Battle of The Wilds

Empire Rising Book 19

D. J. Holmes

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Cover illustrated by Tom Edwards:

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to any persons living or dead, business establishments, events or locales are entirely coincidental.

Copyright © D. J. Holmes 2024

Prologue

IS Trident, Karacknid Space, 10th August 2512 AD, (three days after the close of The Call of Honor).

With her impulse engines burning a bright red, the Imperial dreadnought Trident surged through the cloud of debris that had once been a Karacknid cruiser. Her point defenses blasted several large chunks out of the way, while her shield flared as it deflected hundreds of microscopic ship fragments. Around her, a thousand additional Human, Varanni, Crian, and Vestarian ships appeared as they followed the flagship's advance through the Karacknid squadron that had tried to intercept them.

Together, they charged toward the system's only inhabited planet, rushing in to catch the defenders off guard. As they approached, they flipped end over end and began to decelerate to slot into a high orbit. From the carriers in the fleet, hundreds of smaller craft were shot out of launch tubes and began to form up into squadrons of twelve.

"Inform Wing Commander Sommerville that she can begin her attack now," Admiral Becket ordered from her command chair on Trident's bridge. "Open fire with our missiles as soon as we come into range."

"Aye, Admiral," Becket's Chief of Staff responded.

*

With an ease that came from having done it more than a hundred times before, Georgia Sommerville calculated the timing of her attack run to perfectly match the first missile salvo that erupted from Trident and the rest of the Allied fleet. She then quickly assigned targets to each of her sixty squadrons. When she was done, she returned her focus to the Karacknid world her Hellcat was hurtling toward. The enemy could easily see her force approaching; if they had a response, it would come soon.

Sure enough, Georgia's Hellcat picked up energy spikes from several small stations less than thirty seconds later. However, they were so few that she was able to count them herself. Just thirty-one, she thought as she assessed the situation. The world Admiral Becket's fleet was attacking was home to a warship construction yard. Yet, the scans the fleet had taken as it approached suggested that the yard could only construct frigates and destroyers and appeared to only be able to build one hundred simultaneously. I guess that's all the fighter cover such a small construction base gets, Georgia said to herself. With a tap on her Hellcat's control panel, she activated her COM unit. "Eagle, Blue, and Arrow squadrons will move to intercept those fighters. If you can rejoin us and make your attack runs with us, do so; if not, fall back to your carriers after engaging those Karacknid fighters."

“Understood,” Eagle Squadron's leader confirmed, and then was joined by his two comrades.

As their thirty-six Hellcats increased their acceleration rates and moved ahead of Georgia’s force, her fingers twitched on her flight stick. A part of her wanted to join them. She knew she could kill two or three of the Karacknid fighters. Doing so would likely save one or two of her own pilots from being shot down. Yet she had to think of the bigger picture. Becket needed the battlestations arrayed around the construction yard taken out; that was her primary mission.

In silence, Georgia watched as her three squadrons engaged the Karacknid fighters that had come out to intercept her attack. First, the thirty-six Hellcats fired off their anti-fighter missiles. Then they swooped in, plasma cannons blazing. The Karacknid fighters, wanting to get past the three Allied squadrons and force more of Georgia’s main attack force to engage them, tried to fly their way through the skirmish. As anti-fighter missiles began to find their mark, and then the deadly fire from Georgia’s battle-hardened pilots scored hit after hit, only five Karacknid fighters were able to punch through the fire directed at them.

“Venom Squadron, detach two flights to finish them off,” Georgia snapped. “Eagle, Blue, and Arrow, do not pursue; maintain your momentum and rejoin us.”

Seconds later, eight more Hellcats moved ahead of Georgia’s wing. Like their consorts, they engaged the remaining Karacknid fighters with their anti-fighter missiles first, then began to decelerate and turn to finish off their prey. Realizing they were going to survive to reach Georgia’s main body of fighters, the Karacknids tried to dodge the incoming missiles and then engaged the two flights from Venom Squadron. All five were blown apart at the cost of just one Hellcat.

Georgia shook her head when the brief scuffle was over. Whoever had commanded the enemy fighters had been a novice. Despite slowing to engage the Karacknid fighters, Eagle, Blue, and Arrow Squadrons had only taken three losses and were already accelerating again and would soon be able to match her wing’s velocity. All the Karacknids had managed to do was to reduce the strength of her attack by three fighters. You can only beat what’s in front of you, Georgia told herself, not for the first time. Ever since Becket had begun their raid into the Karacknid systems adjacent to Conclave space, Georgia’s fighters had been encountering second-rate Karacknid fighters and pilots. All of Tanaka-lan’s elite pilots had clearly been moved to their border that faced her species' Empire.

“All right, pilots,” Georgia said as she switched COM channels to speak to every pilot in her wing. “You know the drill by now. Stay right behind Admiral Becket’s missiles and make sure you hit your targets. After that, get out of their line of fire. In and out, that’s all we need to do today.”

Switching COM channels again, Georgia made a few final tweaks to the targets she had assigned to her squadrons. Then, she let go of her flight stick, rolled her shoulders, and worked to relieve as much tension from her body as she could. Taking a deep breath, she exhaled slowly and fell into her trance-like state. Reaching for her flight stick again, she began some slow evasive maneuvers as she tested her Hellcat's controls and maneuvering thrusters. Over the course of twenty seconds, she built the maneuvers up until they were as complex as she could make them. Around her, the one thousand fighters of her wing did likewise.

Ten seconds later, thousands of small pin pricks of light raced past her Hellcat's canopy. Admiral Becket's missile salvo had caught up to them. With their attack timed to perfection, the point defenses of the Karacknid warships and orbital battlestations opened up on the missiles just five seconds later. The dark green hue of the densely vegetated planet in front of Georgia quickly gave way to a wall of fire as missiles began detonating by the hundreds before her. Here and there, stray Karacknid laser beams zipped past her Hellcat, but none came close enough to worry her.

Despite the intense defensive fire from all the Karacknid orbital stations, the short-lived fiery explosions from the destruction of Imperial missiles were suddenly replaced by rapidly expanding bright blue spheres as antimatter missiles detonated among their targets. Though the detonations ripped apart Karacknid warships and orbital stations alike, with no more missiles to target, the surviving Karacknid gunners switched targets. A hail of defensive fire immediately began to rain down on Georgia’s wing.

While shields flared and explosions began to erupt amidst her fighters, Georgia’s heart rate didn't falter. All her focus was on the next evasive maneuver, and then the next. She felt no fear. Almost as if she had a sixth sense, she could feel where the next laser beam was coming from. Almost without thinking, she wove her fighter through everything fired at it. Then, just as her Hellcat beeped at her to signal she was in range, Georgia depressed her thumb, firing one and then a second anti-ship missile. In a flash, both shot off ahead of her Hellcat as their powerful engines kicked in.

Without a second's hesitation, Georgia swung her Hellcat up and away from the green world and the Karacknid orbital stations. If any Karacknid gunners tried to shoot at her, none came close to scoring a hit. Twisting her head, Georgia watched the progress of her missiles, even as she continued her evasive maneuvers. Both were targeted at a massive Karacknid battlestation. Its size meant it had no hope of evading the missiles. The only chance it had now was to shoot both down. Had it just been her two missiles, that would have been no problem. Yet ten fighters from the squadron Georgia had flown with had survived to fire. With twenty-two missiles racing toward it, the battlestation had just seven seconds to hit them all.

Even with help from two frigates that were in close formation with it, they failed. Three missiles, including one of Georgia’s, slammed into the battlestation. Each penetrated the battlestation's armor, outer hull, and several decks before detonating. In the blink of an eye, the antimatter eruptions blasted the battlestation into a million fragments. Both frigates were ripped apart by the shrapnel. One detonated a second later, while the other quickly began to be sucked down by the planet’s gravity.

Mission accomplished, Georgia said to herself as she widened her focus to see similar explosions appearing all across the planet’s equator. Every battlestation guarding the construction yard was either destroyed or looked to be badly damaged by her wing’s assault.

*

"Take us into mark VII range," Becket ordered as soon as Georgia's fighters pulled up and away from the Karacknid world. With almost all of the one hundred battlestations destroyed, the squadron of Karacknid warships and remaining smaller defense stations posed almost no risk to her ships. Her bomb-pumped laser mark VIIs missiles would make quick work of what was left of the Karacknid construction yard. Then we can move on to our next target, Becket told herself.

For forty minutes, Becket watched in silence as her staff officers set about reducing the Karacknid warships and orbital infrastructure to debris. They worked together like a well-oiled machine, not needing her input. Over the last three months, they had assaulted and destroyed at least twenty similar Karacknid orbital bases. Becket nodded in approval of their efforts. At the beginning of her campaign, almost all of her officers, including many of her captains, had seen little or no combat. Now, every officer in her fleet was as experienced as any in the fleets she had led in Humanity's first war with the Karacknids twenty-five years ago.

"The last orbital stations have been destroyed, Admiral," Albright, Becket's Chief of Staff, reported. "We're ceasing fire. By our count, we've taken out one hundred and two battlestations, ninety warships, and over five hundred other orbital stations. Seven ships have been badly damaged and will have to be scuttled, but we've been able to get most of their crews off. Another seventeen are going to need some time to effect repairs; they'll have to be sent back to Scalatar."

"Very good," Becket said as she nodded to Albright. "Very good," she repeated, raising her voice to make sure all her officers heard. "Set course for the rendezvous point. We'll meet with Shraw and see how his raids have gone."

Once again, Becket's officers got to work, efficiently reforming her fleet, and turning it onto a heading that would take them back toward the shift passage they had entered the system from. Despite her pleasure at their capabilities, it caused lingering doubts she had been trying to suppress for weeks to rise again. Both in the battle and afterwords, her officers were showing that months of constant combat were the only way to hone a warrior's skill. Yet, it was also a reminder to Becket that they had now been fighting for months with little to show for it.

Her dramatic double battle, where she had defeated two large Karacknid fleets in the space of two days, had now been some time ago. After the battle, she had returned to the Das’tana clan's home system and devastated its orbitals. Then, facing almost zero resistance, she had been able to split her fleet up into many smaller squadrons and ravage almost every system the clan controlled. She had systematically eradicated their industrial capacity. Now, she was beginning to make inroads into the Tars’tazan clan's space. So far, altogether, her analysts estimated that they had destroyed as much as three percent of the Karacknid Empire's economy. Yet, for months now, Becket's scouts hadn't detected any large Karacknid forces moving to intercept them. It was as if Tanaka-lan didn't care even the slightest about what Becket was doing.

For some time now, Becket had been telling herself that she was getting worried for nothing. That all their attacks had to be having an impact. It was just a matter of time before large Karacknid formations started to enter the area, proof that her campaign was successfully drawing away Tanaka-lan's strength from the frontline with Human space. But what if he really doesn't care? Becket asked herself as she mentally reviewed the information from all the scouting reports she had received over the last several weeks. Over a hundred important systems within striking distance of her fleets had been identified. If all of them combined the warships they had protecting them, they could perhaps put together a fleet to confront her with. Yet none seemed to be attempting to do so. It was as if there were no more competent Karacknid commanders left in this part of their Empire.

If they're not here, then there's only one place they can be, Becket said to herself as she felt butterflies begin to dance within her stomach. She had been a naval commander long enough to know what that meant. Her instincts were confirming what her reason was leading her toward: He doesn't care. And if he doesn't care, it's because he thinks he has the capability to conquer Earth in one single attack, Becket forced herself to accept. Which means everything we've done has been for nothing.

In her mind, Becket calculated the route her ships would have to take to get back to Earth and the border forts facing Tanaka-lan's forces. First, they would have to retreat back through the Karacknid systems they had raided, then return to Scalatar and back to another location before heading through the Gift and then eventually to Earth. Seventeen weeks, she figured. If she gave the order right now, it would take seventeen weeks for her ships to get to Earth. And then maybe another month to get to the frontline if the fighting had already begun. Too long, she couldn't help thinking, fear filling her as she imagined Tanaka-lan laughing at reports of her attacks while he simply massed his ships on the border with her species' empire. But the sooner we start, the sooner we'll get there, Becket told herself, her teeth clenched together. Now that her instincts and reasoning were aligned, she knew she had no other choice.

"Change of plans," Becket said to her officers as she pulled up a holo map of local systems in her command chair. Reaching out, she tapped one of them. "We're heading here instead. I want the first frigate sent to Shraw and our other fleets. I want to rendezvous here as soon as possible. All fleets are to end offensive operations immediately and head to the rendezvous point. From there, we're heading back to Scalatar. We've wasted enough time attacking weakly defended systems. If Tanaka-lan hasn't come to confront us by now, then he's not going to. Which means he is somewhere else. We need to get our ships back to Earth before it's too late, for I fear they are going to be desperately needed in the not-too-distant future."

"Of course, Admiral," Albright said, the confident look he had been sporting after their victory vanishing from his face. Instead, lines of concern marked his forehead. Becket guessed she had a similar look as she locked eyes with Albright and nodded to him. She didn't need to say any more; it was clear he understood the significance of her abrupt change of plans.

Though she hoped she was wrong, Becket was certain she was not. As her ships began to change heading once again, her thoughts went to James, Emilie, Jonathan, and the other naval commanders that she counted among her closest of friends. If she was right, Tanaka-lan would have already begun his invasion before she reached Earth. In the grand scale of things, her six thousand remaining warships were not likely to be enough to tip the scale in the massive fleet battles that were coming. Yet Becket desperately needed to stand alongside her friends as they prepared to fend off the assault they had all known would eventually come. Hold on, she thought toward them. Hold on.

Chapter 1

It is important for both military historians and naval cadets to study the famous speeches of our past. For the former, it gives us a unique insight into the minds of those whom we study, for the latter, it gives you some training in case the day comes when you must make a speech of your own.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

House of Commons, Earth, 10th August 2512 AD, (same time).

Nerves filled James as he stepped up to the podium that had been set up for him. Despite them, he couldn't help but look out over the sea of faces gazing up at him. Since its construction, the House of Commons had been designed with two additional wings that could be opened to seat the Representatives from the Senate and the House of Servants. With the observation galleries also filled to capacity, over six thousand of the Empire’s most powerful and influential people were watching him in silence.

James took a deep breath to steady himself. He was about to make the most important speech of his life. Although he had argued that Christine was better equipped to address the three houses of the Empire’s government, she had insisted he do it. He was the naval officer; he understood the situation better than anyone else.

Projecting as much confidence and calmness into his voice as he could muster, James began. “Commoners, Senators, and Servants, I am here today exercising my right as Emperor to address you all concerning the gravest news we have received since the Empire’s founding. As you all know, months ago we received news that the Karacknid civil war had ended. With the approval of the Admiralty and each of your oversight committees, we initiated pre-emptive strikes designed to delay what we all knew was inevitable.

"Two weeks ago, conclusive evidence was sent back to us from the front lines, indicating that neither Admiral Becket’s raid via Conclave space nor Vice Admiral Alvaraz's raids on the Karacknid border systems adjacent to ours have proved successful. As we speak, Tanaka-lan is amassing tens of thousands of warships along his border systems. The latest scouting reports estimate that the number has risen to over ninety thousand directly facing us.” James paused to let the numbers sink in. Around him, several audible gasps could be heard. The Commoners, Senators, and Servants who served on the Admiralty Oversight Committee would have already been updated on the newest numbers. For everyone else, the number was considerably higher than the seventy thousand that had been estimated just a week ago.

“Ninety thousand warships with the sole intention of driving through our border forts and conquering our homeworld,” James continued. “We all know what the Karacknids did to Earth the last time they managed to breach our defenses. What Tanaka-lan intends will only be worse. At best, he will enslave us and reduce our civilization back to a Stone Age one. At worst, he will destroy Earth in a firestorm of antimatter missiles. The war that is now about to begin is one for our very survival.” As he spoke, James slowly moved his gaze over all the assembled representatives. “None of us can escape what is coming. Either we fight and win, or we die and are enslaved.”

Again, James paused to let his words sink in. He let the silence draw out to the point where even he began to feel uncomfortable. “This is why I am here before you all today. You all know who I am and my record in battle. As soon as Home Fleet is ready, I will be departing to lead our forces and confront Tanaka-lan. That is my responsibility, this is how I will fulfil the oaths I have sworn to protect our Empire. You have a different duty, but one just as important. Total war has come upon our Empire, and every vestige of our civilization and society must be harnessed and forged into a weapon. To that end, I'm here today to voice my support for Bill Seven Hundred and Forty-Five, what many of you simply refer to as the War Bill.

“Yes, in the last two weeks, you have already passed several bills that have called up all our reserves, activated our lend-lease freighters, and brought other aspects of our planned wartime economy online. Yet, they will not be enough. The War Bill must be enacted today if we are to see any fruit from it before it is too late.

“The funds that it will provide and the powers that it will give the Admiralty to draft civilian ships into our ranks are essential if we are to have any hope of victory against the horde arrayed against us. I don’t need to outline every aspect of the Bill; you all know it far more intimately than I do. I stand here not to endorse it as a politician, but as an Admiral and as your Emperor. I know there are concerns about imposing on our citizens' freedoms and about the economic effects this bill will have on our long-term prosperity. Yet, what will either matter if we are all in Karacknid shackles?”

James leaned forward to look down on the faces of all the Representatives. “Together, we stand on the precipice of our species' doom. Either we do everything we can to thwart Tanaka-lan’s planned invasion and then destroy his empire, or we join the long list of species the Karacknids have conquered. That is the choice before you today.”

Standing straight again, James had to fight a sudden urge to look behind him towards his wife. “As for me, my path was laid before me many years ago. I will be departing shortly for the front lines. There, I will once again risk my life and the lives of millions of our naval personnel as we seek to protect everything this Empire stands for. It is my hope that each and every one of you will do everything you can to support and protect us in this most important of endeavors.” Pausing one final time, James took another moment to look around and meet as many eyes as he could. Then he nodded to his audience. “Thank you for your time.”

Suddenly, directly in front of James, several Commoners jumped to their feet. Together, they began clapping their hands loudly. In an instant, hundreds of others joined them. It took only seconds for almost every one of the elected Representatives from all three houses to be on their feet. A wall of applause washed over James' ears. Here and there, he could see the odd representative who wasn’t standing or was standing but not clapping. James understood; the amount of money the bill would seek to raise and the powers it would give the Admiralty to conscript ships and ordinary citizens into its ranks did not sit easily with him either. Yet, the reality of war was that protecting such peacetime niceties was not always possible.

Not sure how to respond, James gave the gathered politicians a slight bow and then raised his hand in a slow salute. Both actions caused the noise assaulting his ears to intensify. “Thank you,” James said several times as he looked around the chamber, though his words were completely drowned out by the noise. After a few more seconds, he gave up, turned, and stepped down from the podium. Many of his closest advisers were there waiting for him. They were all smiling and clapping as well. Only Christine wasn't clapping, though she did have a small wry smile on her face. As their eyes met, hers sparkled. "I told you so," she mouthed at James.

“I think we have the vote, Emperor,” Fairfax, Christine’s Chief of Staff, said loudly so as to be heard as James walked over to the group. Fairfax slapped him on the shoulder. “If the rest of Earth and the Empire have reacted to that speech in the same way the Representatives have, no one, not even those who didn’t clap, will want it publicly known that they don’t support you.”

“I’m glad I could be of some use,” James replied. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m quite happy to leave the final arm-twisting and vote counting to you and the leaders of the three Houses.”

Fairfax smiled a knowing smile. “Of course, Emperor. You can go back to organizing your order of battle and logistic reports. We’ll finish up here.”

Christine moved over to James’ side, stood on her tiptoes, and kissed him on the cheek. “I better stay too,” she said, “and show my face around until the vote is actually taken. I’ll try to be back at the Palace by this afternoon.” She smiled at him and leaned in to kiss James' cheek again. “You did well. All my training is finally paying off.”

Normally, James might have rolled his eyes or had some kind of smart reply. He was just so relieved to have the speech over and done with, and for it to have gone down well, that he only nodded. Now that it was done, he wanted nothing more than to be out of the House of Commons and get back to the seclusion of his library in the Palace. “Go on,” Christine said as she gestured toward the door that led out of the podium’s alcove, recognizing the look in his eyes. “We can talk it all over later.”

James nodded, gave her a relieved smile, and then gestured for Madison, his Chief of Staff, to stay with Christine and Fairfax. As a former Commoner herself, she would be far more useful to them than helping him with military matters. Now, back to the real work, James couldn't help saying to himself as he left the noise of the continuing applause behind him and headed out of the House of Commons toward the shuttle that was already waiting for him.

*

Three hours later and after several unavoidable distractions, James managed to make it to his library. In front of him, he had a massive star map projected. It showed an area of space called The Wilds. Specifically, it mapped out every system between the line of Imperial border forts and the Karacknid fleet bases that faced them. With a simple gesture, James could zoom in on any one of the hundreds of systems to view it or pull up a data file on the inch-by-inch survey that had been done of every system. Between the systems, a maze of shift passages connected them all. Most were represented by thin blue lines, though a number of red lines marked out artificial shift passages the Karacknids were likely to know about. Almost as many orange lines betrayed the locations of artificial shift passages James had personally ordered constructed.

As the image remained stationary above James, nearly a quarter of the systems flashed or had some other kind of marker beside them. They identified systems where Forward Operating Bases had been set up, or where scout squadrons were based, or where one of the many traps James had envisioned could be put into motion. The map in front of James was the same one he had begun working on twenty-five years ago. From the moment he had returned from what the Admiralty now referred to as the Gayla campaign, where he had killed the last Imperator in personal combat, James had begun to prepare. He had always known that one day the Karacknids would once again try to invade his species' worlds and, to do that, they would have to come through The Wilds.

All the symbols on the map represented twenty-five years of planning and preparation. For the last two and a half decades James had been looking for ways to lure in unsuspecting Karacknid squadrons and destroy them, sneak past enemy scouting forces to hit a fleet’s supply convoys, or lay some other kind of trap that might give him the upper hand. While a great deal of the Fleet’s expenditure over the last two and a half decades had gone toward building up the border forts that faced Karacknid space, it had always been James' hope that he could defeat Tanaka-lan in The Wilds. However, that was before the latest reports his son, Jonathan, had sent back from the front. During his foray into Karacknid space, Jonathan had observed far more ships moving to the front than James had anticipated. Additional scouts had returned from other areas of the frontline with findings that confirmed Jonathan’s estimate.

At worst, James had been expecting to face sixty, maybe seventy thousand enemy warships. Given that the frontline of the coming war extended beyond his Empire's space to encompass both Mindus and Varanni space, James had expected Tanaka-lan to be able to bring a maximum of a hundred thousand ships in total. Spread out to face his Empire, the Mindus, and the Varanni, he had hoped he could meet Tanaka-lan’s forces tasked with attacking Humanity in The Wilds and beat them back. With the Imperial Fleet numbering over fifty thousand ships, James had been confident his years of preparation would have allowed him to overcome the enemy's slight advantage in numbers. But now he found himself facing an additional twenty thousand warships, and there was a chance that number might still grow further.

We're going to have to fight them at our forts, James told himself as he studied the strategic layout of the systems in The Wilds. There was simply no way he could hold back ninety thousand Karacknid warships. And we're going to need all the help we can get. Already, James had sent word to the Kalassai, the Kulreans, the Conclave species, and the Vestarians to send every ship they had. Bill seven hundred and forty-five, if it passed, would swell the fleet's numbers with civilian ships that could be quickly outfitted with defensive weapons. In supply depots in orbit around the moon, a massive stockpile of such weapons had been built up over the years. These retrofitted civilian ships wouldn't be of much use in fleet engagement or in a battle of maneuver, but they could bolster the border forts' defenses.

But even then, will it be enough? James couldn't help asking himself as he stared at the map, searching for answers. The problem with any defensive strategy was that it gave the initiative to the enemy. A total of seventeen border forts protected every shift passage that led into Imperial space from the north and northeast. The bulk of the Imperial fleet was spread out between them, and although artificial shift passages and jump gates meant ships could quickly move from one fort to another, Tanaka-lan could choose where and when to strike at his leisure.

James knew what he would do if he were in Tanaka-lan’s shoes. He would split his forces to keep the Imperial fleet guessing about where the main blow would fall. Then he would swiftly combine his ships into one force and strike an overwhelming blow against one of the forts. Next, he would leave a strong fleet to hold the system while moving on to take a second or even a third fort. From there, he would have two or three lines of advance into the Empire and toward Earth. As long as Tanaka-lan could force James to keep his ships split up protecting several systems at once, Tanaka-lan could always use his numerical advantage to win battle after battle.

“But it's not a foregone conclusion,” James said out loud, determination filling his voice. One key advantage Humanity and her allies had was their extensive network of artificial shift passages. Even now, squadrons of hundreds of ships were quickly moving eastward along the frontline from Varanni and Mindus space, as Humanity's two most important allies in the war shifted forces in response to the larger-than-expected Karacknid buildup opposite the Human border forts. We just have to delay him long enough, James thought as he began to see how all his years of preparation could still be used in his favor. We hold him long enough in The Wilds while every ship the Allies have moves to join us. Then when Tanaka-lan tries to take one of our forts, we contest every inch of the system and inflict such losses on his fleet that he loses the ability to advance further, even if he takes the system.

In James' mind, scenario after scenario began to play out as he envisioned how Tanaka-lan might advance across The Wilds, and how he could counter the Imperator's moves. Each time, his goal was not to destroy the Karacknid fleets but to confound and delay them. An hour later, James finally nodded. He was far from certain he could pull it off, but he now had a concrete plan that gave him hope. Even as his hope rose, another thought seized his emotions and dragged them back down. There was still nothing he could do for his niece. Emilie Alvaraz had been captured by Tanaka-lan, and if she was even still alive, she was undoubtedly being tortured as Tanaka-lan extracted all the strategic and tactical information she possessed as one of the Empire's most senior commanders.

Since hearing the news of her capture from Jonathan's report two weeks ago, James had not managed more than a few hours sleep each night. Despite the dark circles under his eyes and the weariness from the myriad tasks he had needed to complete before being able to leave for the front, every night when he closed his eyes, he couldn't help picturing Emilie. He thought of her more like a daughter than a niece, and the idea of her suffering as Tanaka-lan's prisoner wrenched his heart.

Several minutes later, a knock on the library's wooden door pulled James' mind away from Emilie. He glanced at his chronometer, having lost track of how long he had spent thinking about her. "Come in," he called out after taking a moment to clear his thoughts. Despite the dark place his mind had just been, James smiled as a very familiar face poked her head through the door. Alongside Emilie, she was someone else James had come to think of as a daughter after their forty years of service together.

"Sorry to disturb you, Emperor," Admiral Scott, head of the Imperial Fleet’s R&D division, said formally. "But I thought you'd like to know, I just heard word from Rear Admiral Jenning. Home Fleet should be ready to break orbit in four hours."

With considerably more effort than it had taken him nineteen years ago when Christine had first bought the ornate chair for his library, James raised himself to his feet. "I guess that means we'd better make our own final preparations."

"Yes, sir. Is there anything I can do for you?" Scott asked.

Though James wanted to share all the thoughts he had been having as he studied the map with Scott, he knew there would be time for that later. Instead, he shook his head. "No, I'm sure between them Christine and Fox will have already packed up everything I could ever imagine needing. I'll go speak to them now and let them know I'll be departing soon."

"Very well," Scott hesitated before turning to leave. "I'm not sure if you know yet, but the vote passed. I heard just ten minutes ago. I've already seconded about half the officers from my division to the Admiralty to help with the armament of all the civilian ships we'll be drafting."

"I hadn't heard," James replied, feeling a small measure of relief. Despite Christine and Fairfax's confidence, he hadn't been so sure. "I'm sure your people will do well; you have them all well-trained." Scott nodded. Since the end of the Karacknid war twenty-five years ago, both of them had been convinced that technological advances would be key to any future war with the Karacknids, yet now that war was reigniting, much of the work of Scott's division had become secondary. Several projects would continue, but any not within a year or two of fruition had already been shelved. If Humanity survived the coming war, they could be restarted someday.

"Come on," James said as he moved over to Scott and followed her out of his library. "Go see to your things and say your goodbyes. I'll see you up there."

"Yes, Emperor. Say goodbye to Christine and Rachel for me in case I don't get the chance," Scott responded.

"I will," James promised as they both turned in different directions to head toward their quarters in the Palace. "See you soon."

Chapter 2

As disjointed and disunified as the three Houses of Parliament can often be, at least they have this going for them; when the barbarians are at the gates, they always find a way to come together.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

Leaving the library behind, James made his way to his and Christine's personal quarters in the Palace. With the vote having just passed, he wasn't surprised to find it empty—Christine hadn't returned yet. Stepping into his dressing room, he opened a couple of compartments and confirmed that almost all of his uniforms and other clothes had already been packed up and removed. Pulling out his datapad, he checked to see where his steward, Arthur Fox, was. When the security feed indicated that he wasn't anywhere in the Palace, James guessed he was already on a shuttle on his way up to Hermes.

Going back into the kitchen, James made two cups of coffee and then carried them to what he and Christine called the viewing room. Setting down both cups, he then sat on the large double sofa that dominated the circular room. As it always did, the view from the sofa grabbed his attention. Half of the room's circular wall was made of glass. With their quarters on the Palace's twentieth floor, James had an unobstructed view looking down the steep mountain valley. With the Matterhorn dominating one side of the valley and Dent Blanche the other, James was mesmerized by snowy peaks and towering cliff faces. About halfway down the mountainsides, green forests and lush grass banks swayed back and forth in the wind. Taking a deep breath, James let it out slowly as he tried to release some of the stress pent up within his body. The view from the Palace never ceased to amaze him with the beauty that was on display and he slowly sipped his coffee as he enjoyed it.

Several minutes later, he heard the main doors into their quarters open. "James," Christine called out. "Are you here?"

"In here," James replied as he stood.

Christine crossed the threshold into the viewing room before James reached it. "What are you doing here?" she asked, knowing that he often came to take in the view when he needed to think.

"I heard from Scott; Home Fleet will be ready to depart in just a few hours. We'll be leaving this afternoon," James said.

Christine's eyes widened. "I thought we would have longer." She half-turned as if to leave the viewing room but then paused and turned her head back to James. "There are some things I still need to pack for you."

James smiled at her and reached out to take one of Christine's hands. "Fox has taken care of everything. Come and sit with me. I've made some coffee." When Christine hesitated, James tightened his grip and gently turned her back to face him. "Whatever it is, if Fox hasn't packed it, you can worry about it later. Let's come and sit and enjoy our view together for a moment."

Christine hesitated for a second longer, then her face softened and she allowed James to lead her to the sofa. As she sat, James picked up a cup of coffee and handed it to her, then sat down close enough to her so that their legs and shoulders touched. He then reached over for his own cup and took a long, slow sip. For several minutes, both of them were content to enjoy each other's presence and look out at the view that they rarely had the time to enjoy.

As they sat in silence, James couldn't help but wonder if this was the last time he would get to look out at this view or simply sit beside his wife. With the countless battles he had fought in throughout his naval career, he knew he was more than blessed to have survived long enough to marry Christine and raise the family they had together. Yet deep down, he had always felt that sooner or later the odds would catch up to him. Facing off against Tanaka-lan's massive fleet would be the most difficult feat he had yet attempted. Even if he and his admirals could find a way to hold Tanaka-lan in The Wilds, James knew the chances that he would survive the coming war were slim.

Despite the view and his wife's warm presence, James' thoughts reminded him of all the things he still wanted to say to Christine before Home Fleet left. At the same time, they both turned to each other, their mouths open. Seeing that the other person wanted to speak as well made them both smile. "You first," Christine said.

James' smile widened, and he shook his head. "I've been married long enough to know not to come between a woman and something she has to say. You first."

Christine nodded and smiled back. "I wanted to let you know, the vote passed in all three Houses with an overwhelming majority," she said. "We thought we had the votes before your speech, but you clinched it. You did even better than I expected. Though I knew you would convince them. I wanted to celebrate, to cook you a meal. I'm sorry we won't have time for that now."

James reached over and placed his arm around Christine's shoulder. "It's okay. I'm happy just to be sitting here with you."

"But there are some things I wanted to pack for you," Christine said. "I should see to them too."

"Relax," James said as he rubbed Christine's shoulders, feeling the tension in them and seeing the worry in her eyes that she was trying to keep off her face. "And let's talk. This may be our last chance to be together for many months. Once I leave, there will be no way I can come back until this war is finished, one way or another."

Christine's face tightened at James' last words. For a moment, a new silence enveloped them as they both dwelt on what James meant. Although he had said it to Christine not long ago when Jonathan's news had first come to them, he felt he needed to say it again. "There's only one of two ways I see this ending," he said as he held Christine a little tighter. "One of us must die."

Though she didn't meet his eyes, Christine nodded. Instead, she looked down at her lap. "I understand. I feel it too. This has to end now; either we defeat their empire completely, or Tanaka-lan will conquer us." Though she tried to hide it, her voice was full of sorrow.

James instinctively reached out with his free hand and turned Christine's chin up so that their eyes met. He flashed her a wide grin. "One of us must die, but I'm going to make darn sure it's him and not me… You know that, right?" he added when his bravado didn't remove the concern from Christine's face.

Christine nodded. "Of course, I do. It's just that this time feels different. You're not going to fight some small hostile civilization or a short war to defend our borders. This is a fight to the death. Many, maybe even all who leave today, may never come back."

James nodded. He knew there was no point in trying to persuade her otherwise; they both knew it was true. "That is the price we have to pay for our freedoms. If I must pay it too, then I will… But I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure it doesn't come to that." Tightening his grip around Christine's shoulder, James leaned in and gave her a slow, gentle kiss. When they broke apart, he smiled at her. "Let's not let our last hour together be filled with sadness and fear. There is much we have to discuss, and then I want to say goodbye to you properly."

Several emotions flashed across Christine's face as she fought to get them under control. After a second, she returned his smile and raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? And just what do you mean by 'properly'?"

James' smile turned into a grin. He scooped his free hand under his wife's legs and then lifted her up as he stood. "How about I show you, Mrs. Somerville?" he asked as he carried her out of the viewing room.

*

Almost an hour later, Christine walked back into their bedroom from the kitchen carrying two fresh cups of coffee; their previous ones having grown cold. "So," she said after setting one down on James' bedside table and then snuggling back into his arms as they both sat up against the bed's headrest, "what were these things you wished to discuss?"

"Where do you want to begin? The running of the Empire, the Fleet, coordinating with our allies, or our children? It's very likely I may be gone for months, if not years, if we can eventually find a way to push Tanaka-lan back into his territory. You're going to have to run everything without me,” James said. “Normally, I wouldn't think that would be a problem for you at all, but everything must be organized with the view of fighting this war. Every other consideration must come second."

Christine nodded seriously. "I understand; I know what you and the fleet will need from us. That's why I plan to make Andrea Clements my Deputy Chief of Staff once you leave. I want her overseeing all of the Empire's economy and wartime industrial efforts. And I'll be seeking her advice on every major decision I make."

"That's a great idea. She's the best we've got." James replied as he imagined how excited Andrea would be by the prospect. Since the last Karacknid War she had basically served as the Fleet’s logistics guru. James had no doubt she’d jump at the chance to have a similar input on the Empire’s entire economy.

"All right then, it sounds like you still have plenty you want to get off your chest. So let's start with our children. As much as I hate it, they're going to have as big a role in this war as you. So, what are you thinking?" Christine asked.

"There's not much we can do for Jonathan and Georgia," James began, explaining what he had been pondering for the last couple of weeks. "They are too experienced and too important to keep them away from where the fighting will be hottest. They'll both just have to go wherever their squadrons end up. A part of me wishes Georgia would stay on the other side of The Gift, and another part of me wishes she was already here. It will take nearly a couple of months for the recall orders we sent to Admiral Becket to reach her fleet. I wish her ships were already here, though it would mean Georgia joining us as we face Tanaka-lan."

"I feel the same," Christine agreed. "I don't want any of them going into harm's way, yet if we are going to win, we'll need them. So, that's Jonathan and Georgia. What about Edward? He'll want to play a role. He hides it well, but I know there were times he regrets joining Fleet Intelligence rather than pursuing an active combat role."

James nodded. "I feel the same way. But I'm very happy he chose the path he did. At least we have one child we can keep from the front lines. He's already taking risks, so I don't feel any guilt about holding him back. Much as he hates it, I was planning to assign him to resume command of watching our southern borders in case anymore snake-like aliens try to enter our space. With hostilities breaking out again with the Karacknids, we are more vulnerable now than ever before to their meddling. If another agent enters our space and tries to sow disunity here on Earth among other politicians, it may have devastating consequences for the fleet. I know Edward isn't likely to see it that way, but keeping a watchful eye on our southern border is a high priority, and he's already shown he is well up to the task."

"And at least we'll know one of our children is relatively safe while the others risk their lives," Christine replied. "I like your thinking. When would he ship out?"

"I would have already sent him, but Alvarez needs Edward's input as they sift through all the data they've collected from the snake-like alien and her ship. Once they're finished, Mark will issue Edward his new orders, but Edward will need you there to help him accept what we're asking of him."

"All right, I can do that," Christine agreed. "Which leaves us with Rachel. She will graduate from basic training in just two weeks. After that, her field medic training should last six months, but then she'll be ready to deploy. And it may be even sooner if her cohort of cadets is called up to active service sooner."

"I know," James said, worry in his voice. "And she's even more stubborn than you, if that's even possible. If we try to assign her to a backwater post, she'll know we interfered and likely find a way to get assigned to the most dangerous posting she can just to spite us."

"So you have a plan then, I hope?" Christine asked.

"I do," James replied. "It's the Nightingale. She's the third of five planned triage medical ships. The plan is to initially station them at Zeta Fort. There they will take on many of the wounded who are brought back from the fighting in The Wilds. Those with minor injuries will be treated on board and reassigned to new warships. Those more seriously injured will be diverted to New Shanghai or here to Earth. If the fighting gets close to the forts, though, they will evacuate to New Shanghai, and will retreat even further if Tanaka-lan breaches our forts."

"Nightingale is due to be commissioned in about six months and sent to join her sister ships. Like every other Imperial warship, she's going to need a small marine detachment, and she'll be desperate for skilled medics as well. It's the perfect fit for Rachel. And she can't complain that we're not sending her to the front."

"I like it," Christine said as she looked up at her husband and smiled. "Perhaps you are a little craftier than I give you credit for."

"I try," James said as he returned her smile. "And at least this way, we can know at least two of our children are relatively safe."

"I wish it were all four," Christine replied, "but two is the best we can hope for, isn't it?" James nodded. "Well then, what else do you want to go over?" Christine asked next.

For nearly an hour, James went through the long list of things he wanted to make sure they had discussed and were on the same page about. Despite everything they had gone through, James felt like he still had a day's worth of ideas and plans that, while many had been discussed before either with Christine or their Inner Council, he felt needed to be gone over again. Long before he covered them all, Christine's COM unit beeped. Reaching over for it, she tapped it. "It's a message from Rachel. I asked her to come say goodbye to you as soon as her training finished for the day. She will be here in five minutes."

James let out a sigh. He knew he couldn't cover everything he wanted to, but still...

"Come on," Christine said as she tapped him on the chest and then rolled out of their bed. "It's time. Let's get you into a fresh uniform and get ready. I'm sure there's a shuttle already waiting for you on the landing pad. If we dally too much longer, Scott or someone else will start to wonder what we're doing holed up in our quarters."

Reluctantly, James rolled himself out of bed and followed Christine into his dressing room. He knew from experience to let her take charge and pick out his clothes. A few minutes later, as they were both still getting ready, the chime on their quarters' main entrance rang to let them know someone had just entered. "I'll go, you finish," James said to Christine, who was now in her dressing room getting herself ready.

"Rachel," James said as he stepped into their quarters' living room and opened his arms for his daughter to come over and give him a hug. "I'm very glad you were able to make it."

"I wasn't going to miss saying goodbye, Daddy," Rachel replied. "Even if I had to sneak away from training."

James smiled. "I'm not sure what General Johnston would think of that, but I'm glad you're here either way." Stepping back, he looked her up and down. It seemed like every day he saw her she was getting bulkier. With the combination of her augments, and the hormones and special diet marine cadets were given during training, she now looked like she might weigh twice as much as he did. "How was your training today?" he asked.

"We did a 20-mile run, then an hour of hand-to-hand combat," Rachel replied. "It was tough, but fun. We'll be doing weights as well this evening before lights out at 2200."

James shook his head. Though he had the same augmentations as his daughter, he had no idea how she and the rest of the cadets were able to keep up with the daily training schedule they all had to complete to graduate.

Rachel smiled as she read her father's mind. "It's only a couple of weeks till graduation. They're putting us through the final tests to see if anyone else will quit. Just a few more days of this and the worst will be behind me, at least so I'm told."

"I’m just glad it is you rather than me having to go through all that," James replied.

"And I wish it was me rather than you shipping out," Rachel said seriously. "You've done more than enough for the Empire and our species. You've already fought in hundreds of battles, far more than anyone has any right to survive. You should be letting your younger admirals take some of the responsibility."

James' heart warmed at his daughter's protectiveness. He reached out and stroked her hair like he used to do often when she was a child. "I'm meant to be the one worrying about you. And don't worry, there's going to be plenty of action for every admiral in the fleet."

Rachel leaned in and gave James another hug. "Well, I wish you didn't have to go. Mom and I will miss you terribly."

"Indeed we will," Christine agreed as she stepped out, her face looking fresh and devoid of any of the worry and sadness James knew she felt. "But we've gotten used to saying our goodbyes and missing you. It's time to put a brave face on it and do so once more."

Though her voice was perfectly calm for Rachel's sake, when James met his wife's eyes, for the briefest of seconds, he saw how hard it was for her. Reaching out with his free hand, he beckoned her to join their hug. For several seconds, he held them as he closed his eyes, relishing the feeling of the two most important women in his life pressed against his chest. "You'll get to enjoy this again when it's all over," he told himself, trying to sound as convincing as possible.

Eventually, James had to let them go. The time for the Home Fleet to break orbit was fast approaching. "I need to head to the shuttle," James said to them.

"Just one second," Christine said as she held up a finger and then turned and moved back into their bedroom. She reappeared a moment later with a small carry bag. "Here, take this; it's a couple of things I wanted you to have."

James took the bag, but when he went to unzip it to look inside, Christine swatted his hand away. "You can have a look later; it's just a couple of presents from me."

"All right then, let's go," James said as he slung the bag over his shoulder and took his wife's hand. He wanted to take Rachel's as well, but he guessed that would be going a little too far for her. Ten years ago, she wouldn't have hesitated, but she wasn't a little girl anymore.

They walked out of their quarters and through the Palace in silence, savoring the last moments together. Palace staff and naval officers who saw them bowed, curtsied, or simply made themselves scarce, leaving their Emperor and Empress alone. Instead of heading towards the Palace's main foyer and out to the main shuttle landing pads, Christine directed them to one of the Palace's rear exits. As they reached it and stepped outside, James half-expected to see a group of his friends waiting to say goodbye. Though he had been saying his goodbyes over the last two weeks, he suspected Christine might have organized something for him. Yet, there was no one.

"I wanted it to just be us," Christine said when James looked down at her.

James nodded; that was fine with him. He then looked over to the nearest of the three shuttle pads. A military shuttle had already landed, and its engines were humming as it prepared to take off again. On the outside, he could clearly see the name of its mothership: Hermes. Letting go of Christine's hand, he turned to fully face Rachel. "I'd say keep working hard, and you'll have no problem graduating, but I suspect you already know that. You've excelled in medical school and in your cadet training. I'm sure you'll make a fine field medic when they commission you. I know you'll do us both proud. I just wish I could be here to see it."

Rachel nodded as she wiped back a tear. "I wish you could be too, Daddy." She then smiled at him. "Who knows, maybe I'll be assigned to your fleet once I'm commissioned."

"Who knows," James replied, careful not to let his eyes flick to Christine. "Or maybe you'll be assigned to the same ship as Jonathan, or maybe even Georgia. I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

Rachel nodded. "Wherever I'm assigned, I'm just glad I'll finally get to play a part in facing our Empire's enemies."

James smiled again and pulled Rachel in for a final hug. "Look after your mother and make sure she doesn't work too hard," he instructed her when he let her go again. Then he turned to Christine.

As their eyes met, much passed between them. For two and a half decades, they had been preparing for this moment. Now that it was here, neither of them felt ready—not ready to face the might of the Karacknid Empire, nor ready to say goodbye. Yet they both knew they had a duty to fulfill, and neither was going to let their Empire or Humanity down. James nodded at the resolve he saw in his wife's eyes. "I love you," he said as he reached out and cupped her cheek. "Whatever happens, I love you and I'll be fighting with every breath to get back to you."

"And I you," Christine replied. "And as much as I want you to come back right away, I know what you must do. So, husband of mine, do not return until you have vanquished Tanaka-lan once and for all."

Surprised at the strength of her words, James nodded solemnly. "You have my word, Empress... and my heart." Leaning in, James gave Christine one final lingering kiss. Then they shared one last look before he forced himself to turn and start walking toward the shuttle.

Just before he got to the shuttle, James glanced left and looked down through the valley formed by the towering Swiss mountains. As he did, he couldn't help but wonder if he would ever see such beauty again. Then he glanced up. There were so many ships in orbit that hundreds could be seen through the blue sky of the warm summer's day. Several massive dreadnoughts caught James' eye; though he wasn't sure, it was very likely that one of them was the Hermes. I'm coming, he thought as he forced himself to forget about the women he was leaving behind and adopt the persona he needed to lead Humanity's forces into battle.

Chapter 3

The crews and commanders of the Imperial Fleet take their oaths to the Emperor and Empress utterly seriously. It is drummed into us from the first days of our academy training. The reason this tradition has lasted as long as it has goes back to our founding rulers who received the oaths, for they did not just command the respect their titles deserved, they earned it.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

As his shuttle took off, James leaned over to look out of the nearest observation port. He intentionally avoided looking down towards the Palace or the two rapidly shrinking figures who were gazing up after him. Instead, James looked up toward Earth's crowded orbitals and the myriad ships that quickly came into view as the shuttle ascended into space. Even in the small area of Earth's orbitals that his eyes could see, thousands of shuttles were zooming back and forth between the hundreds of giant orbital stations that moved around the equator. Just as many were ascending or descending through Earth's atmosphere. Among them, many larger civilian ships and freighters were going about their daily business.

Beyond them all, a ring of large, black orbital battlestations formed a circle around Humanity's homeworld. As the shuttle moved through them, James could see some of the many frigates, destroyers, and cruisers that augmented their defenses. They too would be diverted to the front soon enough, James was sure. They were being held back for now, as there was still a small possibility that Tanaka-lan might attempt a sneak attack through the Gift wormhole. But when the fighting in the Wilds began in earnest, Earth's defenses would have to be stripped bare.

Once the shuttle had passed through the battlestations, Home Fleet in all its glory came into view. The rows of dreadnoughts that had been visible from the Palace were joined by hundreds of battleships and battlecruisers, and then thousands of smaller ships. In total, four thousand additional warships would be joining James as they headed for Zeta Fort. As the shuttle approached the fleet, James' professional eye couldn't help but assess its formation and the way each squadron commander had his or her ships arrayed. James nodded in approval of what he saw; not a flotilla or ship looked out of place.

Despite the massive demonstration of the Empire's might, James' eyes couldn't help but be drawn to the alien ships that were holding station with Home Fleet, slightly off to one side. The nearest ship dwarfed even the row of dreadnoughts that sat near it. As impressive as that was, the fact that there were two hundred of them was what brought a smile to James' face. The hour Jonathan's news about Tanaka-lan's military buildup had reached Earth, Superintendent Hallock had sent word to Kulthar to request that the other Superintendents send out their worldships. True to Hallock’s word, they had arrived in record time. With each one possessing the firepower of ten Imperial dreadnoughts, they were a deadly force.

If James could have taken them into The Wilds, he would have been far more certain of success. Yet the Kulreans still insisted they only be used to protect Allied worlds. But they will free up more of our own ships to be used in the Wilds, James consoled himself. That was going to have to suffice.

As the shuttle closed in on one of the dreadnoughts, James focused his attention on the ship that would take him to Zeta Fort. Hermes wasn't a brand-new dreadnought, but she was only three years old. She was one of Scott's Striker-class dreadnoughts. While James had toured the original Striker, he hadn't spent much time with this class of dreadnoughts; they had been intentionally kept in reserve, either in Home Fleet or protecting one of the border forts. With luck, James hoped they would come as a surprise to Tanaka-lan when it came time to use them. Imagining he was seeing the dreadnought for the first time, James ran his eyes over the sleek hull. Although he knew what to look for, he was unable to distinguish Hermes from any of the other dreadnought classes he was familiar with. Let's hope it works, he thought to himself as his shuttle angled for one of Hermes' hangars.

When his shuttle touched down, James unbuckled himself, thanked the pilot, and then descended the shuttle's rear access ramp. He smiled at the officer who was standing alone to greet him. She knows I hate any fanfare. “Vice Admiral," James said as he gave her a salute. "I'm already happy I made you my Chief of Staff."

"Rear Admiral Jenning wanted to have the dreadnought's entire marine detachment here to welcome you, Emperor, but I managed to talk him out of it," Scott replied after returning James' salute.

James grimaced at the mention of his Imperial title. When on board a ship, he always insisted on being referred to as Admiral or Sir. Yet with Scott as his Chief of Staff, a position usually held by someone with the rank of Commander, it was best he was addressed as Emperor to avoid any confusion with Admiral Scott.

Scott nodded her head, guessing what James' facial expression meant. "It will take a little bit of getting used to for me too, Emperor. But it's the price you're going to have to pay."

James stepped off the shuttle's access ramp and walked over to Scott, who turned and led them out of the hangar. "Do you resent me for asking you?" he asked.

Scott didn't answer right away. Only when they left the hangar and had taken a few steps down the corridor did she turn to him. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't expecting to command a fleet myself. I've been preparing myself for the last two and a half decades to face the Karacknids again. I know I've spent a lot of time heading up the fleet's R&D division, but I am ready to command in battle once more."

James nodded; Scott wasn't wrong. "But…" he pressed. Hoping she would provide the counter to his own argument.

"But I understand why you asked," Scott replied. "If you think you need me, then I'll be here for you. Of course, I will."

"Good," James said in a satisfied tone. "Because I am most certainly going to need you. With Tanaka-lan's increasing numbers, I think it's now impossible for us to hold him in the Wilds. But that doesn't mean we're not going to try. If we can delay him long enough, it may buy enough time for more of our allies' forces to gather to face him. So that's what we're going to try and do, and to have any chance, I'm going to need to deploy every trick and new weapon you've come up with over the last two decades. No one is better suited to be my Chief of Staff and advise me on how to do this."

As James glanced at Scott, he saw a twinkle in her eye. "We're going into The Wilds to face him when he comes for us?"

James nodded, eliciting a smile from Scott. Since Jonathan's news of Tanaka-lan's buildup, the senior Admirals of the Admiralty, including James and Scott, had been debating the best course of action. Many had favored hunkering behind the forts and confronting Tanaka-lan's fleets with the aid of their fixed defenses. Now James had another idea. "We won't be able to stop him, but with both of us working together, I'm hoping we can give him a bloody nose or two while we allow our forts to make their final preparations."

"That sounds good to me, Emperor," Scott said excitedly. "I may just have more ideas to run by you if that's the case."

"And I have one or two for you too, Admiral," James replied with a smile. "We can put our heads together after we break orbit."

"It's a date," Scott said as she winked at James.

"The fleet is ready then?" James asked, changing topics.

"It is," Scott replied. "The last freighters reported that they completed taking on provisions fifteen minutes ago. Jennings has had every ship complete its pre-flight checks. We can break orbit as soon as you give the order."

"And our Kulrean allies?" James followed up.

"They say they're ready to go," Scott answered. "We haven't detected any signs of them testing their impulse engines or powering up their reactors, but then, we never do."

James couldn't help smiling at the hint of jealousy in Scott's voice. Despite the many technologies the Kulreans had shared with Humanity, most of their advanced stuff was still a well-kept secret. The capture of the snake-like alien vessel and Superintendent Hallock's willingness to share whatever technologies they discovered from analyzing it opened up the possibility that they might finally share some more advanced technologies. However, any breakthroughs wouldn't likely come for a year or more—too far away to have any impact on the coming war.

"Here we are," Scott said after a short turbolift ride that brought them to a large open circular hatch leading into Hermes' bridge. "After you, Sir," she said as she gestured towards the hatch. "You are the guest of honor, after all."

James rolled his eyes, knowing that the fanfare he had avoided in the hangar was coming now. Stepping through the hatch, the sound of over twenty officers jumping to their feet greeted him as every bridge officer sprang up, turned around, and gave him a salute. At the same time, one of Jennings' officers announced his presence. "Emperor on deck," he shouted.

James paused, took a moment to look around at all the officers as if inspecting them, and then returned the salute. "At ease," he instructed them. He then let his gaze fall on Rear Admiral Jenning, Home Fleet's commander.

"Welcome on board, Emperor," Jennings said as he stepped away from his command chair and held out his hand to James.

"Thank you," James replied. "I got a good look at the fleet on the shuttle ride here; you have everything well in order."

"We've been preparing to face the Karacknids for a long time now, Emperor. And we didn't want to disappoint you either. It will be a pleasure taking you to Zeta Fort."

"Just tell me if I'm getting in the way," James replied. "This is still your fleet; I'm just a passenger." Though Jennings nodded, James was sure he would do no such thing, if James wanted, Jennings would let James micromanage everything down to Hermes’ sublieutenants duty schedules. As much as James didn’t understand it, he had learnt long ago that most naval officers found it hard to say no to an Emperor. As much as James wanted to throw himself into familiarizing himself with the ships of Home Fleet, he was confident Jennings wouldn't have anything to worry about on this trip, however. He and Scott had far too much to plan and prepare for him to be distracted with the more mundane activities of supervising a fleet.

"Allow me to introduce my Flag Captain and my staff officers," Jennings said as he beckoned Hermes' Captain over.

James smiled at each officer as he shook their hands and shared a few pleasantries with them. He recognized Hermes' Captain, having spoken with her several times at different Admiralty meetings. The rest of Jennings' flag officers and Hermes' officers were all new to him. When he had spoken to them all, he moved over to the command chair Jennings had reserved for him. "Show us the fleet and Earth," James requested once he and Scott were seated.

As Hermes' main holo display sprang to life, displaying Earth and Home Fleet, James took a moment to take everything in. Arrayed around Hermes were four thousand three hundred Imperial and Vestarian warships. Next to them were the two hundred Kulrean worldships. Then, slightly farther away, the three thousand freighters and escorts that made up the fleet’s supply train were in a tight formation. In his mind, James could also picture the other formations that were still on their way towards Earth. More squadrons from Vestar, as well as the remaining ships assigned to Humanity's southern borders, would be heading north. From the west, Varanni and Crian squadrons would be approaching, and then from the Gift to Earth's east, the Conclave species should be sending the bulk of their fleets through the wormhole. All would be making their way to Earth and then on to Zeta Fort in the next couple of months.

"All right," James said as he turned back to Jennings. "Break orbit and set course for Zeta Fort. Take us out."

"Aye, aye, Emperor," Jennings replied firmly. "Helm, prepare to break orbit. COMs, signal the fleet, and inform them we will depart in twenty seconds. Helm, take us out when you are ready."

At Jennings' order, the reactors of every ship in the fleet, and then their impulse engines, powered up, and as one, they began to move up and out of Earth's orbit. Once again, James nodded in approval at the expertise with which the maneuver had been carried out. Though many of Home Fleet's, and indeed the rest of the Imperial fleet's officers, had little combat experience, James was at least confident that all his officers knew what they were doing.

"Look at that," one of Hermes' tactical officers said, drawing everyone's attention back to Earth.

James' eyebrows rose at what he saw. On the holo display, it looked like the planet had suddenly begun to sparkle. It wasn't coming from the planet, though, but from every orbital station, ship, and shuttle. Together, they were all flashing their running lights toward Home Fleet.

"They are sending you off, Emperor," Jennings said.

James shook his head and spoke loudly enough for everyone on the bridge to hear. "Not just me; they are sending us all off. They know we go to fight and perhaps die for their freedoms. They are showing us their gratitude."

"We're getting a message from the Palace," Hermes' COM officer announced a couple of seconds later. "It's being broadcast on an open channel for every ship in Home Fleet. Text only: 'The Empire expects that every man and woman will do their duty. Good luck and Godspeed.'"

As many of Hermes' officers shared a grin with each other or straightened their backs and grew more serious, James shared a glance with Scott. His wife was showing that she knew her naval history, and that she understood just what Home Fleet needed to hear. As James stared at Earth, his eyes were drawn toward the Alps and roughly to where he thought the Palace was. He knew that somewhere down there Christine was watching a holo display of Home Fleet breaking orbit. He suspected she would be on her own, where she didn't have to hide her emotions. The mental picture made James' heart ache. He desperately wanted to comfort her or better yet; not have to leave her at all. Yet it was his love for her that meant he had to go. He couldn't let Tanaka-lan get within a hundred light years of his wife or Earth.

Thinking of his wife reminded James of the small bag she had given him. He still clutched it in his left hand. As Earth began to shrink on the holo display, he opened it to see what she had given him. He smiled when he saw some bars of his favorite Swiss chocolate. Reaching in, he moved them to the side and pulled out a hardback book that had been nestled amongst them. He nodded at the title. It was a history of Sparta and its military feats; just the kind of book he needed to read whilst going into battle against an overwhelming foe. Noticing a bookmark already in the book, he opened it. His eyes were immediately drawn to a quote that was underlined. It was a famous saying attributed to Spartan mothers: "Come back with your shield – or on it."

James closed the book and shut his eyes for several seconds. Christine was telling him she understood. There was no running or hiding or retreating this time, victory or death were the only two things awaiting him as he sailed away from his home and his wife.

Chapter 4

Often in war it is the ordinary soldier or the lowliest of Captains, rather than the Generals and Admirals, who turn the tides of battles. Usually when they do however, it is a sign that they are destined for even greater things.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Badger, Karacknid space, 11th August 2512 AD, (same time).

Pulling a handkerchief from his tunic pocket, Captain O’Kane wiped a few beads of sweat from his brow. Normally, he would go to great lengths to hide any sign of nerves from his crew, but the tension on the bridge was palpable. Everyone was on edge. Everyone knew the next hour could be their last. If he wasn't showing any signs of stress, he suspected his crew would start to think something was wrong with him.

For the last two hours, his scout frigate, Badger, had been positioned twelve light hours outside the Karacknid system designated FB-6. ‘FB’ stood for fleet base, and FB-6 was one of the five bases where the Karacknids had been amassing the majority of their forces. Other bases along the border were active as well, but they seemed to be primarily utilized by scout squadrons and other smaller formations. The system that Badger was monitoring with its passive sensors was home to far more ships. The last scout frigate that sneaked into the system three weeks ago had identified eleven thousand Karacknid warships. Now, O’Kane was here to see if that number had changed.

Two hours of letting Badger’s passive sensors sift through every stray electromagnetic signal hadn't given O’Kane much information. His ship was simply too far away to detect any Karacknid warships that weren't accelerating hard through the system. However, up to this point, that was all he had been looking for. Over the two hours, he and his officers had constructed a rough understanding of the patrol patterns of the Karacknid squadrons guarding the outer system. O’Kane suspected more Karacknid patrol ships were out there: some moving too slowly for Badger’s gravimetric sensors to detect, while others were probably in stealth mode, poised to catch an unsuspecting Imperial scout ship. O’Kane couldn't counteract either of those possibilities at the moment. With the routes of ships they had identified mapped out, there was nothing left to do but give the order.

“All right,” he said, turning to his first Lieutenant. “Jump us in.”

“Aye, Sir,” Jacky Smith replied. She then gestured to Badger’s navigation officer. A tap on his command console initiated Badger’s shift drive. In just two seconds, the ship jumped into shift space and then exited again, placing Badger back into normal space just one light hour from the system’s mass shadow.

O’Kane held his breath, his body tense, mirroring the sentiment of every other bridge officer. If a stealthy Karacknid ship was close enough to have detected their jump, missiles or laser beams would slam into Badger almost immediately. Yet, as seconds ticked by, none came. Instead, Badger’s main holo display updated, giving a more detailed look at the space around them and all objects within the system.

Moments later, smaller contacts appeared as Badger identified over thirty Karacknid picket ships. Most were moving back and forth across the ends of the four shift passages leading into the system. Others were positioned outside the system’s mass shadow, looking for ships that, like Badger, might have exited shift space before the end of the shift passages. Being much closer now, nine additional ships beyond those they had already identified were spotted. O’Kane was certain there were still others out there, hidden.

“We can stay here for forty minutes,” Badger’s tactical officer reported, having analyzed the patrol route of the nearest Karacknid ships. "Any longer and at least one of them will detect our jump signature when we leave.”

“Then we better get to work,” O’Kane said. “Deploy six passive recon drones and let’s get as clear a snapshot as we can.”

“Aye, Captain,” Smith responded.

Though none of the passive recon drones had sensors quite as sensitive as Badger's, deploying six around his frigate would allow O’Kane to triangulate everything they detected, getting a firm fix on the exact number of contacts within the system.

“Ah, Captain, we may have a problem,” Badger’s sensor officer said a moment later. “Look at the fleet base,” he added, zooming in on the image on Badger’s main holo display to show the planet around which the Karacknids had built their fleet base.

O’Kane frowned the moment he saw the fleet base, or rather, when he realized he couldn’t see it. “What are we looking at?” he asked immediately.

“I’m not sure, Captain. It’s like nothing I’ve seen before,” the sensor officer replied. “It might be some kind of jamming, but we’re not detecting any electromagnetic signals. Something is blocking any signals from the planet from reaching us.”

O’Kane shook his head. What he was seeing shouldn’t be possible. Unless the Karacknids had built some kind of reflective sphere around the planet and the fleet base, how could they prevent any electromagnetic energy from reaching Badger?

“It’s almost like what the Rillelio did,” Smith said. “They were able to produce a jamming field around their homeworld to hide the fleet they'd been building up as they prepared to attack us.”

O’Kane nodded, recalling the report he had read. It hadn’t included any technical analysis of the jamming field, so he wasn't sure if what he was observing was genuinely similar. “However it works, it seems to be doing its job well,” he mused aloud. “We have no idea what’s happening at the fleet base. Yet, that in itself is revealing. Clearly, they have something to hide, something more than what the last scout frigate that sneaked into the system found.”

“What do you want to do then, Captain?” Smith asked. “This news is significant enough that Admiral Ivanov will want to hear.”

“It is,” O’Kane responded slowly, nodding. He paused, seemingly deep in thought. Yes, Ivanov would want to know what was happening. It would take O'Kane three weeks to return to Zeta Fort, and then what? If Ivanov desired insights about the jamming, her technicians and scientists would need to devise a way to penetrate it. Then another ship or squadron would need to be dispatched. All told, it could be nearly three months before they uncovered more details. "A lot can happen in three months," O’Kane murmured to himself.

