The Slaver Wars: Galactic Conflict (16 page)

“It’s hard to
believe it’s all going to end here,” Kevin uttered in a low voice, his eyes
meeting Jeremy’s. “Do you think we have a chance to defeat their fleet?”

“A small one,”
replied Jeremy, trying his best to sound calm. “We still have some Devastator
Threes left and a reasonably sized fleet. It'll all depend on how many ships
the Hocklyns are willing to lose to take Careth.”

On the front
wall of the Avenger, one of the main screens was focused on the space station
and the other on Careth itself. Jeremy knew that Grayseth had evacuated all the
female Carethians serving on the space station down to the underground cities. Grayseth
had even suggested sending Kelsey, Angela, and Katie down to one of the secret
cities as well, but the girls had steadfastly refused. Gazing at the blue and
green planet on the other viewscreen Jeremy wished there was some way he could
assure its safety. The Carethians were a good and honorable race and didn’t
deserve to suffer the same fate as the old Human Federation of Worlds.

“Hocklyn fleet
is maneuvering,” Colonel Malen spoke suddenly from where she was watching the
tactical display. “They're preparing to jump!”

“Order the
Orion and the Vega to exit the repair bays,” Jeremy said. He would need all of
his ships for this battle. Looking around the Command Center, it felt strange
for Ariel not to be standing at his side. He had come to count on her for
advice during the battles.

“It’s been
good serving with you, Jeremy,” Kevin said, reaching out and putting his hand
upon Jeremy’s shoulder. “You’re my best friend.”

“Same here,” replied
Jeremy, letting out a deep breath. “Let’s just hope we’re both here tomorrow.”

Kevin returned
to his console just as a warning alarm sounded.

“More ships
jumping into system K-774,” he reported as numerous red threat icons began
appearing close to the Hocklyn fleet. The data was being sent from the two
stealth scouts hiding in the system.

“They called
for reinforcements,” Colonel Malen spoke in dismay, knowing they wouldn’t be
able to defeat a larger Hocklyn force. Their odds of surviving the coming
battle had just dropped to zero.

A ghostly
silence held the Command Center as everyone’s eyes focused on the tactical display.
As they watched with growing despair, more red icons continued to appear. Then,
to their utter amazement, the icons began changing from red to green.

“Those are Federation
ships!” Kevin yelled out in jubilation, his eyes growing wide in excitement.
“It’s the relief fleet!”

The entire Command Center was frozen in silence as they stared in shock at the tactical display. They'd
been ready to face death and now suddenly, everything had changed! As the realization
of what this meant hit home, everyone began cheering and then clapping. Crewmembers
stood up and slapped each other on the back, their faces lighting up with
growing smiles. They weren’t going to die after all!

-

Aboard the StarStrike,
Admiral Streth gazed determinedly at the surprised Hocklyn fleet in front of
him. “All ships, attack! Focus on their dreadnoughts and warcruisers.” He could
see that many of the Hocklyn warships were damaged.

Admiral Streth
had the newly expanded and updated First Fleet under his command as well as a
large fleet from Ceres commanded by Admiral Telleck. They also had twenty Alton battlecruisers. The fact that this Hocklyn fleet was here and not in the Careth
system indicated that Fourth Fleet was still holding the system. Hedon breathed
out a long sigh of relief. They'd made it back in time.

Instantly, from
the advancing Federation fleets, power beams, Devastator Three missiles, and a
few antimatter missiles were fired into the stunned Hocklyn fleet. Bright explosions
began to light up space as shields were quickly pummeled and battered down. The
antimatter missiles contained fifty-megaton warheads, and whenever two of those
would strike a Hocklyn energy shield, it would fail immediately. In the opening
salvo, forty Hocklyn ships died as they were torn apart by the massive amounts
of energy being released.

-

Commodore
Krilen gazed in shock at the tactical screen showing the newly arrived Human
ships. The IronHand shook violently and the lights went out to come back on
dimly. Alarms were sounding and the damage control console was covered with
amber and red lights.

“FTL drive is
down,” First Leader Angoth reported in a grave voice. “Honor comes for us
today.”

