The Slaver Wars: Galactic Conflict (38 page)

“Nearly one
hundred and sixty plus twenty more Alton battlecruisers,” replied Hedon,
carefully.

He hated
keeping secrets, but he was under strict orders from Fleet Admiral Johnson not
to reveal any of Nagumo’s plans or that Rear Admiral Tolsen’s fleet was also
available. Hedon didn’t like the secrecy, but there was concern about the AIs intercepting
and decrypting Federation communications.

“This is gong
to be one hell of a battle!” Trist spoke his eyebrows arching in thought. “The
question is will it be enough?”

“It has to
be,” said Colonel Grissim, walking over and joining in on the conversation.
“All of our ships are updated and Careth is almost as heavily defended now as
New Tellus.”

Hedon said
nothing in reply. This battle was going to determine the fate of the galaxy. If
the Federation prevailed, then it might allow them to move on with the Altons
and attack the AIs at the center of the galaxy before they could finish their
massive construction project. If they lost, then all hope for survival would be
over.

Hedon looked
over at Janice at Communications. For the first time in a long while, he
actually had a reason to survive the war. The thought of dying in combat had
always been comforting, knowing that he would be joining Taylor and Lendle. But
now he had a reason for living. He had to find a way to beat the Hocklyns and
the AIs if he wanted that new future to come into being.

Colonel
Grissim looked over at Hedon, seeing the faraway look in his eyes. She felt
confident that the legendary admiral would find a way to win. After all, they'd
all been taught as children that the great admiral would awaken from cryosleep
to lead the Federation to victory. Who was she to doubt a legend?

-

Grayseth was
in the Command Center of the large, heavily armed space station. Carethian
fighter and bomber crews were on standby, as well as their small, heavily armed
spaceships. He had nearly three hundred of the small ships in the expanded
flight bays of space station and the shipyard. Each ship would be carrying ten
modified Shrike missiles with twenty-kiloton warheads. Plans were for a massed
bomber and fighter strike with the small warships clearing the way.

“Should I and
the other females prepare to go to the surface?” Malith asked as she stepped
over closer to Grayseth, who towered over her. It was customary for females of
the Carethian species not to partake in actual combat.

Grayseth
turned and studied Malith with her deep brown fur and her friendly eyes. She'd
made many friends amongst the Humans and was an excellent Communications and Navigation
officer.

“No,” Grayseth
spoke after a moment. He looked at Malith with a very serious gaze. “If we are
to fight the evil ones and their masters, then I think that both our males and
our females are going to have to be a part of this. For this battle, all
females that wish to stay on board either the space station or the shipyard
will be allowed to do so.”

“I will stay,”
answered Malith, quickly. If the females amongst her Human friends were not
afraid to fight, how could she do any less? She turned and went back to her
station. She had some fighter patrol routes she needed to set up.

Grayseth watched
her go. He knew that what he'd just decided went against tradition, and
Carethians valued their traditions highly. However, this was a matter of
survival, and half the Carethian race could not be told they couldn’t fight, not
if they wanted to survive this and build a new future.

Colonel Malang
had listened to the conversation with interest. The female part of the
Carethian crew on the space station numbered about ten percent, while the
female portion of the Human crew on the station was closer to thirty percent.
There was no doubt in her mind that Grayseth was making the correct decision.

“I would
suggest that we begin deploying our marines to all key positions in the
station,” said Malang, turning to face Grayseth, who was only a few meters
away. “It also wouldn't hurt to deploy some of our damage control teams to the
more critical areas of the station.”

“Those are two
wise precautions,” Grayseth replied in his loud booming voice. The Carethians
also had armed troops that could be deployed along with the Human marines.

-

“Hocklyn,
Borzon, and AI ships are jumping,” Colonel Grissim reported grimly from her
position in front of one of the tactical displays. The display was being
updated continuously with new information being sent from the two stealth
scouts. “Estimate contact in fifty-four minutes.”

“They’re
coming,” Trist breathed, his eyes focusing on Admiral Streth.