“The jamming field the Rillelio had, Captain Somerville was able to fly his ship right through it, wasn’t he?” O’Kane asked as he thought out loud again. Though Smith nodded, he had already moved on. “Show me a wider view of the system,” he asked, turning to his sensor officer. As the system with all its planetary bodies appeared, O’Kane studied it carefully. Several routes jumped out at him within the space of thirty seconds, and methodically he went through each one, trying to ascertain as much info as possible.

Five minutes passed before he looked down from the display. When he did, he found all his officers staring at him. He could see in their faces that they all knew what he was thinking. Some looked fearful; others were tense. Smith looked the most apprehensive. She would understand the risks involved more than the rest. O’Kane took a moment to look at them all. He felt the weight of his responsibility for them pressed down upon his shoulders. Yet he had other responsibilities too. If the Karacknids were hiding something, it was because there was something worth hiding. And that meant it was something the Empire needed to know about.

“Recall our passive drones and launch one stealth recon drone,” O’Kane ordered. He then tapped out a route on his command console and sent it to the main holo display. “We are going in,” he said to answer his officers' unspoken question. “We’ll follow this asteroid belt in and use it for cover, then we’ll use the system's second gas giant to mask our approach. Once we pass it, we’ll be on our own. I know this will be risky, very risky, and it may not even pay off. But we are here to scout the system, and that’s what I intend to do.”

There was a second's pause as everyone processed O’Kane's words, then Smith spoke up. “Aye, aye, Captain,” she said firmly, voicing her support. She then gestured to Badger's operations officer. “Begin recalling the sensor drones,” she instructed him.

“Launching stealth recon drone,” Badger’s tactical officer reported a moment later. “Can I ask, what’s it for?” he followed up.

“It’s in case we are discovered,” Smith answered, having already figured out what her Captain was thinking.

O’Kane nodded. “We can transmit whatever sensor recordings we manage to take of the inner system to it. Then, if another Imperial scout visits the system, it can relay what we find to them.” And so, if we don’t make it, at least our readings will have a chance, O’Kane thought but didn’t say out loud. He didn’t need to, though, for everyone grasped what he was implying.

“Take us onto the first leg of our approach,” O’Kane ordered once all the passive drones had been recovered. “Keep us below ten percent maximum thrust.” As his ship stealthily turned to run perpendicular to the system’s mass shadow and away from the nearest Karacknid patrol ship, O’Kane shifted back and forth in his seat to get comfy, preparing for what was going to be a long, slow journey into the system.

*

For two days, Badger circumnavigated the system until she came to one of the large asteroid fields that surrounded it. She then entered the asteroid field and carefully maneuvered through it, and then down one spur of the field that led more than a light hour into the system itself. Carefully, O’Kane then took Badger out of the asteroids and for another six hours, they moved perpendicular to the system’s sixth planet. It was a massive gas giant with a thick planetary ring. Once the gas giant was between Badger and the Karacknid fleet base, he then turned his frigate and headed towards the gas giant. Twelve hours later, Badger’s navigation officer carefully nestled Badger into the midst of the planetary ring. A single passive recon drone was then deployed into a low orbit around the gas giant, and everyone waited for it to pass around to the other side of the planet to get a look at the Karacknid fleet base.

“Drone is back,” Badger’s sensor officer announced the moment the stealth recon drone came into view as it circled back around the planet.

“It’s transmitting now,” Badger’s COM officer added a second later.

O’Kane stared unblinkingly at the holo display as it suddenly updated to show what was beyond the gas giant. The Karacknid fleet base and the planet it had been built around was still nothing more than a haze, though that was to be expected. It was the other things the stealth recon drone had picked up that interested him. Fifty contacts appeared around the haze. They were the fleet base’s inner patrol squadron. For three hours, O’Kane studied the regular sensor reports the recon drone brought back every time it orbited the gas giant. With his officers, he analyzed the patrol patterns of every ship, looking for a way through.

“This has to be it,” Smith said as she highlighted an area between three destroyers. “It’s going to be touch and go, but I don’t think we’re going to get a better opportunity.”

O’Kane nodded as he examined the track of each of the three Karacknid warships. There was a brief window, approximately half an hour long, where the overlapping active sensor emissions from each ship were at their lowest. The total amount of electromagnetic radiation was almost exactly at the level Badger's stealth coating was rated to be able to absorb. Trying to pass through it would be one hell of a risk, but it was by far the best opening they had come across. Every other approach to the Karacknid fleet base was locked up tight.

“Then we go for it,” O’Kane said after considering it for a minute. He locked eyes with Smith, and she nodded to show she was in agreement. The rest of his officers looked concerned, but there was a determination there that he hadn’t seen when he had first given the order to enter the Karacknid system. We’ve invested so much time and energy into getting here; no one wants to turn back now, he thought, pride in his officers filling him. “Navigation, plot us a course to pass through Lieutenant Smith’s window at the exact time the Karacknid emissions are at their weakest. Then take us out of the planetary ring.”

“Course set, Captain,” the Lieutenant reported thirty seconds later. “Engaging impulse engines, four percent thrust.”

Time felt like it slowed down over the next three hours as Badger slowly approached the Karacknid patrols and the haze engulfing the fleet base. Once again, beads of sweat began to run down O’Kane’s forehead. As Badger got closer and closer to the small gap she had to sneak through, O’Kane felt his body tense, and butterflies began to dance around in his stomach. Everyone’s eyes were fixed on a secondary holo display that was showing a readout of the amount of electromagnetic energy hitting the hull. The closer they came to the Karacknid patrols, the faster it rose.

“We’re at eighty percent of our maximum emissions absorption,” Badger’s tactical officer reported.

“Cut power to engines; we will continue ballistically from here,” O’Kane ordered. He then swallowed hard as he fought to keep any emotion from his face. They were still twenty minutes from the point where they would pass between the three Karacknid destroyers. As his concern grew, he toyed with the idea of launching a stealth recon drone. He could program it to emit a small emission, just enough to attract one of the destroyer’s attention and pull it off its current course. He shook his head at the idea, though. If the Karacknids became suspicious, there was no telling what they would do. With over ten thousand warships at their fleet base, they could dispatch hundreds of frigates and destroyers to search the entire inner system with a fine-tooth comb.

Fighting to keep his face impassive and his leg from bouncing on the bridge’s deck, O’Kane remained stoically still as his frigate slowly crept towards the gap between the Karacknid destroyers. In silence, everyone watched with bated breath as the emissions level crept up to ninety percent. Then it quickly moved to ninety-five and then right up to ninety-eight. O’Kane already had Badger cleared for action with missiles in every one of her tubes. If one of the destroyers detected her, she was ready to instantly throw herself into battle. Apart from that, there was nothing else O’Kane could do but sit and watch as his ship tried to evade detection.

Just as Badger reached the point Smith had chosen several hours ago, the emissions reader spiked up to one hundred and one percent. O’Kane bit his lip and cringed. His eyes darted to the three destroyers that Badger’s passive sensors were tracking, expecting one of them to suddenly alter course. Everyone on Badger’s bridge stared wide-eyed, fearing what felt inevitable.

Yet a handful of seconds ticked by, and none of the three destroyers altered course. Then ten seconds passed, and still there was no change. When thirty seconds had come and gone, O’Kane released his lip from between his teeth. At a minute, he took a deep breath. On the secondary display, the emissions had already fallen to ninety-four percent. “I think we did it,” he said, then immediately regretted it, fearing he had cursed them. However, the emissions readout continued to fall, and still no Karacknid ships turned to investigate them.

“We did, we did it,” O’Kane said more confidently when the emissions fell below eighty-five percent. He couldn’t help but let out a laugh. “I guess our stealth coating is a little more effective than it was rated for.”

“The scientists who designed it probably built in a safety margin,” Smith guessed. “It would have been nice to know that, though!”

“That, or we got lucky,” O’Kane replied. “Either way, I’m not going to complain. Now,” he said, turning his eyes towards the view that now dominated the center of the main holo display, “time to find out if we can get through that and see what’s on the other side.”

Chapter 5

Sadly, the higher one rises in flag rank, the more one is drawn into the politics of the Empire. Our history shows us this is inevitable. To command a ship patrolling out beyond the borders of the Empire is the freest any Captain can ever be. Yet it comes with its own distinct problems.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

Twenty minutes after passing the three Karacknid destroyers, O’Kane’s body was tense once more. As his ship closed with the jamming field and then entered it, he held his breath. If the field could detect ships passing through it, then Badger was going to have a very warm welcome waiting for her. Whether it did or not, to everyone’s surprise, they passed through the field in just a couple of seconds.

“We’re out,” Badger’s sensor officer reported. “Passive sensors are being flooded with signals.”

“Energy weapons fire!” O’Kane’s tactical Lieutenant called out in alarm.

O’Kane’s first instinct was to order his ship into evasive maneuvers. He bit his tongue, however. If the fire wasn’t aimed at Badger, evasive maneuvers would announce his ship's location to every Karacknid warship in the system. And if it was aimed at them, they should have been dead already! “Where is the fire?” He demanded.

“Still triangulating,” the tactical Lieutenant replied. “Three light seconds away,” he said a moment later. “Towards the fleet base.”

“Updating the holo display,” Badger’s sensor officer said.

Suddenly, the blank holo display was filled with a myriad of contacts. A group of about two hundred were flashing, indicating that they were the ones firing their energy weapons. Right away, O’Kane could see they were too far away from Badger to hit his frigate. "They're carrying out live fire exercises," he thought in relief, his body relaxing. What he saw next, however, made him sit up straighter in his command chair. So close to the fleet base, Badger’s passive sensors could detect every Karacknid ship that wasn’t actively trying to hide its reactor or engine emissions. His mouth fell open at what he saw. Instead of the twelve thousand warships that had been detected two weeks ago, there were now eighteen thousand! And nearly twice as many freighters!

O’Kane blinked several times as if to clear his vision. Yet when he did, the number of Karacknid ships didn’t diminish. "Twelve thousand had been a monster fleet in and of itself. Five thousand extra warships in just two weeks!" O’Kane said to himself as a mixture of fear and shock filled him. "And this is just one fleet base," he said aloud without realizing. He didn’t know how many fleet bases the Karacknids were building up the strength, but he knew from discussions with other scout frigate captains that there were at least three.

“If they’re all building up like this…” Smith said, not needing to finish her sentence.

“We need to get out of here!” O’Kane said, a hint of desperation creeping into his voice. “Plot a course to turn around immediately and head back through the jamming haze at once. But don’t break stealth.”

“Yes, sir,” Badger’s navigation officer said, sounding more than a little relieved.

As the potential course was projected on the main holo display, O’Kane felt sweat begin to form on his brow again. It would take forty minutes to bring his frigate to a halt relative to the Karacknid fleet base, and then another forty to slowly accelerate back to the same point in the jamming haze they had passed through.

“We might have a problem, Captain,” Smith said a moment later. “Look at these two frigates here.”

O’Kane saw what Smith meant the second he laid eyes on the two frigates. They were on divergent patrol routes, but there was a fair chance one or maybe even both of them would pass close enough to Badger as she tried to get back through the jamming haze. O’Kane’s first thought was that he could simply cut Badger’s engines and try to drift past them as he had with the Karacknid destroyers on the other side of the haze. Yet it was too risky; at least one of the frigates would still stand a good chance of detecting Badger.

Widening his vision, O’Kane tried to see if there was another route he could take his frigate on. In his mind, he played out several possibilities as he contemplated heading deeper into the system or curving his current trajectory so that he curled back around and went through the jamming haze at a different point. He ground his teeth together in frustration as everything he thought of failed to work out. There were simply too many Karacknid warships and freighters thronging about within the jamming haze. It appeared nearly a fifth of the Karacknid warships were carrying out exercises, and they were filling local space with sensor emissions. At least another four hundred frigates and destroyers were also patrolling all around the edge of the jamming haze.

“There is no way we’re not going to be detected,” O’Kane was forced to admit. “We can't sneak away.” As he looked up from the holo display to his officers, he hardened his voice. “We’re going to have to fight. And whatever it takes, we need to get out through the jamming haze to transmit our findings to our recon drone. Ivanov needs to know about these additional ships. There are enough warships here to break through Zeta fort and threaten Earth!” Despite the fear that passed across many of his officers' faces, O’Kane pressed on and quickly outlined the only way he saw them having any chance of escaping.

A minute later, Badger launched three stealth recon drones, then turned and began to close with one of the two frigates. Ten minutes passed as every crew member on Badger checked and rechecked her weapons systems. Then, the first part of O’Kane’s plan began. “The drone should be maneuvering now,” Smith reported.

More than a hundred thousand miles away from Badger, the first recon drone O’Kane had fired carried out a small course correction. It fired off a couple of its maneuvering thrusters for just a fraction of a second. Yet it was enough to work. Just five seconds passed before one of the Karacknid frigates reacted. Altering course, it turned to bring its main sensor array around and blasted the area around the stealth recon drone with sensor emissions. The drone, having cut its engines once again, would be hard to detect, yet not impossible. As the frigate began to accelerate to close the distance, it was only a matter of time until it was sure something was out there. Then it wouldn’t take much longer for it to realize it was tracking an Imperial drone.

However, the short amount of time that it would take was all O’Kane needed. With a hand raised to shoulder height, O’Kane watched the holo display like a hawk as he waited for the right moment. With Badger closing with the second frigate, and the first frigate moving further away from both of them, it didn’t take long for the moment he was looking for to arrive. “Now!” He ordered.

Immediately, six mark VIII missiles were hurled out of Badger’s missile tubes. At the same time, Badger’s reactors and engines went to full power, and she began to rapidly accelerate. Maneuvering thrusters also engaged, turning her onto a course that would take her further away from the first frigate.

Now we see, O’Kane thought to himself. The second Karacknid frigate had to have been taken by surprise. Yet with its comrade chasing after a possible contact, it had likely been on alert. Even so, a minute and twelve seconds passed before the Karacknid frigate returned fire. It will be enough, it has to be, O’Kane hoped as he watched the five missiles begin to accelerate towards Badger. Now our missiles need to do their work!

“The frigate is opening fire with its point defenses,” Badger’s tactical officer reported three minutes later.

On the holo display, hundreds of small images appeared representing the laser beams Badger’s passive sensors detected. Each mark VIII missile had already begun wild evasive maneuvers and as the missiles detected the laser beams, their ECM kicked in, making them even harder to track. Nevertheless, the Karacknid gunners started to find their mark. In quick succession, two missiles were blown apart. Then a third followed a couple of seconds later. The fire on the three that remained intensified, yet they were rapidly closing with the Karacknid frigate. The enemy gunners managed to shoot down one more missile, but then the mark VIIIs got close enough to detonate. Each thermonuclear detonation converted its energy into two high-powered laser beams that covered the final distance to the frigate in a fraction of a second. Three struck home.

Cheers erupted around O’Kane as one laser beam punched right through the frigate, blowing hull fragments and debris out its other side. While the frigate didn’t detonate from the damage, it did lose all power as its reactors shut down and its engines cut off.

“Put us into stealth!” O’Kane ordered the moment he saw the Karacknid frigate’s active sensors die. “Deploy the decoy and bring us to heading seven, seven, three point two. And fire our second salvo!”

A second later, Badger went dark, and the decoy recon drone’s small reactor began to overload, emitting a similar electromagnetic signature to the frigate. Then, six more missiles shot out of Badger’s tubes. This time, though, they were ordinary fission warheads. Just six seconds after they were fired, they detonated, filling space with electromagnetic energy and momentarily blinding the drone and Badger from the Karacknid missiles. When the radiation from the explosions dissipated, the seeker heads of the five Karacknid missiles sought to reacquire their target. Robbed of the sensor emissions the Karacknid frigate had been pumping out, they had to rely on their own passive sensors.

Every one of them locked onto the recon drone and dived to assault it. With no Karacknid tactical officer coordinating their attack, none of the missiles’ targeting software found it strange they weren’t being fired upon. Instead, they simply zeroed in on the decoy and, in a matter of just a single second, all five detonated within its immediate vicinity, obliterating the drone.

“We did it!” Smith said excitedly as several other officers cheered again.

O’Kane smiled at his First Lieutenant, but then he gestured with his head towards the holo display and the first Karacknid frigate. It had already abandoned chasing the drone it had been distracted by and was now accelerating hard towards the scene of the battle. Its sensors were blasting emissions towards where Badger had been, and it had already deployed a host of active recon drones that were likewise filling space with electromagnetic energy in an effort to get a reflection of Badger’s hull.

Yet as the frigate closed, it picked up a trace signal from an object that was clearly heading back towards the jamming haze. Immediately, half of its active recon drones diverted to investigate the signal. A minute later, before the signal could be confirmed, another anomaly was detected from an object heading in a different direction. This time, the frigate turned towards the anomaly, bringing more of its recon drones with it.

On Badger, O’Kane was doing his best to exude calm as everyone watched the level of radiation washing over the frigate's hull steadily rise. Both the recon drones he had launched before the fight with the second Karacknid frigate were paying dividends. Yet the amount of electromagnetic energy around Badger was still rising. For another five minutes, it rose all the way up to eighty-eight percent, but then it began to fall. It fell steadily for nine more minutes, but then the Karacknid frigate caught up to one of the stealth recon drones and blasted it apart with a missile. Realizing it hadn’t destroyed an Imperial ship, it immediately spun around and began to race back towards the general vicinity Badger was in. Just a minute later, the other active recon drones dispatched after the second stealth drone identified the anomalous signals for what they were. They too then began to spread out, searching for Badger.

Once again, the sensor emissions hitting Badger began to rise, but as the number slowly picked up, O’Kane couldn’t help sharing a smile with Smith. They were just twelve minutes from reaching the jamming haze, and they were going to make it. Just as the haze had prevented them from detecting the massive Karacknid fleet at their base, it would also protect Badger from the Karacknid frigate's attempt to find her. We’re going to get out of here, O’Kane said to himself in relief. But what will be waiting for us on the other side? He couldn’t help but ask.

Before they even got to the jamming haze, the Karacknid fleet base suddenly sprang into life. Hundreds of ships started powering up their reactors and then began to break orbit. All of them were destroyers and frigates, and they were all heading towards the point where Badger had disappeared.

“Captain,” Smith said with concern.

“I see it,” O’Kane replied. “This is going to get complicated. But we'll keep our current heading; let’s get through the jamming haze and see what’s what.”

The moment Badger passed through the jamming, all the emissions from the Karacknid frigate searching for them disappeared. However, new emissions washed over them. Already alerted, every Karacknid patrol ship in the vicinity had their sensors powered up to full and hundreds of active recon drones deployed. O’Kane quickly studied the layout of the patrol ships. By sheer luck, there was a reasonably wide opening they were already roughly heading towards. “Turn us onto heading seven, seven, four point one,” he ordered. “Keep us on a ballistic course.”

Though it felt like the patrol ships in front of them were the biggest threat, O’Kane knew he needed to think further ahead. Soon, hundreds of destroyers and frigates from the Karacknid fleet base would come rushing through the jamming field. They would scour every square inch of space within a light minute of where Badger had been. That meant unless he figured out a way to escape, they would find Badger sooner or later. Putting himself into the shoes of whoever would be coordinating the search, O’Kane thought through what he would do to hunt Badger down. Firstly, with most of his search fleet, he would make sure there was no chance the enemy contact had simply cut their engines and was trying to drift away on a ballistic course. Then, with the rest of his ships, he would try to predict where the enemy was going and work out search patterns to pursue them.

Pulling up a holo display of the wider system in his command chair, O’Kane tried to figure out the best route he could take to try and sneak out of the system with his frigate. Two jumped out at him pretty quickly, and another three that were a little more complicated came soon after. With that information, he then surveyed the dispositions of the Karacknid squadrons patrolling the outer system. After a moment, his eyes settled on one squadron of the Karacknid picket ships. "That’s it," he told himself. "That’s our best bet."

Turning his attention back to the Karacknid ships operating around Badger, O’Kane saw his frigate was already nearly past them. “Prepare to turn us onto heading four five nine point zero,” he ordered as he caught his navigation officer's eye. “Fifteen minutes after we pass by the nearest destroyer, we’re going to make a slow turn onto that heading. Just use our maneuvering thrusters, and only at five percent thrust.”

“Aye, Captain,” the navigation officer responded. When he plotted out the course and projected it onto the holo display, more than a couple of heads turned towards O’Kane.

“That takes us right towards their densest formation of patrol ships,” Smith pointed out.

O’Kane nodded and gave her a wink. “Precisely. The exact place they won’t expect us to be headed towards.”

“I… I see,” Smith replied, then turned back to the holo display to study it for herself. From the angle of her shoulders, O’Kane could tell she didn’t quite understand yet, but she trusted him and that was all that mattered.

Thanks to the gap in the inner system patrolling forces Badger had been able to slip through, the emissions hitting her hull never went above eighty percent. The frigate was then able to make the slow turn O’Kane had requested without being detected. For forty minutes, they cruised away from the jamming haze as the inner system patrol ships searched everywhere for them. Then, hundreds of new contacts began to appear. All the ships from the Karacknid fleet base had given up searching within the jamming field and were now coming out to look for Badger. In the space of five minutes, four hundred additional ships joined the search. Quickly, they covered all the area of space Badger could have travelled to ballistically, then they split up into various groups and began to head further away from the fleet base as they searched out different routes Badger might have taken. All of the routes O’Kane had predicted were covered and several more in addition. Crucially, though, none were following the course he had chosen.

“Well,” Smith said, admiration in her voice. “You got us out of that one. One of those squadrons would have found us for sure… Are we going to change course now, away from the outer system patrol?”

O’Kane flashed Smith another smile. “Wait and see, Lieutenant,” he said, putting as much confidence into his voice as possible. Though he wasn’t certain about what he hoped was going to happen, so far, things were playing out as he had predicted.

As the minutes ticked by, and half an hour, then an hour, came and went since Badger's course correction, the Karacknids’ search became more and more frantic. Nearly six hundred ships in the inner system were now searching for them, along with thousands of active recon drones. As more time passed and the Karacknids hadn’t detected even a trace of the Imperial frigate that had penetrated their jamming, ships from the outer patrolling squadrons began to be pulled into the search.

At first, just a couple of ships were diverted away from the squadron Badger was heading towards. They broke formation and moved to interpose themselves between where Badger had been spotted and where the enemy commander suspected Badger was heading. Over the course of the next hour, the squadron was halved as the more time elapsed without the Karacknids spotting Badger, the wider the potential area of space they had to cover became. O’Kane couldn’t keep a smile from his face as more and more officers began to look at him in wonder as the area of space they were heading towards became emptier and emptier.

“All right, I admit it, you had me worried at the start,” Smith said when four of the last eight Karacknid ships in their way broke formation with their comrades and moved towards a different part of the outer system. “You knew this would happen all along.”

“I hoped,” O’Kane said, trying to sound coy. “Now, let’s maneuver past these last few ships and get out of here.”

“Aye, Captain,” Smith said confidently. “Whatever you say.”

Compared to sneaking past the patrols Badger had thwarted entering and exiting the inner system, passing four Karacknid light cruisers that were tasked with watching an area ten times too large for them was child’s play. Within an hour, Badger had snuck past them and reached the system’s mass shadow. It took another three hours to partly circumnavigate and reach the shift passage they had entered the system from, but no Karacknid ships remained in their way.

As soon as they entered the shift passage, O’Kane gave the order to jump into shift space and to the safety it offered. When his ship crossed into shift space, he let out a long sigh and tension on the bridge dramatically dropped. Though they still had two more Karacknid systems to pass through before they would be safely out of Karacknid space, the worst was now behind them. “Good work, everybody,” O’Kane said as he smiled at the exhausted faces all around him. “Now, I think we’ve all earned a drink and then some rest, what do you think?”

Smiles greeted him, just as he intended. “Let’s stand the ship down from battle stations and then we can call in your replacements,” he said. Then, as his officers turned back to their consoles, he let out another long, silent sigh. As the commander of an Imperial scout ship, O’Kane had been involved in a number of close calls over the last four years, but none quite like what he had just experienced. And none as important either! He thought as he remembered the massive Karacknid fleet they had spotted. In all the danger of trying to escape, he had all but forgotten about them but now they dominated his thoughts, for he had to get his intel back to Admiral Ivanov as quickly as possible.

Chapter 6

The Empire had enough trouble integrating the several lost colonies into its political structure after they were reconnected to the galaxy by artificial shift passages. The next big challenge was accepting the Vestarians’ petition to be admitted into the Empire as well. Neither prepared our forebears for what the Free Karacknids would request.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Hammerclaw, Beta Fort, 3rd September 2512 AD, (three weeks later).

“Please, come in,” Jonathan said as he stood up from behind his desk and gestured for his guests to enter. Iso led them in. “I’ll see you later,” he added to his Chief of Staff as she saluted him and then turned, leaving them alone.

“Thank you for meeting with us, Imperator’s Heir,” Commodore Hang’glar said after he and two other Karacknids lined up and bowed to Jonathan.

Jonathan dipped his head back to them. “Of course,” he replied. “I told you, as long as I’m here, I am at your call day and night. So, tell me, what can I do for you?”

Hang’glar glanced at Tasata-su and then back to Jonathan. “There have been growing complaints among my people that I thought it wise to make you aware of.”

Jonathan nodded. Since the deaths of Kal’na and Har’gna, Hang’glar had become the de facto leader of the majority of the Free Karacknids who had accompanied him to Zeta Fort. Tasata-su led the second, smaller faction, which consisted of Karacknids who had sworn allegiance to Jonathan and promised to also swear allegiance to his father. “Then I am glad you are here. What are these complaints?” Jonathan asked. “Do we need to provide more freighters so your people can spread out further?”

“No, we have all the space we need,” Hang’glar said, shaking his head.

Jonathan breathed a sigh of relief. Over half a million Karacknids had followed him out of Karacknid space on board their warships and freighters. Almost every ship had been crammed full of Karacknid women and children. As soon as they reached Zeta Fort, he had provided as many additional freighters as he could spare to give the Karacknids more space. Now, however, with a massive military buildup going on at Zeta Fort, Jonathan doubted he could find a single free freighter to spare. Almost daily, officers from Vice Admiral Ivanov’s staff contacted him to see if any of the freighters he'd given to the Karacknids could be returned.

“The problem is the food rationing,” Hang’glar continued. He glanced at Tasata-su again. “There are rumors that the General’s people receive more rations than us, implying they're treated differently because of the oath they swore to you.”

“I can assure you, Commodore, that's not the case,” Jonathan said earnestly, trying to hide his sudden concern. The last thing he needed was for divisions within the Free Karacknids to spill over into hostility. “We supply as much food to all your ships as we can. No one receives preferential treatment. As you can imagine, finding food for half a million additional mouths is proving difficult. However, from what I understand, there hasn't been any food rationing. In fact, I’ve been reliably informed that food supplies shipped from our nearby colonies are increasing, not decreasing.”

“I am sorry, Imperator’s Heir,” Hang’glar said, holding Jonathan’s gaze. “I did not mean to imply that I believe these rumors, only that they are spreading. I and the other leaders among our people have spoken against them, but they still persist.”

“So, you understand we're doing the best we can and that there's no rationing going on?” Jonathan pressed.

When Hang’glar hesitated, Tasata-su spoke up, though he kept his head bowed “I do not mean to bring any insult Imperator’s Heir, but I think what he means by rationing is the limited supply of meat. From what I can see, there are plenty of other foods to go around, but none of us are getting the quality of meat that we are accustomed to. None of the animals you consume are quite like what we would normally eat, but your lamb comes closest to it. At best, however, we are getting one portion per week.”

“Then it is I who owe you an apology,” Jonathan responded quickly as felt stupid for the mistake he had made. “I didn’t know.” And I should have asked! he added to himself. That was one lesson he was still learning. Unlike Human civilians, Karacknid civilians were slow to voice their desires. If he didn’t ask, often they remained silent, assuming whatever hardships they were enduring were intended by him.

That was why the rumors were so concerning. If matters had reached a point where the Commodore felt the need to speak about them, the situation must be serious. “But now I know, and so I thank you for bringing it to my attention,” Jonathan said as he tried to come up with the best solution he could. “I will check what stores of lamb and other meats we have within the system and see if I can get them assigned to you to increase your meat allocation,” Jonathan promised. “And I will send a priority message to the planets from which we source your food to adjust the quantities being provided. It might take a couple of weeks before there's a significant improvement, but you can assure your people that things will get better from here on out.”

“Thank you, Imperator’s Heir,” Hang’glar said, giving Jonathan another short bow.

“Is there anything else?” Jonathan asked a moment later.

“Your actions will go a long way in satisfying the desires of our people,” Tasata-su said. “However, there is still the issue of the rumors. Those spreading them have questioned your honor. You promised us that you would do your best to look after us. These rumors challenge that promise.”

“So, what do you suggest I do?” Jonathan inquired, wary of the direction the conversation seemed to be heading. He had no intention of investigating or, worse, punishing any Karacknids simply because they voiced dissent.

“We have discussed this very problem before meeting with you, Imperator’s Heir,” Tasata-su said. “We believe the best solution would be for you to order my people to share some of their rations with Commodore Hang’glar’s. This would be temporary, until the additional supplies you'll arrange arrive.”

“But why?” Jonathan asked. “Your people are not receiving any extra meat supplies.”

“We aren't,” Tasata-su confirmed with a nod. “But your honor has been questioned, and we have sworn oaths to serve and protect you. While the others may not recognize your rightful position as heir to our people, we do. Therefore, we are willing to make this sacrifice to dispel rumors that tarnish your honor.”

Jonathan wanted to protest. He understood the values of honor and duty, yet the Karacknids’ moral code still felt foreign to him. However, he maintained his composure, understanding that to retain Tasata-su's respect, he needed to act like the Imperial heir he believed him to be. Over time, he hoped to familiarize the General and other free Karacknids with Humanity's customs, but he recognized it would be a long, slow process. “Very well,” Jonathan responded, adopting a tone of authority, “I accept your suggestion. Share your provisions with the others and ensure everyone knows I ordered it. There should be no rumors of favoritism among your people. I have promised that our Empire will protect and provide for all of you, and that's exactly what we will do.”

All three Karacknids bowed deeply. “I will relay your orders to my people,” Hang’glar replied.

“And I will ensure my people share their supplies,” Tasata-su promised.

“Very well,” Jonathan said. “Is there anything else I can do for any of you?”

All three Karacknids shook their heads. They then bowed to Jonathan and turned to leave. “Hold on a moment,” Jonathan said hastily, stepping away from behind his desk. Up until now, he had remained standing to accommodate Karacknid customs, as they rarely sat. However, it was time for them to partake in a Human tradition. Moving to the small cabinet his mother had bought him, he opened it and took out four glasses and a bottle of Scotch. Having consulted with Hammerclaw’s Doctor, he had been assured the Karacknids could drink it without adverse effects.

After pouring the four glasses, Jonathan handed one to each of the Karacknids. “It's customary among my people for senior leaders to share refreshments after a meeting. Join me in having a drink and let’s chat informally. If you aim to integrate into our Empire or be our neighbors, it’s essential to bond with my species beyond official meetings.”

Each Karacknid hesitantly accepted a glass. From their expressions, Jonathan deduced they were unfamiliar with the ritual. Leading by example, he took a small sip of his scotch, then watched as they followed suit. To his surprise, their faces barely registered the drink's potent kick. As he continued sipping, Jonathan made his best attempt at drawing each Karacknid into a casual conversation, inquiring about their histories and families.

That’s something we need to work on, Jonathan mused after bidding the Karacknids farewell. To say it was like drawing blood from a stone was perhaps going too far, but only by a little. While Iso guided them to their shuttles, Jonathan tidied up and checked his datapad for pressing messages before heading to Hammerclaw’s bridge.

“How is she looking?” Jonathan asked Montgomery, Hammerclaw’s Captain once he took his seat on the bridge. Jonathan’s flagship had sustained significant damage during their escape from Karacknid space. It had undergone repairs at Zeta fort’s yard for the last month, only being cleared for duty three days ago. Even with the clearance, the crew still had several internal repairs to tackle.

“We’re making progress,” Montgomery responded. “Our reactors and engines have been tested through three full cycles, and Chief O’Donoghue is satisfied with their performance. We're scheduled for a live-fire drill in one of the nearby asteroid fields in three hours. Currently, the Chief is inspecting each plasma cannon. We hope to excel in the tests.”

“I trust we will,” Jonathan replied. While Hammerclaw wasn't technically his ship, only his flagship, he still felt a connection to her. Part of him wished to inspect every repair personally, as he did with his previous command, Kestrel, and the ships before. Now however, his role required a certain distance from such duties. Nonetheless, he remained swamped with responsibilities. The remnants of the squadron he'd rescued from Karacknid space were recently augmented by a hundred additional ships. Many of the vessels of his original squadron had also been damaged. Consequently, he and his staff needed to ensure all were battle-ready. Simultaneously, he had been acquainting himself with the new ships and their captains while integrating both ship groups into a cohesive unit. Juggling these responsibilities had left him both physically and emotionally spent.

For several moments, Jonathan simply looked out at the holo display showing Zeta fort and the Imperial forces arrayed around it. Over eleven thousand warships had already been assembled at the crucial border fort. It was the largest force Jonathan had ever witnessed, and it continued to grow daily. After examining a few new squadrons that had arrived since his last time on the Hammerclaw’s bridge, Jonathan let out a sigh and turned to Lieutenant Jenner, his operations officer. “Send the latest reports to my command chair,” he instructed.

“At once, Commodore,” Jenner responded.

As Jonathan scanned the reports, he noticed nearly half were repair updates, with ship Captains keeping him informed of their progress. Several others were logistical summaries of his squadron’s supply status and the condition of freighters under his command. Only a few reports covered the simulated battles he had ordered. Though he wanted to prioritize them and watch the replays, he decided to save them for last. They would be his reward after reviewing the remaining reports, which he needed to approve before forwarding to Admiral Ivanov’s command staff.

At least a couple of hours' work, Jonathan thought, suppressing another sigh. Before diving in, Jonathan quickly drafted a request for Iso to send to Ivanov’s Chief of Staff, detailing adjustments to the food deliveries for the Free Karacknids. He then opened the first report and began reviewing.

Jonathan's time estimation proved optimistic. Ninety minutes later, he was still far from done. Even with Iso joining him on the bridge and assisting in handling some reports, Jonathan had a lot left to review. When Hammerclaw’s sensor console emitted a series of beeps, Jonathan immediately set down his datapad to assess the situation.

“Multiple new contacts entering the system,” the sensor officer announced. “Four hundred and counting... Now over a thousand. They’re arriving from the New Shanghai shift passage.”

“Display them on the main holo, Lieutenant Rayes,” Montgomery instructed.

“Aye, Captain,” Rayes acknowledged, projecting a visual of the influx of new contacts.

“Larger vessels are now jumping in,” Harte, Jonathan's tactical officer, noted. “They're Imperial dreadnoughts.” A collective gasp or intake of breath resonated across the bridge. Jonathan’s eyebrows arched in surprise. “Those are Kulrean worldships,” Harte confirmed. “Two hundred of them.”

“Home Fleet has arrived,” Jonathan concluded. This likely meant his father was aboard one of the ships approaching Zeta fort.

“Three hours until they reach the fort,” Harte updated.

“Thank you,” Jonathan acknowledged. “Back to work,” he said, catching Iso's attention. If his father was with Home Fleet, he'd undoubtedly want a meeting with all his flag officers, as well as the Free Karacknids. Jonathan wanted to finish his reports before his father called upon him.

*

Before Hermes even reached Zeta fort, Jonathan received a message from his father’s flagship, instructing him to report on board the moment the massive dreadnought arrived at the fort. After a short shuttle flight, he stepped onto one of Hermes’ hangars. Surprise crossed his face when he spotted who was there to greet him. “What are you doing here, Admiral?” He blurted out. “Don’t you have a flagship of your own?”

Scott smiled and shook her head. “Not this time, or at least not yet. Your father wanted me to act as his Chief of Staff, so here I am, running errands for him and escorting junior officers from one meeting to the next.”

Jonathan returned Scott's smile and warmly shook her hand. “It’s good to see you again. I suppose my father has his reasons.”

Scott nodded. “He does, and after hearing them, I’m more than content with where I’ll be serving in the opening stages of this war. Now, let’s go see him. As you can imagine, he’s quite busy.”

“Of course,” Jonathan replied. “I’m eager to see him.”

As they walked, Scott asked him several questions about Hammerclaw’s repairs and the readiness of his squadron. She never mentioned the Free Karacknids nor his escapades behind enemy lines. Jonathan assumed she was saving those topics for his father.

Upon reaching his father’s quarters, Scott led him into a spacious office. His father was standing, already waiting to greet him. Without a word, the two men embraced. “It’s very good to see you,” James said as they pulled away.

“And you too, father,” Jonathan replied. “You look,” he began, pausing to find the right words, “you look ready.”

James smiled. “I wouldn’t quite say that, but now that war is upon us, I’m eager to begin. I wish we had another decade to prepare, but circumstances are as they are. It's up to us to protect everything we’ve built.”

“And protect it we will!” Jonathan declared; his confidence amplified in his father’s presence.

“Hopefully that will be the case,” James agreed, then fixed Jonathan with a penetrating gaze. “However, if my junior flag officers continue to insist on leading unauthorized raids into enemy territory, provoking them into war, I'm not so sure just how this war is going to go.”

“I… I’m sorry,” Jonathan murmured, briefly avoiding his father's gaze, though he quickly looked back up. “I did what I believed was right. What I thought you would do if you were in my position.”

James' expression softened, and he smiled again. “Perhaps, perhaps,” he mused. “At least in my younger and more brash days. Now, why don’t we sit down, and you can tell me all about it.” James motioned for Jonathan and Scott to sit opposite his desk. All three of their favorite beverages were already waiting for them.

For the next half hour, Jonathan recounted in as much detail as he could about his journey into Karacknid space to rescue the Free Karacknids and his subsequent attempts to evade the Loyalist Karacknid forces that pursued them from system to system. Unsurprisingly, both James and Scott had many questions about his several encounters with Tanaka-lan. Then, when it came to describing Emilie’s battle with the Karacknid Imperator and her capture, Jonathan's voice broke several times. Even though it had been nearly two months, Jonathan couldn’t stop himself imagining what the Karacknids might be doing to his cousin every time he closed his eyes.

“It’s okay,” James said softly, noting the look of despair on his son’s face. “I feel the same every day. I wish there was something, anything we could do to get her back. But there isn’t.”

“And even if there was,” Scott added, “if it risked either of your lives or our fleet, do you think that’s what Emilie would want?”

“No,” James replied, shaking his head.

Both of them then turned their attention to Jonathan. After a brief pause, he begrudgingly agreed, “No.”

“All right then,” James declared with a tone of finality that signaled to Scott and Jonathan he no longer wished to discuss the matter. Jonathan couldn't have agreed more. He realized there was nothing any of them could say to one another that would alleviate their shared grief and his personal sense of guilt.

“In that case, let’s talk about these Free Karacknids,” James proposed. “I’ve scheduled a meeting with their leaders for an hour from now. Christine, I, and our Inner Council have meticulously reviewed your recommendations, and we've already decided on some terms we can offer them. However, I still have questions, and I want to know if your thoughts have evolved over the past several weeks.”

Jonathan paused for a moment before answering. Many considerations raced through his mind. He recognized his father had experience interacting with the Karacknids, although that had been over twenty-five years ago. He felt the need to emphasize to his father the importance of showing them honor. Yet, as he was discovering, because of his and especially his father’s position, the Karacknids would expect both of them to demand respect from those who were beneath them. There were also the nuances between the two factions and the ongoing challenge of accommodating both. Several other vital points that needed addressing sprang to his mind. Choosing one, Jonathan started to speak quickly. With only an hour available, they had much ground to cover.

Chapter 7

More often than not, in life in general and in war in specific, it is the friends you acquire rather than the enemies you make who determine your future.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

With little time to spare, the arrangements Jonathan had recommended were put together, and one of Hermes’ larger conference rooms was transformed into a throne room. Both James and Jonathan donned their most formal dress uniforms and sat in large chairs on hastily built platforms, with Jonathan's platform slightly lower than his father's. Standing on either side of them was a large group of Hermes’ and James' staff officers, who together nearly filled the conference room. Likewise, they were all as well-presented as possible.

Just minutes after James and Jonathan sat, the main hatch into the conference room swished open, and Vice Admiral Scott stepped inside. “May I present Commodore Hang’glar, Captains Fa’al and Gun’tar, and General Tasata-su.”

As the four Karacknids walked in, every officer turned in unison to face them. The Karacknids paused for a moment at the scene before them, then Tasata-su took the lead and walked confidently toward James' throne, though he was careful not to look directly at either James or Jonathan.

Eight meters from the two thrones, Tasata-su threw himself down, touching his chin to the deck. “Imperator Somerville, I present myself before you as your loyal subject. You defeated Imperator Taranaki in trava-klan and are now my rightful Imperator. For twenty-five years, I have sought to prostrate myself before you. Please allow me to swear my fealty and pledge the loyalty of my family to you.”

“You may swear,” James replied in a deep, authoritative voice.

“I, Tasata-su, swear that I will honor and obey Imperator James Somerville in life and death. His glory will be mine, and I will bear his shame. I swear this for myself and for the Takar and Julene families.”

“And I accept your oaths, and in turn promise to return loyalty with protection, and honor with respect, as you serve me, I will in turn serve you and your people” James replied. “Rise and stand among my loyal officers, General.”

“I thank you, Imperator,” said Tasata-su as he stood, meeting James' eyes for the first time. James nodded at him and then gestured for him to stand beside Hermes’ Captain. Jonathan flashed Tasata-su a smile before turning serious again.

Everyone then turned their eyes to Hang’glar and his two Captains, who had stopped several meters behind Tasata-su. Hang’glar began to step forward, but Fa’al was quicker. The Karacknid Captain moved swiftly, throwing himself to the ground like Tasata-su. “I may not have recognized the truth of your rightful place as my species' Imperator as swiftly as Tasata-su, but I see it now. Please, allow me to swear the same oaths on behalf of myself and my family.”

Jonathan’s eyes widened, and as he glanced at Tasata-su and Hang’glar, he realized they were both equally surprised. Fa’al and his family represented about eighty thousand of the Free Karacknids. Including those represented by Tasata-su, this meant that nearly a third of the Free Karacknids now wished to submit themselves to his Father.

When his father looked at him, Jonathan gave a small nod. “I will accept your oaths,” James replied formally. After Fa’al spoke the same words as Tasata-su, James gave Fa’al the same oath he had given Fa’al. Fa’al then stood, met James’ eyes, and moved to stand beside Tasata-su.

“Commodore Hang’glar, you are most welcome here,” James said as he turned to the two remaining Karacknids. “I presume you do not wish to swear fealty to me?”

Hang’glar took one step forward, bowed deeply, then raised himself up again and held James’ gaze. “I do not, Imperator. I do not believe anyone but a Karacknid can truly be our Imperator. However, I still believe we have much to learn from you and your people. Indeed, I owe a great deal to your son. He has risked his life many times to protect my people and has extended his hospitality to us. I am here today to ask the same of you, Imperator of the Human Empire. My people are tired of the false Imperators within our species' territory constantly waging war against one another seeking their own glory. We wish for an opportunity to start afresh and revive our species' honor in a way that does not solely revolve around conquering other sentient species. We would be most grateful for whatever assistance you can provide.” The moment he finished speaking, Hang’glar lowered his head, as did Gun’tar beside him. Both remained still, clearly waiting for James' response.

“My son Jonathan has made the plight of your people and your need for aid clear to my advisers and me,” James replied. “You dream of a Karacknid Empire that does not wage war on all those around it, as do I. To that end, here is my decision. You and your people will be given the system we call Sunspear. It is a system right on our southern border that has a habitable world very similar to your home world, Gayla. Your convoy of ships will be escorted through our space, and the system will be deemed yours and your offspring's in perpetuity. We will also supply you with as many raw materials and processed goods as you need to rebuild your civilization on Sunspear. In return for this aid, I make two requests.

“One, your fledgling Empire and ours will sign a free trade and navigation treaty, which will include an agreement that divides the surrounding systems between our two empires. This treaty will ensure that as you grow, you benefit from my Empire’s strength rather than see it as a threat, and it will ensure there are no border disputes in the years to come.

“Two, once you have established your own functioning Navy, we will sign a defense treaty that will give you responsibility for patrolling and defending a portion of our southern border. I will not ask you to fight against your own species to the north. But in exchange for our generosity, I will require you to protect our southern borders from attack by any hostile species that you may encounter in the decades and centuries to come.

“If you’re willing to accept these two requests, both of our peoples can look forward to a bright future together, provided we survive the impending war with Tanaka-lan. If not, I will provide the supplies you need for your convoy to continue on its journey in search of a world you desire. However, I cannot allow you to pass through Imperial space, nor through the territory of our allies.”

Hang’glar raised his head again. He first looked at Jonathan, then turned to James. “Your terms are fair, Imperator. Were I in your shoes, I might desire more control over our internal institutions.”

“I confess, it is tempting to insist you adopt more of our customs and morals,” James replied. “But it would only lead to resentment among your people in the long term. All I wish for is a guaranteed peace between us. If we can agree on that, then I’m content to allow your people to chart their own course as they seek to rediscover what it means to be Karacknid.”

“In that case, I and my people accept your offer, Human Imperator,” Hang’glar said, as both he and Gun’tar bowed deeply once again.

“Very good,” James said, smiling for the first time. “I will have my subordinates meet with you. We will draw up the details of our agreement, and we can both sign it as soon as we are ready. Then, we can get your people moving away from the frontline here and towards Sunspear as swiftly as possible.”

“Your generosity is as great as your son’s, Imperator. You honor me and my people greatly,” Hang’glar said, giving James a Karacknid salute.

“May you and your descendants remember what my people have done for you,” James replied. “And perhaps one day, together, we can see your vision for your species' future expand to encompass all the Karacknid clans.”

“I hope it will one day be soon,” Hang’glar responded.

James nodded and turned to where Tasata-su stood. “Now, let me address your people, General Tasata-su. You are being given a continent on the colony of Excalibur. My species colonized this planet thirty-five years ago, so it's relatively undeveloped. To date, no one has settled on the continent that will be yours. On it, you can build your homes and industries. We will adapt our orbital facilities to accommodate your ships and will expand them to meet your needs. Your people will also be able to participate in Excalibur’s local elections, having a say in determining the colony’s Governor and Representatives sent to the Imperial government on Earth.

“Furthermore, your people will be confined to Excalibur and its system for a ten-year probationary period. If, after this time, you have shown yourselves able to integrate into our society, the confinement will be lifted, and your people will be free to travel anywhere within our space, just as any other citizens would be. You and your people have sworn allegiance to me, so you must work to become part of my Empire. I’m not asking you to forsake your customs, but you must embrace ours as well. Wherever possible, we will make allowances for your traditions, but we won't compromise our beliefs and morals. Is this acceptable to you?”

Tasata-su bowed low. “If this is your will, Imperator, then we will obey. Our desire is to find a future where our military prowess can be used for the good of both our descendants and our people. You have provided us that opportunity, and for that, I thank you once more.”

“I shall hold you and your descendants to your word,” James replied. Neither he, Jonathan, nor any of his advisers on Earth were certain that after the probationary period, it would be wise to allow Tasata-su’s people to become full citizens of the Empire. Yet, James was willing to give it a try and observe how they would adapt in the next decade.

“I have one request,” Tasata-su said, straightening up. “We all know you are preparing to face the false Imperator Tanaka-lan in battle. I would like to detach my warships to accompany your flagship and fight alongside you.”

James glanced at Jonathan; his son had predicted this request and thankfully given him a solution that might satisfy Tasata-su. “As much as I appreciate the offer, General, I cannot accept. Not because I don’t value your warships – my son has told me of the valor with which your people fight. However, if your people are going to settle on Excalibur and grow in numbers and power, then you will need all of your warships and their crews for that task. I'd rather have a fleet of warships commanded by your people in a decade than a handful now.

“What I would request, however, is that you assign a cadre of your best warriors to my flagship to augment my personal guard. They will need to earn the trust of my current Imperial Guard marines, but as they do, they can bolster the ranks of those who have sworn to protect me with their lives. How does that sound?”

Tasata-su bowed low once again. “It would be an honor for me to appoint our best warriors to protect you in this way, Imperator. And in time, I will join you with a fleet of my own to repay the many gifts you have given me and my people.”

“I look forward to that day,” James responded. “And am glad to have you in my service.

“Now,” James said as he looked around at the gathered officers and projected his voice out over them all, “I think it's time for some refreshments, and for us all to get to know our guests in a more informal setting. Let's retire to the adjoining room.”

At James’ command, one of the conference room's hatches opened, revealing another conference room that had been emptied of its seats. Instead, several tables were set up with food and drink arrayed on them. With a nod from James, Scott stepped out of her position among James' officers and made her way in. Others quickly followed, while several officers approached the Karacknids and began to introduce themselves - just as they had been instructed to.

“Well,” James whispered, leaning over to Jonathan when enough conversation had started that he was confident no one could overhear, “how did that go?”

“As well as I could have hoped,” Jonathan replied. “Only time will tell.”

“Indeed,” James said, nodding. “Now, let’s hope the Captain’s conference runs just as smoothly.”

*

Three hours later, after Jonathan had personally escorted each of the Karacknids back to their shuttles, he made his way to the deck where the Hermes’ conference rooms were located. As he got closer, he joined the throng of Captains and flag officers who were making their way to the Hermes’ largest conference room. With a capacity of over five hundred, it couldn't hold even a fraction of the naval officers gathered at Zeta Fort, but his father had invited the most senior, and the rest were to watch via holo COM.

As much as Jonathan had been excited about introducing the Free Karacknid leaders to his father, his heart was beating a bit faster now. Admiral Scott was scheduled to give an outline of his father’s proposed strategy for the upcoming war to the fleet's commanders. Jonathan suspected that soon after, he would receive orders for his own squadron. As long as he was going to be in a position to see some action, he would be happy. But he couldn’t help feeling his father would try to keep him out of harm’s way.

When he got to the conference room, he was relieved that no special seat had been reserved for him. His role of Imperial Heir was thankfully over and once again he was just a Commodore. As a result, he had to weave through several officers to reach the seat Montgomery and Iso had saved for him.

“So, what did you think of the reception?” Jonathan asked Iso as he settled beside her. Both she and Montgomery had been among the officers who witnessed his father meet the Karacknids. All three of them had endlessly discussed just what to do with them over the last couple of months.

“I think it went as well as could have been expected,” Iso replied. “All the Karacknids I’ve met are a bit reserved. It's going to be a culture shock for them when they reach their new planets. Some of the accommodations they’re going to have to make are not going to come easily. But if they value their honor as much as they seem to, they'll find a way to keep their word, won’t they?”

“As long as we don’t do something that puts their sense of honor in conflict with us,” Jonathan agreed. “That is going to be the key.”

“That and preventing a jumpy local on Excalibur from shooting one of them,” Montgomery said, shaking his head. “I still don’t understand why some of them want to join us. Wouldn't they be better off on their own planet all together?”

“Perhaps for a while,” Jonathan replied. “But what happens when a serious disagreement breaks out? Some of them believe my father should be the Imperator, and if the rest try to choose a new one for themselves, it could come to blows.”

“But at least the conflict would be among them on their own planet, not between the settlers of Excalibur and Tasata-su’s people,” Montgomery said. “I know which scenario I would prefer.”

“As would I,” Jonathan acquiesced. “But then we wouldn't know if we could truly influence them. Imagine an army of Karacknid warriors honor-bound to my father. They would be worth their weight in gold.”

“And if they could convince their brethren to forsake their conquering ways, we’d be doing all the sentient species in the galaxy a favor,” Iso added.

Montgomery nodded slowly, evidently not entirely convinced. He opened his mouth to speak, but a sudden hush washed over the gathered officers, preventing him from saying anything more. Admiral Scott had just stepped out in front of the officers, and behind her, a large holo display had sprung to life, showing a very familiar map of the Karacknid border and The Wilds.

“Welcome everyone, and thank you all for coming — those of you who are here in person, and for the rest, I’m sorry I could not greet you personally, but you are most welcome as well. Hopefully in the coming weeks I will be able to speak to all of you,” Scott began, looking from side to side, surveying all the gathered officers. “Most of you already know, but for those who don’t, I am currently serving as Emperor Somerville’s Chief of Staff, as we believe that's where I will be most useful to him.”

With a gesture towards the holo display, Scott updated it. All the major Karacknid fleet bases were now marked, along with estimated strengths of the number of enemy ships. Jonathan gazed at it intently, as it showed information even more up-to-date than what he had acquired from his ventures behind enemy lines.

“As you can see,” Scott continued, “The Karacknid forces seem to be amassing at nine separate fleet bases that face the line of Allied border forts. Five of them face our forts. This alone tells us that Tanaka-lan plans to focus his assault on our positions. More disturbingly, one of our most recently returned scouts discovered this.” The holo display zoomed in on one of the fleet bases opposite Zeta Fort. It showed a system Jonathan recognized; he had studied all the main Karacknid fleet bases while looking for a safe route for the Free Karacknid convoy. But he frowned when he saw that the planet, which the Karacknid fleet base orbited, appeared to be surrounded by a haze.

“It appears the Karacknids have begun setting up jamming equipment around the fleet bases where they are building up their forces,” Scott explained. “We have reports from Varanni scouts who have witnessed this at two other locations. The reason for this jamming can be discerned from these two images.” As Scott spoke, the jamming interference disappeared, and two similar images of the Karacknid fleet base became visible. The timestamps suggested the scans had been taken just two weeks apart. In the first, twelve thousand ships were visible, but in the second, the number had risen to seventeen thousand.

“Thankfully for us, Badger and her crew were able to penetrate the Karacknids' jamming and obtain the scans. Without them, we might have assumed there were only twelve thousand warships at this fleet base, or perhaps a couple of thousand more. Yet five thousand additional warships have been moved to the border, and that's on top of the additional ships Commodore Somerville informed us about. If a similar buildup is happening all across the frontline, then we are facing an enemy even stronger than we imagined.”

Jonathan swallowed hard. Six months ago, the fleet base had barely been home to a thousand ships. A month ago, it had been eight thousand. It has doubled in one month, he thought, what happens if it doubles again? Despite their willingness to help in any way they could, neither Tasata-su nor Hang’glar had been able to give Jonathan a clear idea of just how many ships Tanaka-lan had. Neither of them had access to such information before they became Free Karacknids. And after twenty years of civil war, no one really knew how many ships the Karacknids could muster when they weren’t focused on fighting each other.

“However, that does not change the task before us,” Scott continued resolutely, seemingly unconcerned by the growing enemy strength. “Nor does it alter the plan Emperor Somerville and I intend to enact. Admiral Alvarez and her forces have already raided a number of the Karacknid border systems, and though her capture is a significant loss for us, her fleets inflicted substantial damage. It won't be easy for the Karacknid fleets, especially given their size, to advance from their bases without the support of their border systems. Advancing through The Wilds to attack our forts will be even more challenging.” Scott lowered her voice and leaned forward towards the officers she addressed. “And we intend to make it even more so.”

Pausing for a moment, Scott fixed everyone with an unflinching stare. “Our strategy will be threefold. In the first phase, we will deploy small but powerful squadrons towards the Karacknid border. Using our system of FOBs, they will confront the initial Karacknid screening squadrons attempting to enter The Wilds. Our objective won't necessarily be to destroy them, but rather to delay them and hamper their ability to scout the systems through which they plan to lead their main fleets.

“Currently, we're operating under the assumption that Tanaka-lan plans to advance his fleet through The Wilds in five formations from the five fleet bases where his fleets are amassing. This approach allows him to continue advancing even if one of his fleets gets bogged down in combat. It would also make it harder for us to discern his main target, complicating our efforts to concentrate forces against him. The squadrons we deploy forward will serve dual purposes. While all will engage the initial Karacknid screening fleets, some of our squadrons will retreat before them, maintaining contact to pin them down and allowing us to monitor the locations of the five enemy fleets.

The rest of our squadrons will first engage the enemy, then retreat to their FOBs and wait for the main Karacknid fleets to pass. Only then will they emerge to target the Karacknid supply convoys that the enemy fleets will rely on as they traverse The Wilds and approach our forts. The primary objective of the first aspect of our strategy is simple this: the more we can disrupt and cripple the Karacknids' logistical capabilities, the more time we will buy for ourselves.

Scott nodded as if agreeing with herself, then continued. “The second phase of our strategy will be commanded by Admiral Somerville himself.” Once more the holo display changed, reverting to show the map of The Wilds, this time more than twenty systems were flashing on it. “Our intention is to take a sizeable force into The Wilds, at least ten thousand ships strong. Once there, we will use every advantage and trick we have developed over the last two decades to thwart the advance of each of the five Karacknid fleets. We don't expect to delay them indefinitely, nor can we realistically hope to defeat even one of their fleets. However, if Tanaka-lan thinks he can simply move his fleets up to our border unopposed, he will soon discover he is mistaken. Like phase one, our primary goal is to delay the advance of the enemy forces for as long as possible. Ships from the Varanni Alliance and Mindus Space are already on the move. Our Conclave allies are also relocating their fleets through the Gift, and a message has been sent to Admiral Becket to recall her fleet. Emperor Somerville and I believe that if we can delay the enemy sufficiently, we can still muster a powerful enough fleet to defend our forts and repel this invasion.

“To that end, the third aspect of our strategy is preparation. Every fort must be fortified to the utmost. Several bills have been approved in Parliament to mobilize every vessel capable of combat. We also expect the first lend-lease freighters to arrive at our forts in two months. In total, at least ten thousand of them are anticipated to join us. While these ships aren't equivalent to military vessels with seasoned crews, they will enhance our defenses.

“In essence, while time won't win this war on its own, it remains our ally. We hope to delay, frustrate, and diminish the readiness of this invasion fleet to such a degree that, when the significant battles commence around our forts, we, due to our shorter supply lines and artificial shift passages, are better prepared. And,” Scott added with a smile, “when it comes to defending our forts, we will have our Kulrean allies by our side.”

Around Jonathan, several heads nodded in agreement. He found Scott's smile contagious. While the addition of the four thousand ships of the Home Fleet was welcome, the two hundred Kulrean worldships that accompanied them were even more appreciated. Jonathan had once seen a Kulrean worldship as a teenager during a visit to Kulthar with his father. Now, as a seasoned naval commander, they seemed even more magnificent.

“So, that summarizes our proposal,” Scott said, giving the impression she was wrapping up. “You should be receiving your specific assignments shortly. We'll break into smaller discussion groups so you can flesh out the roles you and your forces will play in our strategy. If Tanaka-lan's fleets departed their bases today and headed directly for Zeta fort, we estimate their journey through The Wilds would take eight weeks. Our Emperor aims to double that time and make them lose many ships in the process. Go now and make this a reality.” With a nod to everyone, Scott then moved to sit next to Jonathan's father as the holo display dimmed.

A contemplative silence enveloped the room as they processed Scott's words. Jonathan could feel the weight of them. The task ahead was formidable. Given the colossal number of enemy ships, now estimated to be over one hundred thousand, merely delaying them seemed challenging. Confronting and defeating them at one of the forts? Jonathan grappled with how that could be feasible. But she believes it, he thought. He had known Scott long enough to discern her genuine belief in their ability to defeat Tanaka-lan.

Glancing left and then right, Jonathan saw that the same thoughts were going through both Iso's and Montgomery’s minds. But as they turned their gazes to him, their expressions shifted to curiosity. Simultaneously, they all reached for their datapads and opened them to see their assigned orders. Jonathan's smile broadened upon reading his. For a fleeting moment, he had feared that his father might have orchestrated things to leave him behind at the forts. As he continued reading, he felt a familiar emotion rise. Ever since he had been forced to retreat while Emilie confronted Tanaka-lan alone, he had burned for another opportunity to face Tanaka-lan’s Karacknids. Now, it seemed he would get that chance.

Chapter 8

Sometimes a bull in a China shop is exactly the kind of person you need in a war.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

It took several minutes for Jonathan, Iso, and Montgomery to get out of the main conference room as every officer rushed to get to where their breakout session was being held. As Jonathan stepped into their smaller conference room, he looked around as he took in the other officers already there. There were two Rear Admirals and their entourages and four other Commodores. He smiled and nodded at a couple he knew, but the rest were unfamiliar to him. After finding a seat, he looked to the front of the conference room as he waited to see who their commanding officer would be.

Moments later, a side door opened and Rear Admiral Jiminez stepped in along with his Chief of Staff. Jonathan couldn’t help but smile. Jiminez had commanded one of the squadrons tasked with patrolling the Karacknid southern border for five years before returning to Imperial space to play a role in organizing the yearly fleet live fire training exercises. Almost every flag rank commander had fought him in a simulated battle or a live fire mock engagement. He was known as a firebrand and as a tactical genius. The perfect officer for this mission! Jonathan thought as he shared a grin with Iso.

"You all made it in good time, good. Let me welcome you to Task Force Intercept. I’ll not waste our time repeating what Admiral Scott has already shared with us, so let’s get right to it,” Jiminez said, displaying his famous disdain for bureaucracy and meetings. With a gesture, Jiminez activated the conference room’s holo display and showed the same map of The Wilds that Scott had. This time, however, the area of space just south of the Karacknid border was split up into eight colored areas. A name appeared in the center of each.

“I have been assigned to command our squadrons that will deploy along the Karacknid border,” Jiminez said. “Each of your squadrons will form a part of our task force. We'll split up our area of responsibility between us. Within the next two days, we will be departing for our zones of responsibility. I’ll have more specific orders drawn up for each of you, but they will be little more than guides. Once you get to your area of operation, you will be responsible for completing the directives Emperor Somerville has for us.

“Initially, we will operate independently as we seek to engage whatever Karacknid screening forces begin to move into your zones. However, as we fall back, I will coordinate our retreat as best I can. If possible, we'll set ambushes for our enemy and give him a few bloody noses. Your priority, however, will be to keep your forces intact and to maintain contact with the enemy. One thing we cannot allow to happen is for a sizable Karacknid force to slip past us. For phase two of the Emperor’s plan to work, he must know exactly where all elements of the Karacknid invasion fleet are at all times.

“Harkin, Gomez, Heath, Jin, and I will be responsible for tracking the five Karacknid fleets once they push into the Wilds. The rest of you will engage the initial screening forces, then fall back to the secret FOBs in your zones and wait there. Only once the Karacknid fleets have passed are you to reveal yourselves and begin raiding whatever supply convoys they have following their fleets.”

Jonathan couldn’t help but smile at Jiminez’s words. His squadron was one of the ones tasked with waiting for the Karacknids to leave and then begin raiding in their rear. Leaning forward, he studied the map that showed the zone he was to operate in. His zone was directly between two of the Karacknid fleet bases where their numbers were building. There’s going to be a bounty of targets, he thought as his smile widened. The rational side of his mind knew that no matter how many Karacknid ships he destroyed, it would never take away the guilt he felt for what had happened to Emilie, yet he didn’t care. He wanted revenge, and he was going to be in the perfect place to get it. While the rest of the Imperial Navy would be preparing to defend its forts, he was going to be in the thick of the action!

