Exodus: Empires at War: Book 10: Search & Destroy

by Doug Dandridge

The Ca’cadasans now attack, sending large fleets into several industrial or base systems, and smaller forces to many other stars. The Massadara system, a major Imperial base, is one of the systems attacked. Sean is serving on one of the battleships that happens to be in that system, and is aboard the vessel as it heads into combat with the enemy. Word comes to the system that Sean is the uncrowned Emperor, and his ship, against his protests, is ordered out of combat. His ship, the Sergiov, heads out of the system before the main battle begins, a small Ca’cadasan force on its heels. The main battle is joined, and, though it inflicts casualties on the Ca’cadasan fleet that is only about a decade ahead in technology, it is defeated, and the system falls.

  The Sergiov is battered by the enemy, and Sean is rescued from the ship by Captain Mei Lei and her hyper VII battle cruiser. The battle cruiser fights its way out of the system with the help of Commander Bryce Suttler’s stealth/attack ship, and, along with Commander Maurice von Rittersdorf and his destroyer, starts on the voyage to get Sean back to the capital and the throne. The Ca’cadasans track the two vessels, and Sean escapes on the destroyer while Mei sacrifices her ship in a battle with the Ca’cadasan supercruisers. The battle cruiser Jean de Arc falls out of hyperspace in a catastrophic translation, a low survivability event, but nonetheless manages to survive and starts the long journey home.

  Rear Admiral Mara Montgomery is dispatched with her scout force to locate Sean and get him back to the capital, while von Rittersdorf plays hide and seek against the Ca’cadasans, trying to get the unseated Emperor to safety. Von Rittersdorf catches one of the much larger Ca’cadasan ships in a brilliant ambush which destroys the enemy ship, while causing severe damage to his own. Montgomery’s task force enters the system, and she dispatches the other two supercruisers, then takes the Emperor aboard her flagship. Von Rittersdorf begins the long journey home in his crippled ship with escorts. Sean learns that one of the nearby systems is under siege and, against the protests of the Admiral, orders her to take her ships to break that siege and evacuate the colonists on the frontier world. Meanwhile, the Leader of the House of Lords advances plans to put an Imperial Cousin on the throne while the true heir’s whereabouts is unknown. The Ca’cadasans invade and take the kingdom of New Moscow, and make serious inroads into the New Terran Republic, the sister governments to the Empire.

  On Sestius IV Brevet Brigadier General Samuel Baggett fights the landing of the Ca’cadasans with his mixed command. Farmer and ex-hunter Cornelius Walborski deserts the militia to get his pregnant wife to safety. Though bleeding the enemy, Baggett is forced to fall back into the wilderness before the enemy ground warriors. Walborski’s son is born, but his wife is killed while they are running from the aliens. The farmer goes mad, and stalks the jungle with the skills he had learned as an assistant hunt master, killing many aliens in the jungle. He meets the legendary Preacher of special ops fame, now a retired Ranger and current minister on the planet.

  Montgomery’s task force takes the system and the planet, and evacuates all those that want to leave, just before a larger enemy force enters the system and forces it to flee. Sean meets Dr. Jennifer Conway, who has lost her own fiancé’ in the invasion, and falls in love with her. The scout force fights a running battle back to Conundrum base, rescued at the last moment by the fleet of Duke Taelis Mgonda. Von Rittersdorf makes it to safety, while Mei Lei and her crew are rescued from hyper by another battle cruiser. The XO of the Jean de Arc, Xavier Jackson, falls out of hyper while trying to rescue some crew who could not get off the ship. Surviving the translation, he is rescued by beings from legend, the Ancients that everyone assumes are extinct.

  On the Donut it is discovered that an ancient race known as the Yugalyth, another creature from legend, capable of changing its very body form over a period of days and duplicating any creature, is at large. A Yugalyth agent imitates Dr. Lucille Yu, the station Director, and attempts to destroy the huge construct. Dr. Yu uses quantum teleportation, an experimental technique that only succeeds in moving about half the material being teleported to its target, to teleport negative matter to destroy the bomb the creature put on the station attitude control board. The new enemy is discovered, one which originates in the realm of the Empire’s close ally, Elysium.