The War Room
was beginning to fill with smoke and several panels were on fire. Krilen could
hear screams of pain and distant explosions, which were shaking the ship even
more. He knew the IronHand was severely damaged.

“What hit us?”
he demanded. He could hear panicked voices over the ship-to-ship com, and
Hocklyn ships were just now beginning to return fire. War Leader Versith ordered
all ships to concentrate their fire upon the Human warships and close their
formation to allow for stronger defensive fire against the Human missiles.

“One of their
hell missiles knocked down our energy screen. The sublight drive is down, energy
beams are nonfunctioning,” Angoth continued as the reports of damage continued
to flow in from various departments. “We don’t have sufficient power available to
reenergize the screen.”

“Honor indeed
comes for us,” Krilen spoke in acceptance, his eyes gazing fixedly at the main viewscreen
showing the carnage going on around the IronHand.

He could see a
warcruiser burning; several escort cruisers were in the last throes of death. A
dreadnought exploded as its self-destructs blew it apart. Krilen knew his
desire to advance in the Hocklyn Hierarchy were about to come to an abrupt end.
A massive explosion suddenly shook the dreadnought and the last thing Krilen
saw was a brilliant flash of light. Then his body was consumed by the antimatter
explosion.

-

“Another dreadnought
is down,” Colonel Grissom reported as a large red icon vanished from the
tactical display. “Alton ships are entering engagement range and firing.”

“Continue to
press the attack,” ordered Hedon, wanting to destroy as much of this Hocklyn
fleet as possible.

“Light cruiser
Justice is down,” Captain Reynolds reported as the friendly green icon of the
light cruiser blinked out.

“Other ships
are reporting only minor damage,” Colonel Trist informed Hedon as he listened
to damage reports over his mini-com. “The new shields are holding.”

-

In space,
energy beams flashed back and forth between the two opposing fleets. Violet power
beams powered by the new Alton fusion reactors tore through Hocklyn energy
screens. Orange-red pulse lasers flashed out, striking Hocklyn ships whose
screens had failed. Devastator Three and antimatter missiles vaporized large sections
of ships' hulls as they tore through the massed Hocklyn fleet. Blue energy
beams from the Hocklyn ships flashed out at the Human ships to be dissipated
harmlessly by the new, more powerful energy screens. Occasionally a Hocklyn
nuke would detonate against an energy screen, causing the barest of flickers.

-

“IronHand is
confirmed destroyed,” reported Fist Leader Trion, glancing at War Leader Versith.
“We've identified twenty of the ships that attacked the AIs in the Human system
with the attacking Human fleet.”

“We must withdraw,”
Versith spoke as the Viden shook from an energy weapons strike to her shields.
“All ships to jump to the fallback position in system K-633. Once there, we
will reorganize the fleet and wait for orders from the High Council.”

Gazing at the
tactical screen and the viewscreens, he couldn’t believe the amount of
destruction being dealt out by the Human ships. For the first time, he felt
actual fear for the Empire itself. It was obvious these Human ships had been
updated and now possessed even more fearsome weapons than ever before.

Second Leader
Jaseth was firing his weapons in growing frustration. So far in the battle only
a few of the Humans' smaller warships had been destroyed. It was as if their
energy screens had been greatly reinforced. Even as he watched, several nuclear
missiles he'd launched struck a Human battlecruiser and all that happened was
its screen glowed a little brighter. He snarled in anger, knowing his weapons
were nearly useless.

In front of
the Hocklyn ships, white spatial vortexes began to form. Ship after ship
entered the vortexes, fleeing into the safety of hyperspace. Behind them, the
slaughter continued with damaged Hocklyn warships being blasted into thousands
of pieces as the Humans relentlessly pressed their advantage. Finally, it was over
as the last Hocklyn escort cruiser vanished into a swirling spatial vortex,
which instantly collapsed. Behind them, the fleeing Hocklyn fleet left nearly
two hundred ships in ruins.

-

“Report!” barked
Hedon, seeing the last Hocklyn ship vanish from the system.

“We lost three
light cruisers and one Monarch cruiser,” Colonel Grissom responded. “We have
several other ships with light to moderate damage.”

“Hocklyn
losses?”

“Close to two
hundred ships,” replied Grissom, feeling elated at the ease of their victory.
She knew that the updated systems the Altons had helped to install were
responsible.