“Each of you has been chosen because you have proven your ability to operate independently from more senior commanders,” Jiminez continued even as he nodded in approval at the hungry look he saw on all of his subordinates' faces. “That is what this phase of our defense will rely upon. As best we can, we will all stay in touch with one another, but you need to operate under the assumption that no additional aid will be able to be diverted to you. If you have to fall back, do so; there’s no shame in it, not with the numbers we are facing. But you must ensure you send word of every movement you make back to Emperor Somerville and I so that we are not caught by surprise.”

With another gesture, Jiminez changed the image to show two strange-looking ships. Jonathan pressed his lips together as he studied them. Both were unfamiliar to him. Jiminez smiled at the sudden confusion on many of the faces in front of him. “I see not many of you are familiar with our two raider class ships. Good, that means keeping them secret has worked. The larger one is IS Bombardier, the smaller one IS Wolf. It’s quite possible you will encounter some of these ships as the fighting begins, especially the squadrons who will be operating behind the Karacknid fleets as they advance.

“Bombardier and her sister ships are stealthed mine layers. They can operate on their own or in small squadrons. Some have been tasked with trying to lay mines in front of the main Karacknid fleets, others with mining strategic areas after the Karacknid fleets pass in order to hamper their supply situations. Wolf is a stealth cruiser. Again, she and her sister ships can operate alone, or in what we call wolf packs, where they can hunt down isolated enemy capital ships or convoys.

“Both ships have advanced stealth technology that is beyond me, as well as other weapon systems designed to complement their stealth capabilities. It’s likely that you will only run into either of the ships if their captains allow you to spot them. It may be they need assistance, or they have intel to share. They have orders not to reveal themselves or to join up with our standard ships unless there is a significant opportunity that presents itself. Otherwise, they will operate in the dark, striking only when they can be certain of victory. It is the Emperor’s hope that their attacks will sow confusion amongst the enemy as they may believe there are larger imperial squadrons operating in their rear than in reality. The more forces we can cause the Karacknid’s to divert to deal with our raiding squadrons, the fewer we will have to face when the fighting reaches our forts.

Jonathan shared a glance with Iso and Montgomery. Then he shook his head as he thought of his father and Scott. He had no doubt they were both behind the new class of ships. Yet neither had said anything to him. Need to know, I guess, he told himself. He was full of curiosity to know more about the ships' capabilities but as Jiminez moved on, Jonathan guessed they weren't going to learn anything more now.

“Each of our squadrons is also being assigned one of these,” Jiminez said as another ship appeared in front of them all. This time, Jonathan recognized it and once again he smiled. His mind quickly began to fill with ideas for how he could utilize the ship. “The fleet has a few interdictor cruisers, but we have more than we’ve been letting on,” Jiminez said. “A number will be operating with Emperor Somerville’s fleet. The rest have been assigned to us. I don’t need to emphasize how rare a resource they are, so they are to be used wisely and sparingly. Yet they will provide us with unique ways in which to hamper or delay the advance of Karacknid screening squadrons, or to ambush supply convoys. In my written instructions for you, I have outlined a number of possible ways in which they can be utilized. We can discuss them and other ideas together now and over the next day.”

“In addition, each of your squadrons will be reinforced by additional ships from the squadrons that arrived with Emperor Somerville. In total, our force will number two thousand five hundred and sixty warships. Even if we combined all our ships, we couldn't hope to confront even one of the Karacknid fleets that will be entering The Wilds. However, with the right tactics and fortitude, we can engage their screening squadrons and delay their advance.

“Now, I have more detailed orders for you all to read when we finish here, and then I have some simulated battles I wish for us to run our squadrons through this evening and tomorrow morning before we leave. Our time now is the only time we'll get together before we depart, so are there any questions or ideas you wish to discuss?”

There was a few seconds of silence while every officer thought through everything they had just heard. Then the questions began to come. “What do the raiding squadrons do if the Karacknid fleets make it to the forts?” Commodore Harkin asked.

“Whatever they can,” Jiminez answered honestly. “Realistically, if the Karacknid fleets make it to our forts, it will be very hard to get around them to reinforce whichever forts are under attack. At least, not in time to make a difference. Even if the forts fall, our raiding squadrons will likely still be able to do the most damage by continuing to harass the Karacknids’ supply lines.

“And what about our trading partners in The Wilds, and the other species?” Jonathan asked. “Can we use their systems as bases of operation, or are they even likely to offer any resistance to the Karacknids?”

“A warning is being sent out to all the species we have trading relationships with, or that we have assisted over the last two and a half decades,” Jiminez explained. “Emperor Somerville is recommending that they destroy everything they have built up that might draw the Karacknids’ attention to their systems. Some may choose to try and resist with the small fleets they have built; others will hopefully destroy their gas mining facilities so that Tanaka-lan cannot use them to support his fleet. In either case, we have orders not to draw the Karacknid ships to any of these systems. At least, not unless the situation is dire. If need be, we can utilize them, but only as a last resort.”

“And if the Karacknids capture a system with intact mining facilities or other infrastructure they can use?” Iso followed up.

“Then they become targets, just as if the Karacknids had built them themselves,” Jiminez responded.

“What about the initial zones we are being assigned to, are the raiding squadrons to stick to their zones after the Karacknid fleets pass us by?” Commodore Leim asked.

“Initially yes,” Jiminez responded. “Ideally, I would like our raiding squadrons to stay spread out to be able to attack convoys supplying each of the five Karacknid fleets. However, once you begin your raiding, you have permission to seek out the richest target environments, wherever that takes you. It is your responsibility to cause as much damage as possible.”

Jonathan nodded at that. Being tied down to one area would only end up getting a squadron cornered and destroyed. With free rein, he'd be able to range as far as his fuel supplies allowed and strike at whatever targets of opportunity came his way. For another half an hour, more questions were asked, then the conversation turned to discussing strategy and tactics as Jiminez laid out how he foresaw each stage of what they were being asked to do would play out and his officers added their own thoughts. By the time they were done, three hours had passed from the beginning of Scott’s initial briefing. When the discussions were finally over, Jonathan stood and stretched; his body felt weary, yet his mind was still buzzing. Though he knew the advance of the Karacknid fleets was the greatest threat his species had ever faced, he couldn’t help the excitement he felt at the prospect. In the coming weeks, every skill he had spent his life developing was about to be tested to the extreme. While some might balk at such an idea, he couldn’t wait to get started.

After saying farewell to a few of the other commanders of the squadrons, Jonathan led Iso and Montgomery out of the briefing room. A Lieutenant surprised him as she snapped a salute the moment he came into view. “Commodore Somerville, I am on your father’s command staff. He instructed me to invite you to have some refreshments with him before you return to your flagship.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Jonathan replied. “You two better go back to the ship and start getting things ready,” he said, turning to Iso and Montgomery. “I’ll catch another shuttle back.”

“Aye sir, see you over there,” Iso replied.

“Lead on,” Jonathan said as he smiled at the Lieutenant. As they walked, she tried to engage him in idle conversation, but he couldn’t focus on what she was saying. His mind was consumed with everything he had just been asked to do.

*

When they got to his father’s quarters, his father wasn’t there yet, evidently still involved in his own briefing. For half an hour, Jonathan waited in a reception room almost as large as Hammerclaw’s bridge, sipping the coffee the Lieutenant had brought him. When his father did arrive, he burst into the room, surrounded by six officers. He was mid-sentence, giving orders to one of them. After the Lieutenant nodded and turned to leave, James glanced at Jonathan, gave his son a wink, and then turned back to fire off instructions for the others. Jonathan couldn’t help but smile at his father; he was in his element.

Another five minutes passed before James was able to dispatch all of the officers. As the last one walked out, James let out a long, deep breath. He shook his head as he smiled at Jonathan. “It never ends. But you are here, and that’s good. I know it’s already been a long day, and yours is only really beginning now that you’ve got your orders, but I wanted to speak with you again. I doubt we’ll get another chance before you leave.”

“In that case, take as long as you want. Iso and my staff officers can handle the initial tasks Jiminez wants,” Jonathan replied as James came over and sat opposite him.

James smiled at the mention of Jiminez. “He is a wild one. Keeping him in line has been a hassle these last three years, but soon he will be Tanaka-lan’s problem!” James' face turned serious a moment later. “Which brings me to your orders.” James held up a hand. “I’m not going to tell you how to carry them out. You’re well-experienced now. But, I still want to tell you to be safe. And, not to forget who you are. Yes, you’re one of my best young commanders. That’s why we need you on the front lines. But you are also the Empire’s future. Whether we stop Tanaka-lan in The Wilds, or here at one of our forts, or even if he pushes into our systems, you are not to throw your life away taking wild risks. Do you understand?”

Jonathan reluctantly nodded. “I know what you and mom hope for me in the future, and I have no intention of getting myself killed unnecessarily. But, I won’t shy away from a fight. My job is to hunt Karacknid convoys. I need to play my part in this.”

“And you will,” James said, nodding. “All I’m asking is that you recognize that whatever happens in the next few months, you may have a far bigger role to play in the future of this war than just attacking convoys. Just keep that in mind is all I ask.”

“And I can do that,” Jonathan said, more to appease his father than out of any real conviction. Despite the grief he felt over Emilie, he had no intention of getting himself killed. He had too much to live for, not least the future he and Becca often spoke of. But there wouldn’t be any future if they couldn’t stop the Karacknids, and he intended to give everything he had to accomplish that.

“Good, well that is all I needed to hear,” James said. “Now,” he continued as he turned the conversation to Christine, Rachel, Edward, and everything that had been happening on Earth.

For half an hour they chatted and reminisced. Though Jonathan enjoyed the change of topic, he couldn’t help feeling like his father was acting as if this could be their last time together. Given his dad’s insistence that he look after himself, that led Jonathan to one conclusion; his dad feared he was the one who wasn’t going to survive the coming battles. Not wanting to spoil the moment, Jonathan kept his thoughts to himself and tried his best to simply enjoy being with his father.

After another half an hour passed, and they both devoured the refreshments Fox had brought them, James' face tightened. “I’m afraid I don’t have much more time. Scott will be wanting me soon to meet Admiral Ivanov’s logistics officers. We have a lot to plan if I’m going to take a fleet out into The Wilds to meet Tanaka-lan’s fleets.”

“I understand,” Jonathan said, “I’m just happy we managed to get as much time as we did. I’ll try and get over again before the squadron departs if I can.”

James nodded. “I’ll understand if you don’t.” His face then grew even more serious. “There is something else,” he said slowly, his eyes glancing down at the deck. Half-turning in his seat, James reached for a datapad and then passed it over to Jonathan. “Officially, these orders are from Admiral Ivanov. Unofficially, your mother and I agreed.”

“What are they?” Jonathan asked, his eyes narrowing.

“Most of the Empire’s marines are being redeployed along our colonies that face Karacknid territory. If our forts are breached, it’s very likely the Karacknids will try to land troops on them. These are orders for Major Samuels to be reassigned to New Shanghai to oversee and train the marines being posted there. It comes with a promotion to Colonel.” Before Jonathan could protest, James held up a hand. “I know it will be hard, but it's something you both have to do. Neither of you can afford any distractions, not now. And if she is to grow into the kind of role she may one day have if your relationship continues, she needs her own space to develop.”

To James’ surprise, Jonathan nodded. “We know,” he said. “We’ve already talked about it. Neither of us wants to be assigned to different ships. But she can’t keep being the head of my Imperial Guard detachment. And you’re right, she needs to learn to command more than just a platoon of special forces marines.”

James smiled in relief. “Then you’re not angry with me?”

Jonathan smiled back. “I might not like the idea, but I’m not angry, no. It will be hard saying goodbye.”

James nodded as he remembered his own farewells. “It always is. Speaking of which,” he forced himself to say.

“I know,” Jonathan replied as they stood. Both men embraced one another, and as his father held him tightly, Jonathan was again reminded of his earlier thoughts. “I love you, Dad,” he said as they broke apart. “And I know you’ll stop Tanaka-lan. You are the best we have. He won’t know what hit him!”

James' eyes glistened at his son’s words. He pulled him in for one more hug. “And I have every confidence in you too. Go and kick some Karacknid butt.”

“I will… for Emilie!” Jonathan said fiercely as he felt his guilt and desire for revenge flaming up within him again.

“For Emilie,” James agreed as his voice broke.

Feeling it was appropriate, Jonathan saluted his father. He then held his gaze for a couple of seconds, then forced himself to turn and walk out of his quarters. Behind him, a single tear ran down James’ cheek as his mind was filled both with pride in his son and memories of his niece.

Chapter 9

Mixing family and war has never been an easy thing. Yet for our Emperors and Empresses, it is a daily weight they must bear. Many members of the Royal Family have fallen in battle defending our citizens over the centuries. Those who do follow in the footsteps of the founders of the legacy that rules over our rulers.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Hammerclaw

Back on his flagship, Jonathan made a beeline for Becca’s quarters. He didn’t want her hearing from anyone else, and he knew she’d want to pack and be ready to leave as soon as possible. As he walked down the final corridor to his destination, memories of all the happy times they had shared together on Kestrel and then Hammerclaw filled his mind. Despite all the dangers they had faced, they had built a strong relationship over the last year and a bit, having spent many years together before that as friends. It will last, he told himself as he began to imagine what it would be like to be apart.

With war breaking out, it was very possible they wouldn’t see each other for many months, if not years. Once Jonathan began operating behind the Karacknid fleets, there would be tens of thousands of warships between him and New Shanghai. And what if the forts fall and New Shanghai is invaded? Jonathan found himself asking. Then she will risk her life as you’re about to, he answered himself. One thing he had quickly learned about Becca after they had started dating: she was a proud woman. If he suggested he didn’t want her taking risks, she would just get angry, especially given the massively risky mission he was about to embark upon himself.

At Becca’s quarters, Jonathan tapped the control panel to request entrance. The doors opened a second later after Becca confirmed who it was. “You’re back?” she asked as she stepped out of her bathroom, her hair in a towel. “How did it go? Where are we being assigned?”

“To the front lines,” Jonathan explained briefly. “Additional ships have been assigned to my squadron, and I’m being tasked with raiding the Karacknid supply lines.”

Becca smiled a feral smile. “That’s exactly the kind of mission that suits you. And how’s your father?”

“He’s good,” Jonathan said. “He’s as energetic as I've seen him for years. But he’s worried too. He’s trying to hide it, but he knows we’re all going to be risking much in the coming months.”

Becca nodded. “He’s more experienced than anyone; he knows what it’s really going to be like.”

“There was something else I found out when I was on Hermes, it concerns you,” Jonathan said, forcing himself to get to the point.

“What is it?” Becca asked, worry filling her voice as she picked up on Jonathan’s tone.

“You have new orders,” Jonathan said slowly. “And you’ve been promoted.” Pulling out his datapad, he transferred the file to Becca’s. “You are being sent to New Shanghai to help train the marines based there and bolster the colony’s defenses.” Jonathan smiled. “Congratulations Lieutenant Colonel. You are moving up in the world.”

Sorrow filled Becca’s eyes. “When does your squadron leave?” She asked quietly. Her face showed no sign of excitement at the promotion.

“In two days,” Jonathan replied. “You’ll have to be packed up and off Hammerclaw by then. But we can have a meal to celebrate your promotion at least. I know it is sudden. And it will hurt. But we’re not saying goodbye this very moment.”

“But you’re going to have a ton of work to do to get your ships ready by then.” Becca said. “We're not going to have much time together, are we?”

Jonathan lost some of the excitement he had tried to feign for Becca’s sake. “I fear you’re right,” he admitted.

Becca crossed the distance between them and wrapped her arms around him. “We both knew this was coming. But now that it’s here, I don’t want it.”

Jonathan nodded as his head rested on top of Becca’s. “Neither do I, but the orders are from Admiral Ivanov’s Chief of Staff. There’s nothing we can do. And in the long run, this is what has to happen if we are to have the future we hope for.”

Becca nodded. Both of them knew that if Jonathan were to ever become Emperor, he would have to marry someone capable of serving as Empress. While Becca had more than enough combat experience for the role, she needed experience in other areas. Taking command of a regiment would provide her ample leadership experience. She could never replicate the diplomatic skills of Jonathan’s mother, but he had been trained in diplomacy from childhood. Becca didn’t need to replace Jonathan’s mother, but she needed to develop her own skillset and reputation that would allow her to hopefully be accepted by the Empire one day.

“All right,” Becca said as she released Jonathan and took a deep breath. “We’ll have time at least to say goodbye later, won’t we?”

Jonathan nodded. “I’ll make sure of it.”

Tilting her head up, Becca gave Jonathan a quick kiss. “Leaving you will be hard, but knowing you are going to face Tanaka-lan again is even tougher. But we're both warriors. This is what we do. So do it we must.”

Jonathan nodded. Despite Becca’s tough exterior, he knew she had a softer core. “We must. And as much as I’m going to hate not having you here, it will also be a relief. I’ve seen you going into harm’s way too many times.”

Becca’s eyes hardened. “But that doesn’t mean, just because I’m not here, you can start taking undue risks, Commodore. Do you understand?” She asked firmly.

Jonathan couldn’t help smiling. “You know, if my mother were here, that’s exactly what she’d be saying, in that very tone.”

“Well,” Becca said as her cheeks reddened slightly. “Then she'd be right, wouldn’t she?”

“All right,” Jonathan said, pulling her into another hug. “I already promised I wouldn’t throw my life away. I have too much to live for,” he said, squeezing Becca tighter. “Don’t worry; I’ll come back for you.”

Becca nodded and gave him another kiss. “In that case, I better start packing and saying my goodbyes to the rest of Hammerclaw’s crew. And I’m sure you have countless things to attend to. We can say our heartfelt goodbyes later.”

“All right,” Jonathan said, smiling at Becca. “Later, my love,” he added, giving her one last kiss.

Becca smiled after their kiss and motioned for him to exit her quarters. “Go on, before Iso complains that I’m keeping you from fulfilling your duties.”

Jonathan smiled, nodded, and then departed, his heart heavy despite the cheerful facade.

*

The next two days went by in a whirl for Jonathan. He briefed his staff officers and then all the flotilla commanders and Captains in his squadron on their upcoming mission. He then commanded his squadron in Jimenez’s simulations, reviewed them, and discussed strategy with the Rear Admiral. Meanwhile, he also oversaw his squadron as it took on its final supplies and munitions, along with a plethora of spare parts. Given how long they might be out of contact with Imperial forts and fleet bases, each ship needed to be as self-sufficient as possible. All the additional ships added to his squadron also had to be integrated into his command structure. Since they brought the number of ships under Jonathan's command to three hundred and forty, it meant a lot of extra work for him and his staff officers. Even the fighters in his squadron had to undergo a series of flight tests to ensure they were structurally sound and wouldn't fail in combat.

But all that was behind him now. Jonathan sat on Hammerclaw’s bridge, surveying a holo image of his squadron. Every ship was now fully supplied and ready to depart. They were all just waiting for Jimenez’s order. As he waited, Jonathan couldn’t help but relive his last few minutes with Becca. They had said their goodbyes just two hours ago, before she had boarded a shuttle bound for a freighter heading back to New Shanghai. Though much had been shared by both of them about their future, Jonathan still wasn’t sure how he felt about her departure. He knew he loved her, and she loved him in return. Yet, they were going to be hundreds of light-years apart. If Humanity found a way to survive Tanaka-lan’s invasion, the war would then just be beginning; it would likely continue for years.

As he thought about Becca, Jonathan found his gaze fixed on the freighter she was now aboard. A part of him wanted to open a COM channel and order her back. If he didn’t, at best he might see her again in a year or perhaps even longer. And that’s if we both survive, Jonathan thought. Even though only a few hours had passed, he began to question the wisdom of their separation. If they were to face mortal danger, wouldn't it be better to face it together? They could then either survive together or share the same fate, instead of potentially leaving one to mourn the other.

Despite his desires, Jonathan resisted the urge. He couldn’t overrule Ivanov, not without undermining her authority and jeopardizing the respect of his Captains. Everyone in his squadron had left loved ones behind to join the fleet and fight the Karacknids. You’re no different than any of them, Jonathan reminded himself as he surveyed his staff officers and Hammerclaw’s bridge crew at their stations. This realization weighed heavily on him, emphasizing his responsibility to bring as many of them home again as he could.

“Message coming in from Blaze,” Lieutenant Natasha Rossi, Jonathan’s COM officer, announced, drawing Jonathan’s attention away from Becca’s freighter. “All squadrons will break orbit in thirty seconds with the flag.”

“Acknowledge the order,” Jonathan replied. “Montgomery, lead us out.”

“Aye, Commodore,” Montgomery responded, proceeding to relay commands to his navigation officer.

When the time came, Blaze fired off her impulse engines and began to move away from Zeta Fort. Hammerclaw followed instantly, as did every other ship in Jonathan’s squadron. Silently, Jonathan surveyed them. Three hundred and forty ships was the largest force he had ever commanded. Tightly arrayed around Hammerclaw, other heavy and medium cruisers, along with a handful of pocket carriers, formed the core of Jonathan’s force. Then, in wider concentric circles, light cruisers, destroyers, and frigates made up the rest of his numbers.

With nothing larger than a heavy cruiser under his command, it would be a risky feat to confront any Karacknid battleships or dreadnoughts. Yet what his squadron lacked in firepower, they more than compensated for in speed and maneuverability. When it came to raiding Karacknid supply convoys, Jonathan would take the latter over the former any day. It will do, Jonathan assured himself, nodding in approval at the scene before him. Many of his Captains had faced the Karacknids during their rescue of the Free Karacknid convoy. In the month it would take them to reach the frontlines, their experience, along with the insights Jonathan provided, would quickly be imparted to the less experienced Captains in his squadron. We'll be ready, Jonathan felt certain.

“Hermes has sent a signal to all of Jiminez’s ships,” Rossi reported. “It’s text only, from Emperor Somerville: ‘Give them hell!’”

Jonathan smiled at his father’s words, just as James had intended.

“Jiminez has replied. He simply said, ‘At your command, Emperor,’” Rossi informed everyone, prompting more smiles to appear. Over the past two days, everyone had recognized just how much of a firebrand Jiminez was. Hopefully, some of that spirit will rub off on me during the journey, Jonathan mused as his squadron began to leave Zeta Fort in their wake, setting course to confront Humanity's greatest adversary.

*

IS Repulse

For at least the tenth time, O’Kane looked down to make sure his naval tunic was straight and didn't have any wrinkles. He then checked his chronometer; he had been waiting for fifteen minutes. While he didn't mind having a few moments to himself, an Admiral who made you wait usually wasn't one who was happy with you. Badger had returned to Zeta Fort just four days ago, just in time to pass on her vital information before Emperor Somerville had arrived in the system. Initially, Ivanov had sent a personal note commending O’Kane and his crew for their efforts. Yet since then, O’Kane hadn’t heard a peep from Ivanov or anyone else in her command staff. Instead, Badger had simply received orders to dock with one of the fort’s tender ships and take on fuel and supplies in preparation for another scouting mission. But then out of the blue he had been summoned to Ivanov’s flagship.

Having not been senior enough to attend any of the in-person briefings, O’Kane had been forced to content himself with watching them and reading the reports given out afterward. When he stepped foot on board the Repulse, he had been excited as he contemplated the prospect of finding out what his role in the upcoming battles would be. Yet as the seconds ticked by and he was made to wait longer and longer, he couldn’t help but feel like he had done something wrong.

When one of the hatches into the waiting area he was sitting in opened with a faint woosh, O’Kane spun to see who it was. “The Admiral will see you now,” a young-looking Lieutenant said as she smiled at O’Kane and gestured for him to head through the hatch into Ivanov’s main office.

“Thank you,” O’Kane said as he stood, checked his uniform one last time, and walked through. As he crossed the threshold, almost as many butterflies danced in his stomach as when he had snuck into the Karacknid fleet base.

“Ah, Captain O’Kane,” Ivanov said with a light Russian accent as she sat up from behind her desk and smiled. “Please, accept my apologies for keeping you waiting. Emperor Somerville wanted to speak to me.” Stepping around her desk, she held out a hand for O’Kane.

O’Kane took it gladly as relief washed over him. “No need to apologize, Admiral. The last time I checked, an Emperor outranks a Captain,” he joked, trying to relieve his tension as much as anything else.

“Indeed he does,” Ivanov agreed as she gestured for O’Kane to sit. “But don’t think he isn't aware of you. Just yesterday, he asked about you specifically during one of the briefings we were having.” O’Kane’s eyebrows rose, and he couldn’t hide his surprise from his face. Ivanov chuckled. “Sneak into a tightly guarded Karacknid fleet base and bring back operation-changing intelligence, and yes, even an Emperor might suddenly find you interesting.”

O’Kane could only nod, not sure what he was supposed to say to such praise. “Good,” Ivanov continued. “I can see your accomplishments haven't gone to your head yet. Let’s hope that continues… Now,” she said as she leaned forward and activated her desk’s holo display. “As you can imagine, I don’t have much time. I’ll be accompanying Emperor Somerville with a good portion of my fleet into The Wilds. We’re scheduled to leave in two weeks, so there's much to prepare. So, I’ll come right to it if you don’t mind.”

“Of course,” O’Kane replied, “I don’t want to take up any more of your time than necessary.”

Ivanov smiled. “In that case, let me introduce you to Nautilus.” With a tap on her desk, an image of a warship O’Kane had never seen before appeared.

“She’s beautiful,” were the first words that came to him. Long and sleek, yet with unique angles at various points along her hull, Nautilus didn’t look like any other Imperial ship O’Kane had seen before, yet if his eye was right, she was definitely human-built.

“Beautiful and impressive,” Ivanov responded. “And she’s yours, if you want her.”

“Mine?” O’Kane blurted. “But… What about Badger?” The idea of losing his beloved frigate sent a shiver of fear through O’Kane.

“With your recommendation, I was going to give her to Lieutenant Smith,” Ivanov said. “Assuming you’re interested in taking command of something a little larger.”

Again, O’Kane hesitated, though this time it was more from surprise than reluctance. Ivanov smiled, guessing what was going on inside his mind. “You are wise; you want to hear more about your new command before accepting. Well, I only have time to be brief; you’ll have to figure most of it out for yourself.” She then cleared her throat and gave a brief overview.

“Nautilus is one of our first Wolf class raider ships. Just slightly larger than a light cruiser, she has advanced stealth capabilities and weapons. We have built several squadrons of them over the last decade, and now they’re being deployed to the frontline. They will operate alone or in small packs to raid Karacknid supply lines and their border systems. Nautilus’ Captain has just been promoted. Given her mission parameters, you are the ideal candidate to take command. So, what do you say, Captain?”

O’Kane continued to stare at the image in front of him. Not in a hundred years had he expected he would be summoned to be given a new command. The idea of leaving Badger cut him deeply, yet how could he say no to being given a proper warship, and right on the eve of the largest war Humanity had ever fought? Closing his mouth, O’Kane looked down from Nautilus to Ivanov. “I accept, Admiral, of course I do. Thank you for the privilege and your confidence.”

Ivanov nodded. “It is no privilege, Captain, you’re being sent back to the front lines and into harm’s way. But you’re welcome, all the same. Just don’t let us down.”

“I won’t,” O’Kane promised as he looked back up at his new ship. “I won’t.”

Chapter 10

Military historians hotly debate when the first real shots of the Battle of The Wilds began. Some argue Jonathan Somerville’s excursion behind the Karacknid frontlines marks the beginning of the battle, others that it was the first engagements between our scouts and theirs when the Karacknids battlefleets finally began to move south. It makes little difference in the end, for hundreds, if not thousands of battles and single ship engagements were to follow.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Hammerclaw, 1st November 2512 AD, (eight weeks later).

“I have Falcon's Captain for you, Commodore,” Rossi informed Jonathan three minutes after Hammerclaw jumped out of shift space.

“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Jonathan replied. “Put him on the main display… Captain, what news do you have for us?” He asked a moment later.

“I’ve been falling back as per your orders, Commodore,” Captain Granger answered. “There’s no sign of any activity in this system yet. I have three frigates in the next system watching. Unless they get into trouble, we should get advance warning if someone comes our way. The last contact I had with my advanced scouts was two days ago. They confirmed the initial force moving forward is two hundred strong. There are two other squadrons two systems away from us to the east and west, but neither appears to be heading here. I’ll send all the scout reports I’ve received over to you now.”

Jonathan nodded. “Very well, Commander Iso will slot your ships into our formation. We’re going to move into the system and get ready.”

“Aye, Commodore,” Granger said as he grinned. “They’re not going to know what hit them.”

“Let’s hope so,” Jonathan replied, keeping his voice level; now was not the time to get excited.

A month ago, he had reached the forward operating base Dresden. From there, he had sent out several scouting flotillas, including Granger's. Their initial missions had brought back reports of continued Karacknid military buildup. But then, for three whole weeks, nothing had happened. All the rush to leave Zeta Fort to get into position had felt like it had been for nothing, since the Karacknids didn’t look like they were in any hurry to begin their offensive. But then, six days ago, Granger had sent word. Several small squadrons had sortied from nearby Karacknid fleet bases. None were from the five main enemy fleet bases, but their advance meant only one thing: Tanaka-lan was preparing the way for his battle fleets to begin to move. That was why Jonathan had brought his ships from Dresden. His orders were to intercept any initial scouting squadrons attempting to move through his zone, and that was exactly what he was going to do.

Over the next three hours he moved his two hundred and forty warships into the system. He then tucked them in behind the system’s red dwarf star relative to the shift passage the Karacknids were expected to come from. After deploying a couple of scout frigates above the star’s ecliptic to watch for activity, he then retired to his quarters to wait.

Six hours later, Iso called him back to the bridge. “Two Imperial frigates have begun accelerating. Granger confirms they are two of the three frigates he dispatched to track the approaching Karacknid scout squadron. They sent a prearranged message: ‘enemy in sight.’”

“Good,” Jonathan said as he surveyed the sensor data being transmitted to them from the frigates he had stationed above the system’s star. The two frigates were running straight for the shift passage his ships had entered the system from. When the initial flotillas of the Karacknid scout squadron arrived, all they would see was the two frigates continuing to flee. “No sign of the third frigate?”

Iso shook her head. Jonathan nodded grimly. It was possible the third frigate was hiding somewhere, but it was far more likely it had been caught and destroyed. “Shall I send the squadron to battle stations?” Iso asked.

“Not yet,” Jonathan replied. “This could take some time. Inform everyone we will be going to battle stations within a couple of hours though; we’ll let anyone who wants to get something to eat or take a short nap do so before the action starts.”

“Aye, Commodore,” Iso said as she turned back to her console and began tapping on it.

Just twenty minutes after the two Imperial frigates appeared, twelve Karacknid frigates started accelerating into the system. All twelve were chasing Granger’s two ships. Clearly, they wanted to make sure the frigates didn’t try to hide in the system and spy on whatever other Karacknid forces might be moving into the system. Thankfully, with their head start and slightly better impulse engines, the two frigates were going to make it to safety. Over the next hour, Jonathan simply watched as more and more Karacknid ships entered the system. Initially in small flotillas of five or six, then in larger formations, just over two hundred ships began to spread out. In a coordinated effort, they began searching every nook and cranny of the system, evidently making sure it was safe for a larger Karacknid fleet to move through.

Eventually, a couple of flotillas got close enough to the system's star that Jonathan recalled the frigates he had stationed above its ecliptic. Then emissions from active sensors began to reach Hammerclaw’s hull. Jonathan watched them slowly tick up. “Alright,” he said when they reached eighty percent, “I think it’s time. Take the squadron to battle stations and power up our reactors and engines. Montgomery, take us forward.”

“With pleasure, Commodore,” Montgomery responded as he gestured at his navigation officer.

Seconds later, Hammerclaw and the rest of Jonathan’s squadron began to surge forward. The moment their impulse engines began to accelerate, every Karacknid ship in the system became aware of them. Yet with most of the Karacknid ships spread out in small formations, it was going to be difficult for them to coordinate themselves. Jonathan’s course also added to the confusion, for he had his ships heading straight for the system’s star. Using its gravity, he could slingshot around the star several times and come out on almost any course he wished. As a result, many of the Karacknid formations reacted differently. Some moved to combine with one another, seeking safety in numbers. Others simply turned and moved in the opposite direction to Jonathan’s ships.

With his eyes fixed on the targets he had chosen, Jonathan smiled. The group of sixty ships was the largest Karacknid formation. At least fifty other ships from several flotillas had started moving towards it. Crucially though, none of them were pulling back towards the shift passage they had entered the system from. That was fine with Jonathan, for every second they delayed would give him more time to engage them.

“Starting to enter the star's gravimetric pull,” Hammerclaw’s navigation officer announced. “Beginning Commodore Somerville’s maneuver.”

Jonathan kept his eyes on the Karacknid ships as his squadron began to loop around the system’s star. As they used its gravity to pull them in, they flipped end over end and used their impulse engines to control their descent and circle the star. Three times they went around it as they maneuvered to alter their orbit. Then, at the exact point Jonathan had chosen, their engines went to full power. Breaking free of the star’s pull, they were flung out on a heading straight towards the shift passage the Karacknids scouts had entered the system from.

All of a sudden, every Karacknid formation realized what was happening; Jonathan was moving to cut off their main line of escape. Once he interposed himself between their ships and the shift passage, he could turn and engage them at his leisure. Almost as one, every Karacknid ship in the system reacted by turning towards the shift passage and going to full thrust. Hammerclaw’s computer and tactical officers quickly plotted the new courses of all the contacts they were tracking. Jonathan smiled again when the projected course of his squadron got into missile range of the main Karacknid force. He’d be able to engage them for twenty minutes before they could jump out. Enough for four salvos, he thought to himself. That should be enough to teach them to be more careful!

As his ships raced across the system after their prey, Jonathan cast his eye wider to assess all the smaller Karacknid forces that were scurrying across the system. Some would reach the shift passage ahead of him and be able to escape safely, while others he could target if he wished. Several, realizing that was just what he might do, rashly veered away from the shift passage, and headed to other shift passages or simply went deeper into the system away from his squadron. Confident he had more than enough ships to engage his main quarry, Jonathan pulled up a live image of his squadron and split two smaller flotillas off from it. “Assign these ships to Captains Granger and Harrington. Inform them they are to hunt down and destroy enemy flotillas K-3 and K-7,” he instructed Iso.

“Aye, Commodore,” she responded at once.

Moments later, forty-eight ships broke away from Jonathan's squadron. K-3 and K-7 were the nearest enemy flotillas and though they were already veering away from the ships Jonathan had just sent after them, his ships had a significant momentum advantage. He had given Granger and Harrington a two-to-one advantage, so he expected both to quickly deal with their targets.

Over the next hour, everyone on the bridge was able to watch as first Granger and then Harrington caught up to the Karacknid flotillas. Two short but savage missile duels broke out. The Karacknids put up a good fight, destroying one of Granger’s frigates and crippling two of Harrington’s destroyers. Yet all twenty-two enemy ships were blown to smithereens in the brief engagements.

“They’ve shown us how it’s done,” Jonathan said to his staff officers. “Now it’s our turn.”

As soon as Jonathan's squadron brought the fleeing Karacknids into missile range, they launched a full salvo at them. The Karacknids returned fire just five seconds later. Three light seconds from Hammerclaw, a short but sharp fighter engagement broke out as a hundred Karacknid fighters tried to strike at Jonathan’s capital ships. His fighters easily dispatched the attack, but as the Karacknid commander had likely intended, they used up too much fuel to be able to follow up the victory with a strike against the Karacknid ships.

Before the first missile salvos reached their targets, each force fired two more of their own. Then salvos began to rain down on their targets. As the initial Karacknid salvo came in, three concentric shells of ships engaged them. First, Jonathan had pushed his lancer frigates and drone cruisers out furthest from his heavy cruisers. Next, he also formed a shell with all of his frigates and destroyers. Correctly judging the Karacknids had tried to damage his heaviest ships with their initial salvo, the Karacknid missiles had to fly through both groups of ships before they could try to strike at Hammerclaw and her sister ships. By the time Hammerclaw’s defensive weapons opened fire, only one hundred and ninety-three Karacknid missiles remained. All were destroyed before they could detonate.

“Reform our formation,” Jonathan ordered after the last missile was destroyed. “Pull back both groups of ships and assume formation Delta-five.”

“Aye, sir,” Iso snapped and then began to give orders to Jonathan’s other staff officers.

In the Karacknid commander’s shoes, Jonathan would switch targets and at least try to take out some of the enemy's smaller ships. On their own, the Lancer frigates and drone cruisers would be vulnerable. Jonathan didn’t want to make it that easy for them. As his ships reformed, Jonathan surveyed the damage his first salvo had done. At least twenty missiles had survived to be able to detonate and hurl matter at their targets. Seven Karacknid ships had been wiped out and ten more were falling out of formation, debris streaming from their wounds.

By the time the second Karacknid salvo came in, Jonathan’s fighters had reformed and were able to engage and destroy a number of them. Then the survivors tried to penetrate his squadron’s defensive fire. Three were successful. Two scored proximity hits with most of their destructive power being absorbed by shields and armor, but to Jonathan’s dismay, the third punched right through a destroyer’s hull and detonated, obliterating the ship from within. Revenge came quickly, though, as the Imperial squadron's second salvo scored hits on more Karacknid ships, destroying nine and crippling eight more.

“Two more salvos left,” Jonathan said to Harte, his tactical officer. “Make them count. Focus on their heaviest ships now. Leave the mop-up to Lieutenant Jackson.”

“Understood, Commodore,” Harte responded without turning from his console. His fingers were already dancing over it as he sent new targeting data to the missiles.

With both salvos already on their way, there was no point in Jonathan's ships firing a fifth full salvo, for the Karacknids would cross the system’s mass shadow and be able to jump to shift space before another salvo caught up with them. However, smaller groups of missiles began to be launched from the Imperial squadron as Jackson targeted each of the crippled Karacknid ships that Hammerclaw was now gaining on. Leaving both Harte and Jackson to it, Jonathan worked with Iso to improve their squadron's defenses. Though his ships couldn’t fire another salvo, the Karacknids would be able to fire one more before they jumped out, and so his squadron still had three more enemy attacks to fend off.

With their numbers being whittled away, the Karacknid defensive gunners struggled to prevent Imperial missiles from reaching their mark. As Jonathan’s last two salvos consisted of mark VIII missiles, it became even harder. The stand-off bomb pumped laser and grazer warheads sent deadly beams of energy slicing into their targets. In Jonathan’s third salvo, nineteen enemy ships were destroyed or crippled. In his fourth, the number rose to twenty-two. When the remnants of the Karacknid scouts finally crossed the system’s mass shadow and jumped into shift space, just over a third of their number had been destroyed.

Due to their losses, the final Karacknid salvos were also reduced in number and so Jonathan’s ships managed to intercept most of them. Even so, the final three Karacknid salvos destroyed one light cruiser, a frigate, and badly damaged two destroyers. Though it was a small price to pay considering the number of enemy ships he had destroyed, Jonathan still felt their losses.

“All right, take us across the system’s mass shadow and into shift space,” Jonathan said half an hour later after evacuating the crews and scuttling the two damaged destroyers, and then destroying all the crippled Karacknid ships. “We’ll chase them across the next system if we can. We have them on the run, so let’s see how far they will flee.”

“What about the other Karacknid formations still in the system?” Iso asked, highlighting three small flotillas that had fled deeper into the system away from Jonathan's ships.

“We ignore them for now,” Jonathan replied. “Even if all three flotillas combine, they can’t threaten us. Our mission is to delay the advance of the main Karacknid fleets, and the more disruption we cause to their scouting efforts, the better.”

“Understood, sir,” Iso said, nodding. “And maybe we can catch them on our way back.”

“That sounds like a plan, commander,” Jonathan replied as he flashed her a grin.

*

Two days later, Jonathan cautiously jumped his squadron into the system the Karacknids had retreated to. The moment his ships announced themselves by accelerating into the system, the Karacknids continued to fall back before him. Aware that they could be leading him into a trap, Jonathan launched several waves of stealth recon drones ahead of his ships searching for danger. Yet they detected nothing. Instead, after a seven-hour chase where the Karacknid ships just barely managed to get to the next shift passage and jump to safety before Jonathan's slight acceleration advantage allowed him to catch them

“I think we’ve done enough for now,” Jonathan said to his officers. The next system the Karacknids were running to was just one system away from Karacknid space. Pursuing them there would really be taking a chance. “Time for us to fall back, I think. When they do get the nerve to try advancing again, they’re going to have to be far more cautious. And they’re going to wonder if we’ve deployed ships into this system as well.”

“We must have delayed them by five or six days at least,” Iso guessed.

Jonathan nodded. “I’d say so. And if the others are having as much success, we can only hope Tanaka-lan is already beginning to get frustrated.”

“What course do you want me to set?” Iso asked next.

Jonathan considered his options for a moment. “Back to Dresden,” he answered. “If there are any Karacknid spy ships following us, they'll think we’ve headed there. Then we’ll make for FOB Charlie Foxtrot. With luck, we can disappear; that will give the Karacknids another headache to worry about."

“Aye, Commodore,” Iso replied. “And maybe we can hit some Karacknid stragglers with our fighters on the way?”

Jonathan nodded. “If the opportunity arises, Commander,” he responded.

FOB Charlie Foxtrot was one of the ones Major General Winkel had recently built while Jonathan had been assisting the Free Karacknid convoy escape from Karacknid space. If Tanaka-lan had been deploying spy ships out into The Wilds over the last several years, there was a good chance he would know about FOB Dresden, but Charlie Foxtrot would provide Jonathan's squadron a place to hide and wait for the main Karacknid fleets to start moving. "We’ve completed the first part of our mission," Jonathan said to himself, "but the real fun is yet to come."

Chapter 11

The Battle of The Wilds was a savage affair, no mercy was shown on either side. All involved knew the stakes. Over three hundred battles are documented to have occurred with countless other smaller one-on-one engagements. Despite this, what followed along the border forts dwarfed them all many times over.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Nautilus, 11th November 2512 AD, (eight days later).

“More ships entering the system, Captain,” Lieutenant Alcaraz, Nautilus’ sensor officer, reported. “Fifty frigates and destroyers have just begun to accelerate.”

“Another screening squadron?” O’Kane asked.

“I’m not sure yet,” Alcaraz responded. “They’re moving straight through the system, not fanning out.”

O’Kane turned his command chair away from the secondary holo display he had been studying and faced Nautilus’ main display. Three weeks ago, he had parked his stealth cruiser within a dense asteroid field in a system directly adjacent to Karacknid space. The first week had been relatively uneventful, but then things began to escalate rapidly. It started with just a few flotillas of Karacknid warships. They quickly searched the system and moved on. Two days later, several hundred more frigates and destroyers had appeared. They had executed a far more thorough search, with one frigate even venturing into the asteroid field where Nautilus was hiding. That had been a nerve-wracking moment, especially for O’Kane. While the rest of the Nautilus’ crew had experience hiding from Karacknid ships aboard the stealth cruiser, it had been O’Kane’s first time. As promised, Nautilus lived up to her reputation, and the Karacknid scout detected neither sight nor sound of the cruiser.

Since the system had been thoroughly searched, O’Kane and his officers had identified and catalogued over four thousand Karacknid warships that had passed through. In progressively larger formations, they transited the system, evidently on their way to scout or secure other systems. Every one of O’Kane's senior officers knew it was only a matter of time before one of the five expected Karacknid battlefleets advancing towards Earth appeared.

“More ships!” Alcaraz exclaimed, his voice rising. “I’m picking up battleships, dreadnoughts, and hundreds of freighters.”

Sure enough, the holo display updated a moment later, showing hundreds of additional contacts as Nautilus’ gravimetric sensors detected the waves given off by the heavy ships’ acceleration. Swiftly, the count of warships increased to several hundred, then five hundred. Within a minute, it exceeded a thousand. The news spread rapidly, and the rest of Nautilus’ senior officers arrived and took their seats.

“The battlefleet?” Lieutenant Barry, Nautilus’ First Lieutenant, asked as she entered the bridge.

O’Kane nodded. “It would seem so, Lieutenant.”

As the numbers continued to climb, O’Kane sensed the initial excitement around him shift to apprehension. A heavy silence fell over them. The tally rapidly reached fifteen thousand and kept rising. O’Kane swallowed hard. Given the shift passage the fleet was emerging from, it was very likely the same battle fleet he had scouted in Badger. They can’t have more than eighteen thousand, can they? he thought. Just an hour earlier, he wouldn't have expected even that many. Given the numerous screening squadrons he had observed passing through the system, he had assumed that many of the eighteen thousand he had observed at the fleet base had already deployed. Yet as the number crept above seventeen thousand, he began to second-guess himself.

Over the next sixty seconds, the number did indeed surpass eighteen thousand, rising all the way to twenty-two thousand before stopping. Alongside the massive number of warships were sixteen thousand freighters, presumably laden with fuel and munitions to keep the battlefleet supplied. O’Kane waited thirty seconds after the last ship began to accelerate, wanting to be sure no additional squadrons would emerge. He also needed the time to process the enormity of what he was witnessing. Including the four thousand warships of the screening squadrons that had previously passed Nautilus, the holo display indicated that the Karacknid battlefleet consisted of twenty-six thousand warships. If each of the five Karacknid battlefleets was of equal strength, Humanity faced a force far greater than even the bleakest predictions made during countless Imperial Fleet military exercises.

But we have Emperor Somerville, and Admirals Scott and Ivanov, and the others, O’Kane told himself through clenched teeth. They will even the odds! “Deploy our towed sensor array,” he ordered, shattering the silence on Nautilus’ bridge. “I want to verify every contact that our gravimetric sensors have detected. We must ensure we have an accurate tally of their capital ships. If we get a chance to pass it on, Emperor Somerville will want this intel. He needs to understand the magnitude of the threat.”

“Aye, Captain,” Alcaraz acknowledged. “Deploying the towed array now.”

O’Kane waited with bated breath as the towed array was set into motion. Resembling a recon drone but equipped with superior tech and the capability to unfold and deploy a plethora of passive sensors, this array was connected to Nautilus by an ultra-thin, high-tensile wire. It could operate over two hundred thousand miles from the stealth cruiser, acting as her distant eyes and ears when she needed to remain concealed, as she did now. The tethering wire enabled data transfer from the array to Nautilus without resorting to a conspicuous laser COM array. In combat, the array could be strung behind Nautilus, assisting O’Kane’s tacticians in pinpointing contacts and deriving accurate strategies.

“Receiving data from the array,” Alcaraz announced eleven minutes later.

Even with the array operational, another fifteen minutes elapsed before the initial electromagnetic signals from the Karacknid battlefleet reached it. O’Kane worked with his officers, diligently scrutinizing each contact to corroborate the data detected by Nautilus’ gravimetric sensors. Where the gravimetric pulses picked up by the gravimetric sensors only give a rough idea of what type of ship was producing them, the passive sensors could get a far more accurate picture.

Assessing the myriad of electromagnetic emissions from the reactors and engines of the Karacknid ships, Nautilus’ computer and its officers could get a good break down of the composition of the Karacknid fleet. It rapidly became evident that the fleet was indeed worthy of the name battle fleet. Almost a thousand battleships and dreadnoughts were identified. Fortunately, only about half of these were the more formidable dreadnoughts, but it was still an overwhelming display of might.

“Captain, look at these twelve contacts here, situated at the core of the Karacknid formation,” Alcaraz pointed out, marking them on the primary holo display. “Their signatures resemble those of a dreadnought, but there are subtle discrepancies. Some reactor pulses seem unusually potent.”

O’Kane scrutinized the data from the twelve contacts, pondering whether these represented a new vessel class or simply a batch of upgraded Karacknid dreadnoughts.

“Here's another flotilla of them,” Barry noted. “And yet another,” she added shortly after.

“What’s your assessment, Captain?” Alcaraz inquired.

“I’m not sure,” O’Kane responded. “But if I were a betting man, I might place a few credits on them being something similar to Tanaka-lan’s flagship, the one that Commodore Somerville encountered and damaged. I believe he called it a superdreadnought. The sensor readings might be from a slightly modified dreadnought, but look at each flotilla compared to the other dreadnought flotillas. Every ship is giving them a wider berth than any other dreadnought flotilla. That tells me they're bigger than a standard dreadnought, possibly significantly so.”

Alcaraz nodded, and every officer who had looked over at O’Kane turned back to the holo display, their eyes widening as they did. Tanaka-lan’s flagship had been larger than any ship Humanity or her allies had built. Only a Kulrean worldship or a Kalassai city ship outmassed it. And if I’m right, they have thirty-six of them, O’Kane thought as he shook his head. In a massive fleet battle of tens of thousands of ships, thirty-six superdreadnoughts probably wouldn't make much difference. But who knew what surprises they might carry with them, and at the very least, they probably fired antimatter missiles with far larger warheads than any Human ship had faced before. One hit could be devastating for even the largest of Allied vessels.

For the next eight hours, as the Karacknid battle fleet traversed the system, O’Kane and his officers analyzed every single enemy contact Nautilus’ gravimetric and passive sensors detected. Taking only short breaks, they worked to compile a report that could be passed on to any ship they met or stealth relay station they visited. When the myriad of enemy ships finally disappeared into shift space, O’Kane dismissed his officers and retired to his quarters. He kept Nautilus exactly where she was, for whilst he couldn’t risk trying to strike at it, sooner or later, a target he could attack would come along.

*

Over the next three days, O’Kane kept Nautilus hidden in the asteroid field as they watched two additional supply convoys pass them by. Both had over five hundred freighters in them and were escorted by more than two hundred warships. As advanced as Nautilus’ stealth capabilities were, the convoys were far too large for O’Kane to tackle on his own. However, after the second one passed, O’Kane decided it was time to take some risks.

“Prepare to take us out,” he ordered after calling his senior officers to the bridge.

“Retracting the towed array now, Captain,” Alcaraz responded.

When the towed array was safely stowed, slowly and carefully, Lieutenant Hawthorn, Nautilus’ navigation officer, guided the stealth cruiser out of the asteroid field. “Shall I eject a heat core?” Berry asked.

“Do so,” O’Kane replied, nodding to his First Lieutenant.

Five minutes later, a heat core, containing all the excess heat Nautilus had accumulated over the last six days, was launched from one of the cruiser’s rear missile tubes. Encased in a heat-reflective capsule and propelled on a ballistic course out of the system, it would take a month for the heat within the core to radiate through the capsule and be detectable by any passing ships. By then, the core would have journeyed over six light days from the system If by chance a Karacknid ship did detect the heat source, they wouldn't know what was causing it.

When the core was safely away, at O’Kane’s command, the navigation officer moved Nautilus towards a position between the two shift passages most of the Karacknid forces had been moving between. Then O’Kane oversaw the deployment of several lures. The lures were specially designed stealth drones that could mimic the electromagnetic and gravimetric signature of nearly every Human and alien ship Humanity had yet encountered. Once everything was in place, everyone settled in for what they knew could be a long wait. Over the last several days, since the battlefleet had passed through the system, small groups of warships, numbering no more than four or five, had also been passing through the system. O’Kane guessed they were carrying orders or reports back and forth between the battlefleet’s commander and whatever supply convoys were still waiting to depart their fleet bases. While Nautilus couldn’t take on a full-strength convoy, she could begin her raiding campaign by disrupting the Karacknids’ lines of communication.

After waiting a couple of hours, O’Kane turned to Lieutenant Barry. “I’m going to retire to my quarters, call me if anything enters the system.”

“Aye, Captain,” Barry responded.

As O’Kane started to raise himself out of his command chair, he stopped halfway to his feet. The bridge’s sensor console had begun to beep. “Four ships, Captain,” Alcaraz reported a moment later. “Karacknid destroyers, they’ve come from the shift passage the Karacknid battlefleet took into The Wilds. They’re accelerating hard through the system.”

“This may be it,” O’Kane said after taking a moment to study the new contacts when Alcaraz sent the data to the bridge’s main holo display. For forty minutes, O’Kane waited to see if any other Karacknid ships would enter the system. If he could, he wanted to make his attack without any witnesses. “All right,” he said, deciding it was indeed time for him and his ship to begin to play their part in the blossoming war. “We’re going to try and hit them. We’ll use lure alpha. Instruct it to activate in two minutes.”

“Yes, Captain,” Lieutenant Hernandez, Nautilus’ tactical officer, responded.

And now we get to see just what we are all made of, O’Kane thought to himself. His crew and Nautilus were both untested in a real combat situation, and he was still getting to grips with his new command’s capabilities. It was going to take them time to gel together. But we have to start sometime, before this war passes us by.

“It’s activating now,” Hernandez announced when the time came.

On Nautilus’ holo display, there was the briefest flash of a contact. It lasted less than a couple of seconds and then disappeared again. Nautilus’ computer did its best to analyze the emissions and identify them. As O’Kane intended, its best guess was that the Imperial frigate had just carried out an emergency maneuver to dodge a small space rock.

It took thirty seconds for the emissions to reach the four Karacknid destroyers. When they did, their officers came to the same conclusion. Although they had orders to bring their Admiral’s reports straight to one of the supply convoys to the rear, they knew how critical it was to keep their Admiral's battlefleet’s movements hidden from prying eyes. Three of the destroyers altered course and began to launch recon drones as they sought to locate the enemy spy ship.

O’Kane nodded at what he saw; the remaining destroyer was evidently supposed to stay back to complete its mission if its comrades got into trouble. “Alter our heading to seven, four, one point two,” he requested. “Increase our acceleration by five percent.”

“Aye, Captain, altering heading and increasing thrust,” Hawthorne responded.

Nautilus’ impulse engines were the most advanced Humanity had yet built. They were specifically designed to be able to produce decent levels of acceleration without emitting the levels of gravimetric pulses that Karacknid sensors could detect. If Nautilus had to accelerate anywhere near her maximum, she would give herself away instantly. But as long as O’Kane didn’t do that, she could travel at much higher acceleration rates than Imperial warships typically could. Her engines, combined with her advanced stealth field, which operated by manipulating electromagnetic waves that approached her and bending them around the ship using physics that O’Kane didn’t even pretend to understand, meant she could travel faster and more stealthily than the Karacknids imagined any Human vessel could.

Though he couldn’t help feeling a little nervous putting all of Nautilus’ capabilities to the test right off the bat, O’Kane didn’t want any of the Karacknid ships getting away if he could help it. His new heading put Nautilus onto a course that would bring her closer to the lone Karacknid destroyer that was hanging back.

“Begin calculating firing solutions,” O’Kane requested four minutes later as the three Karacknid destroyers entered the maximum range of Nautilus’ torpedoes.

“Shall I deploy the towed array?” Alcaraz asked.

O’Kane brought a hand up to rub his jaw as he considered it. Having the towed array out would limit Nautilus’ maneuvering capabilities unless he was willing to just cut the wire connecting the array to his ship and lose it. Yet the array would allow Hernandez to get a far better track on the three contacts. Though Nautilus was supposed to be able to track and fire at contacts just using the gravimetric waves they emitted, for a more accurate shot, using Nautilus and the array’s passive sensors was needed. “Do it,” O’Kane said, deciding he was already taking enough risks. He wanted to give his first shots the best chance they had to score hits.

For the next twenty minutes, there was near silence on the bridge as Hernandez, Barry, and O’Kane tracked the three Karacknid destroyers and worked up firing solutions on them all. With it being Nautilus’ first shots in anger and quite possibly the first torpedoes ever fired in actual combat, everyone was hyper-focused on their task.

“There, I think that’s as good as we’re going to get,” Barry said as she leaned back from her console.

O’Kane nodded. “We fire in seven minutes; we’ll hit them before they get close enough to the lure to figure out what it is and begin to maneuver.”

“Understood, Captain, sending the firing solutions to the torpedoes now,” Hernandez responded. “They’re ready to go,” he updated a moment later.

“Fire on my mark,” O’Kane replied. As the time approached, he couldn’t help holding up a hand. “Fire!” he ordered as he dropped it.

From Nautilus’ forward torpedo tubes, four of the new weapons were accelerated out into space by the tubes’ railguns. For thirty seconds, they traveled ballistically until they were well away from the stealth cruiser, then their engines kicked in. A miniature version of the advanced engines Nautilus had; they were able to accelerate after the three Karacknid destroyers at one-fifth the rate a standard anti-ship missile did. At the same time, their specially designed maneuvering thrusters began to slowly arc the torpedo’s path so that they couldn’t be traced back to Nautilus. The thrusters couldn’t turn the torpedoes as fast as standard missiles, nor did they allow them to carry out evasive maneuvers. Yet they operated at a level that made it all but impossible for them to be detected.

The torpedoes' engines and thrusters, combined with their advanced stealth coating, meant the large weapons platforms were almost invisible to Karacknid sensors. However, their low maneuverability meant that they couldn’t adjust for faulty targeting data on their way towards their target. If the firing solutions were incorrect or their target rapidly altered course, then the torpedoes had no way of correcting their aim.

As a result, as the torpedoes sped off and three new contacts appeared on the holo display, marking where the torpedoes were estimated to be, everyone on the bridge watched anxiously. O’Kane’s eyes kept flicking back and forth from where the torpedoes were to the Karacknid destroyers. Don’t move, don’t move, he silently urged the enemy ships. For fifteen minutes, everyone watched in almost complete silence as the destroyers continued to head towards the area where they had detected the lure.

“Five minutes away,” Hernandez reported.

“Emissions from the destroyers’ active sensors should be building up on the torpedoes’ hulls,” Alcaraz said. “No sign the destroyers have detected anything yet.”

“If they do, we'll know about it immediately,” O’Kane asserted. He was certain that if he suddenly detected an anomalous contact so close to his ship, he would immediately throw his ship into a series of evasive maneuvers.

“Thirty seconds to attack range,” Hernandez updated as time seemed to slow down on Nautilus’ bridge.

As the torpedoes closed in on the three destroyers, they functioned exactly as Admiral Scott and her team of scientists had planned. First, the torpedoes cut their engines. Then four hatches retracted on each torpedo. The opening of the hatches compromised the torpedoes' stealth capabilities and caused them to begin to register on the Karacknid destroyer sensors. However, in half a second, four arms extended, one from each hatch. The end of each arm held a small version of a mark VIII missile. The warhead was a standard cruiser version of the weapon but had a significantly smaller fuel tank. Its range was only a fifth of a normal missile, but that was sufficient since the torpedo had already brought it close enough for an attack.

With the missiles already aligned with their targets, as soon as the arms were fully extended, each missile engaged its engine and raced forward, leaping ahead of the torpedo. Simultaneously, the torpedoes activated their sensors, filling space with active emissions for the warheads’ targeting sensors to lock onto. In addition, the torpedoes engaged their potent ECM capabilities, flooding the space ahead with false contacts to confound the Karacknids.

With a flight time to target of just thirty seconds, the Karacknids had scant time to react to the missiles. It took six seconds for the quickest destroyer to direct all of its active sensors toward the sudden threat. Automatic point defenses began firing a few seconds later, but without coordination by trained gunners, they struggled to interpret the deluge of targeting data. Over the next ten seconds, as the destroyers' Captains grasped the gravity of the threat, they began to maneuver their destroyers evasively. This made it harder for the Imperial missiles to track them; however, it also disrupted any chance the Karacknid point defense gunners had of firing accurate salvos from their laser cannons.

In the brief time they had left, the fire from the Karacknid destroyers shot down five of the incoming missiles. Then the remaining nine detonated. Each bomb-pumped warhead released three grazer beams. Nineteen of the grazers struck their targets. The beams of immense energy melted through Karacknid armor, outer hulls, and vaporized internal sections of the destroyers. Where they connected with energy conduits or, even better, a reactor, engine or energy capacitor, they caused secondary explosions. Two of the destroyers disappeared in flames as a series of explosions dismantled them. The third was only slightly luckier. None of its systems overloaded, but its reactors went into failsafe mode and shut down. So many of the vessel's power conduits were already torn up that its backup capacitors couldn’t function properly, and the destroyer lost power entirely.

“Activate the other lures and take us out of stealth. Lay in a pursuit course for the remaining destroyer,” O’Kane ordered as soon as he saw the third Karacknid destroyer was out of the fight. “Then fire a torpedo from our rear tube at that damaged ship as we pass.”

“Yes, sir,” several officers responded in unison, and moments later Nautilus sprang into action. Simultaneously, the three other lures began to accelerate too, each one precisely mimicking the emissions Nautilus began to emit. As the track from the torpedoes Nautilus had already fired didn't lead back to any of the four contacts that were suddenly accelerating towards it, the Karacknid destroyer had no way to know if it was under attack by one ship or four. Opting for caution, especially given the orders it carried, the destroyer set a course to distance itself from all four contacts and went to full military power. Thanks to her existing momentum, however, Nautilus would be able to close in on the destroyer and bring it into missile range for a brief time before the destroyer's higher acceleration prevailed.

“Entering missile range in one minute,” Hernandez reported. “Ready to fire at your command, Captain.”

“Hold fire for now,” O’Kane instructed. He elaborated further when he saw Barry and Hernandez exchange a puzzled glance. “Look at its active sensors; it’s still trying to get a good scan on all four contacts. It doesn’t know which one is truly us. Let’s let them fire first.”

The Karacknid Captain was all too aware that if he divided his warship’s fire among the four contacts he detected, there was almost no chance he could overwhelm any of its targets with its modest missile salvo. Consequently, he chose one essentially at random and fired eight missiles at it. O’Kane smiled the moment he saw where the missiles were heading. One of the lures was about to be obliterated. Given their cost, O’Kane suspected some bean counter back at the Admiralty wouldn’t be pleased, but losing one was a small price to pay to keep Nautilus undetected. Considering her robust point defenses, there was a decent chance she could counteract eight Karacknid missiles, but the safest approach was to avoid facing them entirely.

“Now you can open fire, Lieutenant Hernandez,” O’Kane ordered.

With a tap on his command console, Hernandez launched fourteen mark VII missiles at the Karacknid destroyer. The instant they ignited their engines, the missiles revealed which contact was genuine and which were decoys. It was too late for the Karacknids, however, as they had already fired. Before they could reload, Hernandez's salvo reached the destroyer and tried to navigate the hail of laser beams the destroyer directed at them. Three missiles survived the defensive fire. Evasive maneuvers by the destroyer prevented all three from achieving a direct hit, but two managed to get close enough to detonate, showering the destroyer's hull with antimatter.

The ship that emerged from the antimatter blooms was a battered and scarred version of its former self. Whole sections of armor had been burnt away, and several gaping wounds vented debris and atmosphere into space. Even so, the destroyer rolled and presented its least damaged side towards Nautilus. It then fired six missiles towards O’Kane’s stealth cruiser from the undamaged tubes it had left. As soon as her tubes were reloaded, Nautilus did likewise and fired another full salvo at the destroyer. Both salvos reached their targets at almost the same time but with very different outcomes. The destroyer, its defenses badly compromised, had no hope of shooting down all the missiles rushing towards it. Worse, with many of its maneuvering thrusters burnt away, its evasive maneuvers were pitiful. Four missiles scored direct hits and three more proximity hits. In the ensuing antimatter detonations, the ship was blasted into its constituent molecules.

In contrast, Nautilus’ gunners easily handled the six missiles that tried to breach their defenses. Then, just thirty seconds after the destroyer’s demise, the final torpedo Hernandez had fired came out of stealth and released its four missiles. They crossed the distance to the stricken Karacknid destroyer unopposed and then detonated, sending twelve grazer beams piercing into their target. The last Karacknid ship in the system detonated as its reactors overloaded, blasting the destroyer into hundreds of fragments.

