The Slaver Wars: First Strike (The Slaver Wars Book Four) (25 page)

Admiral Streth
was walking down a street on Caden’s World. General Abercrombie and his aide, a
Captain Krandle, were with him as well as a squad of heavily armed marines. Everywhere
around them was a scene of destruction.

“I never saw
anyone fight like these Hocklyn Protectors,” Abercrombie commented gravely as
they halted where a long line of covered marine bodies lay.

Several
officers were slowly going down the long row, making sure they could identify
each fallen marine. They all had dog tags, and after each was checked, one of
the officers would mark off a name on the list he was carrying.

“How many did
we lose down here?” asked Hedon, looking over at General Abercrombie. He knew a
lot of brave men and women had died today, up in space as well as down here on
the planet.

“We had twelve
hundred marines protecting this settlement and eight hundred in the other,” replied
the general, motioning for one of the officers to come over. “Unfortunately,
the Hocklyn Protectors all landed in this settlement. We estimate there were
nearly eight hundred of the enemy. Fighting toward the end was fierce; it even
got down to hand to hand in some areas when the Hocklyns overran our defenses.”

An officer
walked up and handed General Abercrombie a list. He examined it briefly, taking
note of several names, and then looked over at Admiral Streth. “We lost 412
marines KIA and another 262 are injured.” He then gazed at Captain Krandle with
a sad look in his eyes. “I’m sorry to say that Lieutenant Simmins is on the
list; he was one of those killed as the Hocklyns overran the positions on the
west side of the operations center.”

Lucy felt
stunned by the news. She felt a wave of dizziness sweep over her and then felt
a steadying hand. Admiral Streth was holding her arm with a sympathizing and
understanding look in his eyes.

“We lost a lot
of good people today, Captain,” he spoke softly. “I’m sorry to hear about Lieutenant
Simmins. I’m sure he was a good marine.”

“He was, Sir,”
replied Lucy, forcing her voice to remain steady. “He was one of the best.”

“Captain
Krandle, why don’t you return to the Command Center.” Abercrombie suggested.
“The admiral and I can finish our tour.”

“Thank you,
Sir,” replied Lucy, trying to hold back the tears.

At the moment,
all she wanted was to find someplace where she could be alone. She had never
been in combat before, and there was so much death surrounding her now.
Lieutenant Simmins and she had grown very close since her posting here. It
would be difficult to stay here without him.

Abercrombie
watched her walk off. “She will be fine after a while; she’s a good officer.”
Then turning back to Admiral Streth, he said. “We didn’t capture a single
Hocklyn Protector, they fought to the death. When they realized their fleet had
been defeated, they did everything they could to take as many of us with them
as possible.”

“That crazy
honor system of theirs,” explained Hedon, shaking his head. “I don’t think we
will see many prisoners taken on either side in this war.”

“What now?”
Abercrombie asked as they continued on their tour of the settlement.

“Admiral
Johnson is sending additional marines to replace those you lost,” answered Hedon.

The air was
still full of smoke and numerous buildings were still burning. Hedon knew it
would take some time to rebuild the settlement if they chose to do so. He
suspected, knowing that many of the miners and their families considered
Caden’s World to be their home that the settlement would be rebuilt. He
couldn’t blame them; it was good to have someplace you could call home.

“What about
the defense satellites?” General Abercrombie asked. “What are we going to do
about replacing them?”

Abercrombie felt
as if they hadn’t work well at all. The missile strike had failed from the
platforms, and the only real use the laser satellites provided had been was
shooting down stray missiles. They were just too vulnerable to Hocklyn weapons
fire.

“They didn’t
work very well because of our fleet disposition,” Hedon responded, his brow
creasing in a frown. “I think in future battles some fleet units are going to
have to be positioned in the same orbit as the satellites to ensure their
survival. That may be a good use for our destroyers. This is war and we must learn
from each battle.”

“Do you think
the Hocklyns will attack us here again?”