“Bring all
military units to Condition Two and stand by for combat maneuvers,” Hedon
ordered as he sat down in his command chair and looked around the large Command Center. The room was humming with activity and he could see no signs of increased
anxiety over the imminent attack. “Captain Duncan, send an encrypted FTL
message to Admiral Sheen informing her that the enemy have jumped.”

“Yes, Sir,”
Janice replied as she began powering up the FTL transmitter.

“Navigation,
begin moving us away from the station to a point forty thousand kilometers out
from the planet,” Hedon ordered. “I want room to maneuver.”

In space, the
two Federation Fleets and thirty Alton battlecruisers began moving away from
Careth and the space station. Energy screens were being activated and weapons were
being powered up. Crews waited anxiously at their weapons for a target to show
up. Fighter and bomber crews, both Carethians and Humans, sat in their ready
rooms waiting for the orders to prepare for combat. They all knew many of the
pilots around them would not be coming back from their attack runs. They were
quiet as them contemplated the future that awaited them.

Time seemed to
pass slowly as the military forces in the system waited. All eyes were focused
on the sensor screens, which would show the first signs of enemy forces. Then
the time arrived, and the first red threat icon flashed into existence, then
ten more, and soon after that they were arriving by the hundreds. It took
nearly ten minutes for all three thousand enemy warships to drop out of
hyperspace and exit the swirling white space vortexes, which everyone
associated with Hocklyn, or AI hyperspace drives. Shortly afterwards, sixty
larger space vortexes opened and out stormed the massive AI spheres of war.

-

“Range, two
million kilometers,” Captain Reynolds reported from his sensor console. “Jumps
have stopped.”

“Bring all
military units to Condition One,” ordered Hedon, taking in a sharp breath.
“Prepare to launch fighters.”

Instantly, the
red Condition One lights began to flash and klaxons began to sound. Hedon
allowed that to go on for thirty seconds before he ordered them to be turned
off. The crew was already at battle stations, but the lights and alarms would
ensure that everyone was aware combat was imminent.

“They're
moving into combat formations,” Colonel Grissim reported as she watched the
tactical display. “Ship counts are as follows. Twenty two hundred Hocklyn, nine
hundred and seventy Borzon, and sixty AIs. Hocklyn ships include one hundred
and twenty dreadnoughts, four hundred and seventy warcruisers, and one thousand
six hundred and ten escort cruisers. That matches what the scouts reported. The
Borzon have only one ship class and those are all of battlecruiser size, and
then of course there are sixty AIs.”

“That’s a hell
of a lot of enemy ships,” Colonel Trist muttered as he gazed at the swarm of
red threat icons shifting around on one of the tactical displays. “I hope you
have a plan to deal with them.”

“I always have
a plan,” Hedon replied with a tightlipped smile. He just didn’t know if Admiral
Nagumo’s part of it was going to come through. If not, then they'd all probably
die here in the Carethian system. Hedon allowed himself a quick glance at
Janice. No, he wouldn’t allow that to happen. Even without Nagumo, he had to
find a way to win this battle.

-

Admiral Sheen
gazed at the most recent message from Hedon. The enemy had arrived in overwhelming
numbers. There was no doubt in her mind that they would try to overpower
Admiral Streth’s forces and then launch nukes at Careth to purge its surface of
life. She shuddered at the thought, recalling how the original Federation
worlds had been nuked from orbit, killing the majority of the civilian
populations, as well as the defending military.

Amanda turned
toward Lieutenant Trask and ordered her to notify all commands to stand by to
jump. They would jump to within six light years of Careth and then message
Admiral Streth as to the situation in the system. At that point, they would
make their final plans to hit the enemy fleets from the rear. Letting out a
long sigh, Amanda allowed her thoughts to momentarily think about Richard back
in the New Tellus system. If they survived this coming battle, she would ask
him to come to Careth to spend a few weeks.

Benjamin and
Angela looked knowingly at each other as the WarStorm prepared to jump into
hyperspace. They were about to go into battle again. Last time, the
battlecruiser WarStorm had been lost when Commander Evans rammed an AI sphere,
causing the destruction of both.

“Benjamin,”
Angela began in a serious voice. “If we survive the coming battle, we need to
decide if we're going to stay with the Fleet.”