“Take us back into stealth, alter heading to four, nine, four point two,” O’Kane ordered immediately. If there were any other Karacknid ships hiding in the system, he didn’t want them knowing where he was. As soon as Nautilus was in stealth, he smiled at his officers. “Well,” he said in a more relaxed tone. “I think that went rather well, didn’t it?” He asked. As his question elicited smiles and nods from his officers, O’Kane nodded back. “Now, let's get ready to do it again, and again,” he said, his expression turning serious once more.

Chapter 12

Sometimes, the best any commander can do is simply lay his ship alongside that of the enemy and fight to the finish. This is just as true today as it was in the days of Nelson.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Hammerclaw, 23rd November 2512 AD, (nine days later).

The day after Jonathan received news from his scouts that a massive Karacknid battlefleet had passed by FOB Charlie Foxtrot, he got his squadron underway. The first thing he did was send three fast frigates south to look for his father to make sure the report on the increased size of the Karacknid battlefleet reached him. Then, with the rest of his ships, he headed north. Six days later, he entered one of the systems the battlefleet had passed through.

“Whatever comes through the shift passage, unless it is another battlefleet, we’re going to face it,” he told his officers after assembling them on Hammerclaw’s bridge. “We need the commander of the battlefleet to know his rear is no longer secure. The more ships we can draw after us, the less they’ll have to move south with, and the more damage we can do to their supply lines, the slower they will be able to advance. So, let’s get the squadron ready, for unless I’m mistaken, a fight is coming our way very soon.”

“We understand, Commodore,” Iso replied for Jonathan’s officers. “I’ll pass your words on to our other ships as well.”

Jonathan smiled at her to show his appreciation. He then nodded to the rest of his officers before looking up at the holo display that currently showed the empty system they were in. Scouts he had sent forward to observe the system had confirmed that one convoy had already passed through it along with several other smaller squadrons of warships. There was going to be a steady stream of convoys heading back-and-forth between the battlefleet, Jonathan was sure. The Karacknid commander would want to keep all the freighters in his supply fleet and his ships’ fuel tanks filled to the brim in case there was an opportunity to advance forward quickly, or in case he had to retreat all the way back to Karacknid space. Given how many scouting squadrons were fanning out in front of the battlefleet and how much fuel over twenty thousand warships would be consuming every day, hundreds of freighters would be moving to bring fresh supplies to the fleet almost every day.

As Jonathan expected, his ships didn’t have long to wait. After lying stationary with their reactors and engines powered down for just six hours, the holo display suddenly came alive as hundreds of contacts began moving into the system headed south. Jonathan sat up in his command chair as his officers and Hammerclaw’s computer analyzed the new contacts.

“It’s a supply convoy,” Harte was able to conclude within thirty seconds. “It looks like there are six hundred freighters being escorted by two hundred warships.”

“Get me a breakdown on those warships,” Jonathan requested.

Five minutes later, and Harte had his report ready. “As best we can tell, there are four battleships, forty heavy and medium cruisers, another sixty light cruisers and the rest are evenly split between destroyers and frigates.”

“No carriers?” Jonathan asked.

Harte shook his head. “Not as far as we can tell.”

Jonathan nodded as he brought a hand up and rubbed his jawline. No fighters gave him a distinct advantage. With three hundred and thirty ships currently in formation around Hammerclaw, he had the numerical advantage. Yet he wanted to avoid a straight-up fight if he could. Even if he could destroy the Karacknid escorts, his fleet would take a battering doing so. He needed to preserve his force for as long as possible so that he could remain a thorn in the Karacknids’ side for the next several months. “Okay, here’s what I’m thinking,” he said as he began to explain how he wanted to approach the coming battle. “Send the orders to our ships,” Jonathan said when he was finished. “Instruct Captain Farnsworth that she is to make every missile count.”

“Aye, Commodore, I’ll make sure she knows,” Iso replied. “We will begin slow launching fighters right away as well.”

Half an hour later and Jonathan’s ships were ready to move. After sending a signal to Farnsworth’s Harbinger, she and half of Jonathan’s force began to slowly move away from Hammerclaw. Twenty minutes after they did, Hammerclaw, still remaining in stealth, led the rest of Jonathan's squadron forward. For an hour they moved along a course that would put them in front of the course the Karacknid convoy was taking. Then, after a nod from Jonathan, Hammerclaw powered up their reactors and engines to full. She and one hundred of Jonathan’s ships came out of stealth and began to accelerate hard, leaving some of their comrades behind. They then began to turn and quickly settled onto a course that would allow them to intercept the convoy.

It didn’t take long for the convoy to respond. Every freighter flipped end over end and began to decelerate in an effort to pull back from Jonathan’s ships. Then the convoy’s escorts split up. One hundred moved ahead of their charges, offering to give battle. Jonathan nodded at the move. He had expected more to come after him, but he understood the Karacknid commander’s thinking. If his mission was to get his vital supplies to the battlefleet, then all he had to do to negate Jonathan’s threat was to force Jonathan to fight an even battle. Both sides would probably severely damage one another, allowing the convoy to skirt past whatever remained of Jonathan’s force unmolested. As good an idea as that was, Jonathan had no intention of fighting such a fair fight.

“Ten minutes to course change,” Hammerclaw’s navigation officer updated everyone.

“Make the turn,” Jonathan ordered when the timer everyone was watching counted down to zero. With a touch on her command console, the navigation officer began to turn Hammerclaw’s nose away from the approaching Karacknid escorts. As Jonathan intended, it looked like he was veering away from a fight and trying to get around the escorts. In reality, he was pulling back closer to the ships he had left in stealth. Though his maneuver lengthened the time it would take the escorts to bring him into missile range, as they altered course to match his own, they showed they were still intent on facing off against him.

Eighteen minutes after Hammerclaw turned, the Karacknids came close enough to open fire. Hammerclaw and Jonathan's ships replied moments later. Both sides put out salvos numbering almost three thousand missiles. Seconds after the missiles were fired, alarms went off from Hammerclaw’s sensor consoles as sixty additional contacts appeared. Jonathan's stealth ships had begun to race after Hammerclaw to catch up with her. Thanks to Jonathan’s turn, they would reach Hammerclaw just before the first Karacknid salvo arrived, bolstering his forces' defensive fire.

Five minutes after opening fire, both sides then fired again and then five minutes later, they fired for a third time. Then, Jonathan’s final surprise came into play. When his first salvo of missiles were just four minutes out from the Karacknid escorts, ten squadrons of fighters lit off their engines as they charged in after the missiles. The combination of his fighters and first missile salvo saturated the Karacknids' defenses. First, seventeen ship-launched missiles punched through the Karacknid fire, destroying or crippling eleven ships. Even as the missiles were detonating, the fighters flew in behind them and rippled off their own missiles. Ninety of their missiles twisted and weaved through the Karacknid fire to reach the escort ships. Forty-two more ships were taken out of the fight, cutting the strength of the Karacknid escorts in half.

On the other hand, as Jonathan’s extra sixty ships caught up with Hammerclaw and the ships with her, their fire from his squadron took out all but seven Karacknid missiles. Five scored direct or proximity hits, blasting apart three of Jonathan's ships and badly damaging a fourth. As Iso oversaw rescue operations for the badly damaged frigate, Jonathan reformed his squadron’s formation before the next enemy salvo came in. “One more salvo should do it,” he then said to Harte. From Jonathan’s reinforced squadron, four and a half thousand missiles were launched to join the two other salvos still closing with the Karacknids.

Over the next twenty minutes, the Karacknid escort ships were obliterated. Without fighters joining them, Jonathan's second salvo wasn’t as effective as the first, yet with half the Karacknid ships already taken out of the fight, it didn't need to be. The Imperial second salvo destroyed twelve enemy warships, then the third salvo took out fourteen more. By the time the final four and a half thousand missiles struck their targets, the Karacknids had no hope of shooting down more than two-thirds of them. In a split second, the remnants of the Karacknid force were enveloped by hundreds of antimatter detonations. Not a single ship survived the attack.

Despite the Imperial defense gunners' best efforts, the Karacknid's second and third salvos also managed to do some damage. In both attacks, Jonathan lost another light cruiser, two destroyers, and two frigates. “Alter course to pursue the convoy,” Jonathan ordered as soon as his search and rescue teams had finished looking for survivors from the four crippled ships he would have to leave behind.

“They are nothing if not committed,” Iso commented as the remaining one hundred Karacknid escort ships responded to Jonathan’s orders by turning away from the fleeing convoy. Having just seen their comrades wiped out, they were still prepared to face the same fate in order to let the convoy escape.

“They are, but would you do anything different in their shoes?” Jonathan asked.

“I suppose not, Commodore. But it does make them, and I guess us, predictable.”

“It is a weakness we share, though I suspect for different reasons,” Jonathan agreed.

“How long can we keep this course?” Jonathan asked as he turned to Harte.

“Twenty minutes, Commodore. Then we’ll have to turn pretty sharply if we want to avoid action,” Harte answered. “Though it should just be enough.”

Jonathan nodded as he checked the estimated position of the other half of his squadron. Still in stealth, there was no way for him to be entirely sure where his ships were, but the holo display showed roughly where they should be if they were following his orders. According to Harte’s calculation, they should get to fire at least one salvo at the Karacknid convoy before it reached the system’s mass shadow. “As soon as we turn, signal Captain Farnsworth and instruct her to attack,” Jonathan requested.

“Understood, Commodore,” Rossi said from her chair at the COMs console.

“Turning in thirty seconds,” Harte updated everyone as the time drew near. “Turning now,” he then announced as he nodded to Rossi.

For a handful of seconds after Jonathan's ships veered away from the Karacknids, signaling that he had no intent on actually engaging them, the Karacknids continued on their heading. Yet the commander was no fool and even before Farnsworth’s ships came out of stealth, his ships flipped end over end and began to decelerate as hard as they could. Seconds later, the real danger to the convoy announced themselves. Farnsworth’s one hundred and seventy ships came out of stealth and began to accelerate hard to intercept the convoy. As the new courses of each group of warships was calculated and projected on the holo display, it showed Farnsworth’s ships would be able to fire one missile salvo before the Karacknid warships would get back to the convoy. Then the Karacknid freighters and warships would cross the system’s mass shadow and be able to jump to safety.

One salvo, Jonathan thought to himself. He would have preferred two or three, but one would have to do. If he wanted, he could try and close with his warships and fight the Karacknid escorts, adding to the carnage he had already caused, but he needed to preserve his force. It was very likely his raiding campaign would last two or three months, if not longer, and so he needed to keep his force as intact as possible.

As Farnsworth's ships closed with the convoy and opened fire, everyone on Hammerclaw's bridge leaned forward a little in their command chairs as they watched the progress of the one and a half thousand missiles. To everyone's surprise, even Jonathan’s, the Karacknid freighters opened up on the missiles with quite an impressive amount of defensive weapons. Even so, missiles got through to their targets. In the span of ten seconds, seventy-two of the six hundred freighters were struck by antimatter warheads. The freighters’ thin armor and weak structural integrity meant that unless a freighter was extremely lucky, one hit was enough to blow the freighter apart or cause it to break up into several large pieces of wreckage.

As soon as her ships had fired, as per Jonathan’s orders, Farnsworth veered away with them, meaning that as the Karacknid warships caught up to their wounded charges, they were unable to return fire. Then, the moment they could, every freighter that had a functioning shift drive jumped into shift space along with the escorts.

“Signal Farnsworth and instruct her to finish off those stragglers,” Jonathan ordered. “Then she is to rendezvous with us.” Though part of him was tempted to pursue the convoy and try to strike again in the system it had fled to, he decided against it. There was a good chance additional Karacknid warships would be traveling through the next system and thus able to come to the convoy's aid. “Well,” he said to his officers, “they know we’re here now. It’s time to get out of here and keep them guessing as to where we are. So, any suggestions on where we should try our luck next?”

When Harte and Iso shared a knowing glance, Jonathan smiled in anticipation. Clearly, they had been hatching a plan. “Don't leave me in the dark, what is it?” he asked as he raised his eyebrows towards his tactical officer and Chief of Staff.

*

2nd December 2512 AD.

Nine days later, Hammerclaw and all of Jonathan’s ships jumped into the Karacknid system designated FB-14. Harte and Iso’s careful analysis of the Karacknid’s supply convoys had suggested that many of those Jonathan’s scouts had observed heading south with the Karacknid battlefleet had originated from FB-14. This implied that the fleet base might have been largely emptied of freighters and, more importantly, escorts. Even though FB-14 was technically just outside the zone Jonathan’s ships had been assigned to raid, he doubted that Jiminez or his father would disapprove if his attack proved successful.

Harte and Iso’s plan relied on the use of a hidden shift passage that allowed Jonathan’s fleet to bypass the Karacknid border systems. It was the same passage Jonathan had initially wanted to use to transport the Free Karacknid convoy to safety through. Upon reaching the shift passage, Jonathan sent a strong scout flotilla through to ensure it remained open. Fortunately, the Karacknids still seemed unaware of it. Yet their journey wasn’t entirely smooth. Twice en route to the border, Jonathan’s ships engaged with minor Karacknid formations. The outnumbered Karacknids retreated on both occasions. Four days prior, they also encountered another convoy that immediately jumped back into shift space upon spotting Jonathan’s fleet.

While each engagement proved slightly irksome, Jonathan wasn't worried about his current objective. Unlike mobile fleets, orbital stations couldn’t flee from an approaching threat. “Take us in,” he commanded after the scout frigate he dispatched into the system reported no nearby Karacknid patrols around the system’s mass shadow. In obedience to his command, Jonathan's squadron performed a micro-jump to the system's edge. Still concealed in stealth, they advanced, with every ship’s passive sensors filtering the surrounding signals.

On the holo display, visuals of the Karacknid fleet base started to materialize as the officers evaluated the data. “Confirmed, eight Anubis class battlestations,” Harte noted.

“Just fifty warships, nothing larger than a light cruiser,” Iso chimed in. “However, there are one hundred freighters in orbit, with another twenty approaching the base.”

“They’re likely preparing another convoy,” Jonathan speculated. Given the number of orbital stations, the fleet base seemed a pivotal supply hub. “We’ll proceed with plan beta-two,” he decided, selecting one of the attack strategies Lieutenant Harte had drafted. “I'm curious to see if those warships will venture out. Initiate in forty minutes.”

“Aye, sir,” Harte replied with enthusiasm.

Forty minutes later, upon receiving Jonathan's nod, Harte brought two hundred of their ships from stealth. Following Harte’s blueprint, they stormed the Karacknid fleet base, amassing momentum. The Karacknid warships wisely remained shielded by the Anubis class battlestations. Though not the Karacknid’s most powerful battle stations, each Anubis was the size of an Imperial battleship and so put out a lot of offensive and defensive fire. The problem they faced however, was the problem every defensive orbital position faced; without the ability to maneuver, the battlestations couldn’t build up any momentum relative to Jonathan’s approaching ships. As a result, as Harte intended, the two hundred Imperial warships were able to fire a missile salvo long before the defenders could. Then, they executed a swift turn, ensuring they remained out of the Karacknids’ missile range.

The barrage of five thousand Imperial missiles dove in towards the system’s third planet and its accompanying Karacknid orbital stations. The missiles primarily targeted the orbital supply stations. Though the Karacknids’ defensive fire intercepted the majority, some missiles achieved their mark. Seven stations either disintegrated or suffered catastrophic damage, causing them to plummet out of orbit. The Imperial fleet then began a long acceleration maneuver as they turned and prepared to repeat their attack. If they wanted to, the warships could continue attacking the base until they shot their magazines dry. Of course, doing so behind enemy lines would be inviting disaster as word was probably already on the way to nearby Karacknid systems of the attack. Yet the Karacknid commander didn’t need to know Jonathan had no intention of keeping up the attack.

Therefore, as any competent commander would do, as the Imperial warships returned for a second attack, the fifty warships that had been holding position with the battlestations began to break orbit. Heading to intercept the Imperial ships, they were going to sacrifice themselves to reduce the attacking force threatening the strategic fleet base.

“They’re out of the battlestations' protective range,” Harte declared with excitement a mere ten minutes after the Karacknid warships initiated their move. “They’re right within our attack window.”

“Then let's strike them down!” Jonathan exclaimed, flashing Harte a triumphant smile.

Seconds later, Harte brought Hammerclaw and Jonathan’s one hundred and twenty other ships out of stealth. Having continued to cruise into the system slowly, they appeared on the same trajectory the initial Imperial ships had taken to strike at the fleet base. With just a slight course correction, they turned to intercept the Karacknid warships. The Karacknid warships, still only beginning to build up some momentum, were extremely vulnerable. Without any significant momentum relative to Hammerclaw and her consorts, Harte intended to carry out a similar attack to the one the Imperial ships had hit the Karacknid fleet base with. As soon as he could, Harte gave the order for Jonathan's ships to fire. Then he began to alter course to rush past the Karacknids before they could get into range to fire themselves.

Alone, the three thousand missiles from Jonathan's ships would have been enough to devastate the fifty Karacknid warships. Yet with Hammerclaw, Harte had also kept back all of Jonathan’s carriers, and so just after the missiles struck home, over a hundred fighters added their own missiles into the fray. The result was carnage. For the loss of just five fighters, forty-one of the fifty Karacknid warships were destroyed. The rest, now standing no chance of standing up to either of Jonathan’s formations, turned and retreated back to the relative safety of the battlestations.

“Combine our forces,” Jonathan ordered. “Then move us in. We can’t dally here much longer; it's time to finish this.”

“Yes, Commodore,” Iso responded.

Over the next hour and a half, Jonathan’s two distinct forces maneuvered to combine, and then they approached the Karacknid base, this time much more conservatively. Settling into a high orbit, they then slowly descended until they brought the Karacknid base into missile range. Then salvos began to be exchanged. With their warships all but gone, the eight Karacknid battlestations could only put out salvos of eight hundred missiles compared to Jonathan’s nine thousand. However, each Karacknid missile was twice the size of the ones Hammerclaw could fire. With their size came more powerful ECM and a far heavier punch if one did manage to score a hit.

As a result, in the two salvos it took Jonathan's ships to batter down the battlestations, they destroyed a medium cruiser and two destroyers. The destruction of his ships made Jonathan wince. Yet, as Harte directed the squadron's fire onto the remaining Karacknid warships and then in subsequent salvos, systematically destroyed every Karacknid orbital station, he deemed the losses worth it. Though doing such calculations felt cold, it was how he had to think. For the price of just a handful of ships, they had taken a critical supply hub off the board. Yes, the Karacknids had at least twenty more, but all Jonathan could do was play his part.

“Good shooting everyone,” Jonathan said as the last orbital stations were taken out. “And a nicely executed plan,” he added as he nodded to Harte and Iso. “Now, I think we’ve used up our welcome. Time to get us out of here. Plot a course back to the hidden shift passage and The Wilds. We’ve been trapped behind enemy lines once before; let’s not make a habit out of it.”

“With pleasure, Commodore,” Iso replied eagerly.

And now we go back to hunting convoys, Jonathan thought. With luck, his attack would mean many additional warships would have to be diverted to the fleet base he had just destroyed and to those nearby. Karacknid warships that had been assigned to escort convoys would now have to reinforce the garrisons guarding the border. And maybe, just maybe, we’ll come across a lightly guarded convoy, Jonathan said to himself as his squadron broke orbit and laid in a course to rejoin his supply freighters and then head out of Karacknid space.

Chapter 13

The Battle of The Wilds must be studied by every naval cadet and every aspiring flag officer. Never before had our species fought a war over such vast distances. There are vital lessons to learn that have dictated how every subsequent war we have fought in has played out. There is also much that can be learnt from observing the two master tacticians who went head-to-head in the battle.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Beartooth, Kovetec system, 2nd December 2512 AD, (same time).

James sat at his office’s desk writing a letter for Christine and Rachel to be sent back to Earth with the next packet ship. Two weeks ago, he had transferred his flag to the battlecruiser Beartooth and led three thousand warships into The Wilds to prepare to face the Karacknid battlefleets when they advanced. Four days ago, they had reached the Kovetec system. Named after the sentient species that call it home, years ago, a large supply base had been built in the system to service Imperial patrol squadrons that sought to police this section of The Wilds. The Kovetec had readily signed a defense pact that allowed the base to be built in exchange for a permanent fleet presence that protected them from pirates or other hostile neighbors.

Things had changed now, however, for the fleet base now made the Kovetec’s system and civilization a prime target for the Karacknids as they advanced. As a result, James had brought his fleet here to extract all its supplies. As soon as his ships left, the base would be dismantled. James hoped there would be enough to spare the Kovetec from invasion and occupation. Though as the Kovetec knew all too well, if the Karacknids defeated humanity, they would be reconquered sooner or later.

The other reason James had chosen the system as his first base of operations was its central location. Roughly in line with the likely route the middle of the five Karacknid battlefleets would take, basing himself in the system meant he would receive news of any movement as quickly as was possible. That was why he now wrote to Christine and Rachel, for in the last three days word had come from Rear Admiral Jiminez regarding three of the Karacknid battlefleets. All three were on the move south and each looked to be taking roughly the initial route James and his officers had predicted. Jiminez’s squadrons had made contact and began engaging their screening forces. That meant James would be on the move soon, and with no guarantee of when he’d be able to send another letter home, he wanted to make sure he was able to send something now.

Just as he began to write the last paragraph of his letter, James’ office door chime let him know someone was outside. A glance at one of his displays told him it was Scott. “Come in,” he called out immediately.

“We have it,” Scott said, stepping through as soon as the hatch opened.

“Confirmation of both?” James asked.

Scott nodded and moved over to James’ desk, setting her datapad down on it. A moment later the desk's holo display activated, projecting a map of The Wilds. “Fourth and fifth fleets are on the move like the other three,” Scott confirmed. “It looks like they left a day or two later than the others, but they're heading south as well. Scouts detected lead elements of the fifth fleet in the Grangfa system, then confirmed its presence in the Hitar system. Your son’s squadron was the one who made contact with the fourth fleet. Initially, he engaged some of their screening forces, then after falling back his scouts observed fourth fleet here,” Scott said as she pointed to one of the three flashing systems.

“And their strength estimates?” James asked, all but certain he knew the answer already.

Scott’s face turned grave. “The same as the other three, over twenty thousand in each battlefleet, with another four or five thousand split over a number of screening squadrons.”

James nodded as he took it in. With the most recent reports now confirmed, over one hundred and thirty thousand Karacknid warships were on the move towards Humanity’s border forts. There was no way he could stop them reaching the forts, and in all likelihood, it would be extremely difficult to hold the forts against such a force. Yet we are not going to go down without a fight! James told himself. That’s for sure.

“Ok,” he said, his voice matching Scott’s, “So, what is our first action going to be?” As he asked the question, he gestured for Scott to sit and then overlaid her map with the one they had both been working on over the last several weeks. It outlined every system and strategy they had come up with for confronting the five Karacknid battlefleets in The Wilds.

Scott sat and they both spent a couple of minutes studying the map before either spoke. “Fourth fleet,” they both began to say at the same time. They both then smiled at one another. “Second and Third fleets are heading towards traps we have set up, but it will take them a few weeks to reach them yet. Fourth fleet has the clearest run to our forts, so we slow it down first,” James said.

“Agreed,” Scott replied with a nod. “And with luck, we can eventually double back to strike them again. We should leave the fighters for Comet Strike at their staging area as we pass, however, in case we don’t return in time.”

“Good thinking, you can make sure their freighters are with us when we leave,” James said. “We should also dispatch squadrons to Ice Storm and Laser’s Embrace. I want them secured and more scouting forces put out to make sure we know exactly where the third and second fleets are as they approach the systems.”

“Understood, I’ll instruct the fleet to prepare to break orbit and draft the orders for those squadrons now,” Scott replied. “But what about fourth battlefleet, how are we going to handle them?”

“I think we keep it simple, as we’ve discussed,” James replied. “And we use it as an opportunity to field test out some of our newer toys. Initially, we will have surprise and numbers on our side, the best time for a test. Even though their screening squadrons will have engaged my son’s fleet, they won’t expect a fleet of our size to have advanced so far north. Once we get there, we can see exactly what we’re up against and decide from there.”

Scott nodded. They had come up with a number of tactics for just that kind of scenario. “And what about Admiral Ivanov’s fleet, where shall we instruct her to advance to?”

James looked back at the map again as he considered his answer. In his force of three thousand warships, he didn’t have anything larger than a battlecruiser. Speed was more important than sheer firepower for the opening stages of what he had planned. Ivanov, however, was also advancing into The Wilds with a larger force of four thousand more warships, many of which were battleships and dreadnoughts. Her initial role would be to play support as James danced back-and-forth in front of the advancing Karacknid battlefleets attempting to slow them down. If an opportunity arose for a more decisive battle, Ivanov needed to be close enough at hand to add her firepower. Yet if she advanced too far and one of the Karacknid battlefleets got around her, she could easily find herself cut off from support.

“The Cantalar system,” James finally answered as he reached out and highlighted a system between the Karacknid second and third battlefleets. “If either of our traps works as well as we hope, there might be an opportunity to use her ships by then.”

“I’ll ensure orders are sent to her as well then, Emperor.” Scott couldn’t help but smile. “She’ll be disappointed not to be in the thick of it from the start.”

“She will,” James agreed, “though by the end of this, there will be more than enough fighting for everyone.”

“I’m sure there will,” Scott said as she stood and nodded to James. “The fleet should be able to leave within the hour.”

“I’ll be on the bridge presently then,” James replied as he smiled and gestured to Scott, signaling she could leave and begin sending out all the orders she needed to.

*

Forty-five minutes later, James was seated in his command chair on Beartooth’s bridge. The battlecruiser was already on the move as she and the two thousand seven hundred warships in formation around her headed towards the shift passage that would lead them towards the Karacknid fourth battlefleet. Two other smaller squadrons were also on the move as they headed to secure the two systems James hoped to surprise elements of the Karacknid second and third battlefleets in.

Ahead of James’ main fleet, a small squadron of construction freighters and their escorts were already rushing towards the shift passage. Within the freighters were segments of specially adapted shift gates. Designed to be dismantled and put together quickly, they were to play a pivotal role in James’ upcoming strategy. Typically, a warship's velocity through shift space was determined by how much energy its capacitors could feed into its shift drive as the drive tore a hole open into shift space. Shift gates did the heavy work for a ship and were able to tear open holes with far higher energy densities, allowing for greater speeds through shift space. Within the Empire’s borders almost every shift passage now had several shift gates, but there were none in The Wilds for fear the Karacknids would capture one. Portable shifts gates solved this problem.

By the time James’ squadron reached the Kovetec system’s mass shadow, a portable shift gate would already be constructed, waiting for them. Moreover, several of the construction freighters would have already made their own jumps into shift space to move ahead of the fleet and construct further shift gates. Once James’ fleet then passed through them, they would be dismantled and brought with the fleet to be used again. In this way, James would be able to cover far more ground than the advancing Karacknid battlefleets.

With the combination of the portable shift gates, the hidden shift passages the Kalassai had discovered in The Wilds, the artificial shift passages James had also ordered constructed in The Wilds over the last two decades, and the network of FOBs, he hoped to have enough of an advantage to be able to dance back-and-forth between the middle three Karacknid battlefleets, engaging them as he wished. With enough speed and luck, he could delay and hamper their advance, potentially stalling Tanaka-lan’s entire campaign, for Jonathan doubted the Karacknid Imperator would allow his two battlefleets in the extreme east and west of his formation to advance alone in isolation.

That’s the plan, at least, James thought to himself as he watched the distant construction freighters begin to put the shift gate together. Now we get to see if it’s going to work.

*

IS Beartooth, Tatran system, 23rd December 2512 AD, (three weeks later).

After three weeks of madly racing across The Wilds, James managed to get his fleet in front of the Karacknid’s fourth battlefleet. Thanks to Rear Admiral Jiminez’s squadrons, he received constant updates on the progress of the Karacknids’ advance during his journey. Without any difficulty, he was able to place his fleet directly in the path of one of the fourth fleet’s screening squadrons.

“Here they come,” Lieutenant Hemingway, James’ tactical officer, announced as fifty contacts began to accelerate into the system. Quickly, they started to spread out as they began searching the system for hidden dangers. Over the course of two more hours, another two hundred ships joined them, then the main screening squadron of four hundred ships jumped in.

“This will do nicely,” James said as he watched the main body of ships feed into the inner system. “Let them advance until they pass the fourth planet, then hit them. Hold forty percent of our strength back in case there are any stragglers. I don’t want any getting away.”

“Aye, Emperor, and the Devastators?” Scott asked.

“Deploy them,” James ordered. “This is as good a time as any to test them out. Hopefully, no word will get back to Tanaka-lan.”

Within minutes, hundreds of fighters began were stealthily launched from James’ fleet. Though his force lacked battleships and dreadnoughts, the one thing James had made sure he had plenty of was fighters. Over three hundred pocket carriers — essentially heavy cruisers with most of their missile tubes exchanged for fighter launch tubes and landing hangars — were in formation around Beartooth. Each was home to four squadrons, giving James a fighter count far higher than any fleet he had commanded in the First Karacknid War.

*

Flight Sergeant Colin Hansen’s palms were sweaty as he slowly looped his Devastator up and around his carrier and into formation with the rest of his squadron. Though he had over two thousand hours in flight simulations and one hundred in live fire drills, he had never actually seen real combat. Part of that was due to the secret nature of the Devastator he flew, but it was also because his squadron was relatively new. The first Devastator had been officially commissioned into the Imperial Navy just two years ago. Now he and his craft were about to be tested for real.

The initial stage of the attack was almost the worst. For two hours, the massive array of Hellcats and Devastators slowly advanced on the main Karacknid squadron. With his squadron leader demanding radio silence, Hansen only had the Devastator’s passive sensors to keep him company. At some point, he knew other squadrons were to peel away from the main attack force to seek out the smaller Karacknid flotillas and single ships that were searching the system. Yet as he looked out of his canopy, it was impossible to tell just how many fighters were arrayed around him. Feeling lonely and with his nerves constantly growing, Hansen found himself wishing the time to attack would come.

When it came, however, Hansen quickly realized there was something worse than the long slow wait. When the massive wave of fighters was just twenty-five minutes out from the Karacknid squadron, the Karacknid recon drones detected a handful of fighters. Right away, the Karacknid warships redirected their active sensors to focus on the area and fired a new spread of recon drones. Within a minute, they had identified the threat. At once, the Wing Commander in charge of the attack ordered every Hellcat and Devastator to go to full acceleration. With no ship-fired missile salvo to attack the Karacknid ships first, the Hellcats and Devastators charged straight in on their own.

“All Devastators, activate gravimetric jamming,” Hansen’s Squadron Leader ordered. “Then we make our attack runs!”

Flicking a switch in his cockpit, Hansen activated his jammer. Immediately, his Devastator launched ten small probes that began to pulse with gravimetric waves. The drones filled space in front of the bombers and fighters with pulses that mimicked the same waves Imperial attack craft gave off as they accelerated and carried out evasive maneuvers. Essentially, the drones rendered the Karacknid ships’ gravimetric sensors useless for tracking and engaging the incoming attack.

Though the drones compromised the Karacknids’ defensive fire, they still had more than enough active sensors and recon drones to be able to target and hit the incoming fighters. As Hansen’s Devastator came into range of the Karacknid defensive weapons, laser beams began to zip past him on all sides. Already carrying out evasive maneuvers, the sudden flurry of energy beams encouraged him to intensify his movements even more.

Even so, once and then a second time, the Devastator’s shield flared a multitude of colors, signaling that it had been hit twice. Sweat ran down Hansen’s forehead and down his back as he fought not to lose himself to the panic that was bubbling up within him. The only thing that stopped him from pulling his Devastator’s nose up and away from the enemy ships was the knowledge that his bomber's shields were nearly twice as powerful as a Hellcat's. He could still take another hit or two and survive. He just had to make sure there were no more than that!

“Prepare to fire,” Hansen’s squadron leader suddenly shouted over the COM channel. “Fire!” He added a second later just as Hansen’s targeting computer beeped to say he was in range.

Hansen’s training took over, and he instinctively pulled his trigger twice, releasing four warheads. All around him, thousands of other missiles suddenly appeared as more than three thousand Hellcats and Devastators launched their weapons as well. As the Hellcats pulled up and away to safety, Hansen forced himself to keep tracking towards the medium cruiser he had been assigned. Now was the moment his Devastator was going to come into its own.

For five more seconds, he twisted and weaved even as the fire coming his way reduced dramatically, thanks to the Karacknids prioritizing the incoming missiles. Then, his target computer beeped for a second time. He had come into range with his Devastator’s secondary weapon. Pulling down on his trigger again, Hansen fired a low-powered laser beam at the medium cruiser. Without waiting to see if he had hit, he immediately switched to his second target and fired again. As soon as the beam was released and his Devastator’s capacitors were empty, Hansen pulled up and away from the enemy squadron as relief flooded through him. He had survived, and his craft had performed admirably.

Behind him, the Karacknid squadron was in trouble. Already outnumbered more than six to one by the number of fighters attacking, the surprise of suddenly coming under fire from energy weapons seriously disrupted their defensive coordination. While only a handful of ships were destroyed or crippled by the Devastator’s laser beams, enough damage was done and panic sown, that the fire aimed at the rest of the missiles approaching the Karacknids was nearly cut in half. It only got worse from there. Whereas Hellcats fired two antimatter warheads, Devastators were equipped with four bomb-pumped grazer warheads. Just three seconds after the Devastators fired their laser beams, the grazer warheads detonated. Each one sent a far more powerful beam of energy slicing into the Karacknid squadron’s formation. More than a hundred ships erupted in fireballs as beams burned through their armored hull and many sprayed out the other side of the small scouting warships.

With their formation in tatters and their defensive fire in disarray, nearly a thousand antimatter missiles dove in to finish the attack. So many detonated at once that every Imperial sensor in the system was momentarily blinded. When they cleared, there was no trace of the Karacknid squadron.

Only when he was certain he was out of range of Karacknid defensive weapons did Hansen look over his shoulder and out of his cockpit towards the Karacknid squadron. His eyes widened when all he could see were expanding balls of debris in every direction. Grinning, he couldn’t help but let out a whoop of satisfaction. As he checked his Devastator’s sensors, he let out another whoop when he saw that every other group of Karacknid ships in the system was now coming under attack by five or six times the number of fighters. He smiled and pumped his fists as Karacknid flotilla after flotilla was attacked and blown apart. In the space of fifteen minutes, nearly seven hundred Karacknid ships were destroyed.

"We did it!" Hansen said to himself in joy as he maneuvered his Devastator to rejoin his squadron and head back towards their carriers. "We did it!" Moments later, though, his joy and elation evaporated as another thought occurred to him: he was going to have to do it again and again before the war was over.

*

IS Beartooth.

“Well,” James said as he shared a smile with Scott, “I’d say that worked even better than expected.”

“It did, Emperor,” Scott agreed. “Once they know what to expect, I imagine they'll be better prepared, but that was a fine first test in real combat circumstances.”

“Well then, I’d like to keep them in the dark for as long as possible,” James said, and Scott nodded. “Now, let’s get those fighters landed and get out of here. We have one more of the Fourth Fleet screening squadrons to pay a visit to before we can move on. Let's see if we can catch them by surprise as well!”

“Aye, aye, sir,” Scott said enthusiastically as she turned to coordinate with James' other staff officers.

*

IS Beartooth, Sazar system, 27th December 2512 AD, (four days later).

Thanks to an artificial shift passage and a series of portable shift gates that James had already ordered set up before hitting the first Karacknid screening squadron, just four days later his ships were in prime position to hit another one of the screening squadrons the Fourth Battlefleet had pushed out ahead of its line of advance. Crucially, there was no way the Karacknid squadron could have heard about his attack on one of its brethren yet.

As his ships lay in stealth and watched the three hundred Karacknid screening ships begin to move through the system, James was tempted to launch another fighter attack. It had worked extremely well the last time, and so he was all but certain it would be successful again. Yet he had already blooded his fighter pilots; now he needed to give his warships some real combat experience. “Detach our squadron of Wolf stealth cruisers,” James ordered. “They are to make for the shift passage the Karacknids entered the system from and block it off. Then inform Commodore Killian that his squadron is going to engage the Karacknids by himself. Instruct him that his ships are to take on two salvos worth of Shadow missiles from our freighters before they depart. Assign half of our lancer frigates and drone cruisers to his command, and ten squadrons of Hellcats. The fighters are to intercept enemy missiles only though.”

Scott's mouth broke into a wide smile. “Yes, sir, with pleasure, sir,” she replied. The Shadow missiles had been one of her personal inventions, and she was even more interested than James in seeing how they worked.

An hour later, after Killian’s squadron had taken on a couple of hundred of the rare and precious missiles, they slowly broke away from James’ fleet and advanced on the Karacknid ships that were surveying the system. It took another two hours for them to be detected. As soon as they were, the Karacknids reacted by pulling all their ships back together. Killian then charged his three hundred and fifty ships into missile range. The Karacknid screening force sent a number of ships rushing towards the system’s Northern shift passage to bring word of the enemy force, while the rest of the ships prepared to engage.

The battle that ensued was short but deadly, just as James had intended. Shadow missiles were designed to be extremely stealthy. Their ECM was replaced by a gravimetric pulse emitter, similar to the ones used by Devastator bombers. In a missile salvo, ships only included two of the missiles in each broadside they fired, but it was enough. The mix of missiles' stealth capabilities and gravimetric pulses made them far harder to hit than standard missiles. They also made it more challenging for the Karacknid to track the standard missiles. More importantly, though, when a Shadow missile reached its target, it didn’t even try to score a direct hit.

Instead, it targeted the densest areas of the Karacknid squadron’s formation and then detonated right in the midst of the enemy warships. It’s extremely delicate and highly expensive warhead was unlike any other missile Humanity, or her allies had. For a tiny fraction of a second, the missile caused the mass of its Iridium nose to collapse in on itself, creating an instantaneous black hole. The forces involved were only potent enough to maintain the black hole for half a millisecond, yet the effect on everything around it was devastating. Ships in the vicinity of the missile's detonation were yanked towards it. Before any Karacknid could react or even understand what was happening, their ship's inertial dampeners were overloaded, and the ships' internal structures warped and twisted while bodies were turned to mush as they were smashed into bulkheads and decks.

Even as the Shadow missiles detonated and threw the Karacknid squadron’s defenses into disarray, hundreds more standard anti-ship missiles raced in and began to detonate, filling the Karacknid squadron’s formation with antimatter blooms. In just one salvo, half the Karacknid force was destroyed, crippled, or simply left unmanned as every sentient on board was killed. The second salvo that Killian fired finished off the Karacknid force, destroying every last ship.

In contrast, thanks to the additional ships and fighters James had assigned to Killian, the three missile salvos the Karacknid had fired at the Commodore's squadron were largely ineffective. Just seven ships were lost to Karacknid fire.

“So, what did you think?” Scott asked James after the last Karacknid missiles were dealt with.

“They were magnificent,” James responded. “I only wish we had another ten thousand of them.” Though he didn’t quite understand the physics behind how they worked, he knew all too well that each missile required a number of extremely rare elements that were in very high demand across the Empire, and even then, the process of constructing one took nearly a week. James had a thousand more missiles with him, and Ivanov had another thousand with her ships. Beyond that, there was only a small stockpile at each fort.

“If only, indeed,” Scott agreed. She then smiled, pleased with how her creations had performed. “We’ll just have to use them when the time is right.”

James nodded. Now that they had been battle-tested, they would be a good surprise he could keep up his sleeve. “Congratulate Commodore Killian on a finely fought battle,” James said. “Recall him to our position. We’ll remain in stealth until those Karacknid ships heading for the shift passage are dealt with. Even so, I want the fleet moving. It’s time to pay third battlefleet a visit. I want new orders sent to Rear Admiral Jiminez as well. We’ll leave four hundred ships and two interdictor cruisers here to keep in contact with the fourth battlefleet. Jiminez is to link up with them and do what he can to continue to delay the fourth battlefleet until we can return.”

“Aye, Emperor,” Scott responded.

As the fleet got moving, James focused on the four Karacknid frigates still racing across the system. There was no way they would know exactly what had happened to their comrades, yet their sensors would have detected the sudden appearance of new sources of gravity. It wouldn’t take a genius to figure out what the missiles were capable of doing. If they did, James was pretty certain the Karacknids would quickly devise a way to identify Shadow missiles within a salvo and focus all their fire on them. In the long run, it was also possible they would try to replicate the weapons, though he hoped it would take years, if not decades, for them to do so.

“Those frigates are approaching where our stealth cruisers should approximately be,” Hemingway updated James ten minutes later.

The attack, when it came, was sudden and swift. All of a sudden, forty new contacts appeared on the gravimetric plot, almost right on top of the Karacknid frigates. James knew they could only be one thing: missiles released from stealth cruiser torpedoes. For thirty seconds, the contacts accelerated towards the frigates, which swerved away from them and began to shoot some down. Then, the twenty-three that remained all disappeared from the plot at the same instant, indicating they had detonated, sending laser beams thrusting into the frigates. Moments later, all four of the Karacknid frigates lost acceleration and disappeared from Beartooth’s gravimetric sensors.

“Well, I think you can take us out of stealth,” James said to Scott. “Those frigates won't be telling anyone about us now. Then inform Commodore Davies that his stealth cruisers are to remain in this sector and hamper fourth battlefleet’s advance.”

“Yes, Emperor,” Scott replied.

James shared a look with her and then nodded. Their war had now begun in earnest. The commander of fourth battlefleet would soon discover he had lost two of his screening squadrons. Yet he would have almost no idea as to how. With luck, he would also think two different forces had struck his squadrons, forcing him to reorganize his screening forces and advance far more cautiously. Now, we just have to do the same with the third battlefleet, and the second! James thought. And then our allies need to get as many reinforcements to the forts as possible for us to have any hope!

Chapter 14

The most vital aspect of the Battle of The Wilds was intelligence, when either the Allies or the Karacknids could get a firm fix on their enemies, trouble was soon to follow for those who had been discovered.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Beartooth, The Wilds

“If they have screening fleets in these four systems, there is bound to be another one here, and maybe a sixth here,” Scott said as she highlighted two more systems.

James nodded. “It makes sense.” Both of them were examining the latest scouting information from the squadrons Jiminez had tracking the advance of the third Karacknid battlefleet. As it moved deeper into The Wilds, the fleet was being extremely cautious and had pushed out multiple screening squadrons in every direction. “The question is, where is their main fleet?” With so many enemy squadrons pushing through a number of systems, James’ Imperial forces had lost contact with the battlefleet itself.

“My money would be on one of these two systems,” Scott suggested. “The first system's star has a weak gravitational pull, making it a much shorter journey to traverse, but the second has a rich gas giant. It would be ideal to stop and skim some supplies if the Karacknids have the capability.”

“Maybe,” James mused. Though Humanity had had the capability for decades, there had never been any sign that the Karacknids were interested in developing technology that would allow warships to send down drones to skim He3 from the atmosphere of gas giants. Of course, it would be like Tanaka-lan to develop the capability and keep it in reserve for just this moment.

“I suppose what is of more interest is, where is it headed? From the positions of their screening squadrons, the battlefleet could be heading to any one of these three systems,” James said as he highlighted three systems further south of the ones Scott had indicated. One of the systems was flashing blue with a label beside it identifying the system as one James had designated Ice Storm. He had chosen the system because it was along one of the shortest routes from Karacknid space to the borders of his Empire. Yet the disposition of the Karacknid squadrons suggested the Karacknid battlefleet commander was considering another route as well.

“Perhaps that’s not the right question, Emperor,” Scott said as she looked down from the holo display. She continued after James raised an eyebrow, “Maybe we should be asking, how can we convince them to head to Ice Storm?” She then nodded toward the holo display. “We know where most of their screening squadrons are, and we know they want to make quick progress south. So what if we hamper a few of their squadrons and make sure passing through Ice Storm is the quickest route open to them?”

James smiled as he started to picture what Scott was thinking. “So,” Scott said after returning James’ smile. “How do you want to lure them in?”

Quickly, James and Scott lost track of time as they began to throw around a number of ideas. Actually engaging and hampering the Karacknid screening squadrons wasn’t the most difficult issue. Doing so in such a way as to delay the right screening squadrons at the right time so as to shepherd the Karacknid battlefleet into the system James wanted was the trick.

“Let’s get to it,” James said once they had made a final decision. He stood up quickly, excitement running through his veins. “We have an icy reception for this battlefleet to prepare!”

*

IS Vortex, 31st December 2512 AD, (four days later).

“It looks like one or both of these two frigates here will probably come our way, Admiral,” one of Vortex’s sensor officers updated Scott. “They’ll probably approach in half an hour or so given their current search patterns.”

“Thank you,” Scott responded. She, like every one of Vortex’s officers, was watching the main holo display closely. It was currently showing sensor data sent back from several stealth recon drones she had placed outside the asteroid field she had her squadron hidden in. Outside the asteroid field, seven hundred Karacknid screening ships were moving through the system, looking for Imperial warships. Already, they had chased out a small scouting force that had been keeping tabs on the Karacknid screening ships.

“Look, contact beta thirty-seven is moving our way now,” another officer reported ten minutes later.

“Sensor emissions are starting to hit our hull,” the First Lieutenant updated after another seven minutes had passed.

“At this rate, they’ll detect us in the next ten minutes,” Thomas Gilead, Vortex’s Captain, predicted.

Scott just nodded. She had briefed every Captain in her squadron carefully; there was no need to send out a warning to them. They all knew what she would want from them when the time came. Instead of watching the level of emissions quickly rise, she instead studied the disposition of the Karacknid forces throughout the rest of the system. With over seven hundred Karacknid warships identified on the holo display, her two hundred and fifty were outnumbered more than two to one. She would therefore have to be careful how she handled her squadron over the next couple of hours.

“Detecting the launch of an active recon drone,” an officer said excitedly. “It’s moving into the asteroid field.”

“Either they got a return on something, or they’re being extra cautious,” Gilead responded. “Whichever it is, they’re about to know for sure.”

Just seconds later, the amount of emissions washing over Vortex’s hull increased dramatically. Alarms quickly began to go off, warning that they had likely been detected. “They see us,” Scott said in a level tone when the Karacknid frigate started to maneuver. “Time to look startled. Take the squadron out. Place us onto heading four, four, three point nine as we exit. I want maximum acceleration the moment we're clear.”

Though she didn’t have her own staff officers as she had left them with James, Vortex’s Lieutenants expertly handled their heavy cruiser and the rest of Scott’s squadron. Rushing out of the asteroid field, they quickly engaged and destroyed the Karacknid frigate that had discovered them. Then Scott had them charge after the nearest flotilla of Karacknid ships.

All across the system, the Karacknid warships reacted by pulling back from their searches and rushing to reform with one another. For the twenty ships Scott had initially targeted, however, there was no hope of escape. With their momentum taking them towards Scott’s position, she quickly closed with them, and a single salvo laid them to waste.

Next, she set her sights on a larger group of ships. Forty-five more were also struggling to reverse course and pull back to where the rest of the Karacknid screening force was assembling. As Scott turned her fleet onto an intercept course for them, three other smaller Karacknid flotillas responded by giving up on joining the main Karacknid force and reinforcing their comrades. After pursuing them for forty minutes, Scott engaged the now ninety-two warship strong force. With nearly a 3 to 1 advantage, the battle was a foregone conclusion. Though her force still took losses, losing thirteen ships, they dispatched all of the Karacknid warships.

“Time to get out of here,” she said after they blew apart the last Karacknid medium cruiser. “Set course for the Southern shift passage. Maximum acceleration rate.”

As her ships retreated, the main Karacknid force, having now gathered together five hundred of its ships, set off in pursuit. Scott had planned it perfectly, though, and her ships would easily make it to the next shift passage and safety before they could be caught. The Karacknid commander, not satisfied with just letting the Imperial ships escape, launched a fighter attack in the hopes of crippling as many of Scott's ships as he could. Having anticipated the move, James and Scott had sent a large number of carriers with her. Twelve hundred Hellcats raced out to meet the seven hundred Karacknid fighters. A deadly dogfight ensued, and over a hundred Imperial fighters were lost, yet the Karacknid fighters were turned back before any could get into attack range of Scott’s warships.

“They’ve seen us,” Scott said to Vortex’s officers. “Now they know we’re here they’ll have to be more cautious. Let’s pull back and see if we can’t have another nibble at them in the next system.”

*

IS Prohibitor, 31st December 2512 AD, (same time).

Commodore Fairfield sat in the command chair of his interdictor cruiser, tapping his fingers nervously. Scouts had confirmed an enemy screening squadron was approaching, and so it was only a matter of time before he had to face a Karacknid force for real. Given he had just one hundred warships under his command, and the enemy numbered upwards of five hundred, he felt his nerves were justified. Even so, he berated himself when he realized what his fingers were doing and stopped them immediately. Doing his best to project an air of confidence, he continued to wait.

“Here they are!” Prohibitor’s sensor officer announced as alarms began to blare twenty-four minutes later. Sixty contacts began to flash on the holo display, the information displayed beside them identified them as ships that had just jumped out of shift space, or in this case, ships that had been yanked out. Currently, Fairfield had Prohibitor’s gravity well generators powered up to full, and so the interdictor cruiser was filling the shift passage she was in with enough gravitational pull to disrupt any ship trying to pass through the area in shift space.

“I bet they got quite the shock,” Prohibitor's First Lieutenant said confidently. “They’ll be trying to figure out what on earth happened.”

“But it won't take them long to get some answers,” Fairfield cautioned. “Remember, they’ve seen interdictor cruisers before.”

Sure enough, just thirty seconds after being pulled out of shift space, the fifty Karacknid ships turned their noses toward Prohibitor and gunned their impulse engines to full power. “Forty-five minutes until they enter missile range at their current closing velocity,” Prohibitor’s tactical officer reported seconds later.

“Turn us and begin to head down the shift passage,” Fairfield ordered. In order to maintain the gravity well, Prohibitor needed almost all the energy from her reactors, but there was just enough spare to allow the cruiser to slowly run ahead of the charging Karacknids.

“Fifty-two minutes now until missile range,” Fairfield’s tactical officer updated after Prohibitor and her ten escorts had made their turn.

“We'll drop the gravity well in forty-eight minutes,” Fairfield ordered. “Jump us out as soon as we do.”

“Aye, Commodore,” Prohibitor’s navigation officer acknowledged.

As the Karacknid ships raced towards his ship, the passage of time seemed to slow to a snail’s pace, and Fairfield felt his nerves fray. His understanding of physics told him there was no way the Karacknids could come close enough to threaten him before he could jump to the safety of shift space. Yet, the tactics he was employing had been used before in the First Karacknid War against another invasion force led by Tanaka-lan when he had been an Admiral. Back then, the Karacknids had figured out a way to intercept and destroy interdictor cruisers, and to date, no one knew how. Fairfield couldn’t help but let his imagination run wild as he had nothing else to do but watch the Karacknid ships quickly close in on his small flotilla.

Despite his fears, the forty-eight minutes did eventually pass, and no hidden forces or surprises appeared to disrupt Fairfield’s plan. “Drop the gravity well,” he said in relief. “Jump us out!”

As Prohibitor dropped her gravity well, she became her most vulnerable, for there was nothing stopping the Karacknids from jumping back into shift space right on top of her. Indeed, the moment the Karacknid ships detected that the bubble of gravity, which had yanked them out of shift space, was gone, half immediately vanished as they jumped back into shift space. Yet as they reappeared in real space a fraction of a second later, they were just in time to see Prohibitor and Fairfield’s flotilla escape into shift space. As soon as they signaled to their comrades that their quarry had escaped, the other half of the Karacknid force jumped into shift space. This time, they attempted to jump down the entire length of the shift passage they were in, in an effort to get ahead of Prohibitor.

However, just two light minutes from the point where they had originally been pulled out of shift space, they were yanked out again by Fairfield’s second interdictor cruiser. Just two seconds after Stalwart detected Prohibitor dropping her gravity well and jumping into shift space past her, she powered up her own gravity well generators. The Karacknid ships, with no other option open to them, set course for Stalwart in an effort to force her to drop her gravity well and flee into shift space.

In this way, by leapfrogging his interdictor cruisers past one another, Fairfield was able to drastically slow down the Karacknid screening force’s advance. He managed to stretch what should have been a four-hour journey for the Karacknid ships into two days, and he still reckoned he could make it last another two before he would have to jump into the next system and run across it ahead of the Karacknids, only to repeat his tactics in the next shift passage the Karacknids wished to traverse. However, before he did that, he had something else planned. Though the tactics he was currently employing had been developed nearly three decades ago, Admiral Scott had provided him with a number of weapons that allowed him to adapt his approach.

“Okay, it is time,” he said to his officers when he deemed he had backed up enough Karacknid warships. On Prohibitor’s display, there were now over four hundred enemy ships racing towards his position.

“Sending your orders to our escorts,” Prohibitor’s COMs officer responded.

Moments later, half of the warships in formation around Prohibitor began to deploy their weapons. Only disguised as warships, in reality, they were specially constructed freighters that had no offensive weapons and almost no defensive ones either. Instead, they were filled with whirlwind stealth mines. In just under a minute, the freighters dumped four thousand of these small mines into space in their wake.

Fairfield waited another five minutes, then nodded to his First Lieutenant. The Lieutenant turned to his console and spoke with Prohibitor’s Chief Engineer. “Chief O’Malley says it’s done,” he announced.

A second later, a jolt jostled everyone in their command chairs. “Losing thrust from all four impulse engines,” Prohibitor’s navigation officer reported, far more calmly than such a report warranted.

“Reactors one, three, and four are offline. We’re only getting a maximum of twenty percent from reactor two, and it’s fluctuating wildly,” another officer added.

“Good,” Fairfield said. “Wait another ten minutes and then launch all our shuttles. Send them to Sparrow and Manhattan. As soon as they land, have them jump out.”

“Missile launches!” Prohibitor’s sensors officer reported seven minutes later. “One thousand missiles incoming.”

Fairfield nodded. One thousand missiles was overkill for his small force, but the Karacknid commander clearly wanted to be certain. With a flight time of fifteen minutes, they would reach Prohibitor just as the whirlwind mines entered range. Perfect, he thought, we’re going to witness the firework display firsthand.

“Our shuttles are away,” Prohibitor’s First Lieutenant updated. “They’ve landed,” he said three minutes later. “Escorts have jumped out.”

“Missiles are ten minutes out now,” Fairfield’s tactical officer reported.

“How are our shift drive capacitors looking?” Fairfield couldn't help but ask as the enemy missiles drew closer.

“Fully charged and ready to go, Commodore,” his navigation officer replied.

Fairfield took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, forcing himself to relax. Keep your focus on us, he silently urged the Karacknid ships. This is your one chance to take down an interdictor cruiser. Stay focused on us.

As the Karacknid screening squadron pursued the interdictor cruiser that had vexed them for over two days, they did just that. Fueled by rage and the elation of finally having the opportunity to destroy one of their adversaries, they neglected to closely monitor the area of space they were rushing through.

“Mine detonation in thirty seconds,” Prohibitor’s tactical officer announced. “Detonation!” he added as the holo display suddenly lit up with four thousand energy spikes right in front of the Karacknid formation.

The whirlwind mines were equipped with antimatter warheads. However, it wasn’t the antimatter that was designed to cause destruction. Instead, the energy from the antimatter detonations powered a long electromagnetic cannon that spanned the full length of each mine. Each cannon then launched three thousand small bomblets towards the Karacknid ships, akin to a colossal shotgun. Although the bomblets lacked engines and maneuvering thrusters, they were covered in Humanity’s most advanced stealth coating and their lack of maneuverability was more than compensated for by their sheer numbers. Suddenly, the Karacknid screening squadron found themselves facing three million small, elusive projectiles speeding towards them at seventy percent the speed of light.

Within a couple of seconds of the mines detonating, thousands of point defense lasers began to fire rapidly at the incoming bomblets. Tens of thousands were hit, nearly all detonating as laser beams melted their outer armor and internal sensors caused them to self-destruct. The detonations flooded the space in front of the Karacknid squadron with so much electromagnetic energy that it began to interfere with their sensors. Even without this hindrance, there was no way the Karacknids could shoot down all the bomblets. As it turned out, they didn’t manage to neutralize even half of them.

As the wave of bomblets collided with the screening squadron, some Karacknid ships discerned that the projectiles weren't maneuvering. They began to quickly turn to present their noses to the bomblets, thereby reducing their target profile. This maneuver saved some ships, but not all. Every Karacknid vessel was struck by at least one bomblet, while many were hit by a hundred or more. Individually, the bomblets packed just enough force to penetrate a cruiser’s armor. However, the sheer number of strikes meant that multiple bomblets impacted so closely together that they vaporized entire armor segments. Following in after them, more bomblets breached ships’ inner hulls and bulkheads.

Prohibitor’s sensors detected two hundred and eighty-four of the Karacknid warships vanish in colossal explosions as they were bombarded with bomblets. At least fifty more were so grievously damaged that they began spiraling out of control, leaving trails of debris. Not a single ship emerged unscathed, and thus the attack effectively neutralized the screening squadron as an operational force.

Just seconds after the bomblets hit the Karacknids, Prohibitor’s fully charged shift drive capacitors powered the interdictor cruiser's shift drive, tearing open a portal to shift space and Prohibitor vanished. The thousand missiles that had been racing toward her reached the point she had occupied mere moments later. With their target gone, they all self-destructed harmlessly.

On Prohibitor’s bridge, Fairfield was beaming, both from relief at their escape and satisfaction at their triumph. “That’s what I call a surprise attack!” he exclaimed to his officers, who responded with smiles and laughter. “The next Karacknid squadron that tries to rush us will think twice before doing so,” he continued.

“And when the next one comes, we'll be ready for them, Commodore,” Prohibitor’s First Lieutenant asserted confidently, echoing Fairfield’s sentiment.

“We will,” Fairfield affirmed. “We will,” he reiterated, recalling the orders Emperor Somerville had personally issued him. No matter the cost, he was to impede every Karacknid ship sent his way for at least another five days.

Chapter 15

The only thing spacers fear more than an enemy missile is an inanimate chunk of debris silently hurtling through space towards them.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Beartooth, Ice Storm system, 9th January 2513 AD, (nine days later).

After dispatching Scott on her mission, James quickly moved with the rest of his fleet to engage two other Karacknid screening squadrons. He then returned to rendezvous with Scott. Together, they raced to the Ice Storm system before any Karacknid screening ships could arrive. What followed was a long four-day wait where James and Scott couldn't help but doubt themselves. Aware that he couldn't hide his fleet within the system since it was bound to be thoroughly checked, James took his ships out beyond the system’s mass shadow and into the dark matter clouds that filled the space between star systems. Once there, isolated from his scouting squadrons and devoid of any further updates, he and Scott were forced to wait, hoping their attacks had been effective.

Two days later, Beartooth’s passive sensors started to detect faint electromagnetic emissions and gravity waves. However, these signals were sporadic and few. James’ best guess was that they originated from a screening squadron investigating the system—a plausible assumption, yet not unexpected. The intermittent signals persisted for about twelve hours and then vanished. That had been thirty hours prior. As James stepped onto the bridge, weary of waiting in his quarters, he nodded to Calhoun, Beartooth’s Captain, and then moved to his command chair. “Anything to report?” He inquired, swiveling to face Scott.

Scott shook her head. “I'm afraid not, Emperor. If there are any other Karacknid ships moving through the system, we haven't detected them.”

James grimaced. “Alright. You can go rest if you wish.”

“Thank you, Emperor. I have a report I need to finish reading. After that, I’ll take you up on the offer,” Scott replied.

Having already reviewed every scouting report his fleet had received before venturing beyond the system’s mass shadow, James spent a few minutes staring at the holo display. All it was showing was the desolate system, a system he had been intimately familiar with for many years now. As a result, his gaze quickly drifted to his staff officers and Beartooth’s Lieutenants as they diligently manned their consoles. To pass the time, he tried to decipher what each was working on based on their body language and the swiftness of their hands over the consoles.

When Scott stood to leave, James gave her a nod and a smile. He then returned to his guessing game with his officers, striving to push aside his apprehensions. If the Karacknid battlefleet had indeed bypassed his position through another system, his only option would be to wait for a messenger frigate to locate him. Should that occur, he'd need to devise a strategy to intercept the battlefleet and thwart its advance. But there was nothing he could do about that now, and so all he could do was daydream.

As another hour drifted by, James’ concentration waned, and a familiar sense of boredom threatened. However, a flash from a sensor console immediately drew his focus. Observing the officer's increasingly tense demeanor, James surmised something was amiss. “What is it, Lieutenant?” he inquired, too impatient to wait for the officer to relay the information through the proper chain of command.

Most of the Lieutenants on the bridge exchanged puzzled glances. When the sensor officer met James’ gaze, he briefly glanced at Calhoun before replying, “Gravimetric waves, Emperor. The computer is still analyzing them. We've only detected a few, but they're the first we've seen in more than a day.”

As he spoke, the officer's console flashed several more times. James nodded towards it. “I think you’re picking up a few more, Lieutenant.”

“Yes, Emperor,” the Lieutenant responded after swiveling back to his console. “More gravimetric waves, quite a lot more. They have to be coming from at least fifty ships.”

James nodded, keeping his face neutral. He didn’t want to appear too excited; it could be another screening squadron or even a supply convoy. Nevertheless, as the gravimetric wave count rose and electromagnetic signals reached Beartooth’s passive sensors, James’ anticipation surged. His officers estimated that at least a thousand ships had begun moving through the system.

“Is it them?” Scott inquired, re-entering the bridge and quickly taking her seat.

“We can’t be sure yet,” James answered.

Scott opened her mouth to respond, but a gasp from Beartooth’s sensor officer interrupted her. Seconds later, James' eyes widened at the holo display's revelations: thousands of new gravimetric wave sources were being detected. Well over ten thousand. “That is them!” He exclaimed, sharing a significant glance with Scott. Their plan had worked. “Get us moving,” James instructed Scott. “Five percent thrust.”

“With pleasure, Emperor,” Scott responded, excitement evident in her voice.

Now we have to wait just a little longer, James thought, as even more gravimetric waves were detected.

*

Deep within the system, on a vast moon orbiting the seventh planet, a single stealth recon drone, situated over two hundred meters beneath the moon’s icy surface, also monitored the Karacknid fleet. Deployed there over five years ago, its passive sensors, though less advanced than Beartooth’s, detected the massive fleet of over thirty thousand warships and freighters. Immediately, the drone analyzed their trajectory and formation. Determining their intended shift passage, it compared this with over a thousand pre-programmed scenarios James had given it. Choosing the closest match, it sent a signal down a two-thousand-mile-long communications wire, initiating a series of mechanical arms and belts that repositioned the hundreds of devices embedded within the moon's core. Then the drone continued its vigilant watch over the Karacknid battlefleet.

Fifty-nine minutes later, the moment arrived. With the seventh planet’s and ice moon's rotations in perfect alignment, the drone transmitted a final signal. A millisecond later, the first of hundreds of the largest thermonuclear warheads Humanity had ever constructed detonated. Over the subsequent five seconds, the remainder exploded in a meticulously timed sequence. Combined, they shattered, catapulting vast quantities of ice towards the Karacknid fleet. Suddenly, tens of trillions of ice shards, some minute, others as massive as cities, were flung out into space. A significant portion of which were on a collision course with the Karacknid battlefleet.