“We will be
leaving a fleet in orbit until additional units are assigned to this system,”
Hedon replied as they stopped and watched some marines trying to put out a fire.
The two-story building was burning so badly Hedon knew it was a losing effort. “It
will be at least several months before the Hocklyns can respond to their
failure to take this system. In the meantime, we are preparing a surprise for
them. If it works, I don’t think you need to worry about the Hocklyns attacking
Caden’s World anytime soon.”

“That’s good,”
General Abercrombie responded as he watched more marines coming up to fight the
fire. “We will be bringing the miners and their families back soon, there’s a lot
of rebuilding that needs to be done. I’m sure the Federation will be helping
with that. At least the second mining settlement is still intact.”

“I will talk
to Admiral Johnson,” Hedon said, thinking about what he could do to help. “She
can in turn talk to President Kincaid about making the necessary resources
available for the people here to rebuild.”

“Adam Severson
will be glad to hear that,” Abercrombie responded. He knew that Severson and
several of his people were already surveying the settlement to see what would
be needed.

-

A little
later, Hedon was back in his shuttle returning to the WarStorm. He had wanted
to go down to the planet to see the combat zone first hand to give him a better
feel and perspective for the enemy. Settling back in his seat, he thought about
how the battle had gone. They had lost a lot of ships, but the Hocklyns had
lost more. The massed carrier attack had worked beyond expectations, and he
would be talking to Admiral Adler about future tactics.

He gazed out
of one of the viewports at the approaching WarStorm. He wished he could talk to
Taylor about what he was planning to do. His brother had always been the more
rational and cautious of the two. Closing his eyes, Hedon thought about what Taylor would be saying right now. He knew that he would be telling him to be careful and
not to take this victory for granted that this was just the first of many major
battles ahead.

Opening his
eyes, Hedon let out a heavy sigh. Someday, he would return to Maken. There was
a lake there where he intended to build a cabin. In some ways, he considered
that to be home since it held so many important memories.

-

Colonel Arcles
was sitting in the officer’s mess of the battle carrier Wasp when Captain
Sanders walked in. As their eyes met, Karl gestured for her to come over and
join him.

“How are you
doing, Lacy?” asked Karl, knowing she had been feeling nauseous after their
combat mission.

“Better,” she admitted
as she sat down with her tray. She had a tuna fish sandwich and a glass of tea.
“I was just so afraid we were going to die out there. Those bombers don’t
handle like a fighter.”

“Not if I can
help,” Karl responded with a smile. “You and I both will see the end of this, I
promise you. We will probably be back in our fighters after this. I just felt
it was necessary to lead this first bombing mission.”

“I hope so,”
Lacy replied as she took a small bite of her sandwich. “Sometimes I just wonder
if we made the right choice going into cryosleep.”

Karl was
silent for a moment. It had been a tough decision, especially when his sister
Teena and Jacen Barnes had decided not to go into cryosleep but instead to get
married. They elected to stay behind and raise a family. It had been the
hardest thing he had ever done, leaving Teena like that. She had always been
his little sister, and he had watched over her. But he knew that Jacen would have
taken good care of her as well. Teena had left Karl several recorded messages,
and he knew that Teena and Jacen had raised several children and lived out good,
productive lives on Ceres. Someday, when he had the time, he fully intended to
look up their descendants. Family was important to him.

“I think so,”
Karl replied slowly. “We have a war to fight and you saw how all these newbies
did. We lost a lot of pilots today. They need us to train them on how to fight
the Hocklyns.”

“Perhaps you’re
right,” said Lacy with a sigh. She leaned back and gazed over at Karl and then
she spoke in a soft voice. “I just hope we both make it through this.”

“We will,”
Karl assured her. “Someday we will see the end of this war and be able to
return home. I promise you that.”

Lacy nodded
feeling better after Karl’s reassuring words. He had never let her down on one
of his promises.

-

Jeremy and
Colonel Malen were in his office reviewing the battle. The Avenger had taken
some damage, but nothing severe. Even the Nemesis had come through relatively unscathed.