  The Knockermen, a reptilian race in the Elysium Empire, revolt against the dominant Brakakak. The Brakakak eventually curb the revolt, but are forced to commit their entire fleet to searching out the rebels and breaking the rebellion. The leader of Elysium and his family are forced to take refuge with the Terrans during the battle of the capital.

  Sean comes back to the Supersystem by the wormhole gates that are now being deployed through Imperial space. Chief of Naval Operations Gabriel Lenkowski gathers a fleet that transports Sean to the capital planet, where, with a large force of Marines, he lands during the coronation ceremony and stops the Lords from crowning his cousin. Sean is now Emperor, Commander and Chief of the Imperial Military, and, given his wartime powers, the most powerful Monarch in a century. His companions go off to other commands; Mei Lei to a battle cruiser squadron, one equipped with new wormhole launched weapons; von Rittersdorf to lead a new destroyer squadron; and Baggett to command of a heavy infantry brigade. Cornelius Walborski, on the recommendation of Preacher, joins the Imperial Army with hopes of being augmented and becoming a Ranger.

  The Ca’cadasans hit Conundrum, the HQ of Sector IV, hours after Sean jumps through the wormhole from there. They take the system, and land troops to complete the conquest of the planet. Sean is forced to engage in a hit and run war against an enemy that is still more advanced, and more powerful, than his own fleet. He orders his units to refuse combat when possible, and only to fight when they can inflict maximum damage on the enemy. Q-ships, militarized merchant vessels with quantum teleporters capable of sending antimatter into the interior of an enemy ship, bait and destroy Ca’cadasan raiders. The Lords go on the warpath against Sean, demanding that he commit his fleet to a major battle. His prophetic dreams indicate that one of the core worlds, the heavily populated industrial planets at the heart of the Empire, is a target. But the dream does not tell him when.

  Wormhole gates are dropped in occupied systems, then maneuvered to planetfall, allowing ground forces to insert. This is done on most of the occupied worlds, allowing the units to engage the aliens in Guerilla warfare. Preacher leads a Ranger brigade against the Ca’cadasans on the surface of Conundrum, and the campaign forces the enemy off the planet. The Lasharans, religious fanatics, are again attacking the frontiers of the Empire, and Baggett’s unit, as part of a heavy infantry corps, is sent to take their home planet and occupy their primary temple, breaking their will.

  The Ca’cadasans strike at the Cimmeria system, utterly obliterating the two inhabited industrial worlds located there. Sean retaliates by sending forces through wormholes to strike behind the main enemy fleet and destroy their bases. The Fenri Empire, old enemies of the humans, sign an alliance with the Ca’cadasans, and the New Terran Empire launches a spoiling attack on those aliens. The logical beings of the Crakista Empire, seeing the Ca’cadasans as the greater threat, join the human cause, ordering their military to offer all possible aid to the humans. Things are beginning to look up until the Ca’cadasans launch yet another assault, almost overrunning all of Sector IV.

  Sean and Jennifer become lovers, a fact taken advantage of by the Yugalyth agents, who kidnap her and threaten to kill her if Sean does not place himself in their hands. Sean agrees, and has himself equipped with a pair of small wormholes that allow him to kill the kidnappers when they think they have him in their power.

  Cornelius completes Ranger school, finds a new love himself, and is assigned to the planet Azure, one of the deadliest in the Empire. He and his men stalk the Ca’cadasans through a jungle that is an enemy to both, and encounters a new client race of the Ca’cadasans, the supremely competent hunters called Maurids. Cornelius saves and is saved by a young girl, Rebecca, and completes the mission his company could
n’t, destroying a Ca’cadasan headquarters. He returns to the capital system again a hero, one of the few to win the Imperial Medal of Heroism twice. He marries, and gains a new mom for his baby son, and his adopted daughter, Rebecca.

  Sean, in need of a victory, plans an ambush for the Ca’cadasan fleet in the Congreeve system, a frontier world made up to look like an industrial developing planet. The Cacas, using the Knockermen, send in a strike force to take out the Donut. And the Empire sends in a strike against the Fenri Empire, the new ally of the Ca’cadasans. Cornelius attends Officer Candidate School and is well on his way to becoming an officer, while the Opposition Party of the Lords continues to cause trouble for the Emperor, threatening a No Confidence Vote in Parliament.

