Supersystem with their sights set on making the Galaxy their own. Pandora is angry at the hyper religious Nation, and you don’t want to make a woman from Alabama angry.
Deeper and Darker: Pandora Latham is on the warpath. Watcher, her lover, and the only man who can once again unite the Galaxy, is a prisoner of the Totalitarian government of the New Galactic Empire. The Empire thinks they have the upper hand, but they have never faced someone like Pandi, and the peoples of the Galaxy that she has rallied to her cause.
Theocracy: A young gunpowder era monk becomes the only hope for his doomed world as he is caught up in the game of empire between two more advanced cultures.
Theocracy Book 2: With the aid of Watcher, Patrick O’brien and his partners, including some new alien allies, quest across multiple worlds in a search for the control center that could save his world.
The Exodus Series
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 1: The introduction to the Exodus Universe. Two thousand years prior mankind fled from the Predatory Ca’cadasans, traveling a thousand years and ten thousand light years to a new home. Now the greatest power of their sector of space, things seem to be going well for the New Terran Empire. Until the enemy appears once again at the gates. And the years have not softened the aliens’ stance toward Humanity.
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 2: The saga continues. The Ca’cadasans attack at the moment when the government of the Empire is at its most chaotic. There are other enemies as well, waiting for their chance to fall on the overwhelmed humans. And a young man with no ambition for power finds himself in the position he most dreads.
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 14: Rebellion. Page 34
