The Slaver Wars: Galactic Conflict (25 page)

“What about
this mysterious project they are supposedly working on at the galaxy’s center?”
Trion asked.

“I fear that
it will not be to our liking when it is completed,” Versith responded.

He gazed at
one of the large viewscreens. In the back of his mind, he wondered if they were
actually fighting on the wrong side in this war. The AIs had always used the
Hocklyns as pawns to expand the Empire. Even though the Hocklyns controlled
thousands of slave worlds, the AIs called all the shots.

“We have built
their Empire,” Trion countered, his eyes widening. “Surely they will not do
anything to jeopardize that.”

“The AIs are
not organic,” Versith reminded Trion in his raspy cold voice. “They do not
think as we do.”

Over at one of
the weapons consoles, Second Leader Jaseth was busy running diagnostics on his
targeting systems. He was excited at the new weapons the Viden had been
equipped with. It had been rushed into one of the construction bays immediately
after jumping into the system and rapidly updated.

“These new
weapons will allow us to kill even more of the Human vermin,” he commented to
one of the Hocklyns manning a console next to him. “They will die beneath our
weapons.”

“The new
weapons are truly powerful,” the Fourth Leader beside him responded in
agreement. “Even our energy screen is stronger than before. Surely the Humans
and their new allies will fall before us.”

“Their species
will be eliminated,” agreed Jaseth, feeling the hot rush of his blood feeding
his desire to kill the Humans. Jaseth would not rest until his family was
avenged and every last Human was dead.

-

High Leader
Nartel had made a decision. He was going to take a small escort fleet and go to
Kenward Seven. He wanted to make sure there was no doubt in the minds of either
Fleet Commodore Resmunt or Fleet Commodore Versith as to what their orders
were. He also needed to be there when another special group of ships he was
expecting arrived.

“Is this
wise?” High Councilor Berken asked, his dark eyes focusing on the High Leader.
“This is a dangerous time for the Empire. Your untimely death after the way
High Leader Ankler died would unsettle the Empire.” It was very seldom a High
Leader ever traveled away from the home worlds.

“I will be
perfectly safe,” Nartel replied confidently as he tapped his chest plate with his
left hand. “I will be taking the dreadnought HammersHand and a small escort
fleet to Kenward Seven where I will supervise the final preparations of the
fleet. This will be our last chance to destroy the Humans and we must not make
any mistakes. If we fail, the AIs may abandon us completely.”

High Councilor
Jarles only shook his head. He was standing next to Berken and they were all in
the High Leader’s office. “The Humans and Altons are a big threat,” Jarles
commented, his eyes narrowing. “We might be able to destroy the Humans with our
superior numbers, but what about the Altons? Even our newly updated ships may
not be able to destroy them.”

“The AIs are
rearming their own fleet,” responded Nartel, recalling his last conversation
with their mechanical masters. “Once they have finished updating their ships
they will take care of the Altons. The AIs feel certain that with more powerful
ships and superior numbers they can destroy what remains of the Alton race.”

“There are a
lot of ifs in all of this,” spoke Berken, shaking his head. “We have
underestimated the Humans every time. I just hope we're not doing so again.”

-

Fleet Admiral
Streth gazed in satisfaction at the arrival of the latest supply fleet. On the
tactical display, hundreds of new friendly green icons were appearing as they
exited hyperspace. There were Federation supply ships and warships, Alton ships both cargo and battlecruisers, Kessel warships and their attending supply
ships, as well as Darvonian warships and their supply ships.

“That’s one
hell of a supply fleet,” Colonel Trist spoke with a wide grin across his face.
“I’ve never seen that many in a single fleet before.”

“We're being
reinforced with six more battlecruisers, four battlecarriers, eight strikecruisers,
and twenty light cruisers,” Colonel Grissim reported as she looked at the
latest scans and the messages from the admiral commanding the arriving supply
fleet.

“Contact
Colonel Barnes on the Ceres and tell her that I'll be having a meeting with all
the admirals of the recently arrived fleets as well as Grayseth and I would
like her to attend,” ordered Hedon, looking over at Janice, who was sitting in
front of Communications.