Ordinarily, a warship or freighter's point defenses could effortlessly counter a few ice shards. However, the sheer volume and size of the projectiles hurtling towards the Karacknids promised calamity. The Karacknid commanders, initially taken aback, quickly grasped the impending peril. Just thirty seconds after the first detonations, the Karacknid battlefleet reacted. Given the shards' ballistic trajectory, they received just enough forewarning to implement evasive maneuvers. But the fleet's expansive formation, stretched over a vast distance, complicated their response. With a majority of the ice barrage targeting the battlefleet's rear third, a simple evasive turn couldn't ensure the fleet's preservation.

In order to avoid being battered by the ice shards, the forward third of the Karacknid battlefleet began to accelerate, intending to move ahead of the approaching wave. The middle formations of the battlefleet opted to head above or below the system’s ecliptic to escape. The final third of the battlefleet executed dramatic flips and then fired their impulse engines at full throttle to decelerate, hoping to slow enough for the ice wave to pass them by. With the majority of the battlefleet’s supply train positioned at the rear for safety, it was primarily freighters and their escorts that began to decelerate while the rest of the battlefleet sped up to reach safety –just as James had envisioned over half a decade earlier.

*

IS Blackfish

Commodore Kretschmer watched with glee as the last third of the Karacknid battlefleet decelerated sharply. This intense maneuver caused their formation to fragment, with flotillas losing cohesion. Striving to remain composed himself, he analyzed the movements of every flotilla of escorts and each group of freighters. “Signal the wolf pack; we'll execute attack pattern sigma-seven,” he instructed his COMs officer.

“Signaling now, Commodore,” the Lieutenant replied... “All ships have confirmed,” the Lieutenant updated thirty seconds later.

Kretschmer nodded, leaning back in his command chair, forcing himself to be patient. Emperor Somerville had masterminded the moon's shattering such that the ice shard wave wasn’t just tens of thousands of miles wide but equally deep. As a result, the Karacknid ships on the holo display of his stealth cruiser had to decelerate drastically and maintain their deceleration until the ice wave had passed. Consequently, the more they maneuvered, the more disorganized their formation became, and the larger the gaps between their ships became.

A week prior, Kretschmer might have been apprehensive that as his squadron of stealth cruisers approached the decelerating Karacknids, they would be detected. However, all sixteen of his ships had been lurking in the system for several days. Two Karacknid screening squadrons had swept through the system without detecting even a single joule of energy from them. He was confident that the distracted Karacknid freighters, his primary targets, would remain oblivious to his presence, at least until he chose to reveal it.

“Work up firing solutions for targets alpha thirteen, alpha nineteen, and alpha forty-two,” Kretschmer instructed after a moment. “Once I signal the wolfpack, fire a single torpedo at each, then commence sigma-seven’s maneuvers.”

“Aye, Commodore,” Blackfish’s First Lieutenant acknowledged.

Kretschmer waited another five minutes, then, feeling the moment was ideal, took action. Considering it was his inaugural combat experience, his calm demeanor surprised him. The unfolding scene resembled a rudimentary training simulation stealth cruiser captains subjected their crews to. Emperor Somerville had provided his wolfpack with an almost flawless set of targets. All that remained was to prove their worth. Taking a deep breath, Kretschmer composed himself, then gave the order, “Signal our ships: execute attack pattern sigma-seven.”

The moment his signal went out, Blackfish launched three torpedoes. The other fifteen stealth cruisers in his wolfpack did the same. As the torpedoes stealthily stalked their targets, the cruisers altered course and began to weave through the Karacknid fleet's formation. Less than a minute later, they fired again and changed course once more. Just before the first torpedoes were set to release their missiles, each stealth cruiser momentarily deactivated its stealth field. In a mere two seconds, they powered up their plasma cannons, fired a single volley at sixteen of the closest Karacknid warships, and then went dark again. Using their covert maneuvering thrusters, they began to distance themselves from their firing point.

The crews of the sixteen targeted ships barely had time to register the sudden energy spikes when multiple plasma bolts burst through their armor and ripped apart their internal structures. Fourteen of the sixteen frigates and destroyers targeted were crippled by the attacks. The other Karacknid escorts in the vicinity knew something was wrong the moment they saw their comrades being destroyed. Suddenly, hundreds of active sensors powered on, scanning the space around them. Active recon drones were launched in every direction. Some managed to catch brief signals from the stealth cruisers but lost contact almost instantly. Others detected a few of the torpedoes, but by then, it was already too late.

Before any Karacknid ship could maneuver or change course, the first torpedoes released their warheads. Four miniature mark VIII missiles launched from each torpedo. Within seconds, they reached their targets and detonated, each emitting a powerful laser beam. Though most of the alerted Karacknid escort ships were prepared to evade or shoot back, many missiles still reached their targets and inflicted damage. As more Karacknid escort ships were destroyed, the second salvo of Kretschmer's torpedoes then attacked adding yet more carnage to the enemy ships around Blackfish.

The attacks opened up a sizable gap in the Karacknid escorts’ formation. Into this breach charged Kretschmer's wolfpack. In front of them, Karacknid freighters scattered in panic, aware they were under attack but clueless about the threat's origin. They fled from every location a missile had been detected, resulting in utter chaos. Amidst this turmoil, the wolfpack advanced ruthlessly. Torpedoes fired continuously, and occasionally, stealth cruisers briefly revealed themselves to unleash energy weapon volleys at the defenseless freighters before vanishing once more.

In under five minutes, over a hundred freighters were either crippled or reduced to debris. Hundreds of Karacknid escorts and thousands of recon drones rushed into the fray. Mostly, they only added to the chaos of the evasive ships. Ten minutes in, the number of destroyed freighters reached three hundred, and by fifteen minutes, it surpassed five hundred.

However, the inevitable finally occurred. While the stealth cruisers' advanced stealth capabilities allowed them to deflect sensor emissions around their hulls, their torpedoes lacked this feature. With so many warships, recon drones, and freighters flooding space with sensor signals, a Karacknid Commodore managed to detect a torpedo just moments after launch. Tracing the torpedo's trajectory, he flooded the area with antimatter missiles, hoping to hit something.

The stealth cruiser, already maneuvering onto a new heading after firing, nearly escaped. The first twelve antimatter warheads detonated far enough away from it that it was unaffected. However, the thirteenth was too close. The energy from the detonation disrupted its delicate stealth field, and it was suddenly exposed for every Karacknid ship to see. Knowing it had been revealed and that its end was imminent, the stealth cruiser went on the offensive. Abandoning any pretense of stealth, its engines and reactors surged to full power as it launched plasma bolts and laser beams at every freighter within range. The cruiser took down fourteen more freighters before several hundred antimatter missiles hit it, causing it to explode.

With one stealth cruiser destroyed, the Karacknids had some inkling of their adversary. Consequently, they began detecting other torpedoes and attempted to trace their origins. Most of these attempts were unsuccessful, but over the next three minutes, two more stealth cruisers were located and destroyed, even as hundreds of freighters were obliterated.

“That’s enough,” Kretschmer decided, grimacing at the sight of another stealth cruiser's destruction. His wolfpack had eliminated so many enemy vessels that the remaining Karacknid freighters were getting farther and farther from his ships. The risk of detection was rising, while the chances of successful hits were diminishing. “Signal the wolfpack, cease offensive operations. Each ship is to go dark and meet at the rendezvous point.”

“Aye, Commodore,” Blackfish’s First Lieutenant responded with clarity. “Ceasing fire, signaling our other ships.”

Kretschmer nodded as he observed the demise of several more freighters. Then, silence descended upon the Karacknid supply train. Karacknid freighters continued to run in every direction, while over two thousand escorts and ten thousand recon drones filled space with electromagnetic radiation. Yet they couldn’t detect any of Kretschmer’s stealth cruisers, leaving them with nothing to target.

“Well, what was our final count?” Kretschmer asked when he felt the immediate danger had passed.

“One hundred and twelve freighters and four warships, Commodore,” Blackfish’s tactical officer answered. “Two frigates, a destroyer, and a light cruiser.”

Kretschmer exhaled deeply, shaking his head while his officers beamed at him. In just thirty minutes, his single ship had taken down more enemy vessels than a squadron of warships might hope to. “I think we just proved she’s worth the expense, don’t you?” He remarked to his officers, tapping his command chair’s console affectionately and returning their smiles.

*

IS Beartooth

James grinned as he watched the chaos within the Karacknid battlefleet’s supply train. Thousands of warships tried to move above or below the ice shard wave, rushing to assist the freighters, but their efforts were too late. When the last torpedo released its missiles and the engagement concluded, James looked at Scott and raised an eyebrow.

“Nine hundred and forty-seven freighters destroyed or showing signs of being crippled,” she reported. “That’s about seven percent of their total freighter count. I’d say that was a job well done.”

“Indeed it was,” James agreed. “And all it took was just sixteen ships. Much of the success is down to your ingenuity, Admiral.”

“It was your plan that put them in such an advantageous position,” Scott countered.

James couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “You need to learn to take a compliment, Admiral. But in any case, let’s agree we both played a part. Now, it’s our turn to cause some havoc. Let’s see if we can’t add to the hurt this battlefleet is already feeling.”

“Yes, sir,” Scott said firmly. Together, they both turned to study the holo display as they sought the right targets for James’ squadron. With it currently cruising towards the outer system, still in stealth, James could theoretically direct his ships to attack any part of the scattered battlefleet. The challenge would be in selecting the right target; one they could attack and defeat before reinforcements could come and overwhelm James’ much smaller fleet.

“Emperor, look at this,” Scott said, highlighting a large group of Karacknid warships. “It looks like they are planning to rendezvous out beyond the system’s mass shadow. There’s certainly no shift passage out there they could be heading too.”

Immediately, James grasped what Scott was suggesting. Several elements of the scattered Karacknid battlefleet appeared to be moving to rendezvous beyond the system’s mass shadow. “You’re confident we can surprise them?” James asked Scott in a grave tone. He didn’t need to voice the risks involved. Nearly four thousand enemy ships were heading towards the rendezvous point. If their attack failed, the Karacknid ships could carry out a micro shift jump right into the heart of his fleet’s formation and obliterate his warships with their energy weapons.

“Ideally, it would be good to test them on a smaller scale first, but that would give away the secret,” Scott replied. “They’ve worked in every live-fire exercise. I believe now is as good a time as any to put them to the test. We couldn’t ask for a better target.”

James rubbed his jaw, pondering the decision. He trusted Scott implicitly, though the risks were palpable. But if the attack worked, the payoff would be massive. “All right,” he conceded, “let’s do it. Prepare a single salvo.”

“Of course, Emperor,” Scott said, breaking into a grin, her face alight with anticipation.

James kept his expression more measured. If Scott’s shift missiles performed as impressively as her shadow missiles had, then the Karacknids were in for a serious surprise. But if they failed, he needed to be prepared to act immediately.

It took another fifty minutes for James’ ships to navigate through the dark matter clouds that obstructed any attempt to tear open a portal into shift space. Then another twenty to set up all the portable shift gates his fleet had onboard. During that time, the Karacknid battlefleet commander had reorganized his forces into more coherent formations. About half of his ships were now with the beleaguered supply train, with thousands of shuttles combing the wreckage for salvage. Another six thousand warships scoured the inner system for any hint of Kretschmer's stealth cruisers, yet they were having no success. The remaining groups of ships had merged at several locations and were maintaining their positions while smaller patrol flotillas from them combed the surrounding space for potential threats. One group was near the system’s ninth planet, while the other lingered beyond the system’s mass shadow, undoubtedly believing they were safe and could jump into shift space the instant a threat appeared.

“We are ready,” Scott announced, looking up from her console. “Just waiting for your order now, Emperor.”

“Double-check every ship has its shift drive capacitors fully charged,” James instructed. “Keep an open COM channel with the entire fleet. I want them to be able to jump on a single command.”

Scott tapped a few buttons on her console, gestured to James’ COM officer, and then turned back to him. “Everything is in place.”

James nodded, paused for a moment, and then gave the order. “Fire!”

A heartbeat later, all of James’ two thousand five hundred ships emerged from stealth as they unleashed a salvo of thirty-one thousand shift missiles. As soon as they launched, the missiles' rapid acceleration was detectable system-wide, thanks to the gravimetric waves of their impulse engines. Understandably, no Karacknid ship reacted instantly. James’ fleet was several light minutes away from the Karacknid fleet positioned beyond the system’s mass shadow and even further from the other Karacknid formations. From that distance, the Karacknids knew standard missiles had no hope of hitting anything.

However, the Karacknids were mistaken. The missiles sped up for just thirty seconds before vanishing from every Karacknid ship's gravimetric sensors. They disappeared because they entered one of the ten portable shift gates Scott had set up. While the missiles couldn't tear open their own hole into shift space, equipped with miniaturized shift field projectors, they could traverse one that was already open. Mere moments after vanishing, they re-emerged on every gravimetric sensor in the system. To the Karacknids’ surprise and horror, they emerged right in the midst of one of their fleets.

Without hesitation, the missiles activated their sensors and targeted the nearest ships. Karacknid point defenses responded, obliterating thousands of missiles in the seconds it took the missiles to reach their targets. Yet, thousands remained, hitting their marks. Although these missiles only boasted thermonuclear warheads—bomb-pumped laser warheads or antimatter warheads were too unstable to pass through shift space—they wreaked havoc. They either detonated upon impact, releasing destructive energy over the ship’s hull, or penetrated armor and hulls to explode from within, shattering ships completely.

In moments, the once four and a half thousand-strong Karacknid fleet was in ruins. Over half their ships sustained severe damage or were incapacitated. Those near the emergence point of the shift missiles bore the brunt; only traces remained after the thermonuclear blasts subsided.

“Micro jump now!” James commanded as soon as the missiles detonated. He felt two jolts—Beartooth hopping into and out of shift space. Within seconds, the holo display updated, showcasing the aftermath. Moments later, over fifteen hundred Karacknid warships vanished and reappeared where James' ships had been, seeking retribution. “Set course to heading one, one, four point two,” James ordered swiftly. “Ensure every ship maintains stealth.”

For ten tense minutes, James watched, waiting to see if other Karacknid ships would materialize nearby and search for his fleet. None did. As his ships made their way towards the shift passage at the southern end of the system and all Karacknid formations moved in the opposite direction, James finally eased. He looked over at Scott, who wore a triumphant smile. “Congratulations, Emperor. We've disrupted Battlefleet Three's operations. They've lost at least fifteen hundred warships and a thousand freighters. I’ll wager they'll have to regroup and reorganize before pushing forward.”

“Let’s hope you're right,” James replied. “And let’s hope we can do this again, for one more battlefleet awaits.”

Chapter 16

The key to being a good raider is deception. You must make the enemy think you are in one place, and strike in another. This is the only way a weaker force can overcome a stronger one in the long run.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Hammerclaw, 9th January 2513 AD, (same time).

After his attack on the Karacknid fleet base, Jonathan quickly retreated with his squadron back through the hidden shift passage and out of Karacknid space. He then set about hunting for another supply convoy to hit. Almost immediately, however, things had become far more complicated, for the number of enemy patrols had risen rapidly. With over three hundred warships in his squadron, he had the strength to take on most of the patrols and win easily, yet he suspected that was what Tanaka-lan or whoever was overseeing the organization of the Karacknid battlefleets’ supply lines wanted.

Twice Jonathan had been forced to engage with Karacknid patrols, and whilst he had won each time, some of the enemy warships had escaped, no doubt bringing news of his squadron’s location to every supply convoy within fifty light years. As a result, he had spent the last two weeks fruitlessly hunting for convoys to hit. Eleven days ago his scouts had made contact with a supply convoy, but it had already been racing westward, apparently having been warned about his squadron’s presence. After that, despite Jonathan sending out more than thirty frigates and destroyers to scour the nearby systems, no news had come back to him. As each day had come and gone, Jonathan had grown more frustrated. He knew every day that passed where he wasn’t striking at Karacknid supply lines meant the battlefleets were advancing more southward.

Thankfully though, at last, just three days ago a second sighting had occurred. Though the convoy was more eastward than Jonathan currently had his squadron, and it was already just as south as his ships were when the news reached him, luck appeared to be on Jonathan’s side. The enemy supply convoy was heading towards a system where his father had built an artificial shift passage. Using it, Jonathan was able to rush southeast and beat the convoy to the system.

The question before him, Iso, Harte, and the rest of Jonathan’s officers was; just how were they going to hit the convoy. Just six hours ago, one of the scouts Jonathan had sent forward had come back with concerning news. Two of Jonathan’s other scout ships had been intercepted and destroyed while trying to get a good look at the convoy. The one scout that had escaped had reported that the convoy of approximately seven hundred freighters was escorted by three hundred warships. The warship to freighter ratio was twice that of any convoy Jonathan had come across yet. Evidently, the Karacknids had learnt they needed more escorts. In one sense that was good, for it meant they would have fewer ships to assign to their battlefleets, yet it made Jonathan’s mission much harder.

“Any thoughts?” he asked his officers. They were all staring at two holo projections. The first was the sensor data the scout had brought back of the Karacknid convoy, and the second an image of the system their squadron was currently in. When no one spoke up, Jonathan glanced down at his officers, but none met his eyes. He wasn’t too surprised, for taking on such a force was going to be a difficult task. Not only did they have to destroy the convoy but do so without losing a significant proportion of their warships.

If Jonathan really wanted to, he could charge his warships in and batter down the convoy's escorts, alternatively, he could send in his fighters to seriously weaken them before moving in to finish them off with his warships. However, either option would likely cost him a third or even up to half of his force. Given that every other convoy they were likely to run into from here on in would be as heavily protected, losing so much of his strength would put an end Jonathan’s ability to raid the Karacknids supply lines.

For another couple of minutes, Jonathan stared at the two displays as a couple of ideas came to him. He quickly jotted them down, not entirely content with either, but they would at least serve as a starting point to discuss with his officers. Just when he felt like nothing else was coming to him, he looked back at his officers and opened his mouth to share what he had. As he looked down, however, he saw Harte looking up from his console with an eager expression.

“I hope that means you have something, Lieutenant,” Jonathan responded.

“Well,” Harte said, his voice full of confidence, confirming to Jonathan that his tactical officer was on his way to outgrowing his role and would soon be deserving of his own command. “The key is, of course, the convoy’s escorts. I was thinking, what if some of the escorts have orders to break away from the freighters and pursue any raiding forces they meet? That would explain why they have so many ships. They could detach two hundred or even two hundred and fifty to pursue us and still leave the convoy with a decent escort.”

“So you’re thinking we show ourselves, lure the escorts after us and then double back somehow to strike the convoy before the escorts can catch up with us?” Jonathan responded.

Harte nodded. “I’m not entirely sure how we can lose the escorts if they chase us, but if we can, I was thinking we could use the interdictor cruiser to delay them. If we wait until the convoy jumped out of the system before we try to shake our pursuers, the convoy will think they’re in the clear. In reality, we could lose the escorts, hold them back with the interdictor cruiser, and then strike at the convoy before it realizes the danger it’s in.”

Jonathan smiled. “I like it, and I think I have an idea already about how we could shake any ships that chase us.” Quickly he outlined one of the two plans he had come up with and explained how it could be adapted to fit in with Harte’s idea. In a matter of minutes, they had a working plan that everyone was happy with. “Well,” Jonathan said, feeling much more confident now, “we still have six hours before they get here, let’s get ourselves in position and make our preparations.”

*

Eight hours later, Jonathan sat in his command chair watching the Karacknid convoy moving through the system via a stealth recon drone Iso had deployed in a high orbit around the system’s sixth planet. Hammerclaw and all but eighty of Jonathan’s squadron were in a much lower orbit as they hid within the gas giant’s thin upper atmosphere. If the Karacknids came close to the planet or sent a probe into its atmosphere, they would easily detect all the eddies and vortices his ships were causing in the upper atmosphere. But as long as they kept on their current trajectory, the planet easily masked any stray emissions his ships might give off.

“New contacts,” Harte announced as the holo display began to update to show an entirely new formation of ships. “They’re right on schedule.”

As Hammerclaw’s computer analyzed the new contacts, it quickly updated the display to show a copy of many of the ships of Jonathan’s own squadron, even including Hammerclaw. All one hundred and fifty contacts had come out of stealth and were racing away from a position in front of the Karacknid convoy. It was meant to look like they had been lying in wait to launch an ambush, but once they realized the strength of the Karacknid escorts, they were now trying to run. To drive home the illusion that the squadron was a full-strength one, two hundred fighters began to be launched from the very real carriers James had assigned to the squadron. They quickly enveloped the squadron in a protective formation.

“Now we’ll see what they want to do,” Iso said as the tension on the bridge began to increase. Jonathan and Harte’s plan entirely depended on how the Karacknid escorts reacted. If they didn’t leave the convoy and simply accompanied it to the next system, all Jonathan and Harte’s preparations would come to nothing.

For ten minutes that was exactly what happened; the escorts simply did nothing in response to the Imperial ships ahead of them. Jonathan shared a few glances with Harte and Iso. It wasn’t the end of the world if the Karacknids didn’t take the bait, yet given how few convoys they had sighted recently, Jonathan really didn’t want to let this one get away. In desperation, he started to consider other options. It wasn’t too late for him to bring his ships out of their hiding place and pursue the convoy. Perhaps with a fighter strike, he could weaken their escorts enough to justify closing in and taking them on in a missile duel.

Moments later, however, Montgomery eased the tension on the bridge with a single sentence. “Look, they’re doing it; they are turning to pursue!”

Jonathan looked up at the holo display in relief as it changed to show what Hammerclaw’s Captain had described. Their plan was still viable! As per her instructions, Captain Farnsworth began the next stage of the plan almost immediately. All her fighters broke away from her eighty ships and began to charge the Karacknid escorts. To the enemy commander, it was supposed to look like a desperate attempt to strike at his ships and deter the Karacknids from pursuing the Imperial squadron.

To defend themselves, the Karacknids launched their own fighters. As the Karacknid fighters moved to intercept Farnsworth’s Hellcats, the Imperial fighters began to slow and altered course to engage them. A ten-minute dogfight ensued. All one hundred and ten Karacknid fighters were blown apart at the cost of thirty-three Hellcats. Then, instead of moving on to attack the Karacknid warships, the Hellcats turned and rushed back to their carriers. Outwardly it looked like the Hellcats had used too much fuel and couldn’t complete their attack; in reality, Jonathan had no desire to throw his fighters against such a strong force. Instead, Farnsworth's attack had served to remove the convoy’s fighters from the equation, and that was all Jonathan required, though he still felt the loss of thirty-three of his fighters for he couldn’t replace them.

Forty-four more minutes passed before the next part of Jonathan’s plan began. Only once the Karacknid escorts were far enough away from the convoy did he give the order for his ships to come out of hiding. Under Iso’s careful supervision, Hammerclaw and the rest of the ships in formation around her slowly ascended out of their low orbit. Then, remaining in stealth, they set course for the same shift passage the Karacknid convoy and its remaining escorts were headed towards.

For the next two hours, Jonathan’s attention was split between watching the convoy for any sign that it might have detected his ships and keeping an eye on Farnsworth's force. In order to lure the majority of the Karacknid escorts after Farnsworth, her starting momentum meant the Karacknids would catch her ships before they could reach the shift passage they were retreating towards. It was crucial, however, that the Karacknid escorts didn’t get close enough to launch any attacks until the convoy jumped out.

Twice over those two hours, the Karacknid escorts increased acceleration rates. It was only by a couple of percentage points each time but was enough to concern Jonathan. Evidently, the Karacknid commander was prepared to take the safeties off his engines to ensure he caught up to the Imperial raiding squadron before it escaped. With the drones in formation around Farnsworth’s flotilla precisely calibrated to look like Jonathan’s warships, there was no way for her to increase the speed of her force without revealing her deception. As a result, Farnsworth's ships and all of Jonathan’s carriers were in real danger. On the holo display, Harte was showing that if the Karacknids increased the rate they were gaining on Farnsworth’s force even by another percent, then they would be able to open fire with their missiles before the convoy could jump out. If that happened, Jonathan would have no choice but to order Farnsworth to abandon her con and run for safety. The moment that happened, the convoy would know something was up.

As the Karacknid convoy approached the system’s mass shadow, and the escort force closed with Farnsworth, it came down to the wire. Jonathan, having never bitten his fingernails before, suddenly felt the urge to. He could feel something similar all around him. After a couple of weeks of unsuccessfully hunting for targets, no one wanted to see their ruse ruined and the convoy snatched from their grasp. Yet it was now out of their hands. All they could do was watch and wait.

Despite the large distances involved and the hours of maneuvering that had already occurred, the final stage of Jonathan’s plan unfolded within seconds. “Convoy has crossed the system’s mass shadow,” Harte reported.

Jonathan held his breath. The Karacknid escorts were less than a couple of minutes from being able to open fire. Do it, he thought toward the Karacknid convoy when it didn’t immediately jump out. Why aren’t they jumping? He asked a second later. Of course, their delay didn’t necessarily mean anything. No formation of ships ever jumped into shift space the millisecond they got beyond the gravitational pull of the system they were in, not unless they had enemies hard on their heels. Yet in the moment, Jonathan started to get nervous. What if the convoy was going to wait on the edge of the system until its escorts dealt with Farnsworth’s ships and returned to rejoin them? Or what if one of their ships had a malfunction in its shift drive and they needed to wait for it to be repaired?

As the seconds ticked by more and more problems came into Jonathan’s mind. He could feel the pressure building up within him. As desperate as he was to hit another convoy, he couldn’t risk Farnsworth’s ships and all his carriers. As his eyes settled on Farnsworth's force, he knew what he needed to do. Opening his mouth, he took one last glance towards the convoy as he began to speak. “That’s it, order Farns…” He cut himself off mid-sentence. The Karacknid convoy had disappeared. Blinking quickly, Jonathan looked again to make sure he wasn’t mistaken and couldn’t see them anymore. “Tactical, are they gone?” He demanded a moment later.

“No sign of the Karacknid convoy, Commodore,” Harte responded at once. “Either they’ve gone into stealth, or they’ve jumped out.”

“Signal Farnsworth, tell her to get out of there!” Jonathan snapped. “Wait, belay that. Detach Captain Norling’s flotilla and take us out of stealth, maximum acceleration towards the shift passage; that will get their attention better.”

“Aye, Commodore,” Iso responded. She couldn’t help grinning. “They’re going to be mad.”

The moment Jonathan’s ships came out of stealth, Farnsworth took that as her signal to act. At once her ships sprang forward, leaving the drones in her wake. Without any heavy cruisers in her formation, she could easily match and then better the Karacknid escorts' acceleration rates. As her new course was plotted on the holo display in front of Jonathan, it showed she would just make it to the shift passage she was rushing towards before any missiles the Karacknids might fire at her would catch her. Not that she needed to worry, however, for barely a couple of seconds passed between Jonathan's ships accelerating and the Karacknids reacting. Though they sent no transmissions, their response confirmed Iso’s guess about their state of mind.

Flipping their engines over one hundred and eighty degrees, the Karacknid escorts started to decelerate as hard as they could. Within seconds, their rates went even higher than they had been before, signaling that they were redlining their reactors and engines. Then, seconds later, the Karacknid escorts’ formation began to break apart as frigates and destroyers moved ahead of the larger cruisers.

“At the current rates, the destroyers and frigates will reach the shift passage just half an hour behind us,” Harte updated everyone. “Their cruisers twenty minutes after that.”

Jonathan nodded. If his ships planned on attacking the convoy as soon as they reached the next system, knowing more than a hundred frigates and destroyers would be right on his heels would have forced him to be more cautious. Yet neither the frigates nor the cruisers were going to be a problem for him. With his part of the plan over, Harte’s tactic would soon come into play, and Jonathan had no doubts it would buy him the time he needed.

“Signal Farnsworth,” Jonathan requested as he turned to Lieutenant Rossi. “Say, ‘Good work, Captain, see you at the rendezvous point. Godspeed and good luck.’”

“She has replied,” Rossi reported several minutes later. “She says, ‘Happy hunting.’”

“Acknowledge her message,” Jonathan responded. He then nodded to Hammerclaw’s navigation officer. “Jump us out as soon as we cross the mass shadow.”

“Understood, Commodore,” the Lieutenant replied. Forty minutes later, after watching more than a dozen Karacknid warships explode as their straining reactors or engines gave out and overloaded, Hammerclaw and Jonathan’s two hundred and forty warships disappeared from the system as they followed the unsuspecting Karacknid convoy into shift space.

*

IS Shield

“Destroyers and frigates are approaching the mass shadow,” Lieutenant Davies reported. “Two minutes until they can jump out.”

“Wait until it's thirty seconds,” Captain Hilman responded. “Let’s buy the Commodore as much time as we can.”

“Coming up to thirty seconds now, Captain,” Davies said when the time came.

“Activate generators,” Hilman ordered. At the touch of a button, Shield’s reactors pumped all their energy into the interdictor cruiser’s four gravity well generators. Instantly they projected a new gravity field out around the cruiser. With Shield in orbit around the system’s eleventh planet, the gravity field served to enlarge the mass shadow created by the unusually large rocky planet and so in turn distorted the entire system’s mass shadow. Suddenly, the point at which the Karacknid destroyers and cruisers could activate their shift drives extended far out in front of them by at least a couple of hours.

The Karacknid commander knew right away what had happened. There was nothing he could do about it however, not if his priority was the convoy. Dispatching his cruisers or even his faster frigates to attack Shield and her handful of escorts was a possibility. Yet Shield was three hours travel time from the shift passage the convoy had taken. If he diverted ships to hit Shield, it would actually take them longer to go back and chase after the convoy. His only option, therefore, was to push on up the shift passage in normal space and jump out as soon as he passed beyond the extended mass shadow Shield had created.

For two hours and twenty minutes, Hilman watched the Karacknid ships race after their convoy; then they disappeared from Shield’s sensors as they jumped into shift space. “All right, power down our generators, let’s get out of here and catch up with Farnsworth before she gets too far ahead of us,” Hilman ordered. “Our job is done; it’s over to Commodore Somerville now.”

*

IS Hammerclaw, 10th January 2513 AD, (one day later).

Just twenty hours after jumping after the Karacknid convoy, Hammerclaw reverted to real space. In stealth, Jonathan took his ships forty-five minutes into the system and then brought them to a halt. As Karacknid freighters didn’t have military-grade shift drives, he was confident they had beaten the convoy to the system by at least an hour. Sure enough, the convoy arrived almost exactly when he anticipated. For half an hour, Jonathan allowed it to begin to cautiously move into the system, then he pounced. His entire squadron came out of stealth at the same moment and charged the convoy. Though the ships of the convoy turned as quickly as they could and headed back towards the system’s mass shadow, Jonathan easily brought them into missile range before they could jump out again. Two salvos took out the sixty escorts that had remained with the convoy.

Then, two more salvos wreaked havoc among the eight hundred freighters. Though the freighters had some point defenses, they couldn’t handle the eight thousand missiles Jonathan hurled at them. Not a single freighter survived the onslaught. The only ships that did make it back across the system’s mass shadow were crippled wrecks that were destined to float on out into the emptiness of space forever.

“Turn us around, get us out of here,” Jonathan ordered immediately after his ships fired their second salvo. As his ships turned and rushed into the inner system, Jonathan watched his missiles hunt down and destroy every last freighter. He was still watching the shift passage an hour and a half later when the Karacknid destroyers and frigates emerged. In a rage, they set off after his ships, yet he already had enough of a momentum advantage to get across the system and jump into shift space. When the Karacknid cruisers arrived, they too began to pursue him, yet they would be even further behind by the time he could jump out.

“Do you think they will chase us to the next system?” Iso asked.

“Would you rather go back and tell your senior commander you lost an entire convoy?” Jonathan asked.

“No, I suppose not,” Iso replied. “And they do look pretty mad.”

“Which means we’re going to have to find a way to shake them,” Jonathan said as he pulled up a map of the next system they were headed towards. The rendezvous point with Farnsworth was two systems away from their current location. Ideally, he didn’t want to still have the Karacknid escorts on his tail by the time he got there. We need to hit another convoy, and another, he said to himself, not content with the success he was having. The knowledge that five Karacknid battlefleets were still bearing down on his species’ worlds meant he had to keep hitting the Karacknid supply lines again and again.

Chapter 17

Though I am not a bean counter myself, I have had to deal with my fair share of logistical operations. One thing I can tell you for sure; nothing creates a headache like a late convoy. I can only imagine what a nightmare a destroyed convoy is to deal with!

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Hammerclaw, 17th January 2513 AD, (seven days later).

“Well, we’re finally here,” Jonathan said, a hint of relief in his voice as Hammerclaw and his squadron exited shift space into the system he was to rendezvous with Farnsworth’s ships. “Helmsman, take us in. Iso, flash the rendezvous area when we reach it.”

“Aye, Commodore,” Iso responded. “Hopefully this system will be a little less busy than the last two.”

“Indeed,” Jonathan agreed.

They were a couple of days late to the rendezvous system, but that assumed Farnsworth had made it in time. Given that they were both going to have to pass through systems where Karacknid ships might have been moving through, Jonathan had left Farnsworth with some very flexible instructions and so he hoped she wouldn’t have left already.

As his ships stealthily moved into the system, Jonathan reminded himself of its features. Just a week’s journey from FOB Dresden, he had chosen the system because it was uninhabited and had nothing to attract the Karacknids or any other sentient species to it. None of its asteroid belts or planets were rich in rare metals. Its attractiveness to Jonathan was its unattractiveness to everyone else. That, and the fact that he could easily return to Dresden to refuel and resupply. However, news he had received a couple of days ago had put an end to that plan. One of his scouts had returned from Dresden after discovering the Karacknids had found the FOB and destroyed it entirely. Thankfully, he had enough fuel in his ships and supply freighters for another six weeks of operations, but soon he would have to head further south to find new supplies, for all the FOB’s near Karacknid space had either been destroyed or had their stores used up.

“We’re at the rendezvous point,” Iso reported half an hour later as Hammerclaw edged near to an asteroid belt. “Flashing the area with a laser COM now.” Iso turned around to Jonathan a moment later and smiled. “We got a reply, Farnsworth is here.”

“Excellent,” Jonathan replied. “Connect me to her.”

A moment later, Farnsworth’s face appeared on the main holo display. “Captain, I’m glad to find you here. How is your flotilla?”

“I’m happy to report we're all in one piece, Commodore,” Farnsworth replied after giving Jonathan a salute. “We encountered a Karacknid patrol on the way, but we managed to duck back into shift space before they spotted us and then we waited until they passed.”

“That’s good, the last thing we need is more Karacknids following us here,” Jonathan responded.

“What about the convoy, did you manage to hit it?” Farnsworth asked.

Jonathan smiled. “That we did, Captain. We took out their escorts and every single freighter. The convoy was completely destroyed.”

Farnsworth returned Jonathan's smile. “Then our ruse worked well. I just wish we could’ve been there to join you in the victory.”

“The victory was all of ours, whether your ships were there or not. I’ll make sure all your crews know it,” Jonathan assured Farnsworth.

“And the rest of the Karacknid escorts, did Shield hold them off long enough to let you get away?”

Jonathan puffed out his cheeks at Farnsworth’s question. “That was another matter. Yes, they were held back long enough for us to make a run for it. But those escorts were determined. They followed us through two systems. They were out for revenge after seeing what we did to their convoy. I feared we’d never be able to give them the slip.”

“How did you get away then?” Farnsworth asked.

Jonathan smiled again. “The old bait and switch. You remember the Quinta system?”

“Yes, I think so,” Farnsworth said, though as she glanced away for a second, Jonathan could tell she was pulling up an image of the system on a secondary display.

“Well, it has two shift passages very near to one another. I sent my frigates and destroyers down one passage while I hid the rest of the squadron. Thankfully the Karacknid escort squadron was so keen to catch us they followed without taking a second look. Hammerclaw and our cruisers and freighters were able to proceed here while the frigates and destroyers took a slightly longer route. As soon as they knew the Karacknids had followed them, they were able to go to full speed and leave them behind.”

“I’m glad it worked, Commodore,” Farnsworth replied. “As much as I have no issues with having to take on a squadron of Karacknid warships, I’d rather be hunting juicier targets. On that note…” Farnsworth continued as Jonathan nodded in agreement. “One of my scouts discovered something I think you might find interesting. I’m sending you the sensor data now.”

A second later, an image of a system popped up on the holo display of Jonathan’s command chair. “What am I looking at?” He asked as he studied it.

“It’s the Ventoran system,” Farnsworth explained. “They were a species enslaved by the Karacknids before the First Karacknid War. We’ve had little dealings with them since, for they rebuffed every envoy we sent to them. Other than the odd patrol to make sure pirates don’t harass them, they’ve been left entirely on their own for the last two and a half decades. As you can see, they began rebuilding some of their orbital infrastructure. The image you are looking at was from a patrol that visited the system a year ago. The one you’re now seeing was from my scout.”

As the image changed, Jonathan immediately recognized a squadron of Karacknid warships and freighters. They were in a low orbit around the Ventoran’s home system, and it looked like about half of the orbital stations the Ventorans had built had been destroyed. Those that were left were actually quite impressive. With the Karacknid warships near them to give scale, the orbital stations appeared to be sizable. “Let me guess, the Ventorans built their stations using Karacknid designs that they had, so now the Karacknids can take them over and start using them right away.”

Farnsworth nodded. “That’s what our previous surveys of the system suggest. There’s also a gas giant in the system with reasonable concentrations of He3. What’s the likelihood some of those Karacknid freighters carry components to begin constructing a gas mining facility?”

With a tap on his command chair, Jonathan zoomed out the image of the system so he could place it relative to the other systems in the northern half of The Wilds. “Ventoran is situated between battlefleets four and five’s line of advance South. A supply hub at Ventoran could support both battlefleets.”

“That’s what I was thinking, Commodore. But, with less than a hundred ships defending those orbital stations and those freighters full of equipment, they are still quite vulnerable. I was thinking maybe you’d like to put an end to any attempt to build up a supply hub before it gets off the ground?” Farnsworth asked with a smile.

Jonathan nodded, his mind already starting to play out how he might assault the small group of stations and warships. “I think you might be right, Captain. And I imagine you have an idea or two about how we just might do that. Let’s get our ships moving and we can discuss it on the way,” he said eagerly.

*

IS Hammerclaw, 22nd January 2513 AD, (five days later).

As soon as Jonathan's squadron reached the Ventoran system, he took half his force directly into the system at full power. Heading straight for the Ventorans' homeworld and the Karacknid squadron in orbit. He wanted them to know he was coming for them. With just eighty Karacknid warships defending the orbital stations and construction freighters sitting in orbit, it was essentially a death sentence. Jonathan could bombard them from a range until they were all destroyed. With no choice but to break orbit, the Karacknid garrison moved to intercept him.

“All right, I think we’ve let them get close enough, begin maneuvering, Commander,” Jonathan instructed Iso.

Iso nodded, then expertly took control of Jonathan's ships as she began to play a game of cat and mouse with the Karacknid garrison. Outwardly, she worked to make it look like she was trying to outflank the Karacknid ships and get in behind them to strike at the orbital stations. In reality, she was simply working to draw the Karacknid garrison ships further and further away from the Ventorans' homeworld.

After an hour of such maneuvers, she had drawn them far enough away that they could no longer support the handful of warships they had left with the orbital stations and freighters. “Excellent flying, Commander,” Jonathan said as he flashed Iso a smile. “Lieutenant Rossi, you may give Farnsworth the go order.”

“Aye, Commodore, transmitting now,” Rossi responded.

Less than a minute later, a hundred and forty new contacts appeared on the holo display as Farnsworth brought her force out of stealth. Her carriers then launched one hundred and ninety fighters which began to race straight for the Karacknid orbital stations and freighters. The holo display projection of their course made it abundantly clear the Karacknid garrison ships couldn’t pull back to save their comrades.

Even so, the Karacknids tried. Giving up on countering Iso’s moves, the Karacknid garrison force turned and sped back towards their orbital stations and freighters. Knowing they were in trouble, the freighters and the seven warships with them abandoned their orbital stations and moved to join up with the garrison warships. Farnsworth’s fighters showed neither group mercy. Two-thirds of the Hellcats split off and attacked the freighters.

First, two squadrons blew apart the seven Karacknid warships, then four more rammed missiles into the thirty-four freighters, destroying every one of them. As the Hellcats regrouped and raced back towards their carriers, a final three squadrons attacked the orbital stations. Evidently, the Karacknids hadn’t had time to install defensive weapons on the stations, for not a single laser beam was fired at the Hellcats or the missiles they released. In a wave of explosions, the orbital stations were blown apart.

“Open an unencrypted COM channel and transmit towards Ventoran,” Jonathan requested. “People of Ventoran,” he began when Rossi nodded to him. “I am Commodore Somerville of the Imperial Navy. I am sorry I have had to destroy your orbital stations, but we could not allow them to remain in Karacknid hands. As we speak, tens of thousands of Karacknid warships are moving through The Wilds, seeking to reconquer all the systems they lost nearly three decades ago. Your orbital stations would likely have formed the initial stage of a fleet base they would have built here, drawing many of their ships into your system. Hopefully, by destroying your stations we have put an end to that plan. I cannot predict what the Karacknids will do next, I hope they will leave you alone. If not, you have my condolences. If my species is able to defeat them, we will return to drive them out of your system but that may be many years from now. I am sorry I cannot offer you anymore comfort. I must go now to continue our war. Good luck to you and farewell.”

Though he felt like he should say more, Jonathan couldn’t think of any words of encouragement for the Ventoran people. They were entirely at the Karacknid’s mercy, and orbital stations or not, if the Karacknids wanted to, they could return in strength at any time. As he turned to Iso to get her thoughts on the matter, the look on her face made him forget all about the Ventorans. “What is it?” He asked immediately.

“New contacts just started jumping into the system as we were transmitting, Commodore,” Iso said as she pointed at the main holo display which changed from showing the Ventoran’s homeworld to the edge of the system. “It’s them, they are here!”

“Them?” Jonathan asked as he turned to the display. As soon as he saw the contacts though, he knew who Iso was referring to. Two hundred and thirty-four all-too-familiar warships were moving in fast from the edge of the system. How? He couldn’t help asking. Of course, no one had an answer. Jonathan, like the rest of his officers, thought they had lost the convoy escorts that had been chasing them a week ago. Yet somehow, they had picked up Jonathan’s trail again or guessed where he might attack next and got lucky.

As Jonathan followed the projected course of the newcomers, his shock turned to concern. The convoy escorts were moving to intercept Farnsworth’s ships! Worse, it looked like they had the momentum to catch them. Even as Jonathan watched, Farnsworth's ships began to turn as they set course for the nearest shift passage, all too aware of the danger they were in. Yet as the holo display updated to project Farnsworth’s course, it showed the Karacknid escorts would get off at least one salvo before Farnsworth could jump out. Outnumbered nearly two to one, Jonathan had no doubt that many Karacknid missiles would get through Farnsworth’s defensive fire, and he knew which ships they would target. All his carriers were with Farnsworth!

“We have to help them,” Jonathan said desperately. “Plot a direct course to join up with Farnsworth’s ships.”

“Aye, Commodore,” Harte responded at once.

A couple of seconds later, a new line appeared on the holo display showing the course Hammerclaw needed to take. As Jonathan feared, it led almost straight through the Karacknid garrison force. Having already realized the same thing, the display showed the garrison force was already maneuvering to place itself directly on the line. “We have no choice; we have to go through them. We can’t lose our carriers. Turn us onto that heading, navigation,” Jonathan ordered. “Iso, prepare the squadron for battle, I’m afraid they’re going to force us to enter energy weapon range.”

Iso’s face turned serious. “Understood, Commodore,” she said before turning to give out orders to Jonathan’s other officers. Moment’s later his squadron began to turn and accelerate hard after Farnsworth’s ships.

For the next half-hour, Jonathan, Iso, and Harte studied the Karacknid garrison force intently as they assigned targets to their ships and prepared for every eventuality. As Jonathan predicted, as soon as the Karacknids placed themselves right in front of Jonathan’s path, they then turned and began to charge, seeking to close to energy weapon range as quickly as possible. As a result, both sides would only get to fire two salvos, then they would reach energy weapons range of one another. Jonathan wanted to make sure every one of his missiles counted, for the more enemy ships he could destroy, the fewer laser beams would be reaching out to slice his ships open.

As the first salvos of missiles struck their targets, Jonathan’s superior numbers paid off. Just eight Karacknid missiles survived the defensive fire Jonathan’s ships. Five scored direct hits, destroying two ships and crippling a third. Jonathan’s salvo of mark VII missiles bathed fifteen enemy warships in antimatter, taking eleven of them out of the fight. His second salvo of mark VIII missiles was even deadlier. Thirty-nine missiles got close enough to detonate and hurl more than a hundred laser and grazer beams at the Karacknids. Just sixteen ships were destroyed but crucially, forty-one ships were hit by at least one beam. With both squadrons charging into energy weapon range of one another just thirty seconds later, the damage threw off the aim of many of the Karacknid ships.

Before they could fire their close-range weapons, Jonathan’s ships opened up on the Karacknids' second salvo, shooting down all but nine missiles. Only three managed to score direct hits. All three scored crippling blows to two destroyers and a light cruiser.

Then, both sides fired their energy weapons. The Karacknids let loose with heavy laser cannons and mass particle beams. The Imperials unleashed plasma bolts, laser beams, and mass driver rounds in return. Compared to the missile exchanges, the energy weapon fight was devastating. Hundreds of explosions erupted amongst both squadrons as ships were ripped apart.

A laser beam struck Hammerclaw, sending a jolt through the bridge. It flung Jonathan forward into his restraints which tightened around him, knocking the wind from his lungs. The lights dimmed for a second but then returned. Moans and groans filled the bridge as Jonathan coughed several times. Bringing a hand up to his lip, he looked down to see blood on his fingers. The moans, however, quickly gave way to shouts and orders as Captain Montgomery worked to get his ship back under control.

“Firing again!” Harte shouted over the din as soon as Hammerclaw’s weapons were recharged.

Jonathan braced himself, for if his ships were firing again, so too were the Karacknids. Yet a second shot didn’t strike his flagship. Instead, the bridge quickly quieted as officers assessed the damage and surveyed the fleet. Though Jonathan knew it was going to be bad, he couldn’t help grimacing as the holo display updated to show what Hammerclaw’s sensors were detecting. The Karacknid fleet had been completely wiped out. Its ships were now nothing more than an expanding ball of wreckage as they spun away to Hammerclaw’s stern. Closer to Hammerclaw, but still falling astern, were a handful of additional contacts. Twelve Imperial ships had been so badly wrecked that they were nothing more than debris. Amongst them were at least six or seven more that had lost all power. Then, closer to Hammerclaw, but still falling behind, there was another handful that had evidently suffered damage to their reactors or engines.

Jonathan took a moment to assess all the ships, then he started to give orders, his voice cold and emotionless. “Abandon every ship that cannot keep up. Give those closest to us ten minutes to effect repairs, but if they cannot, they are to abandon ship and get their people over to ships that can keep up. Launch search and rescue operations amongst the crippled ships, but we cannot slow and we cannot come back. So prioritize those we can get off in time.” As he spoke, Jonathan hated himself for the orders he was giving. He could see similar expressions on the faces of several of Hammerclaw’s officers. Yet it had to be done. He needed to save his carriers, the crippled ships in front of him could play no more role in raiding Karacknid supply lines.

Iso looked deflated as well, but she nodded nonetheless, showing that she at least understood. “Launching search and rescue shuttles now, Commodore,” she responded flatly.

Though Jonathan wanted to assist in the operation, he held himself back, not wanting to get in the way. His officers were already focused on doing all they could whilst Montgomery’s were assessing the damage to Hammerclaw. A laser beam had hit the heavy cruiser directly on one of its missile ports, disintegrating starboard missile tube six and killing all its crew. The losses were substantial, yet thankfully Hammerclaw was still battle-ready. Doing his best to ignore the damage reports from the other ships in his squadron and then the statistics that started to be collated on the losses from all the ships that had been destroyed, Jonathan instead focused on the Karacknid escort squadron and how to face it. First, he prepared a formation that he and Farnsworth’s ships could assume when they met, then he assessed the enemy ships for weaknesses.

“I have the final count,” Iso said solemnly half an hour later. She continued when Jonathan looked up and nodded to her. “Twenty-six ships were destroyed in the missile duel and energy weapon fight. We’ve had to abandon nine more. We’ve got seven others that are badly damaged, there’s no way they can survive another hit, but their engines are able to keep them with us for now. We managed to take off two thousand one hundred from the crippled ships, but our losses in personnel are at nine thousand three hundred and forty-five. We’ve got another seven hundred and ninety wounded.”

Jonathan took a deep breath as he took in the numbers. He had lost nearly ten percent of his squadron in the space of just fifteen minutes. It would be more if he had to leave behind any of the ships that proved to be too badly damaged to keep up with the squadron as they retreated. Losing ten percent would put a serious dent in his ability to hit enemy convoys. And it’s not over yet, he knew as he pictured the Karacknid escort squadron still pursuing Farnsworth. With a great deal of effort, Jonathan kept his voice calm. “Thank you, Commander. We have to join Farnsworth and get our squadron out of here. I’ve sent information to you already. Transmit it to Farnsworth and prepare our ships to join hers. I want all her fighters launched as soon as they're refueled, they are to intercept enemy missiles as they approach.”

“Yes, Commodore, I understand, sir,” Iso replied as she too kept her voice level.

Though Jonathan said they were to mourn their losses later, he couldn’t help thinking about the ships and the officers he had lost as his force joined up with Farnsworth’s. He had come to know every ship in his squadron intimately along with their Captains and even some of their officers as well. Every loss was the loss of a friend. All of them had been so full of potential, yet now they were gone. Though by now he was used to losing ships, it didn’t take away the grief that Jonathan felt. What it did allow him to do however, was concentrate it into anger and use that anger to focus his mind. When the Karacknid escorts’ higher starting momentum allowed them to close to missile range with his combined squadron, Jonathan was ready.

“Push the Lancer frigates and drone cruisers back with the fighters,” he ordered seconds after the Karacknids fired. “After the first salvo, land all the fighters and pull those ships back. Hold off detonating the antimatter missiles until the last second.”

“Aye, Commodore… Yes, Sir,” Iso and then Harte responded one after the other.

With everything set in place, Jonathan could do nothing more but watch nervously as the Karacknid escorts fired two salvos at his ships. Harte responded with a single salvo of mark VII missiles, then held fire with his second salvo until Jonathan had ordered. When the first enemy salvo came in, nearly two hundred fighters tore into it. Next, the Lancer frigates and drone cruisers opened up with all their point defenses. Still, over fifteen hundred missiles rushed in towards his ships. With two hundred and seventy-one warships left in his squadron, Jonathan was able to meet the enemy missiles with a hail of defensive fire. Nevertheless, six missiles got through. Jonathan held his breath as they came in and detonated. Two frigates were blown apart and a light cruiser was so badly mauled that it immediately fell out of formation. However, no carriers nor larger ships were hit.

Come on, just one more salvo, he thought towards his squadron as the fighters rushed back to their carriers and his rearguard accelerated to catch up with Hammerclaw. Just before the second Karacknid salvo entered point defense range of Jonathan's ships, Harte fired his second salvo. Two thousand nine hundred antimatter missiles shot out of their tubes. They accelerated for just thirty seconds and then they detonated right in front of the Karacknid missiles. Having anticipated the move, the Karacknid missiles were already scattering to avoid getting hit by antimatter. Some failed in their efforts, yet less than a hundred were taken out. On the plus side however, having been forced to scatter, when the Karacknid missiles refocused on attacking Jonathan's ships, they now approached in a staggered formation. Jonathan’s point defenses were therefore able to engage them in smaller groups, one after the other.

Even so, more missiles got through the hail of defensive fire once again. Six detonations erupted within Jonathan's ships. Alarms even went off on Hammerclaw as one missile got close before it was shot down at the last second. As Jonathan watched the six missiles that did make it through detonate, air whistled through his teeth as he inhaled sharply. One of his pocket carriers had been hit! Almost immediately the carrier disintegrated as it broke into several sections, all of which spun away from one another. “Redirect the fighters headed towards that carrier!” Jonathan ordered. “Have them land wherever you can. Time is running out.”

The next three minutes were frantic as Jonathan oversaw the evacuation of two other crippled ships and made sure every fighter that could be landed somewhere, was. Then his squadron crossed the system’s mass shadow. With two thousand seven hundred Karacknid missiles quickly closing on them he had no choice but to order his ships into shift space. “Jump us out now!” he ordered the second he could.

As soon as his ships jumped out, the tension on the bridge evaporated and Jonathan felt his body deflate. Yet it was instantly replaced by guilt. The Karacknids couldn’t catch them now, yet equally, he couldn’t do anything for the damaged ships he had just left behind. And they’ll be right on our heels, Jonathan was sure as he pictured the Karacknid escorts jumping into shift space as soon as they crossed the system’s mass shadow. Though he could feel Montgomery and Iso looking at him, Jonathan pulled up a star map instead. He needed to take his squadron south as fast as he could and find an intact FOB where they could effect repairs and lay low. And he needed to find a way to get there without being followed!

Chapter 18

It seems obvious to us that the pace of history was picking up as the Second Karacknid War began, and that even bigger things than the war itself were afoot. Yet to those who lived through those years, it is hard to imagine anything other than the looming Karacknid threat taking center stage.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Spook, New France system, 27th January 2513 AD, (same time).

Edward studied a holographic chessboard as he analyzed Brooke’s latest move. His second in command was in the New France system with her stealth frigate, like him, watching for any new Silizzarus ships that might try to sneak into Human space. Even as he thought the name of the alien species he had come to think of as the snakelike aliens, Edward had to move his lips as if pronouncing it, trying to get it right. A day before he had left Earth to return to his mission of patrolling the Empire’s southern borders, a data packet had come in from Kulthar with the first information that had been decrypted from the captured Silizzarus ship’s data cores. Not much of it had been of any interest, but at least they had now learnt the name of their secretive enemies.

As he decided on his next move, Edward mouthed the aliens’ name several more times, working on perfecting how one of the few xenolinguists with high enough clearance within Imperial Intelligence to know about the Silizzarus suggested it should be pronounced. When he was finally settled on a stratagem, he moved his queen out in an attempt to lure Brooke into exposing one of her knights. Then he included the move in the latest report he had for her and sent it to Spook’s main computer to be transmitted to the next messenger frigate Spook made contact with.

With one of the few distractions he got to enjoy from his monotonous task over, Edward returned his attention to his responsibilities. He commanded a force of twelve other Imperial intelligence stealth frigates that were spread out along the Empire’s southern border, as well as nominally overseeing all of Imperial intelligence ground assets in the region. In reality each ground asset had his or her own mission that they were on, but in addition they had orders to look out for any unusual political, economic or cultural activities that might suggest a Silizzarus agent had infiltrated their planet. Though they did not know it, any reports to that end were transferred to Edward to collate and assess.

For the next couple of hours he scanned through various reports, wrestling to stay focused on them. Though he knew every minute detail was important as the smallest of clues could be what alerted him to the presence of another enemy agent, keeping focused when most of the reports were extremely dull was a constant struggle. Reading about an illicit affair between a colonial senator and a local businessman, or about the sudden drop in stock prices of an important regional company and the agent’s guess as to what was going on in the background did not make for engaging reading. Just as Edward felt his eyes starting to droop, a line caught his attention. Almost, his head started to lean over as his eyes closed again, but as the line he read repeated in his mind, his head shot up.

It could be nothing, he thought to himself, yet his gut told him the opposite. An agent on New Delhi had reported that a local mining company had seen its shares jump by twenty percent over the course of a week after it announced an expansion in its mining fleet. An expansion that its previous profitability didn’t quite justify. The agent had made note of it as something he intended to look into further if he had the spare time in case the company was being used for money laundering by a pirate organization or even a corrupt politician. Yet there was another possibility that came to Edward’s mind. Quickly he accessed all the sensor data he had on New Delhi and did a search through all the known mining activity carried out by the company in question. Two trips by mining ships quickly caught his attention. Outwardly, they looked mundane, yet both were trips to small asteroid fields that no other company seemed to be mining within the system. More importantly, one trip had been more than five years ago, while the second had been just two weeks previous. A week before the sudden injection of cash the company had received.

It's the same MO, Edward thought. It could still be nothing, but it looks like the same MO. Given that he’d been in Haven for over a month now and this was the first lead he had got, Edward didn’t hesitate. “We are leaving our station,” he said as he sat up straighter in his command chair and swiveled to face Spook’s Captain; Gregory Hanson. “Set course for New Delhi. I want messages sent out to our other intelligence frigates that are nearby, they are to rendezvous with us there.”

“Aye, Commander, right away,” Hanson responded. For a second, he looked confused, but then his professionalism kicked in and he began to give out orders.

Edward smiled as the officers around him sprang into action. Though he understood the importance of his work, and the danger the Silizzarus posed to his species and his parents' Empire, it was still hard to patrol back and forth along the Empire’s southern border while almost everyone he knew and loved were focused on facing the Karacknids in the north. At least with a lead, he had a chance to be actively doing something. And if it comes to nothing, at least it will break the monotony for a week or so, he told himself as Spook began to make for the shift gate that led to New Delhi.

*

IS Spook, New Delhi, 1st February 2513 AD, (five days later).

“Do a search for all Vedanta Mining ships in the system, show them on the holo display,” Edward requested the moment Spook entered the New Delhi system.

Over the next couple of minutes, as Spook’s computer and Lieutenants sifted through every transponder signal Spook’s sensors detected, contacts began to flash. Their number rose up to eighty-three and then stopped. “That’s them all, Commander,” Spook’s sensor officer said.

Right away, one contact jumped out at Edward. It was a small mining freighter, the same one that had visited the mineral-poor asteroid belt just nineteen days earlier. More importantly, it appeared to be heading back to the same asteroid belt. Edward almost felt like he had to pinch himself. The situation in front of him was almost identical to the one where he had caught the Silizzarus agent. If there was a Silizzarus ship hiding in the asteroid field, and if the mining freighter in front of him had brought a Silizzarus agent down to New Delhi, then there was a very high chance the agent was now on its way back to its ship. Edward’s mind immediately went to his quarters where he had several of the small traps he had caught the other Silizzarus agent in. If he could catch another one, it would be a major coup. Especially if we get another ship, he thought as his excitement rose. That would allow the Kulreans to take the ship they already have apart to start reverse engineering its technologies.

“Plot us a course to intercept that freighter, can we get it before it reaches that asteroid field?” Edward asked.

After a couple of seconds, two lines appeared on the display. One intersected with the freighter before it reached the asteroid field, the second failed to do so. “If we stay in stealth they will beat us there, Commander,” Spook’s Captain explained. “We can only catch them if we come out of stealth.”

Edward frowned, the moment Spook came out of stealth and started accelerating towards the freighter, it would know something was up. “I presume that freighter could probably go a little faster if it really wanted to?” He asked.

Edward’s frown deepened when Hanson nodded. “They have a good head start and a decent amount of momentum,” Hanson said. “I’d say if they spotted we were moving towards them they could redline their engines and beat us there even if we went to full power.”

“All right,” Edward said as he tried to think. “Take us towards them on an intercept course but keep us in stealth for now. Reach out and see what other of our frigates are already here.”

Over the next twenty minutes, as Spook began to slowly make her way into the system, the stealth frigate’s COM officer sent out covert signals seeking to make contact with the other Imperial Intelligence ships in the system. Eventually, a total of five ships responded. They were all at various points within the system, but crucially, two could remain in stealth and still intercept the mining freighter. “Send orders to them to move to intercept the freighter at once,” Edward ordered. “They are only to interdict the freighter though, no one is to board it until we get there. Have the other frigates move towards the asteroid field as well. We might need them if things go south.”

“Transmitting those orders now, commander,” Spook’s COM officer responded.

For the next hour, Edward felt his nerves grow stronger and stronger as he watched the mining freighter's slow approach towards the asteroid field. If there was a Silizzarus agent on board, he did not want it escaping. Several times, he caught himself rocking back-and-forth as he urged the two nearest frigates on towards the freighter. Almost unblinkingly, he stared at the holographic representation of the freighter, watching it like a hawk. When it suddenly started to flash, it made him jump a little. “What is that?” He demanded.

“The freighter has just increased its acceleration rate by sixteen percent,” Spook’s sensor officer answered. “Its engine profile has also changed slightly.”

“They jettisoned their cargo,” Hanson guessed. “Something has frightened them.”

Seconds later, the holographic display updated to show the new projection of the freighter's course. As Edward feared, neither of the two frigates he had closing with it would catch it now. At least, not if they remained in stealth. “Order all our frigates out of stealth, everyone is to close with that freighter, maximum acceleration.”

“Yes, commander,” Hansen said as he gestured towards his COM officer. “May I suggest we alert the system’s patrol flotilla. They'll want to know what is going on and might be able to assist us.”

“By all means,” Edward said. “Request that they send whatever ships they have in the vicinity to help us. If there is a Silizzarus agent on that freighter, then there has to be one of their ships in the system and we have no idea what it is really capable of.”

If Edward had felt nervous before, as Spook and six other Imperial Intelligence frigates came out of stealth and went to full power, his stomach began to do somersaults within his torso. Ordinarily, revealing the presence of so many stealth frigates, and allowing every civilian ship in the system to get a good look at them would draw the attention of Admiral Alvarez, and make any Imperial Intelligence officer anxious. Edward barely gave it a thought however, for his fear that the alien agent would escape was far greater.

“They are increasing their acceleration again!” Spook’s sensor officer called out in surprise. “By another fourteen percent.”

“Impossible, no freighter can go that fast!” Hanson responded. Yet the gravimetric sensors didn’t lie and the holographic display showed it for everyone to see.

“It must have been modified,” another officer suggested.

“Or the Silizzarus understands our technology better than we do and has altered something,” Edward said as he remembered how impressed the Kulrean engineers who had worked on the captured Silizzarus ship had been. “Either way, can we still catch them?”

“I’m sorry, Commander, it doesn’t look like it. They’ll reach the asteroid field before any of our ships get into weapon’s range,” Spook’s tactical officer said.

Edward’s nerves disappeared in an instant. Immediately they were replaced by a deep sense of failure. If the alien got away, it would bring back news to its people that Humanity knew about them. If the aliens were looking for their missing agent, they would probably guess that it had been captured. Edward had no idea what the extremely advanced and secretive species would do once they realized they had been discovered, but he suspected it would not be good for his species and the Empire. Almost pleadingly, he turned to Spook’s Captain. “What should we do?”

“You’re sure there’s an alien ship out there?” Hanson asked.

“As sure as I can be,” Edward replied. “Everything fits. Why else would they be running?”

“In that case, we do everything we can to find and destroy that ship. With your permission, Commander?” Hanson asked.

“Of course, you are the one with ship-to-ship combat experience, do whatever it takes,” Edward responded.