  The strike into Fenri space is a success, taking the heart out of their fleet and capturing several of their industrial planets, sending the small mammalians into a frenzy. The Fenri still have some power in their fleet, and organize an offensive that kicks the NTE naval force out of their space, stranding Baggett and his soldiers on the surface of one of the planets.

  The Ca’cadasan strike force makes it to Elysium space, commandeers a Brakakak light cruiser, and takes the station in orbit around that Empire’s capital world. The Cacas jump through the wormhole to the Donut, bringing thousands of troops and four Quarkium devices, intending to destroy the station. The Knockermen destroy the Brakakak station with the device that they were given by the huge aliens. And Walborski, heading through the Donut on a short leave to see his wife and children, finds himself involved in another battle.

  Sean lures the Ca’cadasan main fleet into battle, springing his ambush, and ravaging the enemy fleet. They turn into a tougher opponent that he planned on, and some of the enemy fleet escapes to head back to their base, leaving the Imperial fleet with a lesser victory than wanted, and higher casualties than expected.

  Cornelius organizes a team to keep the Cacas from exploding one of their devices on the Donut, and only one of the bombs is detonated. The station, though damaged, survives. Meanwhile, Baggett’s force in Fenri space resist the ground assault with heavy casualties, until relieved by the Fleet, and the Fenri are all but knocked out of the war. Natasha Sung is meanwhile closing in on her goal, the aliens who are also fighting the enemy at the other side of their empire.

  The alliance fleet reorganizes and prepares to attack the Cacas, while they are still reeling from their defeat. Using the cover of a supernova explosion, which covers the resonances of ships transiting hyperspace, Sean launched a multi-winged assault on the remaining Ca’cadasan forces in the Empire. The fleets strike without warning, bringing the Cacas to battle and all but annihilating their forces. The Caca commander orders his remaining ships to get away as they can, then is incapacitated during the escape. The Great Admiral’s second in command does the unthinkable and surrenders the remaining fleet.

  The Emperor discovers that about a billion New Moscow citizens are being held in the former Kingdom of New Moscow, including over seven hundred million on the homeworld. The Cacas are processing the humans for their protein, and Sean orders their rescue at all costs. A combined New Terran Empire, New Terran Republic and Crakista fleet invades the space of New Moscow, intent on rescuing the prisoners. The main concern is that the Cacas will kill their captives before the ground forces can rescue them. Using their wormhole technology, the Empire is able to insert a heavy corps and numerous special ops teams, including a company led by Cornelius Walborski, to storm the camps and rescue the hundreds of millions of prisoners.

  The prisoners are freed, and the Empire starts to evacuate them through wormholes, while a massive Caca fleet is tracked on the way to the system, due to arrive well before the main Imperial force. The Fenri, with Ca’cadasan help, strike at the Imperial force invading their space, and inflict a significant defeat on them, sidetracking the invasion force and compelling the Imperials to go back on the defensive so they can regroup.

  Commodore Natasha Sung reaches the space of the rumored power fighting the Ca’cadasans on the other side of their Empire. She finds that the Klavarta, as they call themselves, are actually genetically engineered human warriors created by the survivors of the Exodus IV, thought to have been destroyed. It is discovered that the original leaders of that mission still controlled the New Earth, as their nation was called. They were clones, a process that allowed humans to live past their normal life span with artificially grown bodies with one fatal flaw. They were all psychopaths, and these leaders had led their people in a campaign of genocide against many of their neighbors, making them hated in their own region. Still, the Empire works to forge an alliance, though the Emperor has doubts that Parliament and the citizenry will approve that treaty.

  The Fenri are pushed back by a new Imperial offensive, losing much of their space and their fleet. What seems like a complete victory for the humans turns into a stalemate as the Fenri turn to a war of raids and ambushes. The Cacas appear quiescent, as they gear up for another offensive against human kingdoms.