“I know,” responded
Benjamin, looking over at Angela and nodding. “Once this battle is over, we'll
discuss it.”

-

On board the
battleship Avenger, Jeremy waited as the large ship moved toward the swirling
blue-white spatial vortex in front of the ship. For this battle, at least, all
five of them would still be together.

“Vortex entry
in six seconds,” Ariel spoke in a calm voice from his left side where she stood
with her hands on her shapely hips.

“I wish I'd
taken the time to eat,” moaned Kevin over their private channel.

“Hamburger and
fries?” Angela teased with a smile from her Communications console.

“As always,”
Katie chimed in. “I think someday he’s going to turn into one.”

“He had two
for supper last night,” Kelsey reminded them. “Next thing you know he'll be
having hamburgers for breakfast.”

“Breakfast!” responded
Kevin, with a thoughtful look upon his face.

“No!” Katie
said emphatically. “At least one meal a day you’re going to eat something
healthy.”

“But I don’t like
fruit for breakfast,” whined Kevin.

“Jumping,”
Ariel spoke as she listened to her friends talk. She knew this battle was probably
the last time they would all be together on the Avenger. Kelsey and Katie were being
reassigned to the bears' space station.

Jeremy felt
the normal queasiness associated with a jump into hyperspace and glanced at one
of the main viewscreens showing the dark, swirling purples of hyperspace.
Glancing over at Kelsey, he smiled. Their married life so far had been
wonderful; more than he'd expected. Hopefully, soon Kevin and Katie would be
tying the knot. Even Angela was getting serious about her marine captain. For
the Special Five, life was changing. They'd come so far since their days at the
Fleet Academy and the disastrous New Horizon mission. Jeremy wondered what
else was waiting in their future. However, before they could have a future,
they had a battle to win.

-

Fleet Commodore
Versith gazed at the tactical display as it began putting up the disposition of
the Human forces. There were other ships being displayed that were plainly not Human
or Alton.

“We have
identified two other distinct ship types around Careth,” War Leader Trion spoke,
his large, dark eyes showing confusion.

“Two more
alien races have joined in the fight,” Versith responded as data concerning the
new ship types began to come across a data screen in front of him.

“This becomes
more dangerous for the Empire daily,” Trion rasped, his cold eyes focusing on
the commodore. “If this threat is not stopped soon, even more alien races may align
themselves with the Altons and the Humans.”

“We have the
Borzon with us,” Versith reminded Trion. “There are also two more races that
the High Leader can call upon for aid.”

“Insects!”
swore Trion, shaking his head. “The Borzon are insects and do not think as we
do. To them there is only service to their queens, and their queens serve the
AIs. I don’t believe the word honor even exists in their language.”

Versith nodded
in agreement. The Borzon made him nearly as nervous as the AIs. They stood well
over two meters tall with wide, multifaceted eyes upon their strangely shaped
heads. A pair of long, narrow wings adorned their backs, and their bodies were
covered with a fine, stiff short hair of some sort. They stood on two legs that
were bent strangely and had four double-jointed slender arms capable of
grasping and operating machinery. Versith had been in a very short meeting with
the leader of their fleet along with one of the AIs, High Leader Nartel, and
Fleet Commodore Resmunt. It was not one he wanted to dwell upon.

The Borzon had
only come to the Empire’s aid after High Leader Nartel had pointed out that the
Humans could someday even become a threat to them. Nartel had carefully pointed
out it was better to fight the Humans now together than later separately. Even
the AIs had not been aware of the High Leader’s request to the Borzon for aid.
The AI in the meeting had spoken little, just confirmed that the Humans and the
Altons had to be eliminated.

“Fleets are
nearly in formation,” the Third Leader reported from his position at the ship’s
sensors.

“We will
launch all of our war wings when we enter the planet’s gravity well,” Versith
ordered.

He'd spoken
with Fleet Commodore Resmunt and half the fighters were being armed to fight
the Human fighters. The other half were being armed with four small high
explosive missiles to use against Human ships. There were even a few tactical
nukes being used as warheads. That should be a surprise for the Humans. Versith
doubted if the missiles would have any affect against the Altons' more advanced
ships.