Hanson immediately swiveled towards his sensor officer. “Begin launching active recon drones, saturate the area around that asteroid field with them. Instruct the other frigates to do the same. Then send a request for every Imperial warship in the vicinity to aid us. Warn them there may be a very powerful alien vessel trying to leave our system.” Next, Hanson turned to Spook’s navigation officer. “Alter course, assume that there is a ship in the asteroid belt, as soon as the alien gets on board it will make straight for the system’s mass shadow. Put us between the belt and open space.”

“Aye, sir,” the navigation officer responded.

“And instruct the rest of our ships to do the same,” Hanson added.

As Spook now rushed to place herself between the likely location of the alien ship and its route of escape, Edward’s nerves returned. He had no idea how the alien ship would react if it thought it had been discovered. And if the Silizzarus agent got on board and tried to make a run for it, a firefight was sure to follow. On the display in front of him, Edward could see four of his frigates along with six nearby Imperial warships would be able to get between the asteroid belt and open space before the mining freighter reached the asteroid belt. Ten ships against one seemed like good odds, but not when no one had any idea about the alien ship’s capabilities.

Over the next half an hour, Edward watched in silence as the mining freighter reached the asteroid belt. It then slowed and disappeared as it headed in amongst the asteroids. As soon as it did, Edward held his breath. More than a hundred active recon drones had already encircled the asteroid belt. Two warships were on site as well and one of his frigates was very close. If the alien ship’s stealth capabilities were as good as Spook’s there was a chance they would never detect it. Yet every minute that passed, more recon drones and ships entered the area. Will it make any difference? Edward worried. What made Spook’s stealth so good was that she could absorb or reflect a great deal of active sensor emissions. Unless an active recon drone was right on top of her, it would be very hard to detect the frigate as long as she stayed in stealth. But what if we forced it to come out of stealth? Edward asked as an idea came to him. “Missiles!” He said out loud excitedly.

“What was that?” Hanson asked.

Edward spoke quickly. “We know there’s an alien ship there. We know it is hidden within the asteroid belt. Why don’t we use missiles? We can blast that asteroid belt apart and fill space with flying chunks of rock. Any ship in there will have to come out of stealth and use its maneuvering thrusters to avoid getting hit.”

“Brilliant!” Hanson responded even as he began to turn away from Edward. “Signal the ships to open fire with missiles and lasers on that asteroid belt. Blow up every asteroid they can hit.”

Seconds later, the two closest ships opened fire with laser cannons. Instantly they shattered a handful of asteroids. They launched missiles moments later as did several other ships. Within a couple of minutes, hundreds of asteroids had been smashed into tens of thousands of small rock pieces.

When a contact appeared on the holo display, Edward nearly jumped out of his seat in excitement. Yet he had to contain himself when an identifier appeared beside it marking it as the mining freighter. Desperately it tried to weave its way out of the asteroid field and to safety. For about fifteen seconds it looked like it was going to make it, then a large chunk of rock smashed into it. The rock shattered into a thousand pieces but not before it ripped a deep hole in the freighter's side. Despite the damage though, the freighter kept going, but within a couple of seconds, three more rocks struck it. The freighter was disintegrated by the strikes. It immediately lost all structural integrity and broke apart into at least twenty pieces. Several detonated as engines overloaded while the rest simply spun away from each other.

Edward felt no pity for the freighter. If there had been any Humans on board, they got what they deserved for collaborating with the Empire’s enemies. In the back of his mind, an irrational voice reminded Edward that if there had been any Humans on the freighter, they likely wouldn’t have even known they were working with an alien. Yet his emotions were too high to let such a thought sway him. Instead, he dismissed the freighter the instant it was destroyed. For the next thirty seconds, he watched, on the edge of his seat, as more and more asteroids were blown apart. As the seconds ticked by, however, and no additional contacts were detected, his excitement began to fade. It wasn’t that he doubted the alien ship was there, instead he was starting to fear that it was so advanced it could avoid all the flying chunks of asteroid and still remain hidden.

Yet suddenly, without warning, what he was looking for appeared. A new contact began to flash on the holo display. Spook’s gravimetric sensors were detecting something! It lasted only a second and then disappeared, but it was long enough for Hanson to redirect every active recon drone to focus on the area. “Focus fire on all the asteroids near where that ship was detected!” Hanson ordered as well.

Seconds later, more laser beams and plasma cannons shattered asteroids in and around where the contact had been. Almost immediately, the contact reappeared as a ship fired its engines hard for a second time. This time, the contact remained on the display for at least five seconds before going dark again. “Keep firing!” Hanson ordered. “And instruct our ships to fire antiship missiles towards that area. Let’s make them think we can see them.”

Hanson’s order did the trick. Just seconds after the first antiship missiles began to race towards where the contact had been, their active sensors looking everywhere for a target to lock onto, the contact returned to Spook’s holo display. “Getting gravimetric and electromagnetic signals now,” Spook’s sensor officer called out. She then swore. “Whatever it is, it’s fast. Very fast!”

“Energy spikes,” Spook’s tactical officer announced. A moment later every active missile racing into the area disappeared. This time the tactical officer swore. “I have no idea what that was, but not a single shot missed.” The officer looked up from his console and caught Hanson’s eye. “They shot down seven missiles in the blink of an eye.”

“Well, make them do it again!” Hanson ordered.

Having given up any pretense at hiding, the Silizzarus ship, as Edward was now sure it was, turned its nose towards the system’s mass shadow and accelerated at a rate more than twice what Spook could achieve. Within seconds it easily got ahead of the flying chunks of asteroid that had threatened it. Though Edward had been an observer in a couple of space battles over the last couple of years, he could feel his whole body tense up as every Imperial warship charged at the alien vessel. His own safety didn’t enter his mind though, all he wanted was to make sure the ship didn’t escape.

That wasn’t going to happen however. The Silizzarus ship, having been forced to fight, did just that. First, it took out a second wave of missiles with ease, this time shooting down twenty-seven missiles in the space of three seconds. Then it opened fire on the two nearest Imperial warships. Some kind of exotic energy beam reached out and struck both ships. Instantly they were vaporized. They exploded as if a hundred thermonuclear warheads had been detonated within their hulls. A second later, six contacts were launched towards the remaining six Human warships, including Spook.

Suddenly, Edward realized just how much danger he himself was in. From the tone of Hanson’s voice, it was clear Spook's Captain was thinking the same. “Focus every defensive weapon we have on that contact. Tactical, fire a salvo of thermonuclear warheads at it. Detonate them just in front of it.”

“On it, Captain,” Spook’s tactical officer responded, sounding equally concerned.

Though Edward desperately wanted to follow the progress of Spook’s defensive gunners, he forced himself to watch the alien ship. It was his duty to learn everything he could about it. However, what he saw made him despair. Almost without effort, the alien ship shot down another wave of missiles that were racing its way. Then it opened fire with its energy beam again and disintegrated a destroyer. Just as Edward started to lose all hope, Spook's tactical officer shouted excitedly. “Hemingway is opening fire with her energy weapons!”

On the holo display, the Imperial light cruiser flashed as Spook detected energy spikes from her. Twelve plasma bolts and sixteen heavy laser beams shot out towards the Silizzarus ship. For a second, Edward thought they were going to hit. In fact, several did crash right into the alien ship. Yet at the point they hit, the beams and bolts of energy simply disappeared. “What?” Edward said in disbelief. “What was that?” he repeated as he spun around to look for answers from Spook’s officers. Yet they all looked as confused as him. Only Hanson was slightly more composed.

“Shields maybe, or something like that,” he said in a growl aimed at all of his officers. “Either way it doesn’t matter, we need to shoot that bloody thing down before it gets us. Shoot it now or we’re done for!”

Remembering the danger he was in, Edward’s eyes widened as they searched for the contact the alien ship had fired at Spook. He found it just in time to see four thermonuclear missiles detonated right in front of the contact. Yet the contact flew through the explosive force as if it wasn’t there. Spook’s defensive weapons then opened fire. At once the contact began to twist and weave, far faster than any Imperial missile or fighter. Then as Edward watched in bewilderment, without warning or explanation, the contact split into six. One of them disappeared a second later as a defensive weapon finally hit something. Then a second followed it. The other four kept coming however. A moment later, they flashed to signal an energy spike had been detected.

“Evasive maneuvers!” Hanson shouted.

Edward’s restraints tightened around him as the frigate began to spin. He kept his eyes focused on the four contacts however. They continued to build up some kind of energy for another two seconds. Then they ceased flashing. For a split-second Edward thought they had missed as nothing happened. Without warning, two massive shockwaves smashed through the bridge. In an instant Edward was flung one way and then another. He felt at least one bone in his shoulder break. Though he opened his mouth to scream in pain, his restraints had tightened so much around him he all he could manage was a deep groan.

Immediately after the shockwaves, the bridge was filled with alarms. The power went out for a couple of seconds and then only emergency lights came on. As they did, several consoles overloaded sending sparks and even flames into the faces of the officers who operated them. Shouts of pain and groans joined the alarms. Edward gasped the moment his restraints loosened enough for him to breathe again. The pain in his shoulder felt like someone was poking him with a searing hot iron, and that was with his arguments working to dull the pain. Anguish filled him as well as he looked around at the injured officers and the damaged bridge.

Yet as his eyes rose to look at the now dead holo display, something else took over; a sense of utter failure. Though he couldn’t see it anymore, he had no doubt the Silizzarus ship was already well on its way to reaching the system’s mass shadow and being able to disappear into shift space. We failed, he thought to himself as he shook his head. They’ve escaped and now they know we know about them. We have failed.

*

It was only an hour later, when Hansen’s Lieutenants gave Spook’s Captain a rundown of the frigate’s damage that Edward realized how close to death he had come. Two energy beams had struck the frigate, both of which had burnt their way right through Spook. One had come within meters of vaporizing a reactor, which almost certainly would have blown the ship into millions of fragments. Even as it was, nearly half the ship's systems were not responding. Both her reactors had gone into safety shutdown and were refusing to restart, and only one of her four impulse engines was functional. Worse, her structural integrity had been seriously compromised, so much so that without the emergency repairs already being undertaken, there was a fear Spook could still break apart at any moment.

When repair teams eventually managed to get an external sensor node functioning again, the nearest they had all come to death was hammered home again. Only two other ships had survived the encounter with the Silizzarus ship, and both were as damaged as Spook. Of the rest, there was hardly even any debris left to identify where they had died. As Edward stared at the empty area of space where the ships he had ordered to their deaths had been, guilt welled up within him. The feeling was new to Edward. Always before in his life he had acted on orders from others more senior to himself. Even when things had gone bad, he had known others had given the orders. Yet now the buck stopped with him. Every ship destroyed and every life lost was because of him. And they had all been thrown away for nothing, for he had nothing to show for their deaths. He was the one who had underestimated the Silizzarus’ ship’s capabilities, and now thousands of people were dead.

Though Edward couldn't get excited about it, the one positive thing picked up by the sensors was the hundreds of ships closing with Spook. It seemed every warship in the system and a whole host of civilian ships had come to their aid. As soon as the COM systems were back online, Hansen began coordinating with their help as they worked to get Spook towed back to New Delhi orbit where more serious repairs could be carried out. Whilst that was organized, Edward prepared and sent a report to New Delhi’s FTL COM array to be sent to Earth. Then he nervously waited for a reply.

It came an hour later, and when it did, Edward’s heart sank further. All the message contained was orders for Spook to return to Earth for full repairs as soon as she was able to do so. It didn’t mention the alien ship, nor Edward, nor all the deaths he had caused.

As Spook was towed to New Delhi to be made shift space worthy, Edward was left to himself. The frigates he had been responsible for overseeing were all destroyed, and he couldn’t help Hansen with Spook’s repairs. With nothing but his guilt to keep him company, he could only stare at New Delhi as the colony got closer and closer.

Chapter 19

If you can avoid it, never fight an enemy on a battlefield of his choosing. Maneuver him out of position or strike somewhere else. Only as a last resort should any commander fight where your enemy wishes you to.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Repulse, Jasfor system, 6th February 2513 AD, (six days later).

After engaging and waylaying the third Karacknid battlefleet, James raced across The Wilds to get in front of Battlefleet Two. Once there, he had dispatched Scott with Beartooth and most of his fleet to engage the battlefleet’s screening squadrons. In a quick two-week campaign, she had engaged and defeated three out of the battlefleet’s five advanced forces. James had held back until Admiral Ivanov and her dreadnoughts had joined him, then he had transferred his flag to Ivanov’s flagship Repulse, and advanced along the path Scott had opened up for him.

They arrived on the outskirts of the Jasfor system just eight hours before the second Karacknid battlefleet did. As the battlefleet jumped in and began to enter the system, James couldn’t help but be impressed. The twenty-two thousand warships of the battlefleet were split over four formations, each just over five thousand strong. Together the four formations formed an oval. Within the oval's center, sixteen thousand freighters were huddled together carrying the fleet’s fuel and food supplies. Ahead of and arrayed around the four formations and the freighters were a couple of thousand additional frigates, just as many fighters and perhaps as many as ten thousand active recon drones. All were carefully scanning the area through which the fleet moved, looking for hidden dangers. Though James hadn’t received any reports telling him so, he strongly suspected that the battlefleet had suffered several run-ins with stealth cruisers or mine layers to make them so cautious.

Whether they had or not though, one thing was certain, there was no way he could sneak his ships in to ambush the battlefleet. Thankfully though, he didn’t have to. The reason why he had brought Ivanov’s fleet forward to join him was that the Jasfor system was one that he had scouted many years ago. It lay directly on one of the fastest routes from Karacknid space to Humanity’s line of border forts. Years ago, it had been marked on his map of The Wilds as Laser’s Embrace. It was another one of the ‘tricks’ he had planned out in his study in the Palace over the last decade. James wasn’t sure how many more he would get to use, for scout reports had come in informing him that several others had been discovered, or that the other battlefleets were traversing through different systems than he had once imagined they would. But at Jasfor he had at least one more chance to use another of his tricks, and he intended to make the best use of it.

“What do you think?” James asked Ivanov.

“I’m thinking I never want to see one of these battlefleets assaulting Zeta Fort, never mind two or three of them,” Ivanov responded. “Nor am I too keen on us taking on one now. But better here than at Zeta or one of the other forts… You’re confident Scott’s weapons will work?”

James nodded. “We’ve already tested them, they will work.”

“And Laser’s Embrace?” Ivanov added. “You’re sure it's still functional?”

James smiled at his friend. Ivanov had commanded Zeta Fort’s garrison for the last several years. She was used to running system’s checks on every piece of equipment under her command again and again, making sure everything was ready for the day the Fort would eventually come under attack. Laser's Embrace, on the other hand, had been constructed more than a decade ago. Since then, only a couple of covert maintenance missions had been sent to the system in order to ensure no Karacknid scouts got a chance to discover what James had ordered built. “That’s what we’ve all come here to find out, Admiral,” James said filling his voice with confidence. He gestured towards the holo display showing Battlefleet Two. “Don’t worry, I have no intention of engaging that behemoth without something in our favor.” He then winked at Ivanov. “Unless of course, you want to lead us on a charge?”

James could see Ivanov restrain from rolling her eyes as she gave him a wry smile. “I think I’ll wait and see if your plan comes together, Emperor,” she responded. “Though, it would be a shame to come all this way and not see any action. You and Scott have been having too much fun without us. It’s time we got to use some of our tricks too.”

“Then let us hope Laser’s Embrace works as intended,” James said. “How much longer?” He asked as he turned to one of Ivanov’s tactical officers.

“Just another half an hour, Emperor,” the officer responded tentatively, still not used to having James sit beside his Admiral.

James nodded. “Prepare the fleet to jump, Admiral,” he said more formally to Ivanov. “We move the moment Laser’s Embrace activates.”

“Aye, Emperor, my fleet won’t let you down,” Ivanov responded.

Though he had projected confidence to Ivanov, mainly for the sake of her officers sitting around them, James couldn’t help feeling a little nervous as the minutes ticked by. As the vanguard of the Karacknid battlefleet approached the system’s mass shadow, he felt his shoulders tighten and when he looked down, he saw his fingers were gripping the armrest of his command chair tightly. Disrupting Battlefleet Four and Three’s advance had been significant accomplishments, but he needed to slow Battlefleet Two as well. Gambling his efforts on an installation more than a decade old was risky. But the nuclear missiles utilized in ice storm had been in place almost that long and still worked, so why not here as well? He reasoned with himself.

“The vanguard is approaching Laser’s Embrace,” the same tactical officer announced. “Thirty seconds to engagement range.”

“Give Python the go order,” James responded.

A couple of seconds later, a single frigate that had been keeping station with Repulse jumped into shift space. It reappeared again right on the edge of the system’s mass shadow, just in front of the five thousand warships of the Karacknid vanguard. Immediately, Karacknid screening frigates raced to intercept it, but they couldn’t stop what it had come to do. As soon as the frigate sent its transmission, it turned and began to race away from the nearest Karacknid frigates as it recharged its shift drive.

The transmission was aimed at a thick asteroid belt that sat near the end of the shift passage the Karacknid battlefleet was headed towards. Given its position, it was a prime location for some kind of ambush. As a result, it had been thoroughly scanned by several Karacknid screening flotillas that had moved through the system. In addition, a handful of frigates and recon drones were in the asteroid field at the very moment the Imperial frigate sent its message. Yet none of the Karacknid scans had detected anything. James had ensured his trap had been well hidden deep within more than a hundred of the largest asteroids. As the frigate's transmission washed over them and penetrated them, it was picked up by long buried passive sensors. Immediately energy capacitors that had lain dormant for a decade sprang into life.

Their first act was to send small surges of power to the demolition charges placed within each asteroid. They detonated a second later opening up long narrow shafts that led from the heart of the asteroids out into space. Out of some of these shafts, passive recon drones were catapulted. Almost immediately they began to detect the Karacknid vanguard and send targeting signals back to the asteroids. Once they had selected targets, the capacitors waited until the roll of its asteroid brought the Karacknid ships into line with the remaining shafts that had been opened up. For some, it only took a couple seconds, for others it took nearly thirty seconds. As soon as they could, the capacitors dumped the majority of their stored energy into the weaponry James had installed in the asteroids. From the long shafts, hundreds of laser beams were shot out.

From the moment the asteroids blew open their shafts, the Karacknid frigates within the asteroid belt began to scan them. Yet they didn’t figure out what was happening until the first laser beams zipped past them. The Karacknid vanguard formation of Battlefleet Two got about three seconds' warning that something was up, but before they could react, laser beams began to slice into their ships. Over the next thirty seconds, thousands of beams shot out from the asteroids as the weapons of Laser’s Embrace opened up on their targets. Hundreds of ships were blasted apart after suffering multiple hits. Many more, at least a thousand, suffered single or double hits and were badly damaged.

By the time the lasers fell silent, their capacitors having run out of power, the vanguard fleet was a mess. As soon as they realized the danger, every ship had flung itself into evasive maneuvers, destroying the vanguard’s formation. Many had also had to make serious course changes to avoid their damaged or crippled brethren. With a fifth of their force destroyed, and almost as many damaged to one degree or another, they were vulnerable, and James was ready.

The moment Impulse’s sensors detected explosions amongst the Karacknid warships, James had nodded to Ivanov. With a single command from the Admiral, her three thousand warships carried out a micro jump right to the edge of the system’s mass shadow. Even as the Karacknid warships were still being pummeled by laser beams, Ivanov’s dreadnought heavy fleet surged into the system straight for the Karacknid vanguard.

Behind the mauled Karacknid warships, the three Karacknid warship formations had begun to decelerate and close in around the freighter fleet at the appearance of James' fleet. With forty-five minutes flight time between them and the vanguard warships, they needn’t have worried, but their first instinct was caution. Within the asteroid belt, the frigates that had been patrolling the belt looking for danger opened up with all the weapons on the asteroids that had just mauled their larger consorts. Yet their fire was in vain, for the asteroids had already spent their fury. Isolated, but far from defeated, the Karacknid vanguard began to reform and maneuver to meet Ivanov’s fleet.

From his command chair, James watched intently as Impulse’s tactical officers analyzed the damage his surprise had caused. Just over eight hundred of the five thousand Karacknid warships had been destroyed and well over a thousand more had suffered damage. It didn’t exactly even the odds, but the damage was worse than it appeared, for James had tasked his hidden lasers to prioritize targeting Karacknid capital ships and carriers. Plus, he had a few more tricks up his sleeve he planned to use.

“Launch all fighters and bombers,” he ordered next. “Time their attack run on our first missile salvo. Include both Whirlwind and Shadow missiles in our first strike. Stick to standard missiles thereafter.”

“Aye, Emperor,” a tactical officer said enthusiastically.

James kept his face impassive, though inwardly he was excited. He had tested his new Devastator bombers and Scott’s Whirlwind and Shadow missiles before, but now he was going to get to see them all in action together. Scott will be jealous, he was sure. But she won’t care as long as they all work! James was pretty confident the Karacknid ships in Battlefleet Two wouldn’t have received any reports of his previous attacks against the other battlefleets, or even if they had, would not have had long to analyze them. With luck, all three new weapon systems would come as a surprise. And our fourth should too, James hoped.

“Fighters are away,” another officer reported five minutes later as three thousand contacts began accelerating ahead of Ivanov’s fleet. “We’re coming into range of our Strikers, Admiral,” one of Ivanov’s officers informed her.

Ivanov glanced at James, and he gave her a small nod. “Hold fire. We will hit them with the first volley just before our missiles enter range of their point defenses.”

“Understood, Admiral,” the officer replied.

For five more minutes, Ivanov’s fleet charged the Karacknid vanguard. In that time, about three hundred warships pulled back from the vanguard fleet, evidently too damaged to participate in the coming battle. The rest formed up into a defensive sphere formation with their capital ships clustered in the center. Pulling up a secondary holographic display of the Karacknid fleet, James selected a section of this spherical formation. “Focus our Striker shots here, target medium and heavy cruisers. Let’s open a hole for our missiles and fighters to punch through. Many of those capital ships have to be damaged; let’s finish them off.”

“With pleasure, Emperor,” Ivanov said as she then began to give out further instructions to her officers.

“Firing!” The tactical officer announced a couple of minutes later. From Impulse and the rest of the ships in Ivanov’s fleet, forty-eight thousand missiles were hurled at the Karacknids. Seconds later, the Karacknids returned fire, releasing fifty-six thousand of their own missiles. However, a significant proportion of them were smaller frigate and destroyer sized missiles compared to the many large dreadnought sized ones Ivanov had fired.

Over the next fifteen minutes, both sides fired three more salvos at one another, filling Impulse’s holo display with myriads of contacts. At the same time, two thousand fighters broke away from the Karacknid fleet and moved to intercept James’ Hellcats and Devastators. While the Devastators and some squadrons of Hellcats held themselves back, the rest of the Hellcats moved forward, and a massive fighter battle broke out. Then the time for James’ final surprise came. “Dreadnoughts are turning now,” a tactical officer announced.

Together the ships of Ivanov’s fleet cut their main impulse engines. Then every Striker class dreadnought used its maneuvering thrusters to turn its nose towards the Karacknid fleet. As they did so, a large circular iris retracted, revealing a long opening that ran almost the full length of each dreadnought. “Phase cannons entering final charging cycle, firing!” The same tactical officer announced. For a couple of seconds, lights on the bridge dimmed as the phase cannon’s capacitors drained every non-essential joule of energy from Impulse’s reactors, then it fired.

A single massive beam, more than ten meters in diameter, was generated by the long phase cannon that ran the length of Impulse. Then it was shot out towards a Karacknid heavy cruiser. It covered the distance to the cruiser in four seconds. The sheer power of the beam meant that the moment it hit the cruiser, the cruiser was sliced in two. As intense energy radiated along both halves of the ship, reactors, engines, or other secondary systems overloaded, and within a couple of seconds of each other, both halves disappeared in giant fireballs.

More than a hundred similar explosions erupted within the heart of the Karacknid fleet's formation as almost every Striker dreadnought scored a hit. The sudden death and destruction threw the Karacknid formation into confusion once more. Just seconds later, James’ first missile salvo came racing in. With a hole in their defensive fire, and many ships and Captains confused and alarmed at the sudden destruction of their comrades, the Karacknid defensive fire faltered. Preplanned overlapping fields of fire were gone, and almost every ship had no choice but to focus on defending itself.

Even as the Karacknid commander fought to reinstate order amongst his ships, the Imperial missiles kept charging. Then they began to add to the confusion as Shadow missiles filled space with flashing gravimetric pulses. Next, the Whirlwinds, having fallen to the rear of the Imperial missile salvo, all detonated as one. For a second, Karacknid gunners were confused, knowing they hadn’t shot down the missiles, but then they started seeing flashes of the millions of small stealth bomblets released by the missiles. As Karacknid sensors and officers tried to figure out what the new weapons were, the rest of the Imperial salvo charged into attack range.

Despite the confusion, tens of thousands of missiles were still shot down, but it was not enough. Several hundred mark VII and Shadow missiles penetrated the Karacknids’ defensive fire and detonated. Antimatter slammed into Karacknid warships, ripping ships apart. Black holes that lasted for just a fraction of a second jerked other ships around so violently that inertial dampeners failed and internal bulkheads were crumpled, crippling the ships from within.

The attack was far from over yet, however, for next, more than a million bomblets smashed into the Karacknid ships. Small explosions erupted up and down the Karacknid fleet as the bomblets blindly struck anything in their way. Where armor was intact, the bomblets rarely penetrated through to cause internal damage. Yet thousands of ships had gaping wounds in them from the Laser’s Embrace and the missile strikes. Hundreds more Karacknid ships were badly damaged or destroyed entirely, including many of the capital ships that had been struck by laser beams.

Finally, into the wave of exploding and burning ships, the Hellcats and Devastators charged. Though they only released two and a half thousand missiles, the Karacknid fleet’s defenses were so badly compromised, that the strike proved devastating. Nearly a quarter of the missiles found targets and once again antimatter blooms enveloped Karacknid warships, vaporizing many of them.

Though the attack was devastating, the fight was far from one-sided. With over fifty thousand missiles charging in at them, James’ Imperial ships struggled to shoot down them all. Flak cannons and arc emitters took out massive swathes of enemy missiles. Then plasma cannons, laser cannons, and AM missiles targeted individual missiles and sought to shoot them down. At the last moment, the Imperial ships were forced to throw themselves into evasive maneuvers as hundreds of missiles evaded everything thrown at them and tried to slam into their targets. Explosions filled Impulse’s holo display as over three hundred warships were hit with proximity detonations or suffered far worse from direct strikes.

Despite the losses amongst his own ships, as Impulse’s sensors began to be able to see clearly again after all the energies given off from both attacks, James leaned forward to see the Karacknid fleet. His hands clenched into fists when he saw the devastation he had wrought. A quarter of the Karacknids’ four thousand warships were completely gone. At least five hundred more were falling out of formation, their hulls full of holes and tears where weapons had sliced into them. A quick glance at James’ own squadron told him he had lost nearly two hundred ships, either crippled or destroyed. Though it was nearly seven percent of his force’s strength, he knew they had the upper hand.

“Continue to close with them,” he ordered. “Keep firing the phase cannons as soon as they are recharged. I want that fleet destroyed!”

“As you command, Emperor,” Ivanov responded as she and her officers coordinated the fleet.

The phase cannons, an energy weapon given to Humanity by the Kalassai, were identical to the ones the Kalassai equipped their city-ships with. Though they were deadly and had effective ranges many times that of standard laser or grazer cannons, they required a colossal amount of energy. Only Striker class dreadnoughts had the capacity to mount them, and then only one each. Equipped with two additional reactors compared to a standard Imperial dreadnought, they could recharge the cannons capacitors every forty-five seconds. As a result, as Ivanov’s ships continued to charge the Karacknids, they were able to fire five more volleys of phase beams before the next Karacknid salvo reached them.

Now wise to the Striker dreadnoughts’ capabilities, the Karacknid warships were all carrying out evasive maneuvers even as they sought to reform their formation and aid their damaged consorts. Yet many of the Karacknid ships were so badly damaged that they could only carry out limited evasive maneuvers. Ivanov’s officers quickly identified them and focused their fire on them. In the space of four and a half minutes, another three hundred Karacknid warships were blown apart by the phase beams. Then each side’s second missile salvo crashed into their targets. Five minutes later, after another series of volleys from the Striker dreadnoughts, a third missile salvo savaged each fleet. Two more salvos followed after that as each side continued to strike out at their opponent.

The fifth salvo that struck the Karacknid vanguard fleet ended the battle. Carnage reigned on both sides, but the Karacknids fared far worse. Half of the missiles in the Imperial first salvo raced through the remaining Karacknid ships' defensive fire. When the mark VIII warheads detonated, they sent thousands of laser beams piercing into the Karacknid defenders. Every single ship was sliced apart by tens and sometimes hundreds of beams. None survived.

The second and third Karacknid salvos that struck James’ fleet proved almost as deadly as the first, and a further three hundred and seventy Imperial ships were lost. After that, however, the weight of fire was significantly less. Even so, another one hundred and sixty ships were blown apart by Karacknid missiles.

“Begin decelerating,” James ordered as soon as his ships’ fifth salvo was away, already confident they would finish the Karacknids off. “Set course for the shift passage, I want ninety percent thrust. Focus all our efforts on rescue operations, but as soon as we reach the mass shadow we're going to have to jump.” On the holo display, James was looking at a large group of fighters that were headed his fleet’s way. The three other Karacknid fleets had launched over six thousand at his ships. The projection of the course he wanted showed his ships would get away, but just barely.

For the next twenty minutes, James worked frantically alongside Ivanov and her staff as they evacuated as many crews from their crippled ships as possible. Then, as soon as they could, the fleet jumped into shift space.

“Congratulations, Emperor,” Ivanov said when they were finally safe. “That worked out far better than I imagined. We took some serious losses, but Scott’s weapons worked perfectly!” Ivanov glanced at one of the displays on her command chair. “That was a kill ratio of more than five to one. I’m not sure we’ve ever won such a sizeable battle so well before.”

James nodded. The combination of the hidden laser cannons, Scott’s new missiles and bombers, and the Striker dreadnoughts' phase cannons meant the first salvo had devastated the enemy. He doubted they’d ever be able to land such a killer blow with one salvo again, but it felt good to have done it once. “It was an impressive victory,” James agreed. “Send my personal congratulations to all your ships. Now we need to get out of here and head south. It’s time to regroup and resupply. Then we need to figure out our next steps. We may have delayed battlefleets two, three, and four, but they'll be on the move south again soon. We need to delay them again, and again, to give our allies time to mass their forces.”

And hope the Karacknid don’t have any more ships hidden somewhere, James thought but didn’t add. Despite his success, he still couldn’t help feeling a growing sense of impending doom. Though Ivanov was right; they had just won one of the most one-sided victories he had ever seen, they had still left over fifteen thousand intact Karacknid warships behind them. Warships that would soon be on the move south again, intent on smashing through Humanity’s border forts and advancing on Earth. If they were ever going to be truly stopped, many more such one-sided battles would have to be fought, and yet James had no idea how he could orchestrate something like that. But we're going to try, he thought to himself sternly. For he was not going to give up, no matter how many warships Tanaka-lan threw at him.

Chapter 20

Even after a deadly war against the Karacknids, and twenty-five years to prepare, none of the Allies truly understood the scope and scale of the Karacknids’ empire and war machine.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

Slayer, Zanzora system, 27th February 2513 AD, (three weeks later).

Imperator Tanaka-lan sat silently in his command chair as he stared at a holo image of the fleet of warships arrayed around his flagship. Fifty-five thousand of his best ships and warriors were stationed at the Zanzora fleet base. All of them had been with him since he had declared himself Imperator after Taranaki’s death at the hands of the Human Emperor. They had fought with him throughout the Civil War and their loyalty had never faltered. Now he held them in reserve as the fleets of the Karacknid clans advanced against the Humans. His plan was to advance swiftly with his Royal Fleet once the other fleets reached the Human border forts. At the last moment, he intended to arrive with overwhelming force and punch through the Humans’ defenses and advance all the way to their homeworld before they knew what was happening.

At least, up until an hour ago, that had been his plan. While he still believed that was how things would play out in the long run, he was being forced to come around to a new way of thinking, no matter how much displeasure it brought him. When he had dispatched his five battlefleets to advance through what the Humans called The Wilds, their purpose had simply been to secure enough bases for his fleet’s supplies to flow freely, and to push the frontline up to the Human border forts in such a way that the Humans couldn’t identify which of their forts he intended to strike. From Zanzora, he had planned to oversee each battlefleet’s advance as they reconquered all the systems his Empire had been forced to abandon at the end of the last war with the Humans. Then when the time was right, he would advance himself to deliver the knockout blow.

At first, things had begun to go according to plan, but that had quickly changed. The most recent news from Talon Battlefleet now made that crystal clear to Tanaka-lan. Initially, he had reacted with anger, more than that really – he had reacted with rage. The fact one of his commanders had lost nearly a quarter of his entire battlefleet for less than a thousand enemy ships was unacceptable. Totally unacceptable. Already Tanaka-lan had orders on his way to Talon battlefleet that would remove the commander from ever commanding anything ever again.

Slowly though, Tanaka-lan calmed down as he assessed the situation. There was only one explanation for what had happened, Emperor Somerville himself had been at the battle. More than that, it had clearly been an engagement Somerville had been planning for some years. As soon as the news came through, Tanaka-lan had checked every scan of the system his scouts had taken. None had detected the hidden weapons. That battle, and the trick another enemy commander had used by blowing up an entire moon with more hidden weapons told Tanaka-lan The Wilds were not what he had assumed.

Somerville has been planning to use The Wilds as a battleground for the last twenty years, Tanaka-lan told himself as the reality of what was going on dawned on him. Whilst he had been fighting countless battles against the false Imperators, Somerville had been planning to contest The Wilds. Which means there are likely other traps hidden out there, Tanaka-lan concluded. And that it was not just some other commander who had detonated the moon and struck at Claw Battlefleet’s freighters, but Somerville himself. In his mind, Tanaka-lan began to picture just what Somerville had done. With the Humans’ ability to construct artificial shift passages, their uncanny knowledge of hidden shift passages Tanaka-lan knew nothing about, even within his own territory, and the Humans’ shift gates, Somerville could move a small but powerful fleet all across The Wilds engaging Tanaka-lan’s battlefleets as he desired.

He has turned the entire Wilds into a battleground, trading space for time. As he pictured it, Tanaka-lan had to begrudgingly admit the beauty of the concept. Typically, in any interstellar war, the defender was at a great disadvantage. With a set number of systems that had to be defended, an attacker could strike at almost anyone he wished. As long as he could keep his fleet movements hidden, the defender would have to split his forces to cover every vulnerable point, whereas an attacker could keep his concentrated. Utilizing such an advantage was why he had split his attack into five battlefleets. Advancing along five different axes meant the humans couldn’t concentrate their forces against him. Yet Somerville had found a way to do that anyway.

But only for a limited time, Tanaka-lan told himself as he began to formulate a new plan to counter what Somerville was doing. Once his battlefleets reached the Human forts, Somerville would be forced on the defensive once again. All Tanaka-lan had to do was get his battlefleets there. He was going to have to re-evaluate what that would take and the price he would pay in ships for advancing through The Wilds, but it could be done. And he is not omnipresent. With great reluctance, and over the course of many years, Tanaka-lan had slowly come to admit that Somerville was a match for even the best of his commanders, yet he had no doubt who was the better tactician between the two of them. To counter Somerville’s moves, Tanaka-lan would have to go to the front himself. He would also have to try and predict just where Somerville would strike next.

So far, Somerville had not struck either his easternmost or westernmost battlefleets. That told Tanaka-lan Somerville wasn’t trying to defeat his fleets, but simply delay them, no doubt buying time for the Humans’ allies to mass their ships at their forts. So, if he is only hitting my middle battlefleets, then I can face him head-on and drive his forces back out of The Wilds. Then we will pin him to his border forts where our numbers can truly come into play. And in the meantime, you’re not the only one who has a few new tricks that have been kept in the dark, Tanaka-lan thought as he ran through the various new weapon systems he had received reports on. Most of the reports were vague, yet he had already seen enough to know the Humans had been developing several new weapons systems that were quite impressive. Yet he had not been idle himself. He had initially planned to hold back his secrets until he was assaulting the Humans’ forts, but Somerville had forced his hand. You’re going to regret goading me into facing you, Human.

“It is time we responded to these attacks,” Tanaka-lan said, his voice still carrying an edge of fury as he looked down from the display of his fleet to his Chief of Staff.

Like the rest of the officers on the bridge, they had been silently keeping out of his way since news of the attack on Talon Battlefleet. However, as soon as Tanaka-lan spoke, the Rear Admiral looked up from his console and briefly met Tanaka-lan’s eyes, before bowing his head to his Imperator. “As you wish, Imperator, what are your commands?” He asked.

“I want orders sent out to all our battlefleets,” Tanaka-lan began. “They are to stop their advances and secure the systems around them. We are going to secure our frontline before we continue southward.”

“Of course, Imperator, I will dispatch frigates immediately,” the Rear Admiral responded.

“Include instructions for each battlefleet commander to assign more carriers to their screening forces,” Tanaka-lan added. “If the Humans wish to continue striking at them, we must make it far more costly for them.” Initially, Tanaka-lan had been planning to hold back most of his fighters for the eventual attacks on the human forts, for he knew each fort would be protected by thousands of the Humans’ fighters. At present, however, he was losing too many screening forces to justify holding the fighters in reserve. Each time the Humans were simply confronting his small screening flotillas with overwhelming numbers of fighters and obliterating them. That had to stop.

“I also want additional carriers assigned to each convoy. Their orders are to be as such; if their convoy comes under attack, they are to focus on the enemy fleet's carriers. We have tens of thousands of freighters; the enemy only has a limited number of carriers. If we cannot protect our convoys from attack, we will instead ensure that the Humans suffer as many losses as we do.

“You’re also to detach five thousand warships from the Royal Fleet to form five new raider hunter squadrons. They are to operate in the rear of each battlefleet and hunt down any enemy raiding squadrons that are sighted.”

“I understand, Imperator, do you have commanders in mind to take charge of the squadrons?”

Tanaka-lan nodded as he listed five of his most competent commanders. Again, he’d been holding them in reserve with Royal Fleet for the assaults on the enemy forts, but he needed them now. “Finally, I want Slayer readied to move to the frontline. I will personally be going to oversee the advance of our battlefleets, and I want every one of our anti-fighter weapon systems prepared to depart with us. We’re going to put an end to these fighter strikes against our screening forces once and for all. Then we will drive Somerville back to his forts where we can finish him as well.

“Yes, Imperator, your will be done,” the Rear Admiral said as he bowed deeply.

Tanaka-lan let his claws extend and retract slowly as he imagined how the coming months were going to unfold. He knew he couldn’t predict everywhere where Somerville was going to strike, nor could he necessarily defeat the Human commander in every engagement. Pushing his battlefleet further south was going to be a costly and bloody affair. Yet there was only so much space Somerville had to trade for time. Soon he would no longer be able to retreat and then Tanaka-lan would have him.

*

Slayer, 24th March 2513 AD, (twenty-five days).

“We’ve got action, Imperator,” an officer reported, drawing Tanaka-lan’s attention away from the scouting report he had been reading.

A week ago, he had arrived at the front and given the order for his battlefleets to begin advancing cautiously again. Ahead of Slayer, deeper within the system, a squadron of two hundred warships were scanning the system looking for danger. Slayer was hanging back to watch what would happen. “Where?” Tanaka-lan asked as he looked up at the holo display.

“On the edge of the system, here,” the officer answered. “One of the recon drones we sent out there detected a ship jumping into shift space.

“A Human scout,” Tanaka-lan guessed. “It will be going to inform its superiors what it has found. It won’t be long now.”

Sure enough, six hours later the same stealth drone detected a handful of ships exiting shift space into the system. Though only several were detected, Tanaka-lan was sure others had jumped in as well. Another hour passed as his screening squadron continued its scanning, acting as if it was unaware of the new threat. Then, things happened quickly. Three hundred enemy fighters came out of stealth well into the system, showing they had launched from their carriers the moment they had exited shift space. At once, the fighters began to accelerate for the largest group of Karacknid screening ships. Behind them, two hundred Human warships also began to maneuver as they angled to engage a smaller group of screening ships.

As per their orders, Tanaka-lan’s ships reacted immediately. Every ship turned and began to race back towards a predetermined rendezvous point. Most were able to join with one another before the Human fighters launched their attack. Just before the fighters came in, the two small carriers Tanaka-lan had assigned to the squadron launched eight squadrons of Scimitar fighters. Instead of moving to intercept the Human fighters however, the Scimitars raced away from their carriers. As soon as they were far enough away that the Humans couldn’t try to decelerate and intercept them, they turned to close with the Human carriers. When it was clear what the fighters intended to do, two additional squadrons of Human fighters were launched and moved to intercept them.

Before the two groups of fighters could engage one another, the Human strike force made its attack run. The first sign they got that something unusual was happening was when every frigate in the Karacknid fleet opened fire with its missile tubes. A wave of missiles were launched towards the Human fighters. Sensing something was amiss, the fighters split up into their squadrons and maneuvered up and over or down and around the incoming missiles. The missiles mimicked them and split up as they altered course to keep closing with the fighters. Then, three minutes after being launched, the missiles all cut their engines. Then their nose sections fell away and six small anti-fighter missiles rocketed out after the Human fighters.

Tanaka-lan had to give the Humans credit, though the pilots had never faced Karacknid anti-fighter missiles before, they didn’t panic. Clearly, they had practiced avoiding their own missiles, he concluded. Though his surprise wasn’t as effective as he had hoped, fifty-three of the Human fighters were blown apart by the missiles. With a sixth of their force gone, the Humans showed their courage as they reformed and charged the screening squadron.

In response, Tanaka-lan’s next surprise sprang into action. This one he expected the Humans might have anticipated, for he had used them before against Emperor Somerville’s son, but it didn’t matter, for there was nothing the Human fighters could do about it now, they were already committed. As the Human fighters closed to attack range, twelve point defense cruisers raced away from the rest of the screening squadron to meet the fighters. Exclusively armed with small low powered point defense lasers, the cruisers began to fling tens of thousands of beams out at the fighters. Whether the fighters did recognize the danger, or simply reacted on instinct, they did the best thing they could, half of the fighters charged the cruisers and unleashed their missiles at them.

The cruisers immediately switched their fire to the missiles and easily swatted all but five of them away. Three scored proximity hits on two of the cruisers, damaging a good portion of both their defensive cannons. The other two scored direct hits, blowing two cruisers apart. As soon as the missiles were destroyed or detonated, the remaining cruisers resumed targeting the fighters and blew up several more of the Humans even as the Humans tried to fall back. In total, sixteen additional fighters were shot down.

With just one hundred and seventy-six fighters with antiship missiles left, and an attack squadron of one hundred and fifty Karacknid warships still before them, the Human commander of the strike force decided discretion was the better part of valor and turned his fighters away from their target at the last moment. Tanaka-lan nodded in satisfaction. The enemy fighter strike had been thwarted. They are the ones who have to be far more cautious now, he told himself. For though he knew he didn’t have enough anti-fighter missiles or point defense cruisers to protect all his screening squadrons, the Humans would have to assume he did.

With the attack on his screening force over, Tanaka-lan then turned his attention to his own fighters that were moving to hit the Human carriers. Taking their time, every Scimitar fighter slowed and turned to engage the two squadrons of enemy fighters that raced out to meet them. The Humans began the fight as they always did, by firing the two anti-fighter missiles they carried. Yet here again they got another surprise. As missiles raced in and tried to detonate in front of the Scimitars to send tungsten shrapnel ripping through them, shields deflected most of the dangerous shards of tungsten. Just six fighters were shot down by missiles. Then a deadly dogfight ensued. With both sides having shields and the Scimitars outnumbering the humans by three to one, the fight ended within five minutes.

Unperturbed by their losses, Tanaka-lan’s fighters then formed up and continued their attack run towards the Human ships. As soon as they came into range, thousands of point defense weapons opened up on the small group of fighters. Quickly shields began to flare and then Scimitars started to be melted by energy weapons or ripped apart by shrapnel. Nevertheless, all it took was for one Scimitar to get close enough to fire its directed matter weapon to make their attack worthwhile. When three got into attack range and fired, Tanaka-lan’s claws extended from his hand as he willed the fighters to score hits. Seconds later, his lips peeled back over his razor-sharp teeth and a drop of drool ran down his chin. Two beams had scored hits on two of the Human’s small carriers. One erupted in a fireball less than a second after being hit, while the second lost all power and began to drift out of control.

In revenge, the Human warship shot down the last three fighters before they could get to safety. Yet even with their loss, Tanaka-lan counted the exchange worth it. Over the entire engagement he had lost eighty fighters against the Humans seventy-odd, plus his two point defense cruisers for one Human carrier. Though he strongly suspected the Humans would have many more fighters to replace their losses, with the Humans’ fighter numbers being the one area where he believed they had parity with his force, Tanaka-lan was still content the exchange was still more than fair. He would gladly sacrifice all his fighters to take the Human fighters out of the equation by the time he got to Somerville’s forts. Then his superior warship numbers would guarantee he could overwhelm his opponent.

“All right, I’ve seen enough,” Tanaka-lan said to Slayer’s Captain, "take us back to the battlefleet."

“Aye, Imperator,” Tanaka-lan’s Flag Captain said and then turned to get Slayer underway.

As his flagship turned and moved back towards the system’s mass shadow, Tanaka-lan watched as the Humans took their stricken carrier under tow and jumped out of the system before his screening squadron could close with them. That’s it, run, run and tell all your commanders it won’t be so easy next time, he thought after them.

Chapter 21

It is not always the Admiral and Commodores who deserve the attention of a student of history, often others play as key a role in shaping the destiny of empires.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

Earth (same time).

As soon as Spook made it to Earth and used her one functioning impulse engine to settle into a high orbit, Edward received a summons to meet with Admiral Alvarez in the Palace. He was both relieved and troubled by the summons. The message was the first time he had actually been named in a report since the fiasco at New Delhi and so he was at least happy that someone recognized he still existed. Yet the speed of the message, and its demand that he present himself ‘forthwith’ reinforced his feeling that he was in a lot of trouble.

After a quick goodbye to Hansen and his officers, Edward boarded the shuttle sent from the Palace to collect him. The pilot added to his suspicions that Alvarez was unhappy with him as she landed her shuttle at one of the Palace’s rear landing pads, not at the pads outside the front of the Palace where he could have been welcomed home as his parents' son rather than just a lowly Imperial Intelligence Commander.

Despite his concerns, as Edward stepped off the shuttle and saw his mother waiting for him, he couldn’t help smiling. Nor did he try to fend her off as she pulled him into a hug. “It’s so good to have you home again,” Christine said as she squeezed him tightly.

“It’s good to be home, mum,” Edward said as he stepped back and then gently prized her away from him. “But I’ve only been gone a few months.”

“But we could have lost you!” Christine exclaimed as she fiercely held his eyes. Then she shook her head. “I don’t know what you were thinking, charging in like that against a ship you knew was more powerful than your own. It was reckless.”

Edward started to defend himself, but then he saw the worry in his mother’s eyes, despite the anger that was on the surface. He smiled again, making it one full of comfort as he hugged his mother again. “I’m sorry for worrying you. I know it’s hard being stuck here while dad, Jonathan, and Georgia are all on the frontlines.”

“And Rachel now too,” Christine added. “She shipped out for New Shanghai a week ago. I’m all on my own now.”

“Well, not any longer,” Edward reassured her. “You’ve got me, at least for as long as Alvarez intends to keep me here.”

When his mother let him go and glanced up at him, Edward saw something else on her face. Whatever it was, she wasn’t going to say it, but it seemed like his words didn’t bring her much comfort. “Come on,” she said as she gestured towards the Palace. "Alvarez is waiting and I know he’s already impatient. And," she added as she pointed a finger at Edward, "Don’t think you're forgiven just yet. You’re meant to be the one staying out of harm’s way. Now all this has happened.”

“All this?” Edward asked, but Christine had already turned and started to walk briskly towards the Palace. “You know,” he said as he caught up with her, “I was just doing my duty. I couldn’t let the alien ship get away, not if there was a chance I could stop it.”

Christine shot him a quick glance as they entered the Palace. “I didn’t say you hadn’t done your duty. I said it was reckless. There is a difference.”

“Alright, alright, well I apologize again,” he responded, knowing his mother wasn’t really angry. Though he suspected it would be another sore spot, he couldn’t help asking. “How is the war going?” From the moment Spook had entered the Sol system, he had been reading every news report he could get his hands on. Yet his mother would be far more intimately versed in what was actually happening.

“Your father and Jonathan are still in The Wilds,” Christine said in what could only be an artificially level tone. “I haven’t heard from Jonathan, but your father has won a string of victories against the Karacknid battlefleets. Even so, they continue to advance south, taking system after system. It may take them a couple of months to reach our forts, but they will be there soon enough. As for Georgia, we haven’t heard back from her and Becket’s fleet yet, but their recall orders should have reached them by now. They should be on their way back to Scalatar, though that could still take them a couple of months or more.”

Edward nodded. He wanted to press his mother more about his father’s victories, but her tone told him she had said all she was going to. “And what about Rachel?” He asked instead. “Is she settling in at New Shanghai?”

“She’s busy,” Christine said without changing her tone. “Too busy to write often it seems. But at least she’s on a hospital ship, and not actually at the front.”

“I’ll have to write her and remind her of her duties to our mother,” Edward promised. “So how are things here then? I’ve never seen Earth’s orbit so full, and Home Fleet isn’t even here. You must be working off your feet?”

Christine stopped walking and flashed Edward a half smile. “It’s been hectic as I'm sure you can imagine. If you want, and if we have time, we can talk business after, though I’d rather share a meal with you. However, Alvarez is waiting.” Lifting a hand, Christine gestured to the door she had stopped beside. Only then did Edward realize they had already reached Alvarez’s office.

Immediately, his nerves returned and he glanced back at his mother, “You’re coming in?”

Christine nodded. “If you’re only going to be here a few hours, I want to spend every minute I have with you.”

Before Edward could ask what she meant, Christine stepped forward, opened the door, and walked into Alvarez’s office. The only thing Edward could imagine being worse than a dressing down from his superior, was having to sit through one with his mother at his side. Yet she was already in the room, and he could hear Alvarez speaking to her. Reluctantly, Edward followed her.

“Please, Empress, take a seat here,” Alvarez was saying as Edward stepped in. The Admiral's appearance almost made Edward stop cold. He had looked strained when Edward had last met with him, just a couple of days before he had left for Haven. Yet now he looked far worse. He had dark bags under his eyes and his whole body looked gray and stretched. It seemed as if Alvarez had aged a decade or more in the space of a couple of months. Of course, Edward knew exactly why. His wife, Edward’s cousin, had been captured by the Karacknids. No one knew if Emilie was still alive or dead. At least if she was dead, everyone could begin to mourn, but not knowing was almost worse. It was certainly taking its toll on Alvarez.

“Ah, Commander, please, come and sit, we have much to discuss,” Alvarez said, the tone of his voice at least hadn’t lost its energy. Edward saluted his superior and then shook the hand that had been offered to him. Despite the strength of Alvarez’s voice, his grip was noticeably weaker than the last time Edward had shaken his hand.

Moving to his seat, Edward’s concern for Alvarez made him forget about his nerves. As he glanced at his mother, however, her expression told him not to bring it up. Instead, he sat and smiled at Alvarez. “We left New Delhi as soon as the engineers there were confident Spook could travel through shift space, Admiral. I’m sorry we couldn’t have come sooner. I’m sorry also for the ships and lives we lost. I take full responsibility.”

Alvarez nodded. “As well you should, Commander. However, that is not why I have requested to see you so quickly. Time is of the essence and so we cannot waste any more than we already have.” Reaching out to the command console on his desk, Alvarez tapped it and a holo projection appeared between the three of them. “This is IS Pytheas. At least, when she’s finished, she will be. She is the only ship of her kind. Compared to Spook, she’s much bigger than you’re used to, but I think she will do.” As he spoke, Alvarez tapped another button and a much smaller visual of Spook appeared beside Pytheas.

Though Edward wasn’t an expert in military ships, he guessed Pytheas was at least the size of a heavy cruiser. He barely registered that fact though, for other, far more important questions were running through his mind. “I’m sorry, she will do who?” He asked in confusion.

Alvarez smiled. “You, Commander. I’m assigning you to her. We have a mission for Pytheas and her crew and you are needed to command it.”

Edward shook his head. “But… I thought you wanted me here to berate me. I got so many people killed. And then you left me on New Delhi without orders.”

“We did,” Alvarez said as he glanced at Christine. “Your mother wasn’t entirely happy, but I thought you needed it. You’ve never experienced loss like that before. You needed time to dwell on it, to learn from it. Have you not done so?”

“I… ah… yes, I have,” Edward replied as he relived the days of guilt and questioning he had gone through. At least a hundred times he had run through his engagement with the Silizzarus ship, looking for how he could have done it better. Though he had identified several mistakes, he doubted fixing any of them would have changed the ultimate outcome.”

“And do you still believe you did the right thing?” Alvarez asked, as he leaned forward his eyes suddenly took on the intensity Edward was used to seeing in them.

Edward raised his chin to face Alvarez. “I do. We needed to try and stop the Silizzarus agent. I regret all the losses we suffered, but we had to try. I only regret that the ship got away.”

“Which, in hindsight, was inevitable,” Alvarez said in a more conciliatory tone. “Though you didn't know that and so the blame isn’t with you. In addition, as much as you may not have thought about it yet, some positives have come from your engagement with the ship. For one, we now know its capabilities. Every ship in the system got sensor readings on what the Silizzarus ship did to your ships. It has caused an uproar on the holo news channels, and even more so within the Houses of Parliament. More importantly than that though, it also got the Kulreans' attention. Hence why we are looking at Pytheas here.

“She is one-of-a-kind, because the Kulreans are building her for us. She will have our latest stealth capabilities and weapons, the same as the stealth cruisers we have deployed to raid Karacknid convoys. But as well, she will be equipped with Kulrean reactors and engines. She is designed to be able to operate for over two years without needing resupply. Though with the speeds she can achieve, even whilst in stealth, she could traverse all of explored space in six months, so I don’t know where she would go in two years.”

“I don’t understand,” Edward said as he shook his head, still trying to grasp the fact that he wasn’t in trouble and instead was being given a new mission. “Why is she being built, what is it you want me to do?”

“Well,” Alvarez said, and he actually cracked a small hint of a smile as he spoke. “You’ve stirred up the hornets' nest by engaging that Silizzarus ship. Now they know we know about them. And now we know just how dangerous they can be. A small squadron of their ships could destroy half our fleet. So… Pytheas is being built so you can go and find their homeworld and figure out just how much of a threat they really are.”

Edward’s eyes widened in shock, and he glanced from Alvarez to his mother, thinking they were playing some kind of trick on him. Yet both looked at him with serious expressions on their faces. “Me?” He blurted out.

Christine nodded. “As much as I protested, Alvarez is right. You have the most experience with them. And your security clearance means you have access to a lot of information most other Imperial Intelligence officers or naval officers don't have. Plus the Kulreans know you.”

“The Kulreans?” Edward asked, still not really understanding.

“They are building Pytheas,” Alvarez explained. “And they will be assigning at least one officer to join you, along with a crew to oversee Pytheas’ reactors and engines. They are concerned about these Silizzarus, far more than they are about the Karacknids. They want the Silizzarus’ worlds found. For if they have a large Empire and thousands of warships, we need to know as soon as possible.”

“But, how are we going to find them? Where do we start? We only know that we spotted two of their ships to the south of our Empire, yet their homeworld and civilization could be anywhere,” Edward said.

“Which is why, it’s a good thing we have this,” Alvarez responded as he changed the image on the display, replacing Pytheas with a fragmentary star map. “Superintendent Hallock’s engineers managed to pull this from one of the Silizzarus’ ship’s data cores. We have no idea what most of the symbols mean, but we were able to identify several stars which means we can overlap this with our own maps.” With another tap on his console, Alvarez superimposed a map of known space onto the image. The fragmentary map was far to the southwest of the systems Humanity was familiar with. Much further south than the Camogodas’ civilization, and east of where it was estimated the Eaglaton Protectorate’s space extended to. “This is all we’ve got,” Alvarez continued. “But hopefully it is all we need. Using the Kalassai’s dark matter sensors she’s equipped with, Pytheas should be able to reach this area in five to six weeks. From there, you can start your search.”

Edward stared at the map as his head shook slightly. It was a lot to take in. “All right,” he said slowly. “So, who is joining me on this, and when do we leave?”

Alvarez smiled. “So, you are agreeing to go?”

“I have a choice?” Edward asked as he glanced from Alvarez to his mother again. “I thought this was an order.”

“It is,” Christine said with a nod. “We both expected you to protest a little before agreeing though. This will take you far south of our war with the Karacknids.”

“I know,” Edward responded. “I’ve already thought about that. But I’ve seen first-hand just how powerful the Silizzarus are. They are as much of a military threat as the Karacknids, maybe more. I know this is where I need to be.”

“In that case, your two questions are astute,” Alvarez said. “As for when you’re leaving, it will be before the day is over.” Alvarez nodded towards Christine. “Your mother has asked that you stay long enough to have a meal together, but after that, you’ll be heading straight back up to orbit. There is a worldship already there waiting to take you and Pytheas' new crew straight to Kulthar. Pytheas should be ready for you by the time you get there. And as to who will be joining you, well, let me get them in here.” Leaning forward, Alvarez tapped another button on his desk. A moment later, one of the side hatches into his office retracted and two women stepped forward.

Edward jumped to his feet and smiled as he held out a hand and warmly greeted Brooke. “What are you doing here?” he asked without thinking.

“The same as you believe it or not,” she responded as she rolled her eyes. “I got recall orders just hours after hearing about your run-in with the Silizzarus ship. We’ve been preparing for this mission ever since.”

“And this is Captain Samantha Cortez,” Alvarez said as the second woman offered Edward a salute. “She served as your brother’s First Lieutenant on Achilles. She has already distinguished herself as a Captain in her own right. She will be commanding Pytheas.”

Edward returned Cortez’s salute. Then he shook her hand. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Captain. Jonathan has spoken fondly of you several times to me. Though, I hope not all his traits have rubbed off on you. He seems to have an uncanny capability of drawing danger to himself like a flame draws moths.”

Cortez's face broke into a smile. “He certainly does, Commander.” Cortez then glanced at Alvarez before saying more. “I hope that’s not how others would describe me. Especially given the mission ahead of us. I understand secrecy will be our most important priority. Get in, get a good look at what the Silizzarus civilization is like, and get out. That’s all we need to do.”

“Well,” Alvarez said authoritatively. “I daresay the mission will be a little more detailed than that. Come, all of you, sit and let’s go through exactly what I expect of each of you. This will be your only chance to make sure you understand what we need from you and to ask questions. So let’s not waste our time.”

Edward nodded seriously as he felt excitement begin to stir within him. All his concerns about being told off or even demoted had already vanished. Yes, he could still feel the guilt he felt for all those who had died under his command in the back of his mind. Yet he was being given a chance to avenge their deaths and learn more about their enemy.

The sooner we leave the better, he thought to himself. He couldn’t help feeling that now the Silizzarus knew their cover had been blown, every day counted, for there was no knowing how they would respond. Feeling sorry for his mother, Edward glanced at her. He would make sure they enjoyed having lunch with one another once the briefing was over, but then he needed to leave straight away. This is too important, he thought as he turned back to Alvarez and focused on what he was saying.

Chapter 22

Cadets, and even Ensigns and Lieutenants, never grasp just how big a fleet and especially a battlefleet is. It takes thousands of people and billions of credits to move a battlefleet from one system to another. To cross a thousand light years from one sector of the galaxy to another, you must take that and multiply it by ten thousand.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

Cyane system, 24th March 2513 AD, (same time).

IS Trident

As her dreadnought jumped out of shift space and into the Cyane system, Becket felt a great weight lift off her shoulders. She had finally left Karacknid space behind. Since her decision to abandon her campaign against the Karacknid worlds five months ago, it had been a grueling trip back through enemy territory towards open space. Not because the Karacknids had put up much of a fight – they hadn’t. Twice, small formations had tried to block them, but they had been easily swept aside. For the rest of the journey, the Karacknids had appeared content just to let her leave, happy that she wasn’t wrecking any more of their systems.

Becket’s real headache had instead come from her own fleet’s logistics. Conducting a ten month-long campaign up to three hundred light-years behind enemy lines was an extremely difficult task. To accomplish it, she and her officers had worked out a meticulous supply schedule. Her decision to turn around and race back towards the border had thrown everything into confusion. Timetables and supply lines had been torn up as they reworked everything.

But we are here now, Becket told herself as she waited patiently for Trident’s sensors to tell her just what was waiting for them in the system. And we are making good time. When she had set out on her campaign, Becket had taken six thousand Imperial, Conclave, and Varanni Alliance warships with her. She had lost eleven hundred in the many battles she had fought since and had dispatched nearly a thousand others back towards Conclave space for repairs. Though she had fewer than four thousand ships under her command, her instincts told her they were desperately needed back on her own Empire’s frontline with the Karacknids. Too few Karacknid fleets had come to confront her raids. The only explanation was that Tanaka-lan had chosen to ignore her raid and focus all his strength against Earth.

That was why Becket smiled in relief when the holo display began to update and showed several hundred Conclave freighters waiting for her. A couple of months ago she had sent a fast frigate forward to Scalatar asking for assistance and the Gramrians hadn’t let her down. The freighters and their escorts were here to top up her fleet's fuel supplies and had brought a lot of supplies that would allow her ships to continue carrying out repairs on their journey to Scalatar. Though it would mean her ships would have to remain in the system for a couple of days, the stop would greatly increase their speed as they raced onto Scalatar, then Bastion, and then to The Gift and then Earth.

“You know what to do,” Becket said as she glanced towards Commander Albright, her Chief of Staff. “Let’s get started.”

“Right away, Admiral,” Albright responded. He and the rest of Becket’s command staff were intimately familiar with the fleet’s needs and so immediately made contact with the waiting freighter fleet and began organizing the resupply of the Allied fleet.

“Admiral, I have a priority message for you,” Lieutenant Rodgers said from Trident’s COM station. “It’s already been transmitted to us; I’ve forwarded it to your command chair. It’s from Earth.”

Becket nodded at Rodgers and then immediately looked down at her command chair as she opened the file, eager for news on what the Karacknids were up to. The first line told her it was from Emperor Somerville, and so she began to read quickly. It didn’t take her long to learn about Jonathan Somerville’s escapades within Karacknid space helping a convoy of Free Karacknids escape. Her eyes widened at the numbers of enemy ships Jonathan had observed. They have even more warships than we feared, she thought. The purpose of her campaign had been to draw some of Tanaka-lan’s fleet towards the southeastern systems of the Karacknid Empire, away from Earth, but even if her campaign failed, no one had imagined Tanaka-lan would have been able to muster so many ships. And so quickly, Becket thought in concern.

When she got to the end of the message, she read Emperor Somerville’s recall orders. From how he spoke, it was clear he expected his message to reach Becket when she was still deep within the Karacknid Empire. We are already well on our way back, old friend, she thought towards him. I just hope we will be quick enough.