  An assassin attempts to take out the Emperor and Empress, but hesitates in taking the shot, then is chased away by security. Angel, an ex-Naval Commando, wonders why he is working for the kind of people that would kill the leader of their kingdom during wartime. He decides he is fighting for the wrong people, and determines to take out the traitors who threaten the Empire

  A Ca’cadasan fleet, working with intelligence giving them the location of the Klavarta homeworld, moves to strike, while the Empire plans their own strike to take out the cloned leadership of New Earth. The Cacas strike, and the Empire is forced to advance their own operation, killing the clones while at the same time reinforcing the Klavarta with some of their own forces through wormhole gates. The Cacas win the battle, but the Empire is able to evacuate most of the Klavarta and their pure human masters through the wormhole. Sean then orders a wormhole equipped ship throughthe wormhole gate, causing an enormous explosion that destroys almost half the Ca’cadasan fleet. The Klavarta are reorganized as the leaders of their nation, and the Nation of New Earth is created to occupy the area formerly ruled by the clones, from there to continue the war of the second front.

  Prologue

  CA’CADASAN HOME SYSTEM, JULY 25TH, 1002

  Dr. Ivan Smirnov looked nervously over his shoulder at the huge aliens who stood against the wall of the large chamber. They had promised him his life, and the lives of his family, if he achieved what they wanted of him. Still, he didn’t trust the creatures who were trying to wipe out all of the human kingdoms in the Perseus arm. Along with all the humans who lived in those kingdoms. People who had been friends, neighbors and colleagues before New Moscow had been overrun by the Ca’cadasans.

  He didn’t like the way they looked at him, promises or not. Like he was a food animal, waiting the slaughter. They looked at his family the same way, which made him want to hurl himself at the nearest Caca and strangle the creature with his bare hands. That thought almost brought a smile to his face, the very idea of a slender scientist like himself trying to physically assault one of the three meter tall, three hundred kilo predators was laughable. But if they tried to do something to his family, what choice would he have? They were everything to him, and what had decided him on turning traitor to his people.

  One of the Cacas said something in their deep, growling language, looking over at the alien scientist who was his keeper on this project. He, or was that it? He was the member of a radially symmetrical species, the Rustra, that had been slaves to the Ca’cadasan Empire for thousands of years. The being worked for the Cacas because he knew no other way, and would never think of revolting.

  The Rustra scientist replied to the Caca, the project overseer, in the same language. Since the Cacas controlled when he could use a translator, he could not interpret what they were saying, beyond a few words. And one of those words was Emperor.

  So they want the big guy to see this for himself, he thought, looking at the culmination of his work, standing up ag
ainst the wall. A silvered mirrored surface, set in a frame of machinery. The first wormhole produced by the Cacas. Or was that produced by the slaves of the Cacas?

  And now that they have it, what do they need me for? thought the human scientist. His anxiety rose at that thought. Would they get rid of him now, and his family with him? Had what he had done for the Cacas accomplished nothing more than adding some months to their lives? Or would they honor their agreement and let he and his survive, so he could continue to supervise the industrial process of wormhole production? He had no control over the situation, and that was what was driving his anxiety.

  “The Supervisor has informed me that the Emperor will be here within the hour to look at the wormhole,” said the Rustra scientist through his translator. “You are expected to be on your best behavior, and to be subservient at all times.”

  And I could do my own people a lot of good if I could kill the son of a bitch thought Smirnov, giving the Rustra a head nod.

  “He is very interested to know what advantages these will give to his forces,” continued the Rustra.

  Smirnov nodded again, almost afraid to speak that he might show his true emotions. He looked once more at the Caca supervisor, standing against the wall with both pairs of arms crossed over his chest and upper abdomen. Smirnov wasn’t sure what he was thinking about. How could he kill one of these creatures without a weapon? And their Emperor? He would have to go through several of them to get to the august personage.

  “On your knees,” shouted the Supervisor, his lower arms dropping to his sides to the position of attention, his upper arms then crossing to pound on his chest in salute.

  Two very large Cacas walked through the door to the lab. These were dressed in some kind of ceremonial armor, shining black and red lacquered plate, silver helms on their heads, horns thrusting through the holes in the upper sides. They carried two meter long bared blades with hilts large enough for all four hands to grasp. At their sides were holstered some large, modern looking pistols. The males moved to the side and turned, looking at each other and bowing their heads.