“I'll send the
message immediately,” Janice replied with a grin. “She knew that Colonel Barnes
was not happy with her new assignment, even though she was the best qualified
person in the fleet to handle this type of diplomacy. Kathryn had joined the
fleet to get away from the diplomatic part of her family life.

“There are
eighty Kessel warships in the fleet, including ten of their battlecruisers,”
Colonel Grissim reported. “The Darvonian fleet has one hundred and forty ships,
including seven of their light cruiser size command ships.”

“Our allies
really came through,” Commented Colonel Trist, feeling more secure with all the
new ships. “This will free us up to resume combat operations against the
Hocklyns.”

Hedon nodded,
all of the Kessel and Darvonian ships would be assigned to defensive duty
inside the Carethian system. This would free up his heavier Federation ships to
attack the Hocklyns, and he already had his first high priority target picked
out. One other thing this fleet contained were five hundred new particle beam
satellites built by the Altons. Once they were deployed, he would be ready to
throw his next punch at the enemy, one they would never suspect was coming.

-

Colonel
Kathryn Barnes gazed pensively at the newly arrived fleet. It would take them
hours to finish entering the gravity well and go into orbit around Careth. She
was still aboard the Ceres and in the ship’s Command Center.

“Ready for
your new assignment?” Admiral Telleck asked with a soft smile.

“I guess,”
Kathryn replied with a heavy sigh.

She'd joined
the fleet to get away from all the diplomatic intrigue that seemed to be such a
big part of politics. Her father loved being a Federation Senator, but Kathryn
had never felt the desire to pursue a political career. She knew it had been a
big disappointment to her father, but he had allowed her to go her own way.

“I know you
wanted to stay out of this kind of thing,” Telleck added, his eyes focusing on the
hazel eyes of his executive officer. “But we’re a long way from the Federation
and you’re by far the best qualified person we have to fill this position.”

“I know,”
Kathryn responded with a heavy sigh. She had traveled with her father on
numerous diplomatic trips to the home worlds of the Federation’s allies and was
familiar with their intricacies. They'd even entertained alien diplomats in
their home inside Ceres upon occasion.

“We have arranged
for a new set of offices for you on board the Carethian space station,” Telleck
added, wanting to make this transition as easy as possible on Kathryn. “Admiral
Streth and I have found several other fleet personnel who have worked with our
alien allies that should be of use to you. You should be interested to know
that a Carethian officer has requested to be part of your staff.”

“Which one?” asked
Kathryn, curiously. She'd met several on the space station when she had taken a
tour of the facility.

“Malith,” Telleck
replied. “She serves as a Communications and Navigation officer on the station.
She is highly interested in meeting representatives from our allies.”

“What are the
plans, Sir?” Kathryn asked as she took a deep breath.

“We want to
acclimate our allies into working with each other, as well as us and the
Carethians. Their primary responsibility will be defending Careth, with help
from the Carethians and a few Alton ships, while Admiral Streth and I take our
fleets on the offensive.”

“Do you have a
target chosen?” Kathryn knew it would be hard for her to see Ceres Fleet leave
and not be going with it.

“Yes,” Admiral
Telleck spoke, his voice suddenly sounding serious. “We want to hit the
Hocklyns where it hurts. One of their major fleet construction bases lies
between us and their home worlds. If we can damage it, we'll seriously hamper
their ability to build new warships as well as update their old ones.”

“What’s the
name of this base?” To Kathryn this sounded like a bold move but it was also
very risky. A major ship construction facility would probably have a large
number of Hocklyn warships defending it; perhaps even a few AIs.

“Kenward
Seven,” Admiral Telleck replied after a moment. “We managed to get a lot of
intelligence from the fleet base we captured. Several computers didn't have
their memory cores completely wiped.”

“I hope it’s a
successful operation,” spoke Kathryn, wishing that she was going and not stuck
on the space station. Then, squaring her shoulders she added, “I'd better go
over to the station and get organized.”