Sitting back in her command chair, Becket started to think through everything she had just read. A part of her wanted to forsake waiting in the system and rush straight towards Scalatar. Sitting around for two days felt wrong given the urgency in James’ words. Yet reason told her it was the best thing in the long run. There was no point in her fleet reaching Earth two days sooner but not being in any condition to fight. As Becket tried to think of other ways she could help James, her mind turned to the Eaglaton Protectorate. If there is even a sliver of a chance, she said to herself. Looking up from her command chair’s display, she turned to Rogers. “Get me Wing Commander Somerville, ask her to meet me in my office immediately.”

“Right away, Admiral,” Rogers responded.

Becket pulled up a list of her fastest frigates, selected one, and sent a quick message to its Captain. Then she stood, nodded to Albright, and stepped out of Trident’s bridge and into her adjacent office. Georgia entered a couple of minutes later. “Admiral,” she said as she gave Becket a salute. “You asked for me?”

“Yes, take a seat, please,” Becket said as she gestured to a seat that faced her.

“Has the freighter squadron brought news from Earth?” Georgia followed up.

“It certainly has, I’m sure there are letters for you from your mother and father. I’ll make sure they're transferred to Rattlesnake for you.”

Georgia frowned. “Rattlesnake?”

“Let me explain, and then maybe you’ll stop asking a superior so many questions,” Becket said with a smile that only widened as Georgia’s cheeks reddened. She pressed on before her friend could apologize. “Tanaka-lan is gathering five large fleets along his border with our Empire. Each fleet is at least fifteen thousand ships strong, with more ships steadily arriving. And that was nearly three months ago. By now they have probably begun to advance into The Wilds. Your father sent orders for us to return forthwith. Thankfully, we’re already well on our way back. Yet I’m not sure we will be on time, nor will we have enough ships even if we are. So, I have a mission for you. I’m sending you to the Farvul’vian system. Rattlesnake will take you as quickly as she possibly can. I have a message for Vice Admiral Reverus.”

“You’re going to ask him for help?” Georgia said, her eyes widening in surprise.

“Another question?” Becket asked as she held Georgia’s gaze. Then she winked when her Wing Commander looked suitably apologetic. “But yes, that’s my intention. And who better to ask for it than you? You saved his life; you know him best from when he held you captive. If he trusts anyone, he’ll trust you.”

Georgia swallowed a lump in her throat. It was clear on her face that she was wrestling with what to say. “If these are your orders, then I will go,” she said after a moment. “But if you are rushing back to Earth to join the fight against the Karacknids, surely my skills would serve us all better there. What are the chances the Eaglatons will actually be willing to help us?”

“Slim, perhaps slim to none,” Becket said truthfully. “Yet if they would, how many ships might they bring to the fight? A hundred? A thousand? Even if that was all, would that not be worth it?” Becket smiled a knowing smile. “There is something more though. I just had your security clearance upgraded so I can share this with you. Your father sent it along with his other orders.” Becket then tapped a few buttons on her desk’s command console, sending an encrypted file to Georgia. Then she began to give her Wing Commander an overview.

“Ever since the bombing of their peace conference, Vice Admiral Reverus and your father had been sharing intel on their efforts to identify the bomber and uncover just who the snakelike aliens are. You know that much of course, but what you don’t know is the extent of their dialogues. They're all detailed in the report I just sent you. You’ll find it makes interesting reading. However, of more immediate interest is what your brother Edward has been up to of late.”

Though Georgia had begun to scan through the reports, at the mention of her brother, she looked back up at Becket. “He managed to capture a snake-like alien ship, and one of their species,” Becket continued to explain. “Listed in the report is all the data our people and the Kulreans have managed to gather so far. I’m sure Vice Admiral Reverus would find it very interesting. It may not be enough to sway him to help us, but it might help. I’m confident with this, and your Somerville charm, that you might actually stand a chance of winning him over. In any case, we need to try, which means I need you to try.”

Georgia nodded seriously. Though there was still some skepticism on her face, she no longer looked like she wanted to demand she be allowed to stay with the fleet. "If this is what you want, Admiral, then I will do my best,” she promised.

Becket smiled. “That’s all I ask. Now, get going, you can read that report on your journey. Rattlesnake is waiting. The sooner you leave, the sooner you can come back and rejoin us. You will not beat us to Earth and the frontlines, but I imagine there’ll be plenty of fighting still left by the time you catch up.”

Georgia stood quickly. “In that case, I will depart now, Admiral.”

“Godspeed, Wing Commander,” Becket said as she stood and gave Georgia a salute.

“For both of us,” Georgia replied as they shared a smile and their eyes locked for a second. Then Georgia spun and hurried out of Becket’s office. Becket couldn’t help but feel envious of the younger woman. She too wanted to be rushing off towards her next goal, yet instead she had a large pile of logistics reports to attend to. But we will be there before all the fighting is over, she was certain. Don’t worry, there will be plenty of battles left for you, she told herself.

*

IS Hammerclaw, FOB Obsidian, 24th March 2513 AD, (same time).

“Well, ladies and gentlemen, you have all seen the scout reports. The situation before us is not dire, but it is getting close. What we must decide now is what do we do next? Our fleet is refueled and repaired, as best as it can be. Our mission has not changed, yet we cannot simply throw away our lives if it is no longer viable. So, what are your thoughts?” Sitting back, Jonathan threw open the discussion, keen to see what his most senior Captains thought. He had gathered them all in Hammerclaw's largest briefing room. Though he had his own ideas about what his squadron should do next, he wanted their input and needed to ensure they were prepared for whatever course of action was chosen next.

“As much as it pains me to admit it, I struggle to see how much more useful we can be,” Captain Santiago of the heavy cruiser Halifax said, speaking first. “We are down to two hundred and forty warships and just two hundred fighters. Every convoy our scouts have detected has had an escort at least that strong. I know our numbers are small compared to the Karacknid battlefleet to the south, but slipping past them and rejoining the fleets at our forts might be the best we can do.”

Jonathan nodded, though he didn’t like the suggestion at all. They had done a significant amount of damage to the Karacknid supply lines, but he felt they needed to do more, much more, if they were to have any real impact on the war.

“There is also the Karacknid battlefleet itself to consider,” Captain Naysmith of the medium cruiser Fargo added. “If they begin to move south once again, that means they will be deploying many new screening forces. Given how close we are to their positions, we could run afoul of one of them as we try to hunt convoys.”

Jonathan felt like grimacing at that thought. After giving the Karacknid escort squadron that seemed to be their shadow the slip and making it to FOB Obsidian, his forces had taken two weeks to lick their wounds, refuel, and regroup. In that time, he had sent out scouts in every direction seeking to learn how far south the two nearest Karacknid battlefleets had gone and to try and discern the routes their convoys were taking. While the scouts had revealed much that was useful, they also discovered that the Karacknid battlefleets had halted their advance, one even stopping just three systems from Obsidian. If it wasn’t for the fact that the fleet base was built in a system only reachable via an artificial shift passage his father had created, Jonathan was certain they would have been discovered by Karacknid patrols already. As it was, moving his squadron out was going to be difficult, no matter what they chose. Actually, striking at a convoy so close to one of the battlefleets would be an even more challenging prospect to attempt.

“And yet, we can’t just give up so easily,” Montgomery countered. “At least, it doesn’t sit comfortably with me. Our mission was clear. We have strength yet to see it out. If there is a way, I believe we should try. If we fall back to the forts, we will become just one small squadron amongst many. What impact can we have on the war there? Here we could take out another convoy, perhaps even two. If we could do that, we could delay a battlefleet by an entire week or more.”

“What then do you propose?” Another Captain asked. “This darned escort squadron is just two systems from us. It is as if it has a sixth sense as to where we are. And now we’ve detected another squadron of over a thousand warships operating in the rear of the nearest battlefleet. If either of them catches us and forces us to fight, we’ll waste our strength against them and even if some of us survive, we’ll be of no use to anyone by then.”

Montgomery raised a hand to rub his jaw. “We have tricked and outmaneuvered our targets before. I cannot give you one tactic or another that might work. Not without a real scenario before us.” Montgomery’s eyes darted to Jonathan for a second. “But I am willing to bet on our ability to do so again. All we have to do is get ourselves in front of an isolated convoy, and I’m confident we can at least hurt them.”

Several heads nodded in agreement, while a couple of other Captains verbally did so as well. Though neither Santiago nor Naismith brought up their desire to head south again, Jonathan could see in their faces that they weren't swayed by Montgomery or the others' arguments. For nearly half an hour, the conversation continued as ideas were thrown back and forth about how to go about hunting down more Karacknid convoys. Staying out of it, Jonathan was able to see two groups develop. Though Santiago and Naismith didn’t speak, others questioned the various tactics that were brought up as ones that could be potentially used. They weren't directly arguing to abandon their mission and head south, but by knocking down every suggested way to continue, they were in effect doing so.

I need to win them over, or at least show them enough of a plan that they will follow, Jonathan thought. He didn’t doubt that any of the Captains would obey his orders. Yet a reluctant follower was far from ideal, especially if they were going to continue to operate behind enemy lines where the risk of being caught and killed was increasing daily. Jonathan let the discussion continue for several more minutes, then he saw an opening. Leaning forward was enough for most officers to turn their eyes to him. “What we need is to find a richer hunting ground,” he said slowly. He then glanced at Santiago and nodded towards the Captain. “With the escort squadron still hunting for us and this larger, one-thousand warship-strong squadron also patrolling the rear of Battlefleet Four, it is too dangerous for us to continue our mission here. But what if there were still target-rich areas for us to hunt in?”

“What do you have in mind, Commodore?” Santiago asked.

Jonathan bit back a smile at the curiosity in Santiago’s voice. He was already on the way to winning him over. “I think we should head north,” Jonathan said decisively. “We sneak past all the Karacknid ships in this area by heading east towards the region of space Battlefleet Five passed through. None of our raiding squadrons nor stealth cruisers had orders to harass Battlefleet Five. No one will be expecting us to move through that area of space. From there, we can then head north and then west and get into the rear of Battlefleet Four's supply lines, right up against the Karacknid border. If there’s anywhere where their escorts are the weakest, it will be near their space where they think they are secure.”

Jonathan quickly held up a hand as Naismith looked like he wanted to say something. He then smiled at the captain. “I know our supply situation will be stretched. As far as we know, every FOB near the Karacknid border has been discovered and destroyed, even our hidden ones. That’s why we need to take all the fuel from Obsidian with us. Even then, it will be a stretch, but I believe it’s doable. Once we get up to the Karacknid borders, then we can raid for as long as our fuel allows. Then we head east again and retreat back towards the forts through Battlefleet Five’s supply lines. With luck, we should be able to move through them, raiding if we get a chance, and still reach the forts before the battlefleets eventually do.

“Now,” Jonathan said as he placed his hands on the briefing room desk and leaned forward a little more. “I’m not suggesting we go on a suicide mission. If the situation is too difficult as we head north, then we will attempt to sneak south once more and return to the forts. However, until we get there and confirm that we cannot do any more damage, I am not willing to abandon our mission yet. There are trillions of people depending on the fleet to protect them, and the fleet is depending on us to slow the Karacknid’s advance. So, what say you all? Shall we make one more attempt to cut our enemy's supply lines?”

All around the room smiles and nods accompanied Jonathan’s words, telling him his Captains were with him. Good, now all I have to do is actually find this richer hunting ground, he thought as he kept any worry from his face. We will do it, he assured himself.

Chapter 23

Oh, to be the Captain of a single warship operating alone far from any senior Admirals. Such missions are the dream of every Lieutenant and Admiral alike. The former because it is all they have ever hoped for, the latter because they wish for simpler days. It has been years now since my last solo command, but barely a day goes by when I do not think of it.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Nautilus, Cantuin system.

To say O’Kane was in a target-rich environment was an understatement. A plethora of contacts filled Nautilus’ holo display. The problem that he and his officers were dealing with, however, was selecting one they could safely attack. Over the course of the last month and more, O’Kane had been involved in several successful engagements. Twice he had managed to slip a handful of torpedoes into the midst of a supply convoy's formation. He even joined up with several other stealth cruisers to overwhelm and obliterate a small Karacknid flotilla that had been hunting them. Yet as the weeks went on, all the targets they came across became increasingly more difficult to take on. The difficulty was, the Karacknids were learning.

While Nautilus’ stealth capabilities were still extremely impressive, the Karacknids had learned that the torpedoes the cruisers fired were far easier to identify. Then, if identified quickly enough, it was possible to backtrace a torpedo's path and get an estimate on where the cruiser might be. Twice, O’Kane had witnessed stealth cruisers being destroyed as the Karacknids saturated an area with antimatter detonations. To make matters worse, the Karacknids had also figured out that the stealth cruiser's sensor emission bending capabilities weren’t perfect. If enough emissions were striking the stealth cruiser from enough different angles, it couldn’t deflect them all. While it took a lot of emissions being released by at least seven or eight close-in ships or recon drones, it was possible for them to actually locate a stealth cruiser itself.

The upshot of these developments was that O’Kane and his officers had to be very careful selecting a target. At least, they had to be careful if they wanted to strike at the enemy and then successfully slip away into the shadows before they could be found. For three days now, O’Kane had kept Nautilus in the system she was in. He and his crew were sitting right in the middle of Battlefleet Two’s supply lines. In the last three days, they had watched two convoys of over a thousand freighters pass southwards and now, in front of them, a third similarly sized convoy was heading north.

Each convoy had been heavily guarded by several hundred warships making them difficult to attack. The escorts weren’t O’Kane’s main concern, however, for alongside the convoys and their escorts, there were also several hundred other warships within the system. All of them were surrounded by a spread of active recon drones as they continually monitored the system. If O’Kane wanted to strike at one of the convoys, he’d have to slip past several small flotillas of such ships. Even more problematic, if he wanted to survive after launching an attack against the convoy currently passing through the system, he would have to avoid being detected as every ship in the system sought to locate him. O’Kane had no doubt that as soon as a Karacknid ship detected a torpedo, Nautilus would be swarmed by the patrol ships and their active recon drones.

As a result, O’Kane’s frustration felt like it was building up within him as if being held back by a dam. He wasn’t sure how many more hours, never mind days he could take of staring at so many potential targets and not finding a safe way to move against them. “Still nothing?” He asked his officers, though he held out little hope.

Lieutenant Barry, Nautilus’ first lieutenant, shook her head on behalf of the rest of the cruiser's officers. “Sorry Captain, none meet your criteria. There are just no openings yet.”

O’Kane nodded and kept his face neutral. Yet he couldn’t help grinding his teeth. He had set the criteria. They were a number of parameters that had to be met for them to risk making an attack. Maybe it’s time to widen them, he said to himself. Though it would mean taking on a greater risk, there was another type of risk they were flirting with at the moment, the risk of obscurity. By sitting around and doing nothing, they were achieving exactly that; nothing, and nothing would end in the Imperial Fleet’s defeat and Earth’s fall. Determined that he wanted to make an attack before the day ended, O’Kane started analyzing his parameters and assessing where he could relax one or two slightly and perhaps find a way to strike at the convoy passing Nautilus by.

“Look at this,” Lieutenant Alcaraz said excitedly from her sensor console.

As soon as he looked up at the contacts Alcaraz had highlighted, O’Kane forgot about his own plans. His eyes lit up at the massive ship and the lonely-looking frigates escorting it.

“It entered the system five minutes ago,” Alcaraz explained. “It’s moving at about sixty percent of the normal thrust we see from a dreadnought. Look here and here; these look like scorch marks from energy weapons.”

O’Kane nodded in agreement. Energy weapons meant a close-range battle had been fought. Though he didn’t know Emperor Somerville well, O’Kane doubted he would have engaged a force of dreadnoughts with the heavy cruisers O’Kane had seen Somerville commanding the last time their paths crossed. Which means Somerville brought up the larger force and struck at Battlefleet Two, O’Kane guessed. “There must have been a battle,” he said to his officers. “Perhaps a big one. This could be the first of many damaged ships heading back north to Karacknid repair yards.”

As he looked down from the holo display, O’Kane found his Lieutenants all staring at him. He flashed them a confident smile. “I know we’re supposed to be focusing on freighters, but we have a chance to take a dreadnought out of this war. I intend to take it. Get us underway, enter the system under this heading initially.” As he spoke, O’Kane typed a heading into his command chair’s console and then sent it to his navigation officer. “Start analyzing that dreadnought; I want to assess its course in relation to the scouting ships in the system. Let’s find a spot we can strike it away from the prying eyes of our hunters. And see how good a picture we can get of the dreadnought's damage; let’s see if it has a few weak spots we can target.”

At once, O’Kane’s officers sprang into action as they began fulfilling his commands. By now, each of them knew how to carry out their responsibilities to perfection. Just five minutes later, they had come up with an attack vector that suited O’Kane perfectly. “We’re still going to have a time of it getting out of here, but it will be worth it,” O’Kane said to them after Lieutenant Barry talked them through the plan.

As his officers continued to focus on directing Nautilus deeper into the system to a point where they could lie in wait for the dreadnought, O’Kane began studying space around where they would launch their attack. There were at least thirty scouting ships scouring the area for any potential threats. He was going to have to deal with them and others if Nautilus was going to make it out of the area in one piece. Thankfully, he had spent the last three days thinking up just the kind of maneuvers he was going to need.

Three hours later, Nautilus was in position. Thirty minutes previous, she had launched one torpedo ballistically, without any of its engines and maneuvering thrusters operating, O’Kane had taken the risk that it wouldn’t be spotted until it needed to be. As the torpedo slowly made its way forward, Nautilus had accelerated past it and then crossed ahead of the course the dreadnought and its two escorts were taking.

“Torpedo is reaching the point where it will go active, Captain,” Lieutenant Hernandez reported. “The dreadnought is right on course. Everything looks optimal. Sixty seconds until torpedo begins its attack.”

“Put it on the holo display,” O’Kane requested. Though Nautilus’ sensors couldn’t detect the torpedo, unless there had been a malfunction, they knew exactly where it should be.

Sixty seconds after the torpedo appeared on the display, it flashed to signal that it had begun to accelerate. Though still moving slowly and stealthily, the torpedo nevertheless began to angle in to close with the dreadnought as its passive sensors detected its target and adjusted its heading accordingly. Though not acting as nervously as many of the scouting ships within the system, the two frigates and the dreadnought were filling space around them with active emissions and had a formation of twelve active recon drones aiding their sensors. As a result, the torpedo was picked up three minutes before it reached attack range.

The second something suspicious was detected, all three warships focused their active sensors on the area. The torpedo, sensing the sudden spike in emissions, took it as a sign to go active. At once, its main engine went to full power and it raced towards the dreadnought. As soon as it could, it launched its three smaller missiles which accelerated even harder towards the large Karacknid ship. As they did, the two Karacknid frigates spun away from the dreadnought and placed themselves between their charge and the incoming threat. They opened up with their point defenses as soon as they could and within seven seconds, they shut down all three missiles. They weren't finished yet, however, for as soon as the threat was gone, they began launching more active recon drones and then they themselves began to turn and accelerate along the trajectory the torpedo had first appeared from, searching for the ship that had launched it.

“Targets locked, Captain,” Hernandez reported.

“Fire tubes one through to four,” O’Kane ordered immediately. “Two torpedoes each.”

“Aye, Captain… Torpedoes away,” Hernandez responded seconds later. “Four more minutes until we reach our attack point.”

O’Kane nodded. “Get those torpedo tubes reloaded as quickly as possible, we may need them very soon if this doesn’t work!”

“Understood,” Hernandez said.

“We are ready, Captain,” Barry said as she looked up from her console as the counter on the holo display reached zero.

“Begin,” O’Kane ordered.

From the remaining torpedo tubes that could be brought to bear on the dreadnought, six more were launched towards it. As soon as they were away, they began to accelerate, though only at a low rate to remain hidden. Nautilus also began to maneuver to make it hard to backtrack the torpedoes’ flight path. However, she didn’t move away from the dreadnought but rather, towards it. For thirty seconds, the torpedoes closed in on the dreadnought. Then the torpedoes went active. Their engines ramped up to maximum acceleration and they charged at the dreadnought. As soon as they could, they released their three smaller missiles. With the frigates too far away to help, the dreadnought was on its own. However, even damaged, it still had enough firepower to take out eighteen missiles.

O’Kane had no intention of making it that easy, however. Just as the point defenses of the dreadnought began to fire, Nautilus revealed her presence as she opened fire with her heavy laser and plasma cannons. She too then began to rapidly accelerate towards the dreadnought.

Having analyzed the dreadnought's damage carefully, the energy weapons, normally ineffective at the range they had been fired, struck home exactly where they had been aimed. Open sections of hull, without armor or bulkheads, were blasted apart by the plasma bolts and laser beams. The entire dreadnought shuddered as it was wounded again where it had already been ravaged. Several key power relays were damaged or overloaded and systems throughout the dreadnought failed or had to switch to emergency power. The attack threw off the aim and concentration of many of the dreadnought’s gunners. Suddenly, eighteen missiles were a much bigger threat than they had been seconds ago.

Recognizing the danger she was in; the dreadnought’s Captain began to turn his ship to hide his damaged sections from the smaller attacker. At the same time, the handful of energy weapons that were still operational began to charge and lock on to Nautilus. Nautilus wasn’t done yet, however, for her mass driver cannons barked next. As soon as Hernandez had detected the dreadnought beginning to move, he fired. Defensive weapons took out several of the tungsten spears, but most of the dreadnought’s gunners were still firing wildly at the incoming missiles. Both weapon systems hit the dreadnought at almost the same instant. First, three missiles got close enough to detonate and send laser beams piercing into the dreadnought. Then four of the sixteen tungsten spears shot from Nautilus’ mass drivers smashed into the dreadnought. The result was catastrophic for the massive warship. Weakened damaged sections were blasted apart from the kinetic energy of the tungsten strikes while the laser beams sliced through armor and deep into the ship destroying critical systems.

On Nautilus’ holo display, the dreadnought flashed then grew dimmer, signaling the power levels being detected from the warship's reactors had dropped off significantly. A moment later the dreadnought's maneuvering thrusters ceased firing and the behemoth began to drift in space. “We have them!” O’Kane shouted in excitement. "Keep up the evasive maneuvers though, don’t take any chances. Target their energy weapons with our next plasma bolts. Focus everything else on that damaged section, let’s rip her in two!”

With the serious damage she had already suffered, it took just one more volley from Nautilus’ energy weapons and mass drivers to blow the dreadnought apart. A tungsten spear punched right through an open section of the ship's hull and obliterated all six of her reactors. The energy surge from the destruction of the fusion reactions still going on within the reactors blew the dreadnought into a trillion fiery specks of debris.

Maddened at the sight of the destruction of the ship they were meant to be protecting, the two Karacknid frigates had already begun to turn and accelerate to close with Nautilus. Yet they were so enraged that they didn’t notice the four torpedoes closing with them. As O’Kane had instructed, the torpedoes didn’t go active. Instead, they simply continued ballistically towards the frigates which, moving to close with Nautilus, were reacting just as O’Kane and Hernandez had anticipated. The first warning the frigates received that they too were under attack was when each torpedo released its three missiles. With a closing time of just thirty seconds, they had almost no opportunity to react. One frigate shot down two of the missiles but was struck by a laser beam released by the third. The second frigate wasn’t so lucky, all three missiles detonated, and it was sliced apart by the laser beams that struck it.

“Fire everything we’ve got at that frigate and prepare to defend ourselves,” O’Kane ordered.

“Launching!” Hernandez shouted.

Five torpedoes shot out towards the damaged frigate. Within a minute, the frigate itself fired three missiles back at Nautilus. “Do you have any orders, Captain?” Lieutenant Barry asked. “Should we go dark and try and lose them?”

O’Kane shook his head. “Instruct our defensive gunners to destroy those missiles,” he ordered instead. Barry and the rest of his Lieutenants had spent so long on a stealth cruiser they had forgotten just how good Imperial defensive weapons were. His cruiser should easily be able to handle three missiles and he had put his defensive gunners through more than enough training to ensure they would. “Keep maneuvering towards that frigate, I want it destroyed as quickly as possible. Prepare another round of torpedoes in case they are needed.”

With the Imperial torpedoes being much larger and slower than a Karacknid antiship missile, the frigate was able to release three salvos before it had to defend itself against O’Kane’s follow-up attack. The torpedoes released a total of fifteen missiles at the frigate. Though it was damaged, the frigate put up far more of a fight this time. Without the element of surprise helping them, seven missiles were shot down by the frigate. However, that still left eight to detonate and send laser beams rushing towards their target. Even with the frigate gyrating wildly as it tried to evade the beams, three struck true. The frigate blew apart seconds after being hit.

Nautilus gunners didn’t let O’Kane down. As each salvo of three missiles came in, thousands of laser beams, plasma bolts, flak cannon rounds, and electrostatic waves raced out to meet them. No missile was able to get anywhere near the stealth cruiser.

“Take us into stealth now,” O’Kane ordered the second the last missile was destroyed. “Make for this asteroid field,” he added as he highlighted the massive asteroid field not far from where they had ambushed the dreadnought. Only when his ship was safely in stealth did O’Kane allow himself to look at the wider system. Sure enough, hundreds of contacts were rushing towards his position. Almost every scout flotilla that had been on high alert was now trying to close with Nautilus, and even some of the convoy escorts had broken off to join the search. In addition to the ships, hundreds of recon drones were also being directed towards his ship. “Track every recon drone coming our way,” O’Kane requested. “I want to know how close they are all going to get.”

Five minutes later and it became clear Nautilus’ stealth capabilities were going to be put to the test. At least fifty recon drones would be passing very close to the stealth cruiser. Many would do so at almost the same moment. So many active emissions would be washing over Nautilus that there was a very good chance her abilities to redirect electromagnetic waves would be overwhelmed. “Okay, forget stealth,” O’Kane ordered. “I want maximum acceleration, get us to that asteroid field as quickly as possible.”

“Aye, Captain,” Barry responded, though she sounded nervous. While the asteroid field was large, with over a hundred ships racing to catch them, it wasn’t somewhere they could hide indefinitely.

“Now,” O’Kane said as he set his ship went to full thrust. “Let’s get ready. Here’s what I want,” he said as he explained his plan to his officers. When he was done, they all nodded to say they understood what he needed. Though most still looked concerned, they at least didn’t think running into the asteroid field was suicidal.

Having chosen to attack the dreadnought as far away from the scouting flotillas within the system as possible, Nautilus reached the asteroid field ahead of the ships that were closing with her. Even so, many active recon drones had flashed past her, getting a good scan of her location and heading. As soon as Nautilus entered the field and was obscured from the nearest drones by the asteroids, she went into stealth mode and began dropping small devices out of her cargo hold. Expertly, Nautilus’ navigation officer wove through the asteroid field, heading deeper into its maze of crashing and rotating rocks. Outside the field, four Imperial stealth recon drones watched the approaching Karacknid ships and broadcast their data to Nautilus.

For half an hour, Nautilus moved through the asteroid field pretending she was trying to find a good spot to hide. In reality, O’Kane directed his ship along a carefully planned route. Wisely, the first Karacknid ships to reach the asteroid field hung back at a safe distance. Given Nautilus's capabilities, they didn’t want to be caught out by a sudden flurry of torpedoes. When enough ships had come and the asteroid field was beginning to be surrounded, the Karacknids acted. First, they pushed several hundred active recon drones into the field, and then fifty frigates moved in with them as they prepared to hunt for their hidden prey.

“Now!” O’Kane ordered when the last frigate had passed within the asteroid field.

At a single command from Hernandez, almost every small device Nautilus had released exploded, unleashing its destructive energies. Each one was a stealth antimatter mine. As they detonated, they sent antimatter smashing into the nearest asteroids. The energy given off as antimatter and matter annihilated each other shattered hundreds more asteroids around every antimatter mine. Suddenly, the outer edge of a large portion of the asteroid field became a storm of shattered rock fragments that were flung in every direction. Two Karacknid frigates were destroyed as massive asteroids smashed into them, and half a dozen more were damaged. The rest raced back out of the asteroid field, as did most of the active recon drones.

In the midst of the chaos Nautilus had wrought, she too moved out of the asteroid field. At the same time, the six final devices O’Kane had ordered released sprang into life. Each one was a drone built specifically to mimic Nautilus’ stealth signature. They all headed away from the asteroid field at the same velocity Nautilus did.

O’Kane sat tensely in his command chair. His attention was split between two displays. One showed a readout of the level of the rising electromagnetic radiation being deflected by his cruiser. The second showed the Karacknid ships arrayed around the asteroid field. For nearly a minute the radiation levels continued to rise sharply whilst the Karacknid ships that hadn’t been lured into the asteroid field set about scanning space all around them, guessing he was trying to escape. But then a Karacknid ship detected something. It had spotted one of O’Kane’s drones. Immediately every Karacknid ship in the vicinity turned its active sensors towards the drone. Then they all started launching antimatter missiles at the area, seeking to overwhelm the cruiser’s stealth tech or score a lucky hit.

Over four hundred missiles detonated in the space of sixty seconds. So much energy was given off that every active sensor’s ability to detect anything was compromised. When the detonations ceased, no trace of the drone remained. Not detecting any signs of debris, however, the Karacknids continued to scan the area, not sure whether they had destroyed their target or not. Before they could be sure, another Karacknid frigate detected another stealth cruiser maneuvering on a completely different trajectory. The response to it was exactly the same and soon hundreds more antimatter missiles were detonating. Yet even as they exploded, two more momentary sightings of stealth cruisers were detected by other Karacknid ships, unleashing more antimatter missiles.

At that very moment, Nautilus slipped by the nearest Karacknid destroyer that was looking for her. As soon as they were past, O’Kane relaxed slightly. Then, after another five minutes, he shared a relieved grin with his First Lieutenant. His plan had worked! There were no ships between them and the outer system and no one was pursuing them. On the contrary, as Nautilus continued to cruise away from danger, the Karacknids became more and more frantic in their search of the area around the asteroid field. They even returned to sending frigates and active recon drones back into the field in case everything else had been a deception and Nautilus was still hiding in the field. Yet they were destined to be disappointed.

Determined to catch the killer, for the next six hours the Karacknids continued their search as Nautilus made her way into the outer system. Eventually, they began to give up and slowly the scout flotillas returned to patrolling the rest of the system. Yet a handful of ships and several hundred recon drones were kept near the asteroid field, clearly still suspicious that there was something hiding within it.

O’Kane watched the Karacknid activity until it started to die down, just in case there was something he could learn for the next time his ship was being hunted down. Then he brought Nautilus to a halt and deployed some passive recon drones back into the inner system. Though the convoy he had been watching hours before was now almost at the far side of the system and would soon jump into shift space, he was certain other convoys and very possibly, more damaged warships, would be passing through the system. It was only a matter of time before another target he could attack came along. Maybe we can add another dreadnought to our kill list, he thought as pride swelled within him. He doubted there were many stealth cruiser crews who could claim such an illustrious kill. And there are plenty more asteroid fields within the system to play hide and go seek within. He couldn’t help smiling at the thought of how frustrated the commander of the Karacknid forces he had just given the slip must be.

Chapter 24

The problem with every wartime economy is that people are only willing to accept serious infringements on their economic prosperity when the threat of invasion and death is already upon them. Yet by then, it is often too late. Building up a fleet and the infrastructure to support it takes trillions of credits and decades of effort.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Beartooth, FOB Atlantis, 24th March 2513 AD, (same time).

“Take a seat,” James said to Ivanov as she stepped into his personal briefing room.

Ivanov nodded to him, shared a smile with Scott, and then sat down. Fox, James’ steward, already had a steaming cup of hot cocoa, her favorite, waiting for her. “You’ve heard word then; they are on the move again?” Ivanov guessed.

“Worse,” Scott said as she reactivated a holo display she and James had discussed several minutes previously. “They appear to be changing tactics.” On the display, a condensed version of a battle between an Imperial squadron and the Karacknid screening squadron played out. It showed the Karacknids deploying several new weapon systems, including a new class of fighter with shields that allowed a wing of fighters to charge straight at the Imperial fleet, destroying one of its carriers. At the same time, the Karacknids used more new weapons to easily deal with a similarly sized Imperial fighter attack launched against their ships.

“Our squadron had to retreat through several systems before it could regroup,” James said when the recording was finished. “The Karacknids aren’t just on the move again, they are making up for lost time, advancing quicker and with more confidence.”

Ivanov nodded, “I can see why. Those fighters, and those ship-launched anti-fighter missiles, they are entirely new weapons systems. They’ve been keeping them hidden.”

“Tanaka-lan,” James said, certain it was the Karacknid Imperator behind the developments. “He probably planned to reveal the weapon systems when striking at our forts. Our fighters are our greatest advantage, and these two new weapons systems go a long way towards negating that. We’ve at least forced his hand early, but I'm expecting reports to be coming in to let us know all five battlefleets are advancing south once again.”

“Well, our fleets are repaired and as ready to confront them as they are going to be,” Ivanov said. “I presume we're going to be moving out once more?”

“That’s why you’re here, Admiral, we need to decide on a new strategy, especially in light of these new weapon systems. So, let us put our minds together and come to a final decision,” James said. As Ivanov nodded, he smiled at both of his most senior Admirals. Besides Admiral Becket, he saw Scott and Ivanov as his two best commanders. Between the three of them, they had spent much of the last three weeks discussing strategies and tactics while their fleets took a much-needed rest to carry out repairs at FOB Atlantis. Now that the Karacknids were moving south again, however, their discussions were no longer theoretical. They needed to decide on a plan of action.

One that may need to be even more flexible than before, James said to himself, certain that the new weapon systems weren’t the only tricks Tanaka-lan had kept hidden. His gut told him that what he looked on as the second stage of the battle for The Wilds wasn’t going to go as well as the first. He was certain the Karacknids would be employing new tactics and strategies after pausing their advance to regroup and reassess. Tanaka-lan was no fool; he would have figured out what James was doing by now and come up with his own counters. Still, as he, Scott, and Ivanov had discussed, they had to do their best to buy more time for the Empire’s forts to be further reinforced.

For an hour the three of them went through the latest scouting reports and decided on a final plan. Then they said their goodbyes. James pulled each woman into a hug as they left his office. “Be careful,” he said to both of them. “And keep in touch. Let’s not take any more risks than necessary.”

“As long as you promise to heed your own advice,” Scott said as she stepped back from their hug. “You are the one taking the greater risk. At least for now.”

James smiled. "Don't worry, I know where the real fighting is going to be. This is all just a preamble to the main attraction. I intend to be at our forts facing Tanaka-lan when he finally shows his face."

"Well, just make sure he doesn't catch you out with any more surprises," Ivanov said after she gave James a quick hug.

James nodded. Their plan meant they were going to split up. Scott and Ivanov would take two squadrons and begin engaging the screening squadrons of battlefleets two and three to delay their advance. James intended to be more adventurous. He had already bloodied battlefleets two and three, whereas he had just engaged the screening forces of Battlefleet Four. Now he intended to take the largest portion of their force and strike at Battlefleet Four's main body of warships if he could.

For several moments the three of them stared at each other, all good friends, all reluctant to take leave of one another. Then James smiled, and Scott and Ivanov returned his expression before they both stepped out of James' office. James stood still, staring at the spots where they had stood for another few moments. Then he gave himself a shake and moved back to his desk. Tapping his COM unit, he contacted Scott's temporary replacement, "Commander Hawkin, Admirals Ivanov and Scott will be detaching squadrons from our fleet. They will inform you of the ships they will be taking. I need you to prepare the rest of the fleet to depart; I want to break orbit within the hour."

"Understood, Emperor, we will be ready as you desire," Hawkin responded more stiffly than James was used to. He was going to miss Scott, but her skills were needed against Battlefleet Three in case Tanaka-lan used any more of his secret weapons on Scott's squadron.

Content that Hawkin was able to handle the fleet, James pulled up a letter he'd been working on for Christine. He carefully spent time finishing it off so that it could be sent back to Earth with the messenger frigates he would be dispatching to bring news of the new Karacknid weapons' technologies to his other commanders. When he was done, he pulled up another letter. It was one addressed to Jonathan. He had been adding to it piece by piece ever since his son had left to take his raiding squadron north. Though he didn't know when he would ever get the chance to send the letter, James added a few lines to it, nonetheless. Stopping, he couldn't help but be filled with worry for Jonathan. Though sporadic reports had been coming back from beyond the frontlines of successful raids by one force or another, James had heard nothing concrete from his son since the Karacknid battlefleets had begun their advance. Though he knew that was to be expected, it still caused him a great deal of concern. Without realizing it, James got lost in his own thoughts as his mind turned to Georgia and the danger she was doubtless in as well. He hoped his recall orders would be reaching them soon, but even then, he had no idea if she was even alive or not.

Only when his datapad beeped at him did he notice the passing of time. The fleet should be ready to break orbit, he said to himself as he shook his head at his own daydreaming. Quickly he wrote one more sentence for Jonathan's letter and then stood. A few quick strides and he stepped onto Beartooth’s bridge.

"Emperor, we are just awaiting your command," Hawkin said the moment James appeared. "Admirals Ivanov and Scott have already departed."

"Then get us underway, Commander," James said as he moved over and took a seat in his command chair.

"Aye, Emperor," Hawkin responded.

In silence, James watched as Hawkin and his other staff officers handled his fleet. He wanted them to know that he trusted them even with Scott gone, and at the same time, he watched them like a hawk, assessing their capabilities. He needn’t have worried, however, for they expertly handled the fleet as it broke orbit and made for one of the five shift passages that led from the Atlantis system. Ahead of them, Scott and Ivanov’s squadrons were already moving towards two of the other shift passages. Each had five hundred warships under their command. Along with Beartooth, Jonathan had two thousand more Imperial ships, while a garrison of five hundred were being left behind at Atlantis.

Though the Atlantis system was uninhabited, it occupied a key strategic location in the middle of The Wilds, and its five shift passages meant it was a key hub from which to move fleets north in a number of directions. James had chosen it decades ago as a key location, and FOB Atlantis was the largest base his fleet had built north of his Empire’s border forts. James was certain Tanaka-lan knew of the FOB’s existence and while he knew it would fall eventually, he didn’t want a Karacknid screening squadron advancing quickly and destroying the base too soon. Hopefully, we will be back soon, he thought as he watched the large mass of orbital structures and warships shrink on the holo display.

*

IS Beartooth, 9th March 2513 AD, (sixteen days later).

“This is it,” James said to Hawkin and the rest of his officers. “We need to crush them completely.”

On the holo display, three hundred warships had just begun to move into the system. Ahead of them, another one hundred frigates and destroyers were already spreading out across the outer system, active sensors searching for danger. The enemy squadron was the third screening squadron of Battlefleet Four that James’ forces had engaged. The first he had fought a brief scuffle with. The Karacknids had fled as soon as they saw the four hundred ships James had advanced on them with. As soon as they fled, James had left a Commodore with a hundred ships to continue to threaten them whilst he had raced with the rest of his force to where he was now. The second was still being harassed by Rear Admiral Jiminez. James had assigned three interdictor cruisers to his squadron and tasked the wily commander to waylay and harass another Karacknid screening squadron.

Both operations had been designed to isolate the force now streaming into the system in front of Beartooth. As far as James’ scouts could tell, his target, the Karacknids’ fourth battlefleet, lay directly behind the screening force he was watching. If he wanted to strike at the battlefleet, he needed to push past the screening force first, and if he wanted to strike at the battlefleet with the element of surprise, he had to stop any ships escaping. Plus, he was on a timetable. There was a chance James could coordinate his attack on Battlefleet Four with another one of his surprises, and he wanted to make it possible.

Despite his urgency, however, James forced himself to sit still for another hour and a half as the Karacknid screening squadron made its way into the system looking for danger. He needed them to come close so that there was no escape. Though he was being patient, waiting for the perfect moment to release his forces, in the end, James’ hand was forced. An active recon drone came closer than expected to a flotilla of Imperial cruisers hiding in stealth and got a return from one of them. Within a minute, other drones were racing to the area and several Karacknid warships had begun to veer away, fearing a stealth cruiser or something worse was trying to ambush them.

“They know something is up,” James guessed as he watched the enemy ships’ movements and the fresh active sensor drones being launched. “Time’s up, begin the attack.”

A second later, Beartooth’s gravimetric COM began to pulse as it gave out the order to begin. At the same time, the battlecruiser surged forward along with the five hundred ships accompanying her. In response to the gravimetric COM, two other similarly sized formations also came out of stealth as they charged too. Though the Karacknid screening squadron wasn’t perfectly surrounded, it was as close to being enveloped as made no difference. Outnumbered four to one and about to face three salvos from three different directions, its warships stood zero chance of surviving.

Even so, it initially tried to get away. With impressively fast reaction times, the main formation of the Karacknid screening squadron began to decelerate and turn to fall back to the shift passage they had entered the system from. The more spread out Karacknid destroyers and frigates also raced to rejoin their brethren, looking for safety in numbers. The Karacknids continued to run for the next five minutes, but then their formation started to change. Sixteen frigates broke ahead of the Karacknid squadron as they went to full acceleration, leaving their consorts behind.

“They’ll be bringing word back to the battlefleet about our force,” Hawkin commented.

James nodded. The Karacknid commander had evidently decided his fate was sealed; yet if he could get word to the battlefleet that such a powerful force was approaching them, then he would still have fulfilled his squadron’s responsibilities. “Launch fighters,” was the only order James needed to give.

Again, Beartooth’s gravimetric COM began to pulse. From the nearest squadron of Imperial warships, two hundred and twenty fighters were launched from their carriers. They then began to accelerate hard on a course that would take them around the fleeing Karacknid squadron and allow them to intercept the frigates. James was not surprised by the Karacknids' next move. As he expected from the recent reports he had been receiving, the Karacknid screening squadron had several carriers at the heart of its formation. At the sight of the Imperial fighters, they launched their own squadrons. However, rather than move to defend their carriers or even strike at James’ ships, the fighters accelerated onto a course that would force the Imperial fighters to engage them if they wanted to catch the frigates.

Though James kept his face impassive, he felt a spark of worry. The Karacknids had launched a hundred and eighty fighters, more than he had anticipated. If they were the newest fighters equipped with shields, they would give his force a run for their money. As both groups of fighters smashed into one another, anti-fighter missiles rushed in for the kill. Then thousands of plasma bolts and laser beams were unleashed as fighters fired wildly at one another. With the momentum of both groups of fighters so high, they only had a brief opportunity to clash with one another before they broke apart. Even so, the short fight had been deadly. At least ninety Karacknid fighters had been taken out. In return, they had shot down seventy-four Hellcats.

James’ worry grew as Beartooth’s sensors confirmed the losses. On paper, the odds were still very much in favor of his fighters. One hundred and forty-six fighters against sixteen frigates was overkill. But that was only if the fight was going to be a straight-up one. As James expected, the Karacknid frigates began to maneuver to make things much harder. Immediately after the fighter battle, the frigates split into eight groups of two. Then one group decelerated slightly and turned to face the incoming fighters. They were offering the commander of the Imperial fighters a simple dilemma. If he didn’t engage and destroy the frigates, then they could open up at all the Imperial fighters with their defensive weapons as the fighters passed. Yet if the Imperials did want to destroy the frigates, they’d have to divert at least a squadron of fighters to make sure they got both frigates. Then, once the fighters had fired their anti-ship missiles, they would be no use against the rest of the frigate force.

Though he wanted to send orders to the Wing Commander commanding the force of Hellcats, James resisted the urge. The Commander knew his mission as well as James did. Every frigate had to be destroyed; if it wasn’t, then the plan James had prepared would be thwarted before it had really begun.

Weighing what had to be done, the Imperial Wing Commander directed eight Hellcats to charge at the first two frigates. Three were shot down as they dashed in to release their missiles, then the remaining five fired two missiles each before pulling away from the frigates' rapidly firing guns. The frigates immediately switched their fire to the missiles as soon as they were launched. Six were shot down. The two that remained hit and detonated, releasing large blooms of antimatter. None scored direct hits, but both did enough damage to cripple each frigate.

Even as both frigates lost power and spun out of control, two more frigates peeled away from the formation racing towards the system’s mass shadow. As they closed with the fighters, eight more Hellcats engaged them. This time, they weren't so successful. Though only two fighters were shot down before they released their missiles, only three missiles reached the two frigates, and all three had targeted just one frigate. Though it was blown apart by the impact, it survived. It immediately turned and once again began to accelerate hard towards the shift passage that was its goal.

Right away, James knew what had happened: both frigates had focused their fire on the missiles targeting one of them, choosing to sacrifice the other. And the next group would do the same, and the one after it, James was sure. There was nothing he nor his Wing Commander could do about it, however. Helplessly then, James watched as, in pairs, the frigates charged at the fighters that were trying to catch them. Each time the frigates tried to save one of their number while ignoring the missiles targeting the second. It didn’t always work; sometimes a missile or two got through, but by the time the Hellcat fighters had spent all their missiles, five frigates were still racing towards the system’s mass shadow. With their missiles gone and their fuel low, the fighters could do nothing but turn back towards their carriers.

“We should still have them,” Hawkin said confidently, though as James glanced at his temporary Chief of Staff, his face suggested his words were somewhat forced.

“Let us hope,” was all James could bring himself to say. At worst, he had planned for two or three frigates finding a way to escape his trap. Five was pushing it.

Before anything more could be done about the frigates, however, the larger, but less important, battle had to be played out. As soon as James’ three squadrons came into range, they each fired approximately six thousand missiles at the small Karacknid force. The Karacknids could only manage three thousand missiles in return. Judging his numerical advantage would be more than enough, James held the rest of his fighters in reserve, and they formed up ahead of each of his squadrons, ready to intercept enemy missiles.

With James’ squadrons only closing slowly on the retreating Karacknids, the Karacknids were able to fire three salvos before James’ first missiles caught up with them. Three was all they were going to fire, however, for as more than eighteen thousand missiles converged on them from three separate vectors, the Karacknids’ defensive fire was completely overwhelmed. Over two thousand missiles survived to reach attack range, and as they sought targets, not a single Karacknid warship was ignored. So many antimatter explosions filled Beartooth’s holo display that the Karacknid squadron disappeared for more than a minute. When it reappeared, barely a flotilla's worth of ships were left. Even then, every one of them was badly damaged.

By chance, the Karacknids had chosen to focus all their missiles on the squadron surrounding Beartooth. Without needing orders, Hawkin pushed Lancer frigates and drone cruisers out to meet the incoming missiles as soon as the fighters had finished taking shots at them. By the time the salvo reached the range of Beartooth’s defensive guns, a fifth of their number had already been taken out. Flak cannons, arc emitters, AM missiles, and energy cannons made short work of nearly all the rest. By sheer luck, four missiles penetrated the defensive fire and struck targets. Antimatter mauled a heavy cruiser while a light cruiser suffered a proximity hit, and two frigates were obliterated.

“Launch search and rescue operations,” James ordered. “And give what’s left of that squadron a half salvo.” He then turned his focus to the only Karacknid ships of worth still left in the system, the five fleeing frigates. It’s over to you, he thought towards the commanders of the two stealth cruisers he still had as part of his force.

The first sign the frigates got that they were still in danger was when one of them detected a torpedo closing in on it. Already close enough to attack, as soon as it was detected, the torpedo released its three missiles. Defensive fire shot down two of them, but the third exploded, converted its warheads’ energy into a laser beam, and smashed the frigates' engines, destroying both of them. Pandemonium then broke out as the frigates switched from focusing on the danger behind them to suddenly realizing the danger was in their midst. Two more torpedoes appeared seconds later as they came out of stealth and went to full power. One was shot down almost instantly, while the second released its three missiles and again a frigate was blown apart. Then more contacts appeared on Beartooth’s display as her gravimetric sensors detected additional torpedoes and both stealth cruisers.

They understand, James thought as he watched the stealth cruisers abandon the protection of remaining hidden and sought to engage the frigates with their energy weapons. The frigates fired missiles at the stealth cruisers as soon as they saw them, while their defensive weapons sought out the torpedoes closing in on them. Then heavy energy weapons began to bark as both groups of ships sought to blast each other. James grimaced as the acceleration rates from both stealth cruisers noticeably lessened, signaling they had been damaged. Yet two more frigates were blown apart. Only one remained. On the display, two torpedoes were still closing in on it. James willed them on as his hands tightened into fists. The torpedoes disappeared a moment later, but they hadn’t been destroyed. Instead, they were replaced by six smaller contacts as their missiles raced to close the final distance to the frigate.

The frigate fired desperately at them, but six was simply too much for its defenses to handle. Making sure that was the case, one of the stealth cruisers, though damaged, fired another salvo from the few functioning plasma cannons it had left. Two bolts struck the frigate causing more damage and destroying sensor nodes and point defense weapons. Then the four remaining missiles got close enough to detonate. Three beams sliced into the frigate, ripping it apart. Seconds later it tumbled and spun away from its original heading, completely out of control.

“They did it,” James said firmly, full of pride and loss for the death he knew both cruisers had undoubtedly suffered. “Get rescue shuttles to those cruisers as soon as we reach them,” he ordered. “If they can be salvaged, we’ll send them back to Atlantis. If not, we’ll scuttle them as we pass. The door is open for us, now we just have to barge our way in as quickly as we can.”

Chapter 25

The list of heroes of the Second Karacknid War forever immortalized on the Becket Lunar Academy Memorial is long indeed. It stretches for as far as the eye can see. Yet even then, it is but a fraction of those who willingly gave their lives to save our Empire.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

26th March 2513 AD, (two days later).

Lieutenant Hansen walked slowly from his cramped quarters towards what passed for a mess hall in the base that he had reluctantly come to think of as home; at least the last home he would ever know. More than two months ago he had been transported to the base, then he and the rest of the volunteers had been left to their own devices. Quickly, Hanson’s life had fallen into a dull and repetitive routine. He woke, slowly dressed, and then meandered through the base’s tight corridors to the mess as he was doing now for his breakfast. Then he went and checked on his Devastator, running a daily systems’ diagnostic. With only a handful of engineers on the base, each pilot was primarily responsible for keeping their bomber battle ready. After completing any maintenance that was required, he would check the simulator schedule. The base only had six simulators, and so every pilot got a half an hour in one per day, but that was all.

Once his slot came and went, Hansen had nothing else to do but join his fellow pilots as they waited. Some played board or card games together, others talked while many were content to sit with one another, reading or engrossed in some other distraction. With no R&R rooms or areas built into the base, everyone tended to gather within the large open cavern that housed all their Devastators and Hellcats. As he sat in silence and ate his meager breakfast, Hansen wondered, not for the first time, why he had volunteered. True, he had no wife and children, unlike many pilots within the Empire’s fighter force. But he knew there was more.

As he examined his emotions again, he tried to shy away from the real answer, at least what he suspected was the real answer. He still remembered the fear he felt during his first combat mission. Though he had been involved in two other attacks soon after, the fear hadn’t dwindled. If anything, it had only grown. Though Hansen had kept it under control each time and flown well enough to survive each attack, he knew he couldn’t keep it up forever. When volunteers had been called for, it had presented an opportunity he couldn’t pass up. What lay before him was a path to end his growing terror and still keep his honor. He was determined he would not be a coward, no matter how much fear he felt. The mission he was now on made that certain. He just had to hold it together for one more attack.

“If we ever get a chance to attack something,” Hansen growled quietly to himself. When they had been left on the comet base, they had been told the enemy battlefleet would likely pass through their system a month ago. As the time had approached, Hansen had eagerly awaited the opportunity to fly one last combat mission. Yet then the time had come and passed. Yes, there had been a few false alerts, as enemy scouting and screening squadrons had passed through the system. But apart from that, the waiting had turned into monotony.

Almost as bad as the monotony was the not knowing. Beyond the events that had transpired before they had been left on the comet base, no one, not even their Wing Commander, knew how the war was progressing. It was possible the enemy battlefleet had been delayed because it had been destroyed by Emperor Somerville or perhaps it had destroyed Emperor Somerville’s fleet and had already advanced far to the south, bypassing the system Hansen had been left in. For all anyone knew, the war could already be over, one way or another. But this is what you volunteered for; Hansen reminded himself as he ate. They had all known what they were signing up for. Yet the idealism that had fueled his decision didn’t help very much as the monotony and uncertainty had taken hold, causing the hours and days to drag out longer and longer.

In an instant, all of Hansen’s complaints were forgotten. A red light in the corner of the mess hall had begun to flash. Seconds later a quiet alarm blared. Then a voice spoke over a small intercom. “All pilots to their fighters. All pilots to their fighters. This is not a drill. All pilots prepare for launch.”

Hansen was running a moment later. Soon the tight corridors around him were filled as pilots and technicians hastened to the bases’ large cavern. He had to jostle his way through hundreds of thronging bodies. Even when he reached the cavern, bedlam reigned as everyone rushed one way or another. Hansen eventually reached his bomber and ran up the stairs to jump into his cockpit. Turning, he tapped a button on the stair's control panel and they retracted from the Devastator. Another button closed his cockpit as Hansen donned his flight helmet. Immediately, his eyes were filled with sensor data being fed to him from the passive sensors built into the comet’s outer crust.

They are here, Hansen knew immediately. It wasn’t a mere screening squadron had come into the system this time. At least ten thousand contacts were being shown to him, and every second the number rose. The Karacknid battlefleet had finally arrived. Quickly, Hansen ran a final flight diagnostic to check his Devastator. Then he tapped a few buttons on his command console to let his Squadron Leader know he was ready to take off.

“That’s everyone checked in,” the Squadron Leader announced over the COM channel sixty seconds later. “We are ready to depart, just waiting for orders from above,” she informed them.

Five more minutes of waiting ensued as Hansen kept one eye on the increasing number of contacts while his other watched the chaos around his Devastator slowly diminish. Thirty seconds after the final engineers moved away from checking Devastators and Hellcats, a new voice came over the COM channel as Wing Commander Naysmith addressed his pilots. “This is it, ladies and gentlemen,” he said fiercely. "This is what we volunteered for. We’ll be launching in a little over forty minutes, we have to let them get close enough and then we will strike. Before I left Emperor Somerville’s fleet, he gave me a message to share with you all if this moment came. I'll play it now and speak with you once we launch. Good luck out there.”

A moment later, the small holo display in Hansen’s cockpit sprang to life. It showed a projection of Emperor Somerville sitting behind a large wooden desk. He smiled a grim smile. “If you’re seeing this, then our guess has proved true and Battlefleet Four is passing through your system as I speak. While I have planned many surprises for our enemy as they move south towards our forts, this was one I hesitated to put into motion. Yet, you are where you are now because I have deemed this is something that must be done. To your credit, you have volunteered for this as well. Believe me, your actions will not be forgotten.”

Somerville glanced away for a moment. When his eyes returned to the device recording him, he took a slow breath before speaking again. “There’s nothing I can say to you that you do not already know. Our Empire and our species' future is at stake. That is why you must do what is before you. So, all I can say is, know this, your sacrifice will not be in vain.” For a long few seconds, James stared at Hansen. Then he nodded. “And, if I can, I will join you for your last battle… So, make every missile count and hammer our enemies.” Somerville then flashed a smile. “Godspeed pilots, may you strike swift and sure.”

With a small flash, the holo display switched off, leaving Hansen alone with his thoughts. A counter then appeared on a secondary screen. They would be launching in forty minutes. Glancing at the main screen that showed the progress of the corrected battlefleet, Hansen nodded. They were going to attack the Karacknid vanguard as it passed. That seemed like the best target to him. Hitting the freighters huddled at the center of the Karacknid formation might have caused more damage, but the course of the battlefleet meant they’d have a long flight full of engagements with enemy fighters if they tried to hit the freighters.

As he waited, time passed slowly for Hansen. He couldn’t help himself from thinking of his parents. He had had an idyllic childhood growing up on his father’s farm. That was until a tragic shuttle accident had cut both of their lives short. At fourteen, he had felt there was nothing but sad memories left on the land he had inherited. That was when he had determined to join the fleet and spend his life for the protection of Earth and his species. In the fleet at least, he had found something resembling a family. And now, he told himself, you go to fight so that one of your brothers or sisters won’t have to. That was enough for him. It had to be now.

“This is it, pilots,” Hansen’s Squadron Leader said when the timer was just thirty seconds from reaching zero. “Fire up your engines, prepare to take off. We’re the fourth squadron launching.”

“All squadrons, detonation in ten seconds,” Wing Commander Naismith called out. “Take off on my command.”

At the exact moment the timer hit zero, Hansen felt a series of rumbles pass through the cavern, up his Devastator, and into his flight seat. They grew louder over the span of six seconds, then abruptly stopped. His main screen, displaying space around the comet, suddenly filled with trillions of contacts as thermonuclear detonations blasted countless ice shards off the surface and into space. Hansen didn’t know why Somerville had included this in his plan, but it seemed to have an immediate effect. Any ships near the comet began to veer away as if they thought the ice shards were heat-seeking missiles in pursuit.

Whatever the reason for the Karacknids’ skittish behavior, Hansen was not about to question his luck. As he lifted his Devastator off the landing pad and turned to face the retracting hangar bay door within the heart of the comet, the closest Karacknid ships were too preoccupied with their retreat to notice his squadron slipping out.

Once clear of the comet, all four hundred and forty-six Devastators and Hellcats in the attack force pivoted towards the nearest Karacknid formation. The comet was passing right between the vanguard of the Karacknid fleet and several other large formations encircling a central freighter fleet. Shielded by the waves of ice shards, the attack force began to accelerate towards the rear of the vanguard's formation. To Hansen's astonishment, his Devastator's passive sensors revealed waves of debris from similar explosions among at least ten asteroid belts and other celestial bodies. Hundreds of contacts surged out of the debris towards the Karacknid ships from all directions. Hansen shook his head in disbelief. He had thought his was the only attack force, yet it seemed there were at least four thousand fighters converging on the Karacknid battlefleet.

“Attack wing, full acceleration as soon as we're clear of the ice shards,” Naismith commanded. “We go to full burn in thirty seconds.”

“Mind the ice shards,” cautioned Hansen’s Squadron Leader as their twelve Devastators swiftly closed in on the ice trailing off the comet’s surface. Hansen piloted with precision, dodging several large ice fragments, then broke free of them. “Full acceleration!” his Squadron Leader ordered. Without delay, Hansen's Devastator and the rest of the strike force shot forward, adding their power to the swarm of ships charging at the Karacknid forces.

A new timer appeared on Hansen’s HUD, counting down to when they would be within attack range of the Karacknid vanguard fleet—just two minutes away. They won’t be able to launch enough fighters in time, Hansen was certain. Sharing his confidence, Wing Commander Naismith started assigning targets to each squadron. Hansen's grin broadened. The Karacknid vanguard's rear squadrons had scattered chaotically after the explosions, leaving a path clear to the dreadnoughts at the heart of their formation. His squadron was tasked with taking out three of the massive ships. He silently vowed to do his best, whether to his Wing Commander or Emperor Somerville he wasn’t sure, but he meant it nonetheless.

“Deploying decoys,” Naismith announced as they approached the Karacknids’ position. “Devastators, begin jamming.”

With a press of a button, Hansen activated his bomber’s gravimetric jammer and braced for the engagement. He rolled his shoulders, loosened his body, and wiggled his fingers before firmly gripping the flight stick. He then ran his Devastator through a series of evasive maneuvers, ensuring all his maneuvering thrusters were operational. His gaze turned to the nearing Karacknid fleet; alarms sounded moments later as a group of thirty fighters launched an assault on their force. The Hellcats within their ranks unleashed their missiles, then every Hellcat and Devastator dismissed the Karacknid fighters to focus solely on evasive action. The Karacknid fighters that survived the initial missile barrage began firing their laser cannons as soon as they were within range.

Hansen’s peripheral vision caught a glimpse of shields flaring as other devastators were hit; then, in the distance, a brief flash marked the destruction of one of his comrades. Laser beams zipped past his bomber, and as they did, Hansen felt fear begin to churn within his belly. Until now, he had been ignoring it, keeping it buried deep down, but the threat to his life was now palpable. For several more seconds laser beams zipped by his gyrating bomber, then the Karacknid fighters were gone.

Noticing some pain in his right hand, Hansen glanced down to see his knuckles white from gripping the flight stick. Cursing, he loosened his grip and tried to hold it more gently. “Ten seconds,” his Squadron Leader called out. Hansen's gaze shifted from the dreadnought that was his target to take in the entire Karacknid vanguard fleet. Just for a second, he swore again. The sight of so many thousands of warships sent a shiver down his spine.

“Hold it together,” he told himself fiercely. “Just one more time!”

Hansen’s fear erupted worse than ever before when every contact on his HUD began to flash, signaling that his Devastator's sensors were detecting energy spikes. The Karacknid defensive gunners had opened fire. Less than a second later, laser beams and other energy weapons hurtled past Hansen’s twisting bomber. He felt a great urge to simply close his eyes, to keep his evasive maneuvers going and just ignore what was coming his way. Yet, as much as he wanted to, he knew he needed to see what was happening. He needed to keep his target directly in his sights. Face your fear, he told himself savagely, as anger also began to bubble up within him. If you fail now, someone else will have to face this dreadnought. Someone else may have to give their life to stop it. Face your fear and cast it away!

With a growl, Hansen overcame his desire to close his eyes. Instead, he stared unblinkingly at the dreadnought he was determined to destroy. Around him, he was aware of other fighters and bombers being torn apart by defensive fire. Twice his shield flared from hits, then a warning beep told him his shield was gone, stripped away by another laser beam. He didn’t care though, for a different, high-pitched beep followed almost instantly. As soon as he heard it, he pulled his trigger twice in quick succession, releasing all four missiles his devastator carried.

Then, continuing his evasive maneuvers, Hansen charged the dreadnought, following right behind his missiles. When he heard a second high-pitched beep, he fired again. This time, it was a low-powered laser beam that instantly covered the distance between his bomber and the enemy dreadnought. Seemingly aware of the threat, the dreadnought had already begun its own evasive maneuver, but Hansen matched it easily. His beam therefore struck the dreadnought right where he aimed, amid two of the dreadnought’s massive engines. Instantly, one went dark. The loss of thrust spun the dreadnought into an unanticipated twist, throwing off the aim of its defensive gunners. They had already shot down two of Hansen’s missiles, but now they failed to strike the remaining two. Defensive fire from a nearby medium cruiser managed to strike one more missile. No one could hit the fourth. The moment it touched the dreadnought, it detonated, bathing the vessel in antimatter. Matter-antimatter detonations rippled up and down the dreadnought’s armor, vaporizing it, then the antimatter ate its way into the dreadnought’s hull and inner decks.

Hansen let out a whoop of satisfaction, then gritted his teeth. Now to finish it, he thought, the voice in his head firm, his fear completely gone. With one last twist of his flight stick, he sent his Devastator diving towards the reeling dreadnought. For a moment, he thought of his parents, I will see you soon, he said to them. Then he looked up through the top of his cockpit, unwilling to close his eyes, but not wanting to see his death approaching. As he did, his eyes widened at what he saw. All around him, other dreadnoughts were exploding as they were struck by missiles and kamikaze strikes. Yet, they didn’t capture his attention. In the fraction of a second that remained of his life, Hansen’s eyes laid on the largest Karacknid warship he had ever seen. What is tha… he started to think.

Before he could finish his thought, his devastator accelerated through his target’s gaping wound, smashed into an inner deck, and ploughed through it and several more. Then the thermonuclear warhead strapped under Hansen’s seat detonated. The explosive force ripped the dreadnought in two, flinging both wrecked halves away from one another.

