Exodus: Empires at War: Book 15: All Quiet on the Second Front?

by Doug Dandridge

  “Send a signal to Tonnasar's flagship by wormhole,” ordered the great admiral. Tonnasar's flagship, like the other two, had a wormhole, connected to the capital system of the Empire, and allowing all the command vessels to communicate instantaneously, as well as send spreads of missiles through once they expanded the portal into a gate.

  “I want the complete recordings of that battle sent to me,” Mrastaran told the com officer. “On my command. And I really don't care if Tonnasar doesn't want them coming to me. I will have them.”

  He would look over those records, including the take from the bridge of Tonnasar's flagship during the battle. And he would discover just what had gone wrong. Sure, they had won several great victories, as well as numerous small ones, since thrusting in the Nation of New Earth. Still, he was limited by what ships he had, and was unlikely to get more. So every ship counted. And an incompetent male who wasted ships and crew was something he could not tolerate.

  * * *

  “We haven't even been able to slow them down, sir,” said Vice Admiral Janic, the Alpha in charge of the central sector of the front. The Alpha's nostrils flared, showing his anger at the result.

  Admiral Klanarat nodded as he looked at the other Alpha over the wormhole com. There had been six wormholes deployed at the front, mostly for com and data transfer purposes. And hundreds of the Klassekians the Empire had sent them. The Klassekians were a godsend, giving the Nation unprecedented com capability. Still, their organic minds were limited when it came to data transmission, whereas the wormholes weren't. They could send unlimited bandwidth through the portals, important when the analysts were clamoring for all the information they could get.

  “What are they doing differently?” asked the Alpha fleet leader, sitting in the command chair of his flag bridge. The bridge was dry, for the time being, since they were not accelerating, and any changes in vector would require only small boost times.

  “They are deployed in a manner I have never seen, sir. We close with what looks like manageable forces, something we should be able to defeat. And then we find ourselves hammered by a superior force we can't handle.”

  “Shit,” growled Klanarat. “Well, try your best to delay them, but avoid any fights you can't win.” The admiral checked the data feed from the ship's computers for a moment. “We'll be there in four days.”

  “We might have lost the entire frontier sector by then,” replied the vice admiral.

  “Then we will have lost it. We can take it back, and destroy their fleet,” said Klanarat, scowling. “Just delay them and preserve as much of your fleet as possible.”

  He didn't like that. Not at all. There were worlds, scores of them, that had been under the domination of the Cacas for centuries. Their people had never known freedom, until New Earth had come in and liberated them. Not the liberation of the old regime, that had only taken alien worlds to exterminate the aliens.

  The admiral had been involved in some of those past slaughters, even though his conscience had told him it was wrong. But the masters, the clones of the original leaders who had brought them to this space to escape the Cacas, were thought of as Gods, to be obeyed without hesitation. The Nation had a lot to make up for, and removing intelligent lifeforms from the domination of beings that used them for slave labor, that used them for food, went a long way in performing that penance. Letting the Cacas have those people back was a betrayal, but if they didn't have the forces in place to stop them, there was nothing they could do but slow the tide and prepare the counter-offensive.

  Why couldn't they have waited another month, thought Klanarat, burying his face in his hands for a moment. The reason there had been so little at the front was the New Earth fleet was preparing for a major offensive. A lot of ships needed repairs, even more required upgrades to keep them up to date. And then there was the new construction, needing shakedowns and training. In three more weeks ninety percent of the fleet would have been marshaling at that front, preparing to attack. They would have been able to hit this enemy offensive with a counter strike that would have sent them reeling back into their own space, the New Earth fleet hot on their heels.

  Unfortunately, the enemy had taken advantage of the New Earth deployments. Whether by luck, or because they had intelligence telling them when to attack? That was something that Naval Intelligence needed to find out. If coincidence, there was nothing they could do about it but fight on and beat this offensive. But if there was an intelligence leak, it needed to be found and sealed, fast.

  “Get me New Earth Naval Intelligence on the com. Now.”

  He assumed they would have had the same thoughts as he had. Assumptions were something he couldn't afford, that his nation couldn't afford.

  “Admiral Klanarat,” answered the red-haired human on the other side of the com link. “What can I do for you, sir?”

  Chapter Five

  It is not a sign of arrogance for the king to rule. That is what he is there for. William F. Buckley, Jr.

  “Admiral Sergiov on the com for you, ma'am,” came the call from the bridge over the intercom.

  “Put her through,” ordered Bednarczyk, putting her flat comp on the desk and rubbing her eyes.

  “You look like you could use some more sleep, Admiral,” said Admiral Ekaterina Sergiov, head of Combined Intelligence for the New Terran Empire.

  Beata was about to tell the woman that how much sleep her superior officer got was none of her business, but bit it back just in time. Though only a four star, Sergiov held responsibilities far above that rank. She was in charge of not only all military intelligence, but also the civilian branches, including her old fiefdom of the Imperial Intelligence Agency. And she had the ear of the Emperor. Not a woman that any smart officer wanted to piss off.

  “What can I do for you, Admiral Sergiov?” asked Beata after stifling a yawn.