“Repairs
should be completed in a few more hours,” Malen reported as she looked at the
computer pad she was holding in her right hand. “Engineering wants to fine tune
the sublight drive since some of the maneuvers Ariel put the ship through were
right at the maximum tolerance levels.”

“I was
watching the drive,” interjected Ariel, defensively. “It’s fine, but I
understand the chief engineer wanting to double check.”

“Just a precaution,”
responded Jeremy, calmly. “Ariel, you did fine in the battle, and your tactics
against the Hocklyns were outstanding. Just understand we can’t do that very often.
We have a fleet to command and the Avenger can’t go rushing off and leave them
behind.”

“I realize
that, Admiral,” Ariel replied. She had already sent off a message to Clarissa
telling her what had happened. Clarissa would be thrilled at hearing what Ariel
had done.

“What were our
losses in the battle?” asked Jeremy, looking over at Colonel Malen.

“We lost the
destroyers Fredrick, Kincaid, and Darwin,” she replied as she studied the
information on her computer screen. “We also lost the light cruiser Lightning.”

Jeremy knew
his fleet had gotten off lucky. Admiral Adler had launched his Anlon bomber
strike at the most opportune moment. He was also relieved that Admiral Streth
had said nothing to him about using the Devastator Three missiles. “What about
damage, how did we come out on that?”

“The Monarch
cruiser Vengeance will need some yard time,” Malen answered, her eyes looking
grim. “She took a heavy nuke to her port side. Commander Smith is reporting
over two hundred casualties, but he says the Vengeance’s FTL drive is still
fully operational. The light cruisers Kallen and Malven will also need some
extensive yard time. They were pretty well pummeled there toward the end by the
war cruisers. The rest of the ships are reporting minor to moderate damage.”

“Admiral
Streth has ordered us to report to New Tellus for repairs,” added Jeremy,
recalling his short conversation with the Fleet Admiral. “We’re going to get
some leave time at the New Tellus resorts while our ships are in the shipyards.
Then it will be time to launch Operation First Strike.”

Malen was
quiet for a moment as she weighed Admiral Strong’s words. “I hope the admiral
knows what he’s doing, that’s a significant part of the Fleet we’re committing
to this.”

“He’s Admiral
Streth, of course he knows,” Jeremy responded in a firm and confident voice.
“If anyone can hurt the Hocklyns, it’s him. Look at this battle, not a single
Hocklyn ship escaped.”

Malen nodded;
of course Admiral Strong was right. She just wondered what was ahead for the
Avenger. Once the operation was launched, they would be gone from the
Federation for quite some time. She just hoped it was still there when they
returned.

-

Katie was in
her quarters with Angela. Katie’s quarters were quite large as part of it was
dedicated to computer research. An intervening bulkhead had been removed to
allow her the extra space she needed for all of her equipment.

“What have you
done now, Katie?” asked Angela, curiously. Since discovering that Katie had
also gone into cryosleep, Angela and Katie had continued to grow their
friendship.

“Ariel, are
you watching?” asked Katie, looking over at one of the monitors in the room.

“Yes, Katie,” Ariel
answered. These last few months being with Katie again had been fabulous for the
AI. She had long since forgiven Katie for tricking her into getting on board
the New Horizon.

 “I have
something new for you, Ariel,” replied Katie, feeling excited about what she
was about to do. She wanted Angela to be here to see it also.

 Katie stood
up and, walking around her quarters and research area, turned on several pieces
of equipment.

“What are you
up to, Katie?” asked Angela, sitting down in a chair in front of some computer
equipment on a large table.

Katie smiled
mysteriously and, walking back over to a large computer console, pressed
several icons on the screen. Instantly, a green haze seemed to appear
throughout the room. After a moment, the haze faded as if it had never been
there.

“What was
that?” asked Angela, looking around suspiciously. With Katie, anything was
possible.

“You know how
the emitters work in the plotting table to generate a tactical image above it?”
Katie asked as she turned around to face her friend.

“Yes,” replied
Angela, trying to figure out what Katie was up to. “They give us a three
dimensional view of the space around us.”