“That’s a decisive
victory,” Colonel Trist spoke with a growing smile. “I don’t think the Hocklyns
will be returning anytime soon.”

“Admiral
Telleck is on the com, Sir,” spoke Captain Duncan. “He wants to know what your
orders are.” She knew that Hedon would want to jump to the Careth system
immediately. He'd been dying for weeks to launch this rescue operation and he
was impatient to see if Admiral Strong and Admiral Stillson had survived.

“We’re jumping
to the Carethian system,” Hedon said with a pleased smile. “We have a certain admiral
I promised to come back and save. Let’s go pay him a visit.” Hedon hoped that
Jeremy had survived. From the battered look of some of the Hocklyn ships they'd
just destroyed, he was pretty certain the talented young admiral was indeed
still alive.

“Sir, we have two
stealth scouts that have just jumped in close to the fleet,” Captain Reynolds
reported.

“Captain
Duncan, contact the scouts, let’s hear what they have to say.”

-

Jeremy had ordered
the Avenger to dock with the space station and also requested that Rear Admiral
Marks come over. The two stealth scouts in system K-774 had already made
contact with Fleet Admiral Streth, and Jeremy had been greatly surprised to
learn that Admiral Telleck had come along as well.

“Your people
have come,” Grayseth spoke in his loud booming voice, his face covered in what
the Carethians would call a grin. “The Hocklyns have fled and the AIs are gone.
I have already spread the word to my people and there are celebrations spreading
across the planet. It is a great day for Careth.”

“A great day
indeed,” Jeremy replied with a big smile. They were in the Command Center and already new friendly green icons were showing up on the large tactical
display as First Fleet and the new Ceres Fleet exited hyperspace just outside
of Careth’s gravity well.

“Both fleets
have exited hyperspace,” Colonel Millburn reported from his post at the station’s
large sensor screens. “They are beginning to enter Careth’s gravity well.”

“The StarStrike
will be docking shortly,” Daelthon, Grayseth’s second in command reported. “Admiral
Telleck will be taking a shuttle to come over.”

“I have two
live communications channels opening up with the Federation,” the communications
officer reported in surprise as two green lights began blinking on his panel.

“Admiral
Streth must have laid several sets of new communication buoys between us and
the Federation,” Jeremy commented, pleased that they would soon have communications
contact with Federation space once again.

“There are
twenty ships of unknown configuration with the two fleets,” Colonel Millburn continued
as he put one of them up on the screen.

Jeremy saw the
new ships looked like giant dumbbells, measuring about 1,000 meters in length.
“I don’t think those are Human ships,” Jeremy said slowly as he studied the
ships on the screen. Were these new allies of the Federation?

“They resemble
Albanian exploration cruisers, but larger,” Colonel Millburn responded. He'd
been on several missions to Albanian space a few years back. “I don’t
understand; the Albanians didn’t want to get involved in the war and they have
no warships. They are pacifists.”

“I guess we'll
find out shortly,” Jeremy responded. On one of the main viewscreens, the
StarStrike now filled the entire screen. It felt good to see the powerful
battleship once more in Carethian space.

-

Two hours
later, Fleet Admiral Streth, Admiral Telleck, Rear Admiral Strong, Rear Admiral
Marks, and Grayseth were all seated in one of the station’s conference rooms.

“I am glad you
made it, Admiral Strong,” began Hedon, feeling relieved that Jeremy and Careth
had survived. “Where is Admiral Stillson?”

“He was killed
in one of the attacks,” responded Jeremy, sorrowfully. “He was instrumental in
helping to set up the planet’s defenses and the station. We couldn’t have
survived without his efforts.”

“I knew
Admiral Stillson since he attended the academy,” spoke Admiral Telleck, sadly.
“We've been friends for many years. He was a good man.”

“He was a
brave warrior,” Grayseth added. “He will be remembered by my people as a great
hunter.”

“So what
happened here at Careth?” Hedon asked, anxious to hear how Jeremy and his fleet
had managed to survive. He'd greatly feared he would find the Hocklyns and AIs
in control of Careth, considering the amount of time he had been forced to wait
before launching the relief fleets.