  “We have suspicions that someone out there in the New Earth fleet is giving information to the Cacas. We're not sure who, or what they have been sending, but we have reason to believe it's someone high in the New Earth military establishment.”

  “Wonderful,” growled Beata, letting out a huff. “Why in the hell would anyone among the Klavarta want to cooperate with the Cacas. Don't they realize what the damned big bastards want to do with them?”

  The Ca'cadasans had made no secret of the fact that they wanted to exterminate the human species. All of the species, both the enhanced humans of the Empire and the engineered versions of the Nation. To them all humans were tainted with the sins of the originals from Earth and its colonies. One of those colonies had killed a Ca'cadasan Empire heir after giving their surrender, and the Caca Emperor of that time had ordered the extermination of everything human, including the genetic lines of their home-world.

  “I'm not sure what any single individual Klavarta might gain,” said Sergiov, shrugging her shoulders. “What we hypothesize is that some of the Klavarta were actually less than welcoming of our interference in their government under the clones. Some thought of them as gods, and even though we took them out, they still harbor the belief that they will return, once we are ejected from their nation. So, the sooner that happens, the better, as far as they are concerned”

  “Insanity,” blurted Bednarczyk, shaking her head. “Don't they realize the Cacas will use them, then kill them?”

  “They think they can control that situation,” said Sergiov. The intelligence chief was silent for a moment, obviously thinking. “We're dealing with fanatics. So who is to say what they're thinking, or if we can reason with them?”

  “What do you want me to do about it out here?”

  “The Klavarta intelligence agencies are already working on trying to locate the leaks. That's not something we can get involved with. Not without stepping on the toes people we don't want to infuriate. What you can do is make sure that all of your coms are only to people who have already been cleared by their government.”

  “How do I know I can trust them?” asked Beata, her head be
ginning to hurt from thinking of all the implications.

  “You really don't,” said Sergiov, closing her eyes for a moment. “At least until we get a list of the people Klavarta intelligence has cleared. So be very careful what you transmit over the net. Even what you tell the Klavarta in face to face discussions.”

  Will I ever be able to trust anyone out here again, thought the admiral, clenching her fists, a sinking feeling in her chest. She was not a spy, had no inclination to think like one, and really wanted nothing to do with them. She was a spacer, a soldier, someone the people above her pointed at the enemy they wanted destroyed and let her loose. Plain and simple.

  “We will get you information as soon as we have it,” said Sergiov, opening her eyes and looking right into those of the other admiral. “You are to tell no one in your command about this. The only orders you are to give is to restrict data over coms. I know you don't like this, Admiral. But it comes down from Sean himself.”

  “Understood,” said Beata, not liking that order a bit. There were people under her command that she trusted with her life. If she couldn't trust them with this, then how could she ask them to trust her and her commands. I might have to tell Mara, as soon as I can get her in the same room. If that ever happened.

  “Until I have more for you, Admiral.”

  Beata nodded her acknowledgment, the protocol being that she, as the ranking officer, decided when to cut the transmission. Sergiov nodded back, then disappeared from the holo, leaving Beata with her thoughts and her headache.

  * * *

  “We have an unknown ship in the system appearing on our sensors, Great Admiral,” reported the scout that had been sent into the Oort cloud of the system in question.

  This scout was equipped with a wormhole, at least temporarily, so that it could communicate in real time with Mrastaran's flagship. The mission was that important.

  “It's sending a coded transmission, my Lord.”

  The code appeared on a viewer on the bridge of the flagship, and Mrastaran grinned in satisfaction as he recognized the header. “That's the one. Close with them and take in all the information they have. Afterwards, you are to let them go.”

  “Let them go, my Lord?” asked the surprised ship commander, a shocked expression on his face.

  “Yes, you young fool,” growled the great admiral, already not in the best of moods. “You are not to harm them. They are important to the mission. If anything happens to them you will pay with your life.”

  That was why he had given the scout the wormhole for the moment, so he could be in direct communication with the captain of that ship. Because Ca'cadasan commanders tended to shoot first and wonder why they were being punished later. He wasn't sure what would happen to his intelligence source if that ship was destroyed. It might not harbor the leader of that faction in the New Earth command. Or it might, and then that source would be gone.

  “They are sending across a transmission, my Lord. It's coming through in a burst.” The scout commander looked away for a moment, barking a command at his com officer. “We are not able to read it. The encryption is beyond us.”

  “You are not meant to read it, Sub-Commander,” growled the exasperated great admiral. “Now, send it over to my ship as soon as you can. Then get out of that system and let them be about their business.”

  “We're receiving the data stream, my Lord,” said the flagship's com officer a moment later.

  “Put it through decryption and send it to my station,” ordered Mrastaran, waiting for the holo to come up by his chair. “And keep your eyes off of it.”

  It was a longer wait than he was comfortable with, but he kept his anger in check, hoping that the information was worth the trouble. The holo finally came up, showing a list of ship strengths and deployments for the enemy. Mrastaran leaned forward, looking over the list, grunting in satisfaction. The list was much as he had expected, but it was good to see that his predictions had been correct.