Admiral Telleck
watched her leave the Command Center and then turned back to his command
console. He had some readiness reports to look over and Admiral Kalen had sent
him a message stating that additional new battle units would soon be arriving
from Ceres to reinforce his fleet for the coming campaign.

-

            Admiral Streth was
sitting down in a conference room on board the StarStrike with Grayseth,
Daelthon, Colonel Trist, Colonel Grissim, and Colonel Malang. The only
viewscreen in the room was focused on the newly arriving ships.

“We are building
many more of our small warships to add to the defense of our planet,” Grayseth
reported with his large hairy arms lying on the table.

“Construction
of the new shipyard is coming along rapidly,” Daelthon added. “The new
construction robots from Ceres have been really helpful.”

“Still look
like giant spiders,” Colonel Trist muttered with a frown.

Colonel
Grissim laughed and then spoke. “If you stay on Ceres long enough you get used
to them. We use them for everything in the asteroid.”

“How soon
before the first construction bay is finished?” asked Hedon, looking over at Daelthon.

The light brown
furred Carethian looked down at some notes in front of him and replied. “In two
more months, we can begin building our first large warship.”

“We will
finally be able to take the war to the evil ones,” Grayseth uttered with
satisfaction in his voice. “It'll be good to strike at our enemies.”

“I understand
you have assigned Malith to work with Colonel Barnes in her new envoy role.”

“Yes,” responded
Grayseth, nodding his large head. “She requested it as she wants to become more
familiar with the various races that are allied to the Federation.”

“I know
Colonel Barnes' father,” Anne added with a thoughtful look in her eyes. “He's
our senior senator from Ceres. I can remember when Colonel Barnes was younger
how her father used to take her on many of his diplomatic missions. She should
be well suited for the job.”

“I hope so,”
Hedon responded. Then looking down at his notes, he continued, “The Kessels and
the Darvonians do not use fighters or bombers. However, the Kessel fleet does
have ten battlecruisers that have been updated to current Federation standards
with Alton fusion reactors. They've also been furnished with Devastator Three
missiles. They have twenty heavy cruisers similar to our Monarchs and fifty
light cruisers.

“That’s a
powerful force,” commented Grayseth, realizing that the Kessels were indeed a
force to be reckoned with. “Their ships will aid greatly in the defense of
Careth. What about the Darvonians?”

“The Darvonian
ships are much smaller and have also been updated with Alton fusion reactors.
They have seven command ships similar in size to a light cruiser and one
hundred and thirty-three ships of destroyer class. I propose we use the
Darvonian ships to help defend the satellite grid to ensure that no future
bombardment of Careth can occur.”

“I agree,”
spoke Daelthon, nodding his head in agreement. “Many of our own new small ships
will be based on the space station and upon the new shipyard we are building.
They are currently being modified to carry Shrike missiles with twenty-megaton
warheads. Each ship will be capable of delivering ten to its target. They will
go in with the bomber strike, providing covering fire.”

“The new
orbital particle beam satellites will be deployed starting tomorrow,” Colonel
Grissim added as she leaned back and folded her arms across her breasts. “There
will be two Shrike missile platforms and four laser satellites assigned to
protect each one. The missile platforms and satellites will be arriving with
the next supply fleet in two weeks.”

“There are
also the new battle stations,” Hedon reminded them. “Those are of Alton design and should be the final key to allow us to fortify Careth to the point where
it can withstand a massive AI and Hocklyn attack. Once the battle stations are
in place, we will begin our new offensive against the Hocklyns.”

-

The next day,
Colonel Grissim was in a shuttle observing the placement of one of the new
particle beam satellites. The satellite was twenty meters long and four meters
wide with a base ten meters across that held the weapons' power source. The
base had to be attached to the long cylinder of the particle beam weapon inside
one of the construction bays of the space station and then carefully positioned
into its new orbit. Targeting and identification computers in the base of the
satellite would fire upon any AI or Hocklyn vessel that came within range.

“I wish we'd
had those at New Tellus when the AIs attacked,” the shuttle pilot commented wistfully
as he carefully turned the small ship to give Colonel Grissim a better view of
the operation.