  We have destroyed over half of their frontier force, he thought, looking at the numbers and subtracting what he knew they had destroyed. It had taken days, long periods of time filled with anxiety that the enemy might divine his intentions. Space battles across a wide front took time to develop, and really this one was still in the process of developing, hopefully the way he wanted it.

  The enemy had a powerful force coming up, enough to challenge his and possibly win, if they were deployed properly. Fortunately for his plans, it was looking like they were not going to be deployed properly. It looked like they were going to send individual forces in that were intended to destroy his spread forces in detail. Only his forces wouldn't be deployed as they thought, and he would start by rolling up their flank forces, then take them out in line.

  And they're leaving their allies from the Empire behind, thought the admiral, letting out a breath in disbelief. The fleet from the New Terran Empire, while not possessing a lot of ships compared with the Klavarta, was made up of more powerful vessels on the whole. That was a fleet that could cause him a lot of trouble if they were in support range of the Klavarta, and it was looking like they wouldn't be. At the time he was hitting the Klavarta flank the Imperials would be still be three or more days away. By the time they got to him he would be busy running through the enemy center after destroying both the flanks. The Imperial fleet would get there with too little too late.

  Next he pulled up the wormhole deployments. Most of the portals would be with the initial Klavarta fleet. That was good and bad. When he destroyed the Klavarta fleet most of those portals would be gone. He knew that the Nation of New Earth had very little production capacity compared to the New Terran Empire. Two a week at most. His own empire was now up to twenty a week, nowhere near what the human empire was making, estimated by intelligence at twenty-five to thirty a day. There were more coming on an end run around the Ca'cadasan Empire from the human empire. If he had more information about their current location and timetable he might be able to place a force in their way. Right now that wasn't possible, but he had a good idea of when they were going to get to his area of operations. Too late to do the Klavarta any good.

  The Imperial fleet was strong in warships, though nowhere near what they would be facing. They were also weak in wormholes. If they had come up with and joined with the Klavarta they might have made a real difference. Since they wouldn't join up in time, they wouldn't make that difference. The other allies really weren't worth worrying about. Old tech, small ships, they would fall like scurrying prey before the might of his fleet.

  He looked over the data on the commanders. Great Admiral Klanarat was a known. He had led the Klavarta fleet on its last series of battles against the Ca'cadasan fleet. He was a good enough commander, if somewhat conservative. Tactically sound, but tending to fall into predictable patterns. The great admiral was happy to see that the Alpha was going to be his primary opponent. In fact, his entire strategy was based on the Klavarta using the tactics that had won them so many battles in the past.

  Mrastaran looked over the profiles of the Klavarta sub-admirals, the ones who had been involved in combat with the Ca'cadasans in the past, as well as some who had yet to make their way onto the radar. Most were competent, if not brilliant, and those who were of above average ability were noted with their deployments. He would have to make sure that those commands were hit with extreme force, so they would have little effect on the overall battle.

  The human commander was more of an unknown. The Ca'cadasan fleet had never faced this Admiral Beata Bednarczyk. She had an uninspiring record, mostly against pirates within and on the borders of her Empire. She had been pulled from obscurity to fight the war machines, whatever the hell those were, outside of the Empire. The great admiral had no idea what any of that meant. But he figured that the war machines couldn't be a very competent opponent. She had beat them, though her command had been shot to hell in the process. He doubted that she would be much of a factor in the battle. And, according to his own prejudices, she wa
s a female, which meant she couldn't be as intelligent as a male. Ca'cadasan females were about as intelligent as a very smart hunting animal. Even though intellectually the great admiral knew the humans were different, deep down he still couldn't take a female leader seriously.

  The other human commander. Admiral Mara Montgomery, while also a female, had a long combat history against the Ca'cadasans. The female had led scout forces that had performed well in several campaigns. Even brilliant at times. That would be one to watch. Of course, if he avoided her until he had taken out the majority of the force facing him she would be nothing more than a nuisance.

  He closed the files after forwarding them to his staff analysis team and sat back in his chair, thinking about what he had learned. After a few moments he decided that he had a very good chance of defeating the enemy with minimal loss to himself. When he had defeated their fleet the way would be open to their core worlds. It was looking like this campaign might be the last on this front. Mission accomplished. Of course, the admiral knew he was counting his victories before they happened. That was a mistake made by too many Ca'cadasan officers in the past, and being aware of his thinking made it less likely to bite him in his big ass.

  * * *

  Six hours later, after a good meal and a rest break, Mrastaran was at it again, sitting in his office with the holo map of the area seeming to stretch into infinity. It was a disconcerting image, one that made many Ca'cadasans ill. He enjoyed the view, which made him feel like the master of time and space.

  The enemy was starting to separate, just as he had predicted, taking the best paths to take out the ships where they supposed his formations would be. Only they wouldn't be there, and the enemy wouldn't find that out until it was much too late.

  “Send orders to all formations and commands,” he said into the air, connecting with the com officer on the bridge. “Proceed according to plan. All ships are to time their courses to optimize consolidation before striking.”