Chapter 26

When others die obeying your commands, it puts a weight upon your shoulders that never leaves.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Beartooth, (two hours earlier).

"Everything is in place, Emperor, it's time," Hawkin informed James.

James took a moment to stare at the massive Karacknid battlefleet before responding. There was a total of twenty-two thousand warships ahead of him deeper within the system. Though the closest group, the Karacknid vanguard, consisted of only four and a half thousand warships, it alone had triple the firepower his eighteen hundred ships had. Despite the risk, James was determined to hit the fleet in front of him.

The trap he had laid in the system was perhaps one of the last he would get to use. The Karacknid battlefleets had bypassed several he had set up, taking different routes than he had anticipated sitting in his study years before. Others he would not be able to reach quickly enough to utilize. James wanted to make the most of the opportunity before him. Yet he couldn’t deny the nerves he felt. This trap was perhaps the riskiest of all. First, it depended on deceiving the Karacknids, and then upon the bravery of his pilots. More than bravery, James thought to himself, selfless courage. His own words convinced him. On that, I will willingly risk my life.

"Take us in," he ordered, trusting that his pilots wouldn't let him down.

"Advancing now, Emperor," Hawkin responded. Moments later Beartooth and James’ fleet began to slowly head into the system towards the screening flotillas spread out in front of the vanguard. Though they were carefully searching space ahead of the vanguard, checking for danger, their apparent lack of concern confirmed to James that no word had reached them from the screening squadron he had attacked days before.

Turning his eyes from the Karacknid screening flotillas, James focused on the large comet that was passing through the outer system. Its route was almost perfect as it basically dissected the path the Karacknid fleet was taking. He could barely have planned it better if he had drawn the comet's course himself. Of course, that was why he had chosen it, though when he had ordered the comet hollowed out and the fighter base built nine years ago, there had still only been about a fifty percent chance that it would be anywhere near the path a Karacknid fleet was likely to take through the system. As scout reports had come in over the last months, it had become clear Battlefleet Four was likely to be passing through the system at almost exactly the right time. That was why James had rushed here now to make the best use of his hidden fighters.

For two hours he watched the comet as his fleet slowly entered the system. Without being able to contact the fighters within the comet, there was no way to know for sure when they would initiate their attack. Yet James had left full instructions for them. They will strike the vanguard, he was all but certain. And then we will finish it.

"Energy surge!" An officer suddenly called out.

A moment later, the comet dominating the holo display appeared to erupt as a host of thermonuclear warheads detonated. Trillions of ice shards were flung out in every direction. Sensing the eruptions, similar nuclear warheads detonated all across the system. Then thousands of contacts, marked as Hellcat fighters and Devastator bombers, began to accelerate towards various sections of the Karacknid battlefleet. The display of the Karacknid battlefleet itself had become a confusion of squadrons and fleets. From their reaction to the detonations and asteroid fields, James was certain they had received news of the ice moon he had detonated in front of Battlefleet Three. Almost every section of the Karacknid force was maneuvering away from the nearest orbital body that had exploded and the fighters that had come pouring out of it, clearly worried about just what was happening. It didn’t take long for more moving parts to be added to the display as fighters began to be launched from every Karacknid carrier in the system.

“Wait till the Karacknids open fire with their defensive weapons,” James ordered. “Then we go to full acceleration. Target this section of the vanguard,” he added as he highlighted the half of the vanguard fleet that the attackers from the comet were charging. “We will give them two salvos and then pull back. Our fighters will strike with the first salvo.”

“Understood, Emperor, I will begin launching fighters now,” Hawkin responded. James nodded his approval.

“Detecting defensive energy weapons,” a tactical officer reported sixty seconds later.

“Going to full power,” Hawkin updated.

As soon as they came out of stealth and began to accelerate, squadrons broke ahead of James’ main force as they moved to engage the Karacknid screening flotillas ahead of the vanguard formation. They quickly closed with and destroyed the Karacknid flotillas. At the same time James watched the Hellcats and Devastators from the comet race in and hammer the dreadnoughts at the heart of the Karacknid formation.

James was filled with pride at the fighter’s sacrifice and the delight at how effective their attack was. Yet it disappeared in a second as one massive ship caught his eye. Beartooth’s sensors had thought it a dreadnought. Yet now as it carried out evasive maneuvers, it was being flagged as something else. Something larger.

Immediately, James’ mind was taken to the images his son Jonathan had brought back from his excursion into Karacknid space. It was Tanaka-lan’s flagship! James’ confidence evaporated. In an instant, he began to re-evaluate everything he had seen. Tanaka-lan was no fool. He shouldn’t have reacted so hysterically to the asteroids that were detonated. He knows! James realized as he tapped furiously on his command chair, widening the holo display. It only took a couple of seconds for him to confirm his fear. At first glance, all the Karacknid fighters maneuvering to engage the thousands of Imperial fighters still charging their targets suggested the Karacknids had fallen for his deception. But they hadn’t, James could see it as clear as day. Even as he watched, many of their courses began to change. “Turn us around immediately!” He ordered. “Full reverse. Get us out of here at once.”

For a couple of seconds, everyone on the bridge turned to stare at James, the concern in his voice froze them in place. Then he hardened his voice and repeated himself. “Full reverse now. Do it!”

*

Slayer

At first, Tanaka-lan had been startled by the sudden attack. Somerville had caught him off guard! He had ordered every system his battlefleets were traversing through to be intimately scanned. Somehow, Somerville had still found a way to hide thermonuclear warheads throughout the system. Quickly, Tanaka-lan’s surprise had turned to anger as enemy fighters burst through his vanguard’s defensive fire and antimatter missiles began to rip his dreadnoughts apart. For a moment, fear joined his anger as it looked like several missiles were targeting his flagship. Tens of thousands of laser beams from every nearby ship quickly dispatched them. Yet it came at a price, for several dreadnoughts had given up defending themselves to protect him. Many of them died seconds later as missiles struck them.

When the attack ceased, Tanaka-lan’s anger came to a boil as his eyes found the Human fleet rushing into the system. They were headed straight for his force, intent on destroying his ships. They will try to take us out, while their other fighters harry the rest of the battlefleet. A peace settled on Tanaka-lan, his anger fading. That will not be happening today. As his anger left, Tanaka-lan began to see more clearly. The system his battlefleet was passing through had been constantly monitored for weeks. That meant the fighters that had just ravaged his dreadnoughts had to have been hidden within the comet long before that. Tanaka-lan’s eyes moved over the thousands of other contacts that marked human fighters charging towards other sections of his fleet. He shook his head at them. It can’t be.

The Humans had plenty of fighters, he knew that, but would they deploy over four thousand of them to some forward system in the hopes his battlefleet would pass by? That his battlefleet was here and under attack told Tanaka-lan that the Humans were good at predicting where his fleets would go, yet even so, committing so many fighters on a whim did not feel like Somerville. The ones that already attacked us are real enough, but the others, they are not, Tanaka-lan thought with certainty. His eyes swiveled back to the Human fleet that was ripping through his screening flotillas. They are real enough, but they are alone, he thought as his lips peeled back and a feral smile spread across his cheeks.

"Change of plan," Tanaka-lan said as he caught his Chief of Staff's gaze. "Signal the fleet to ignore the rest of the Human fighters they're detecting. Instead, I want their fighters to begin to alter course. Everyone is to join us here." Lifting a hand, Tanaka-lan extended one of his claws and pointed towards the Human fleet. "We are going to annihilate this fleet before it realizes its mistake." And perhaps Somerville has come himself, Tanaka-lan thought as a drip of saliva ran down his cheek.

As alarms went off alerting everyone that enemy contacts were altering course, Tanaka-lan's smile only widened. The Humans were decelerating. They had sensed something was wrong. Too late, Tanaka-lan thought towards his opponent. Too late.

*

With a growing sense of dread, James watched as Beartooth's sensors tracked and projected the course changes of all the groups of Karacknid fighters. It didn't take long to see they were moving to intercept his fleet. The question was, would they catch his hastily reversing warships before they could jump to safety? Within a handful of seconds, James got his answer; nearly half would. To make matters worse, the vanguard fleet was already turning to pursue him. The Karacknid fleet had split in two as it had veered away from the exploding comet. Then the nearest half to James’ ships had been mauled by the comet attack force, losing at least forty-five dreadnoughts and battleships to the fighter and bomber attack. Yet they were out for revenge now. The nearest half was charging straight for Beartooth, and the other half was moving to join them. He is out for revenge, James thought as he focused on the ship that had to be Tanaka-lan's flagship.

"How do they know?" Hawkin asked as he stared at the four thousand Imperial fighter contacts that were still charging the Karacknid battlefleet, now being completely ignored by their opponents.

"I don't know," James replied. "But if Tanaka-lan is there, then I'm sure he figured it out somehow. It doesn't matter now; they are coming for us now. He will throw his fighters at us, cripple as many as he can, and then his vanguard will move in and finish us off." He grimaced as he spoke. He had hoped all the drones that were out there pretending to be fighters would have distracted the battlefleet long enough for him to strike. Now instead he was the one having to run from a real fighter strike. And they will target all our capital ships, James was sure.

"What are your orders, Emperor?" Hawkin asked.

James didn't respond right away. Instead, he closed his eyes and played out several scenarios in his mind. He could dispatch his smaller ships to run for safety. His frigates and destroyers would easily make it to the shift passage without being caught. Perhaps even his light and medium cruisers could get away, especially if he moved to engage the first group of fighters with Beartooth and his other battlecruisers. But then we would lose all our capital ships, and our carriers, James despaired. When the battle for the forts began, frigates and destroyers weren't what was going to turn the tide of those battles. Seeing no choice, James’ eyes snapped back open. As he began to give orders, he hated himself for them, not least because it looked like he was sacrificing more of his people just to save himself.

"Launch every fighter we have," he began. "Have them form up and move to take on the first Karacknid fighter waves coming our way. We need to force those out in front to slow and wait for support."

"But Emperor, with us falling back, our fighters won't be able to decelerate to catch up to us if they are sucked into a battle," Hawkin responded.

James nodded his head. "Yes, their mission will be a one way one," he said, his voice cold as he hid his anguish. "And not only theirs. I want our lancer frigates and drone cruisers to prepare to fall behind us as well. They are going to have to move to intercept whatever enemy fighters break past our own fighters."

Hawkin stared at James for a long second. Then he nodded solemnly. "Aye, Emperor, I understand."

James watched in silence as every fighter in his fleet launched and formed up. Then, all two thousand two hundred of them left his fleet and began to accelerate back into the system. Opposing them, six thousand fighters were racing towards Beartooth. Glancing at a secondary display, James assessed the squadron of warships Hawkin had assembled. "Lieutenant Becker, open a COM channel to Commodore Diaz," he requested of his COMs officer. "Transmit my words to him, to all the ships that will be staying behind, and to our fighter pilots."

"I have him," Becker responded a moment later.

"Commodore," James began as he gave Diaz as genuine a smile as he could, given the circumstances. "I loathe asking this of you and your people. But I have no other choice. I must save our capital ships. It is my folly that has led us into this danger, I am sorry you are having to pay the price."

"Do not apologize to me, or my people," Diaz replied sternly as he firmly shook his head. "We all swore to serve you and protect you, Emperor. This is war, we have won many battles with you already, now we fight to ensure you and the fleet survive to win many more." Diaz paused for a moment as several emotions flashed across his face, then he looked back to James, the same sternness in his voice. "All I ask, all that I'm sure my people ask, is that you destroy these Karacknids before the war is over. Make sure our sacrifice is worth it."

"I will," James promised, as he also thought of the other fighter and bomber pilots that had given their lives, including them in his promise. "I will, Commodore."

Diaz then broke into a smile. "In that case, Emperor, I will take my leave. We have some Karacknid fighters to rip to shreds."

"Fight well," James replied. "And make them pay a heavy price for your lives."

Diaz nodded, then ended the COM channel. On the main holo display, his two hundred and forty ships broke away from James’ fleet and turned back into the system.

The next hour was one of the toughest James had ever lived through. First, he watched as his fighters tore into several groups of Karacknid fighters. Wisely, the leading Karacknid fighter squadrons had slowed to allow some of their brethren to catch up. Yet the first force that James’ fighters struck still only numbered one thousand. It was all but obliterated by the anti-fighter missiles released by the Imperial Hellcats. The Karacknids took less than a hundred of their enemies with them.

Next up was a larger force of twenty-six hundred Karacknid fighters. This time the Wing Commander commanding the Hellcats ordered his fighters to slow. Placing themselves right in front of the approaching Karacknids, they slowed almost to a halt, inviting their foes to slow as well and fight it out to the death. The Karacknids didn’t take the bait, however, and they tried to blast right past the Hellcats. The Imperial fighters opened up on them with their laser cannons, shooting down as many as they could in the brief seconds the Karacknids were in range. Though they focused on their evasive maneuvers, the Karacknids still returned fire, dealing out almost as much damage as they received.

As soon as the Karacknid fighters flashed past them, James’ fighters turned to take on the final group of enemy fighters. Having just watched several hundred of their brethren being shot down as they tried to fly past the Hellcats, the third wave of Karacknid fighters, numbering over three thousand enemy craft, slowed and descended upon the Imperial Hellcats. A savage but short duel ensued as every Hellcat was hunted down and blown apart. When the last one was destroyed, the remaining Karacknids turned to continue chasing James’ fleet, though the holo display told James his fighters had done enough to delay them.

By then, Diaz was already engaging the second wave of Karacknid fighters. Not willing to simply fly by the Imperial warships, the Karacknid fighters dived, firing their directed particle weapons. Though hundreds of Karacknid fighters were taken out, their attack was still devastating. Two-thirds of Diaz's ships were blasted into debris as beams of super-accelerated particles burst through their armor and caused cataclysmic explosions. James’ face fell when he saw Diaz’s flagship was among those destroyed. True to Diaz’s word, though, the remaining ships reformed and moved to put themselves between James’ ships and the third wave of enemy fighters.

What was left of the second wave of Karacknids also formed up after the brutal engagement as they sought to strike at James’ ships next. "Move our frigates and destroyers to the rear of our formation," James grimly ordered. "Prepare to defend ourselves."

As the third wave of Karacknid fighters dispatched what was left of Diaz’s squadron, James organized his formation to take on the seven hundred fighters still charging his ships. He knew they would have orders from Tanaka-lan to target his capital ships. He had to protect them at all costs. "How many Whirlwind missiles and mines do we have left?" he asked, remembering the anti-fighter missiles the Karacknids had started deploying against his own fighters.

Hemingway turned to his tactical console and tapped on it furiously for several seconds. "Two and a half thousand missiles, and three thousand mines."

James weighed up using them. Once he fired them, there would be no more. Every other Whirlwind missile or mine that had been made was at the border forts, and they were going to be needed even more there than he might need them in The Wilds. "I want to deploy all the mines, and we'll use half the missiles," he decided. "Fire a full salvo at those incoming fighters, mix in nuclear warheads to make up the numbers. Then release the mines. I want them to detonate just before the fighters come into defensive weapon range."

"Understood, Emperor," Hemingway responded at once. "Ready to fire," he reported seven minutes later.

"Fire," James said immediately. The seven hundred fighters were now closing rapidly with Beartooth.

Five and a half thousand Imperial missiles were catapulted out of their tubes a second later. They accelerated hard for just thirty seconds and then the Whirlwind missiles detonated, releasing millions of bomblets. The thermonuclear warheads continued acceleration for three seconds before they exploded right in the midst of the Karacknid fighters' formation. As soon as the missiles had been launched, the Karacknid fighters had begun to spread out, however. Their maneuver largely negated the effect of the nuclear detonations. Just seventeen fighters were destroyed or had their systems fried by the huge amounts of electromagnetic energy released in the explosions.

The fighters weren't ready for what came next, however. As James had instructed, Hemingway had programmed the Whirlwind missiles to release their bomblets with the widest possible dispersion. The Whirlwind missiles were also arrayed around the outer perimeter of the missile salvo's formation. As a result, millions of bomblets raced through the area the Karacknid fighters had maneuvered to. Fifty-two struck fighters. The bomblets detonated instantly, taking each fighter with them.

Just as the fighters pulled back together and prepared to strike at James' ships, the stealthed mines detonated. Releasing five times as many bomblets as the missiles, the fighters suddenly found themselves flying through a fresh wave of the deadly ordinance. Another one hundred and twenty-seven fighters were destroyed. Then the rest, now numbering five hundred and six, immediately came under fire from the frigates and destroyers Hawkin had pushed to the rear of the Imperial fleet's formation. Twisting and weaving, the Karacknid fighters did their best to throw off the defensive gunners' aim as they sought to push past the smaller ships and strike at James' capital ships. Many died making the effort, though not all.

Forty-three burst through the waves of flak cannon rounds, laser beams, and plasma bolts. Lining their noses up on the nearest capital ships they could see, they then fired their particle beams. Shields flared and then valstronium armor melted as the weapons struck home. Evasive maneuvers meant some beams scored only glancing hits, while shields negated much of the destructive force of others. Nevertheless, others punched right through shields and armor. Twenty-one ships were savaged by the beams as they smashed and ripped their way through internal bulkheads and decks. Secondary explosions saw eleven ships completely destroyed as they blew apart. Ten more immediately lost power and began to fall out of formation. The rest of the Imperial ships set upon the Karacknid fighters and shot down every single one before they could recharge its weapon.

Even as he breathed a sigh of relief that Beartooth had been spared, James felt the loss of his ships. A secondary display showed him the names of those that had been badly hit. Two battlecruisers, four heavy cruisers, four more light cruisers, and two pocket carriers had been wiped from existence. A similar assortment of his most powerful ships were now quickly falling behind his fleet. There was nothing he could do for the ships now. The third wave of Karacknid fighters would be on them long before they reached the system's mass shadow, and it was doubtful any of them could make the jump to shift space anyway. All he could do was save as many of their crew as he could. "Evacuate everyone from those ships," he called out. "We're jumping to shift space the moment the next wave of Karacknid fighters get close enough to attack us. Get as many off before then as possible."

"Right away," Hawkins responded seriously.

James watched in silence as hundreds of shuttles raced towards the stricken ships, and a handful also managed to take off from the ships themselves. Nearly half of the crews of the damaged ships were taken off in the first wave of shuttles. Only a handful made it back to the fleet in time to attempt a second round. Twelve out of the thirteen that did so broke away from the stricken ships with just enough time to stay ahead of the third wave of Karacknid fighters, saving another three hundred crewmembers. James ground his teeth when the final shuttle failed to detach from the ship it had docked with in time. When it did eventually detach and begin to race back towards Beartooth, it was already far too late. Two Karacknid fighters came swooping in after it. To the shuttle pilot's credit, he managed to dodge the first few laser beams fired at him. Firing two of his own AM missiles, he destroyed one of his pursuers. But then the remaining Karacknid lined up several good shots and laser beams burnt through the shuttle, disintegrating it instantly.

“Jump us out as soon as the last shuttles get here,” James said, fighting to keep his feelings from his voice.

Despite the fact that most of his fleet was about to make it to safety, all he felt was failure. On paper, the exchange didn’t look as bad as it seemed. His fleet had lost twenty-one capital ships whereas Tanaka-lan had lost over forty, and all his losses had been dreadnoughts or battleships. The fighter exchange slightly favored Tanaka-lan, but that included the four hundred odd who had launched kamikaze attacks from the comet. However, James had now lost all his fighters. Without them, it felt like his fleet was crippled. Worse, he had not come close to achieving his real goal. Battlefleet Four was still moving through the system. There were more than enough dreadnoughts in the rear formations of the battlefleet to make up for what the vanguard had lost. Perhaps James had delayed them for a day or so as they would have to deploy new screening squadrons ahead of them, but soon Battlefleet Four would be advancing south again.

With Tanaka-lan leading them, James thought as his eyes rested on the largest warship at the heart of the enemy’s vanguard fleet. He has come to make sure I cannot thwart the battlefleets as they advance south. A spark of fear joined James’ sense of failure. Outnumbered ten to one, and without his fighters, how was he going to stop a battlefleet commanded by Tanaka-lan himself?

There was only one answer. He wasn’t. But it’s far from over yet, James told himself as he leant on his many years of experience to control his emotions. He had lost battles before, some far more significant than the one he had just fought. If we cannot defeat Battlefleet Four and Tanaka-lan, then we will just have to slow the other battlefleets, James thought as he focused on what he did have rather than on what he had just lost. He still had his portable shift gates and there were still artificial shift passages that could help him. He can’t be everywhere at once. We slow the others and we slow Battlefleet Four, James told himself.

*

Slayer

Tanaka-lan was as dissatisfied as James as he watched the Imperial Fleet jump into shift space. He had hoped to be able to crush the entire fleet, yet Somerville had managed to escape from his grasp. But we took out his fighters, Tanaka-lan assured himself. He is declawed now. I will finish him in The Wilds or at his forts, it matters not.

“I want three new screening squadrons formed,” Tanaka-lan ordered as he began to reorganize his battlefleet. The only way Somerville's ships could have reached them here was if they had destroyed at least one of the squadrons he had pushed out ahead of the battlefleet. “Once they are ready, deploy them forward. I want to resume heading south as soon as we can.”

“Yes, Imperator,” Tanaka-lan’s Chief of Staff said. “I have recalled our fighters as well.”

Tanaka-lan waved a hand of acknowledgment towards the officer. He was already pulling up a star map of The Wilds with the estimated positions of his other four battlefleets marked on it. You have failed to stop us here, so now where will you go? Tanaka-lan asked his opponent. Battlefleet Three? And when that does not work, where next? Battlefleet Two? Tanaka-lan was all but sure of the answer. Somerville had been striking his middle three battlefleets and ignoring the other two, knowing that they wouldn't advance too far south on their own.

"Detach Slayer and my guard squadron from the vanguard," Tanaka-lan ordered next. "We are leaving this battlefleet. There is somewhere else were we are needed now," he explained as his lips peeled back to show his razor-sharp teeth.

Chapter 27

The Empire has benefited from all her allies. None more so than the Kulreans.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

Pioneer, Kulthar, 26th March 2513 AD, (same time).

Edward didn’t know where to look. Just seconds ago, their worldship had entered the Kulthar system. Its advanced sensors were filling the massive holo display that dominated the large bridge with detailed information on every orbital body and structure. All Edward had to do was focus on one area, and it automatically zoomed in, showing Edward what was there as if he were mere kilometers away.

Edward glanced at Brook and then at Cortez. They had the same looks on their faces. The astonishingly quick journey from Earth to Kulthar had already blown them away, as had Pioneer’s sensors and other capabilities. Yet the Kulthar system was something else again. Until recently, a Kulrean worldship had been the largest vessel Edward had ever laid eyes upon. Yet before him, in the inner system, far larger ships were moving about. Even they were dwarfed by the massive orbital stations that surrounded Kulthar and several of the system’s other planetary bodies.

Edward shook his head. Compared to the Sol system, the Kulthar system seemed almost empty. Where Sol would have thousands, if not tens of thousands of ships moving about the system, Kulthar had less than five hundred. Yet every ship he looked at, and every orbital station he caused the holo display to zoom in on, was impressive beyond words. We are still so far behind them, he thought. It filled him with a mixture of confidence and something close to anger. Confidence came from his hope that one day Humanity would reach such levels. He felt certain that if they could, the Karacknids would no longer be a threat. At the same time, though, seeing the technological wonders in front of him, Edward couldn’t shake all those who were dying right now in the fight against the Karacknids from his mind. If the Kulreans would only share all their technology now, Humanity could defeat its enemy with ease.

But they won’t, Edward said to himself as he glanced at Sarson, Pioneer’s Captain. Growing up, Edward had learned all about the Kulreans, including their strange moral code that made them pacifists. Albeit slightly leaky ones, given the worldships they had built but insisted on being used only to defend their allies' worlds. Like other Humans before him, including his father, Edward had thought that during the journey from Earth to Kulthar, he could talk Sarson around into seeing the value in sharing all their weapons technologies with Humanity and even letting their worldships go on offensive operations. Yet Edward had found himself frustrated at every turn. Sarson had willingly accepted command of a ship that would be called upon to fight when the Karacknids reached Humanity’s border forts, showing he was among the most morally flexible of his people. Even so, he hadn’t budged an inch in their philosophical debates. If he hadn’t been just as stubborn as Sarson, Edward would have given up within the first couple of days of leaving Earth.

Turning back to the display, Edward wasn’t in the least surprised to see that Pioneer was already quickly moving into the system. As they got closer to Kulthar, something else caught his eye. It took a few seconds to realize what he was looking at, but then it made sense. A large shell-like structure in high orbit was what had drawn his attention. It's the outer frame of a worldship, Edward realized. Once he knew what he was looking at, he started to see others like it. Some were closer to completion, while many more looked like their construction was just beginning. In total, Edward guessed there had to be upwards of three hundred.

Glancing at Cortez, their eyes met, and the naval Captain raised her eyebrows a little, telling Edward that she had seen them too. Something has them concerned, Edward concluded. As far as he knew, the Kulreans had no more than four hundred worldships in their fleet. Something had made them decide to nearly double that number. Edward wasn’t sure if it was the alarming reports of increased Karacknid ship numbers that kept coming in, or the discovery of just how powerful the Silizzarus' ships seemed to be. Either way, as Edward stared at the massive warships under construction, he felt more fear than assurance. If the Kulreans were scared, then he was too.

“We will reach Kulthar soon,” Sarson said, speaking for the first time since his ship had entered the system. “Superintendent Hallock is expecting you. A shuttle is being prepped as we speak.”

“Very well, Captain, then we will take our leave,” Edward replied.

Sarson nodded. “I do not expect to see you again, Commander. I have already received orders that I am to return to your species' borders once your people have disembarked from Pioneer.”

“In that case, thank you for bringing us here, and even more for willingly going to fight to protect my people's worlds. I know how difficult it is for you,” Edward said.

“Thank you, my friend,” Sarson said as he actually smiled. It was warmly returned. “I do not know exactly what your mission is, but I can guess. I wish you well.”

“And I you,” Edward replied. “Fight hard and stay safe.”

Sarson nodded, though his face said he wasn’t a big fan of the first half of Edward’s words. Standing, Edward gave Sarson a salute, then he glanced at Brooke and Cortez. “I imagine Hallock will want to see the three of us,” he said as he gestured with his head for them to follow him.

Brooke grinned and Cortez nodded. After they both said their own farewells to Sarson, they left the bridge and headed towards the nearest turbolift. As they walked, Cortez pulled out her COM unit and spoke to her First Lieutenant to tell him to get their people ready to leave Pioneer.

*

“Ah, Commander, it is good to see you again,” Superintendent Hallock said as Edward stepped off the Kulrean shuttle. The shuttle had taken him to one of the massive stations that orbited Kulthar. Hallock stepped forward and shook Edward’s hand.

Edward warmly gripped his father's friend's hand, and then bowed low to the Superintendent. “It is good to see you too, Superintendent. And I hear your people have been busy building something for me? I’m sure it will not disappoint. I thank you.”

“Do not thank us just yet,” Hallock replied. “We are not just doing this for you, but for ourselves as well. The Silizzarus may pose a great threat to us all, far greater than even the Karacknids. And while Pytheas may be the greatest gift we have given another sentient species; she will be putting you and her crew into harm’s way. None of us know what may befall you when you go searching for these shadowy aliens.”

Edward nodded, then gestured to his two companions. “This is Lieutenant Brooke, a fellow intelligence officer, and Captain Cortez, who will be taking command of Pytheas. She and her crew are ready for whatever risks will come our way, as am I.”

Hallock gave each a nod as Brooke and Cortez bowed to him. “I remember you well, agent,” he said to Brooke. “And Captain Cortez, Edward’s brother speaks highly of you in the reports that have been sent to me. I have complete confidence in your ability to command Pytheas.”

“You honor us both,” Cortez said as she and Brooke smiled at Hallock.

“Now, let me introduce you to some of those who will be accompanying you,” Hallock said. “Then we can take you to Pytheas. She is still three days away from being completed, I am told, and then you have to put her through her paces to make sure she is safe for the journey. But I’m confident you will be able to depart within the week.”

“The sooner the better,” Edward said eagerly.

A worried expression passed across Hallock’s face as he nodded his agreement. It was gone a moment later as he turned and gestured for two Kulreans who had been hovering nearby to approach. “This is Lieutenant Kantolo,” Hallock said as he gestured to the nearest Kulrean. “She is one of our finest sensors officers. She will be overseeing the operation of Pytheas’ sensors and commanding our contingent of crew members for this mission.”

Edward bowed to Kantolo. “A pleasure to meet you, Lieutenant,” he said.

Cortez saluted the Lieutenant a moment later. “I’m glad to have you joining our crew.”

Kantolo returned the salute with a Kulrean one, then she surprised all three Humans by smiling widely. “It is a pleasure to be joining you,” she said, almost excitedly. “I’m looking forward to our mission. It has been over a millennium since a Kulrean sought to travel into unexplored space. It is a great honor to be accompanying you.”

Edward found himself smiling just as widely, Kantolo’s enthusiasm a pleasure to see. “Hopefully it will be a memorable journey. But, as your Superintendent has said, a dangerous one too.”

Kantolo nodded. “I am very aware of whom we are seeking out,” she said. “Still, it will be an honor nonetheless.”

“Now that you’ve met our keen sensor expert,” Hallock said, almost looking as if he wanted to shake his head at his subordinate. “This is Chief Engineer Karnlock. He is a distant cousin of mine, but more importantly, a fine engineer. He is overseeing the construction and installation of Pytheas' reactors and engines. I imagine by now they are as familiar to him as his own hands.”

“More so, I believe,” Karnlock said confidently. He didn’t share Kantolo’s enthusiasm, but there was a quiet competence in his voice and features.

“In that case, I am sure you have much to teach us,” Cortez said. “And O’Malley, my own Chief Engineer, will likely have a thousand questions for you.” Cortez paused for a second. “We’ll have to think of some way to differentiate your ranks, but I’m sure that won’t be too hard. In any case, I’m very excited to see just what Pytheas can do.”

“You will not be disappointed,” Karnlock promised. Edward, Cortez, and Brooke had no problem believing him.

“Well, I’m sure you will all get to know each other extremely well over the coming weeks,” Hallock said. He then gestured towards a hatch that led out of the massive hangar their shuttle had landed in. “Come, let me introduce you to your final companion.”

Dutifully, Edward followed Hallock out of the hangar and through several corridors. He froze when they walked through a hatch and entered a small room. Both the room's floor and one of its walls were made of transparent glass. As soon as they stepped in, a sight to behold greeted them. Below the room, a massive, enclosed hangar could be seen. Its floor was at least three meters below them, and its length had to be three, if not four times that size. Almost filling the hangar was a vessel, and hundreds of smaller shuttle-like craft were swarming around it.

Hallock smiled at the expressions on the three Humans’ faces. “Meet Pytheas,” he said as he gestured towards the ship.

“She’s beautiful,” Cortez blurted out as she stared.

Hallock nodded. “She may not be as beautiful as our worldships to our eyes, but she has an attractiveness all her own.”

Though Edward didn’t have an expert eye when it came to warships, right away he could tell Pytheas was special. At first glance, one might think she looked like a standard Imperial heavy cruiser, yet it took just a few moments to realize that was not the case. Both her sensor nodes and shield projectors looked very different from standard Imperial ones. Her engines were also larger and yet seemed sleeker at the same time. She also had several unusual angles to her hull along her flanks. They weren’t identical to how the stealth frigate Spook had been designed, but Edward could see a similarity. The most obvious difference, however, were the number of missile ports and other weapon emplacements she had. Pytheas was bristling with weapons. It looked like she had the firepower of a battlecruiser, or perhaps even more. “Are all those missile ports functional?” Edward asked.

Hallock nodded. “With our smaller reactors, power relays, and engines in her, there was far more free space than in one of your typical heavy cruisers. We thought you would want the room put to good use.”

When Edward looked over at Cortez, he saw she had a savage smile on her face. No doubt imagining just how much damage she could do with those weapons, Edward thought. Especially if the heavy laser cannons are powered by Kulrean reactors! Even he got excited by that idea.

“There’s one more thing,” Hallock said as he stepped over to a console and tapped a button, projecting a holographic image of Pytheas. A hand gesture slowly rotated the image to show the nose of the exploration cruiser.

Edward shook his head, not sure what he was looking at. When he glanced at Brooke, she shrugged. Cortez didn’t even look at him when he turned to her. Instead, eyes wide, she turned to Hallock. “Pytheas has the same stealth tech as our stealth cruisers, right?” Hallock nodded. “And we can charge the phase cannon's capacitors even in stealth?”

Hallock nodded again. “You’ll get just one shot, and the phase cannon isn’t quite as powerful as the ones on your dreadnoughts, as we had to scale down its design to fit in Pytheas. But you’ll be able to get off one shot while in stealth.”

Cortez grinned at Hallock's answer. “That should come in handy.”

“Hopefully, you will not have to use it,” Hallock responded, the same look of worry crossing his face that Edward had seen before. “Hopefully, you will not need any of the weapons.”

Cortez nodded, though her heart wasn’t in it. “But if we do, it’s good to know it’s there,” she said.

“Can I ask, why is Pytheas in here?” Brooke said, sensing Hallock’s unease at Cortez’s excitement. “We saw you were constructing new worldships out in space. Why is she not with them?” Edward gave her a small nod of thanks for changing the subject.

“Secrecy,” Hallock answered. “We have thoroughly searched our system for any Silizzarus infiltrators, but we cannot be certain. Almost no one within our species knows about Pytheas. Constructing her here has limited how many are aware of her existence.”

“A wise precaution,” Brooke responded.

“Shall we go down and have a brief tour?” Hallock asked. He smiled as Edward, Cortez, and Brooke nodded vigorously. “Good,” he said, pleased that they were impressed with the ship he had built for them. “I’ve already instructed Captain Sarson to begin ferrying your people across. They’ll have to stay in the station for the next three days as we finish work on Pytheas. But that doesn’t mean they can’t start familiarizing themselves with her. Sections of the ship are already finished and ready to be inspected, and I'm sure you’ll want to run your own diagnostics and allow the assistants to check them out and begin preparations for the mission.”

Cortez nodded again, a smile still on her face. “Let’s go and see her,” she said eagerly.

“Indeed,” Kantolo said, matching Cortez’s smile. “There is much I wish to show you.” She then winked. “I think even Karnlock wishes to show off his work.”

Karnlock merely grunted, but he moved just as quickly as Kantolo towards the hatch that would lead them down to Pytheas.

Edward smiled at Cortez and Kantolo. All the way to Kulthar, he had thought about little other than the great responsibility his mother and Admiral Alvarez had placed on him. The few brief glimpses he had got of Hallock’s true thoughts on the matter only added to the weight and foreboding he felt. It was therefore good to see the excitement of the two officers, especially as he felt it rising within himself. This may be a key mission for both our species’ survival, but that doesn’t mean it has to be somber and gloomy all the way there. Just a few more days of construction, then a few days of space trials, and then we’ll be out of here, he thought, a mixture of trepidation and excitement running through him.

Chapter 28

It is an age-old proverb that one often learns more from defeat than victory. That is a problem for any side who wins a string of battles against an enemy, for sooner or later, the enemy will learn, and when they do, the victor may soon find the tables have turned against them.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Beartooth, 14th April 2513 AD, (sixteen days later).

Frustration flowed through James’ veins. Five days ago, he had reconnected with Admiral Scott’s squadron. Together they had confronted and tried to destroy one of Battlefleet Three’s screening squadrons. At the mere sight of his ships, however, the squadron had tucked tail and run. Initially content with slowing them, James had moved on to try and strike at a second screening squadron. This time, he had confronted them with just a small force in an attempt to draw them into battle, while he had more ships hidden nearby. Yet again, they too had retreated at the first sign of his ships. In an effort to catch them and bring them to battle, James had given chase. Yet the Karacknids had simply retreated through the next system and then the next all the way to Battlefleet Three itself.

Now, Beartooth’s sensors were showing him more than half of Battlefleet Three’s full strength. With him, he had just two thousand three hundred warships. Even so, Battlefleet Three was retreating. They weren’t rushing like the screening squadrons were, yet they weren't advancing to engage either. Instead, they slowly moved back across the system and several of their formations, including all their supply freighters, had already jumped out.

“They’re doing it on purpose,” he said out loud, to no one in particular.

“What do you mean, Emperor?” Hawkin asked.

“Someone has given them orders not to engage us.” Tanaka-lan, James was sure. He is not here, and so he has ordered his Battlefleet not to engage.

“So, they will just keep falling back before us?” Hawkin responded. “Isn’t that what we want?”

“It was,” James replied. “But Tanaka-lan knows that now. He is calling our bluff; I am sure of it. That battlefleet will keep slowly pulling back as long as we confront them. Meanwhile, every other battlefleet will continue south. I am sure word is racing towards Battlefleets Two and Four that we are here. Once they have passed south of us, they’ll probably detach elements to swing around and surround us.”

“What should we do then, Emperor?” Hawkin asked, concern in his voice.

James shook his head in frustration. He wasn’t sure. Something told him that if he fell back and rushed to confront Battlefleet Two, the very same thing would happen. Yes, it would mean he would be slowing the Karacknids' advance south, but only very slightly. He wanted to bring more of them to battle, to catch more of them out and destroy as many enemy ships as possible before they reached the forts. “It may not work, but we have to try,” James said, again mainly speaking to himself. He then turned and met Hawkin’s eyes. “Signal Admiral Scott; we are pulling back. Plot the fastest route to get in front of Battlefleet Two. We will join up with Rear Admiral Jiminez and see if we can’t entice Battlefleet Two to stand and put up a fight.”

“At once, Emperor,” Hawkin replied.

And if they don’t, what then? James asked himself. He could see little option but to retreat and fall back to his forts. Yet he was loath to give up even a single light year of The Wilds uncontested. We will find a way to make them fight, he decided. We must.

*

IS Hammerclaw, 14th April 2513 AD, (same time).

“We have a sighting!” Iso said excitedly as she spun around in her command chair. Jonathan forgot all about the logistics report he was reading as he looked up at his Chief of Staff. “Falcon has just returned; they found a convoy. It’s heading southwest, but we should be able to catch it!”

A great weight lifted off Jonathan’s shoulder. “Show me,” Jonathan said eagerly. Their journey north had not been easy. First, they had snuck past two of Battlefleet Five’s screening squadrons. Then they had almost been caught by the Karacknid escort squadron that seemed to always be hunting them. Everyone had begun calling it the Shadow squadron as it always seemed to be right behind, almost walking in their fleet’s shadow. As if that hadn’t been difficult enough, Jonathan had decided to pass by two convoys they had come across. Both had been heavily guarded, yet even so, they had been tempting targets. Yet Jonathan knew that as soon as he attacked them, Shadow squadron and other Karacknid formations would immediately know where he was.

Instead, he had quietly led his squadron north and then east back into what should have been the rear supply areas of Battlefleet Four. That had been four days ago though, since then, with no sightings of enemy convoys or other targets they could strike, Jonathan had felt the pressure on him growing. It had been more than three weeks since his ships had last seen action. They needed to be doing something, or else they were all wasting their time. This is our chance, Jonathan thought excitedly as he turned to Iso.

“It is here,” Iso informed Jonathan as she projected a star map of the northern Wilds onto the main holo display. A system northeast of Hammerclaw’s position began to flash. “They were heading to this shift passage,” Iso continued. “That was two days ago. They should be here now if they are seeking the quickest route to resupply Battlefleet Four.” Another system flashed just east of Hammerclaw’s position. “If we leave now, we should be able to intercept them here or here.” Two more systems to the southeast began to flash.

The image then zoomed in on the system the convoy had initially been detected in as it showed the sensor data Falcon had brought back. “The convoy has eleven hundred freighters. Yes, it also has three hundred warships, including carriers,” Iso admitted. “But it’s the first convoy we have seen.”

“And beggars can’t be choosers,” Jonathan said, finishing Iso’s thought for her. “Plot us a course to get in front of them. Send out a full spread of scouting frigates ahead of us. I don’t want to run into another Karacknid force, or even our shadow, if they are out there somewhere.”

“At once, Commodore,” Iso said enthusiastically. All around the bridge, officers turned back to their consoles, a new swiftness to the movements of their fingers.

We’re doing something again! Jonathan thought, sharing their excitement.

*

IS Hammerclaw

Four days later, Jonathan had caught up to the convoy. Hammerclaw and his squadron had stealthily exited a shift passage at the southern end of the system the convoy was in. The convoy itself was heading south through the system towards a passage that led more to the southeast, not far from the one Hammerclaw had entered from.

Jonathan stared at the convoy as it passed the system's sun and began to head across the rest of the inner system on its way to its destination. He needed to find a way to distract its escorts. He was outnumbered by about forty warships, and it looked like the escorts had at least two small carriers, which meant at least eight squadrons of their fighters. In a straight-up fight, his own fighters should be enough to tip the balance. But he would take heavy losses even if he won.

Wisely, the convoy had thirty frigates spread out ahead of its path, with at least two hundred recon drones also scanning space all around them. Jonathan guessed there were probably as many stealth drones also within the system quietly listening for stealth cruisers or an enemy squadron. The sheer amount of electromagnetic sensor radiation ruled out any kind of drone trickery on his own part. Jonathan couldn’t see any way he could give the Karacknids a fake squadron for the escorts to chase. Given how many convoys had probably been attacked by this point in the war, it was unlikely the escorts would leave their charges, even if they were presented with a weaker force they could crush. We need to find another way, Jonathan said to himself as he continued to think. The Karacknid convoy was pressing on at a decent speed. He needed to come up with something quickly, or they would get ahead of him.

They’ll be on the lookout for fake warships, Jonathan repeated to himself. But what about fake fighters? “I think I know how we can hit them,” he said quickly, his words causing his officers all to turn to him. Quickly he outlined his idea.

“I think it could work, Commodore,” Harte said excitedly as he turned back to his console. His fingers quickly flew over its controls. On the holo display, a line appeared from Hammerclaw. It went into the inner system towards the system’s third planet and then swung around it and back towards the shift passage the convoy was headed towards. “This is the last direction they would expect an attack from.”

“That would work nicely,” Jonathan replied as he smiled at his tactical officer.

“And,” Harte continued, “maybe we could use our drones to distract them even more. If you want to get their attention, I have an idea I’ve been working on. We could attempt it as well.”

Jonathan nodded as he shared a glance with Iso. Rarely did one of Harte’s ideas disappoint. Just minutes after hearing it, all but two squadrons of Jonathan’s fighters were stealth launched from their carriers and set off on Harte’s course into the inner system. Then Hammerclaw and Jonathan’s squadron began to slowly move into the system towards the shift passage the convoy was moving towards. As they did, Harte was already in one of Hammerclaw’s hangars, frantically at work showing the heavy cruiser’s engineers just what he had in mind.

Four hours passed before everything was in place. When it looked to Jonathan that the time had come, he looked over to Harte, who had rejoined them on the bridge. “What do you think, Lieutenant?”

“We can begin, Commodore,” he said confidently. Then he lost control of his face and smiled. “They will be wondering just what is going on!”

“That they will,” Jonathan agreed as a smile briefly touched his lips. Let’s just hope it works, he added as he thought of the pilots of the Hellcats he had launched hours ago. Their lives were counting on it working. “Proceed.”

At the touch of a button, the first of the sixty-four stealth recon drones that the squadron’s engineers had modified sprang into action. Slowly over the last hour, it had been creeping up near one of the Karacknid active drones that was moving ahead of the convoy. It was now close enough that it could use its modified laser sensor array to flash the Karacknid drone. Over five thousand times a second, it flooded the Karacknid drone’s sensors with far too much electromagnetic radiation for them to function.

Immediately the Karacknids were alerted that something hostile was in the system. Several drones were quickly redirected towards the area in an attempt to figure out just what was happening. Yet just seconds after they began to maneuver, another one of Harte’s modified drones got into position and began to flash another Karacknid drone. In the space of thirty seconds, three more joined the two that were already working. The Karacknids reacted by diverting more of their drones to figure out what was going on.

However, over the next four minutes, all sixty-four modified drones went active. Spaced out all along the front of the Karacknid drones and down their left flank, the result was confusion for the Karacknids. The convoy commander was all but certain the interference meant his ships were about to come under attack, yet as almost half of his active recon drones were being affected, he had no idea from what angle an attack might be coming from. He, therefore, did the only thing he could do and launched hundreds of more active recon drones. At the same time, the convoy slowed, not wanting to head into an area of space where they had no idea what was waiting for them.

It took nearly twenty minutes for the additional drones to start to saturate the areas where Harte’s drones were running interference. When they did, the Karacknids quickly began to realize that it was Imperial stealth drones that were trying to blind their active drones. All that did, however, was confirm the suspicion that an attack was imminent. Minutes later, therefore, when an active drone detected what looked like sixty warships approaching the convoy from its left flank, the Karacknids reacted immediately. Two hundred of their warships moved to the left flank of the convoy and prepared to meet the new threat. Many other active recon drones also accelerated quickly towards the new contacts, seeking to make sure there weren’t additional warships with them.

However, the sixty contacts were simply more Imperial drones programmed to give fake sensor readings. The ruse held for ten minutes, but then a Karacknid active sensor drone got close enough to see through the fake signals. At once, the rest of the Karacknid sensor drones and the frigates that were spread out ahead of the convoy went crazy. Guessing rightly that the drones were there as a decoy to set up an attack from a different angle, they began to frantically search everywhere for the real threat.

It took nine more minutes, but just as Jonathan had intended all along, they finally found his ships. “Take us out of stealth,” he ordered moments after a Karacknid recon drone got too close to his ships and spotted them. The tell-tale sign it had was when it veered away. “Initiate a pursuit course for the convoy, launch all fighters. Begin engaging their sensor drones.”

Almost immediately, a number of tiny explosions appeared around Jonathan’s fleet as screening frigates and fighters blew up the nearest Karacknid sensor drones. Then Hammerclaw and the rest of Jonathan’s ships surged forward. Over the course of four minutes, three hundred and sixty smaller contacts appeared around Hammerclaw. They formed up into squadrons of twelve and then together began to accelerate rapidly towards the Karacknid convoy. They didn’t take a direct course for the convoy, however, but instead began to loop up and around the Karacknid warships that had all moved to the front of the convoy to face off against Jonathan’s squadron.

The Karacknids had a dilemma, with potential attacks coming from two different angles, they couldn’t keep their force together to confront both. As Jonathan wanted, the Karacknids launched their own fighters and sent them accelerating away from the convoy to intercept the ones he had dispatched. There was just one problem for the Karacknids. Having discovered the first contacts they came across were just drones, and then subsequently locating Jonathan’s actual ships, they didn’t consider the possibility that the fighters launched from very real carriers were in fact drones themselves. In reality, that was what all but twelve of them were.

The first sign the Karacknids got that something was amiss was when two of the rear sensor drones they had trailing their convoy were destroyed. Ten seconds later, as it was still reacting to the unknown threat behind the convoy, a frigate came under attack. Six Hellcats suddenly came out of stealth as they charged the frigate. The frigate’s defensive weapons automatically engaged, blowing up one fighter. The other five rippled off two missiles each. Overwhelmed and caught off guard, the frigate was blown apart as four missiles punched through its armor and detonated, disintegrating the warship.

For another minute the rest of Jonathan’s fighter wing continued to hurtle towards the frantically maneuvering ships of the convoy. Every ship and recon drone to the rear of the convoy hysterically began trying to figure out what was happening. Then the fighters revealed themselves. One hundred and thirty-two Hellcats began to accelerate. Only one light cruiser, two destroyers, and six frigates stood between them and the convoy's freighters. Neither the main body of Karacknid warships at the front of the convoy, nor the fighters that were more than ten minutes above the convoy could get back in time. Realizing this almost instantly, the freighters of the convoy began to scatter.

It did them little good. Three squadrons of thirty-six Hellcats engaged and destroyed the small flotilla of warships that moved to intercept them. Then, the rest of the Hellcats dove into the midst of the freighters. Antimatter missiles raced out to strike their targets, blowing massive holes in the unarmored freighters. The fighters also closed in to fire their anti-fighter missiles and plasma cannons. Targeting the freighters’ engines, they were able to cripple many of them. Only when frigates and destroyers from the escort fleet began to race back through the maze of veering freighters did the fighters let up their attack. At a command from Jonathan’s Wing Commander, they broke off and raced away from the convoy. They left over two hundred and forty destroyed or crippled freighters in their wake.

“Alter course,” Jonathan ordered as soon as he saw his fighters break away. “Put us onto a heading for the rendezvous point.” He then looked over to Harte and shared a grin. “I think we can safely say that worked quite well, Lieutenant.”

“I would concur, Commodore,” Iso said as she winked at Harte.

“Thank you, Commodore,” Harte responded, his cheeks reddening slightly. “But it was mainly your idea to sneak fighters up behind them.”

“But one that only worked well thanks to your drones causing such a distraction,” Jonathan responded. “In any case, I’d say we just justified our trip north. Now, let’s get our fighters landed and get out of here before their forces come hunting for us.” Glancing at the display, Jonathan confirmed that the Karacknid warships were too busy trying to wrangle their freighters back into something akin to a defensible formation to think about chasing him, but he knew that could change quickly. Of course, if they came after him, he could try and outmaneuver them and hit the freighters again.

“It’s a pity we couldn’t stick around and try to hit them again,” Iso said, following Jonathan’s gaze and reading his thoughts.

“They’d be on high alert,” Jonathan said. “But I’d be willing to bet we could figure something out to sneak another attack in between their defenses.” Then he shook his head. “It’s too risky though, not with the enemy forces we know are nearby. No, let’s get out of here and slip away quietly. We may have to wait a few days or even a week, but we'll find another target to strike soon enough, I’m sure.”

Two beeps caused everyone’s head to whip around towards the main display. The beeps were alerts warning of missile launches. Jonathan’s eyes narrowed as he searched the Karacknid warships for the missiles. None of them were close enough to hit his ships, so what were they doing? His eyes widened suddenly when he saw them; the two contacts were in the heart of the Karacknid freighters. And they weren’t missiles, they were torpedoes!

“A stealth cruiser!” he said in surprise and excitement. “It has used our attack as cover to sneak in itself.”

In awe, Jonathan and his officers watched as two more contacts appeared seconds later. Then the first two momentarily disappeared from the display but were quickly replaced by ten smaller ones. Each was a missile that raced after a freighter. Eight struck their targets, crippling each vessel they hit. Before the next two torpedoes released their missiles, four more torpedoes appeared, accelerating along different angles. Then tens of missiles began striking targets in all directions.

Once again, the Karacknid freighters' formation turned into mayhem as they sought to race away from where they thought the attacks were coming from. At the same time, Karacknid warships dove into the heart of the freighter formation, their active sensors blasting electromagnetic energy as they sought to find the culprit. Or culprits, Jonathan thought, as more torpedoes appeared. He was far from an expert in the stealth cruisers his father and Admiral Scott had developed in secret, but he guessed there were at least two, if not three, moving through the heart of the Karacknid freighters, leaving a multitude of crippled ships in their wake.

The attack lasted just twelve minutes, and then no more new torpedoes appeared. Even so, the convoy had been ravaged once again. One hundred and fifty-four additional freighters had been destroyed or badly crippled. Despite thousands of antimatter missiles being launched by the Karacknid escorts, not a single detonation had revealed a stealth cruiser. It was possible several had hit a target, disintegrating it to the point where no debris from its destruction would be detected. Yet Jonathan hoped and suspected the stealth cruisers had gotten away safely.

“All fighters have been landed,” Iso reported an hour and a half later, ten minutes after Jonathan’s ships reached the rendezvous point.

Jonathan nodded. “Lay in a course for the Western shift passage. Thirty percent acceleration.” He smiled at Iso when she raised an eyebrow. “Let’s see if our partners in crime wish to make contact before we jump out,” he explained.

Over the next two hours Jonathan passed the time speaking with his Wing Commander, congratulating him on a successful attack and giving his condolences for the handful of pilots that had been lost. He then watched as the Karacknid convoy gathered as many freighters as were still functional, scuttled the rest, and then moved across the system and jumped into shift space. Before they left, ten frigates had raced towards two of the system’s other shift passages and jumped out, no doubt bringing news of the attack to the nearest enemy patrols.

“We are being hailed!” Lieutenant Rossi announced suddenly, her voice full of surprise. “It’s a laser COM, from a ship claiming to be Nautilus.”

Jonathan frowned as his eyes turned to the main holo display. There was no ship in his squadron called Nautilus. Yet to use a laser COM array, the ship had to be close to Hammerclaw, very close. “On screen,” Jonathan said, guessing who it was, but not sure it was actually possible.

A moment later, a smiling Captain appeared. “Greetings, Commodore. I am Captain O’Kane. It seems fate has brought us together.”

Chapter 29

Often, luck is just as important in war as skill or planning.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Hammerclaw

Jonathan couldn’t help returning the stealth cruiser Captain’s mischievous smile. “It seems it has, Captain. Well met; you completed our attack perfectly. Hopefully, we just put a decent dent in Battlefleet Four’s supply schedule.”

“I am sure we did, Commodore,” O’Kane replied. “And it was thanks to your trickery. We were surprised when we saw your squadron begin its attack. We haven’t seen any other Imperial ships this far north in weeks.”

“It was getting pretty intense further south, so we decided to head north to see if we could find some more viable targets,” Jonathan explained.

O’Kane smiled. “Well, it looks like you found one. And I’m glad you are here. Things have been getting tougher for us as well. The Karacknids adapt fast, and they’ve been strengthening their escorts and patrols. We’ve been finding fewer and fewer targets we are strong enough to hit.”

“Then I’m glad we could work together,” Jonathan replied.

“Perhaps you would consider attaching us to your squadron?” O’Kane asked. The excitement that had been on O’Kane’s face from the beginning of the conversation faded. “I have one other stealth cruiser with me, Icarus. We were five cruisers two weeks ago, but we lost two in an attack on another convoy, and then another when a patrol found us and hunted us. It took three days to give them the slip.”

Jonathan nodded seriously. O’Kane looked several years younger than he was, and he remembered well enough what it was like to lose the first ships under his command. It never really got easier, but the first ones were always the hardest. “I would be happy to have you join us; I’m sure your two stealth cruisers will come in extremely handy. Though I confess, I’m not completely familiar with all of your ships' capabilities. You will have to fill me in so that we can utilize your skills to the full extent.”

“That won’t be a problem,” O’Kane said. “And I have something that might make you even happier.” Looking away for a second, O’Kane turned to his command chair and tapped on its console.

“Receiving a data packet from Nautilus,” Lieutenant Rossi said.

“It’s a visual of a system we visited recently. You’ll want to see it,” O’Kane explained.

“Put it up,” Jonathan said with a gesture to Rossi. “What am I looking at?” He asked a moment later when an image of a large space station appeared.

“A freighter refueling depot,” O’Kane answered. “In the Ricji system. If you look closely at the station, you’ll see it is largely just space scaffolding. But there are fuel pipes that run along its length. Over two hundred freighters can dock there and have their fuel supplies topped up as they head south or north. The place is heavily guarded, there’s over three hundred warships and thousands of drones on the lookout for stealth ships that might try to attack. But a squadron like yours could punch right through and take out the station before the defenders could combine their forces. It’s the perfect target.”

Jonathan shared a look with Iso and Harte, they were both grinning and Iso nodded at him. Jonathan turned back to O’Kane and smiled. “It seems fate has indeed brought us together, Captain. You better start filling my staff officers in on your ships' capabilities, for I suspect we’re all about to see some more action!”

*

IS Nautilus, Ricji System, 21st April 2513 AD. (five days later).

“All right, take us in,” O’Kane ordered after watching the sophisticated patrol patterns of the Karacknid ships and drones defending the fuel depot for an hour. It seemed to him fortune was still on their side, for a massive squadron of over two thousand freighters were clustered around the depot in the process of taking on fuel.

As Nautilus and her sister ship Icarus began to move into the system, O’Kane couldn’t help feeling a little jealous. Somerville had come up with a good plan for their attack on the depot, yet Nautilus’ and Icarus’ role was simply to provide a distraction. O’Kane wanted to be in the thick of the action, not fighting in what was essentially a sideshow. That is what you signed up for when you joined the squadron, he reminded himself. The squadron comes first. And it wasn’t all bad, he still was getting to play a part in attacking the fuel depot, something he and Icarus’ captain couldn’t have done alone.

For forty minutes, O’Kane led his two stealth cruisers into the system, skirting around three enemy frigates and a host of recon drones. Then it was time for their diversion to begin. “Target destroyer Delta Seven,” he instructed Lieutenant Hernandez. “Two torpedoes from each of us. Track frigate Zeta Four with our plasma cannons. As soon as our torpedoes go active, we will take it out.”

“Aye, Captain,” Hernandez replied calmly.

O’Kane glanced at Lieutenant Barry. “Are you ready?”

His First Lieutenant gave him a quick smile. “Ready to launch at your command, Captain.”

“Firing solutions locked, Captain,” Hernandez updated four minutes later. “We will reach the optimal firing point in thirty-four seconds.”

“Fire when you’re ready,” O’Kane replied.

With the touch of a button, Hernandez fired two torpedoes from Nautilus' forward tubes, and another two from Icarus. For seventeen minutes they stealthily cruised towards the enemy destroyer, gradually gaining on it. Then, all of a sudden, the destroyer began a rapid turn. Its active sensors also began to focus on the area where the torpedoes were.

“Going active!” Hernandez announced. A second later, the torpedoes came out of stealth and accelerated as hard as they could towards the destroyer, trying to build up momentum for their missiles. The destroyer turned away from them as fast as it could, seeking to reduce the closing momentum the torpedoes’ missiles would eventually have. It also tried to hit the large torpedoes with its heavy laser cannons. Hernandez already had the torpedoes twisting and weaving, however, and each shot missed.

At the same time, frigate Zeta Four started to race towards the destroyer, seeking to add its defensive fire to the destroyer's. It never got the chance. The moment the four torpedoes released their five missiles, Nautilus and Icarus came out of stealth. Immediately they fired heavy laser beams and plasma bolts at the frigate. Not thinking about its own safety, the frigate wasn’t carrying out any evasive maneuvers. Before it realized what was happening, beams smashed into it, burning through armor, and vaporizing entire inner sections. A split second later, the plasma bolts arrived, adding to the carnage. Though the frigate didn’t detonate under the assault, in the blink of an eye it was turned into a wreck. What was left was unrecognizable as a Karacknid warship.

Facing twenty incoming missiles, the destroyer was hopelessly outnumbered. The sudden appearance of two stealth cruisers so close to it didn’t help the defense gunners focus. They managed to shoot down just eleven missiles. The remaining nine swarmed to the destroyer. Some scored direct hits, punching through its armor before detonating. Others detonated in as close a proximity to the destroyer as they could. The combined effect enveloped the destroyer in so much antimatter that when the detonations dissipated, not a trace of the warship remained.

O’Kane swiveled in his command chair to face Barry, “Now’s the time, Lieutenant.” He then turned again and gestured to Lieutenant Hawthorne at the navigation console. “Take us back into stealth, turn us onto a parallel course to the system's sun.”

As Nautilus and Icarus turned and disappeared from the sensors of every nearby Karacknid ship and drone, Barry launched twenty mimic drones from the two stealth cruisers. Almost perfectly, they headed into the system on various preplanned paths that wove between Karacknid patrols towards the fuel depot. Yet here and there, as Somerville had requested, the drones gave off small emissions that would allow them to eventually be found.

Predictably, the Karacknids reacted swiftly to the sudden appearance of two stealth cruisers. Every warship and drone within the system went on high alert while many began to speed towards the area Nautilus and Icarus had fought their brief battle. A frantic but still methodical search began for the two stealth cruisers. The search focused on the area between the battle site and the depot. It didn’t take long for the first mimic drones to be detected. Initially, the nearest Karacknid ship saturated the area with antimatter detonations. One damaged one of the drones, revealing it for what it was. By now familiar with the mimic drones deployed by stealth cruisers, the Karacknids redoubled their efforts, assuming the mimic drone was deployed to help Nautilus and Icarus slip past them and strike at the depot.

Over the next forty minutes, almost all of the drones were found and destroyed. “That is our cue,” O’Kane said to his officers. “Fire when ready.”

Having already selected his target, thirty seconds later, Nautilus and Icarus launched twelve torpedoes at a light cruiser they had been stalking. With the vast majority of the Karacknid ships searching deeper and deeper into the system as they sought to find the advancing enemy cruisers, the light cruiser was relatively isolated. On high alert, one of its recon drones detected the torpedoes long before they could sneak up to it. It did the light cruiser little good, however, for the torpedoes were all still able to release their missiles. Sixty dove in towards the light cruiser. A destroyer rushed to its aid, but even their combined fire couldn’t take out all the missiles. The cruiser disappeared as antimatter ripped it apart.

“Get us out of here!” O’Kane ordered as more ships raced into the area and over a hundred recon drones began to fill space with electromagnetic energy.

The moment Nautilus and Icarus came out of stealth and began to run towards the shift passage, at least sixty warships started to rapidly turn onto intercept trajectories. Having kept his stealth cruisers in the outer system all along and having just destroyed one of the two nearest warships to his position, not many could actually catch O’Kane’s ships. However, as their main display updated to plot the trajectories of all the enemy warships, six would.

And this is where being in a squadron comes in handy, O’Kane thought as he shared a confident look with Barry. Ordinarily, he’d be desperately trying to find a way to destroy the nearest ships or delay them so he could escape. This time, however, he just sat still in his command chair and calmly watched them gain on his stealth cruisers.

Twenty minutes before any ship came into missile range, sixty new contacts appeared just ahead of Nautilus. Coming out of stealth, they accelerated at rates Nautilus could only dream of reaching. In less than a minute the Hellcat fighters screamed past Nautilus. With the Karacknid ships chasing the Imperial stealth cruisers on their own or in twos, they were totally unprepared to face fighters. With ease, the fighters tore into each of the six Karacknid ships that could have caught Nautilus. One by one they blew them apart, only losing four fighters in the process.

When Nautilus joined the carrier that had launched the fighters, it and its twelve escorts came out of stealth and together they headed towards the system's shift passage. “Well,” O’Kane said to his officers. “Now they know we weren’t alone. Let’s see what they make of Somerville’s squadron.” Rolling his shoulders back and forth in his command chair, he settled in to watch the rest of the battle play out.

*

IS Hammerclaw

“Flank speed!” Jonathan ordered the moment he saw O’Kane’s ships were safe.

From where they had been hiding further along the edge of the system, Hammerclaw and all two hundred and twenty of Jonathan’s warships leapt forward. They surged towards a large gap that had opened up in the patrol patterns of the Karacknid warships. So many had been sucked into chasing Nautilus or to search the area between where Nautilus had first been detected and the depot, that Jonathan could confidently race into the inner system.

At first, the Karacknids reacted as if they thought they could fend off Jonathan’s attack. Every warship raced towards a predetermined rendezvous point as they sought to form up and confront the new intruders. With three hundred warships, if they could combine, they could easily overwhelm Jonathan’s ships. Yet that wasn’t going to happen. Hammerclaw’s acceleration quickly made it clear she could reach the depot long before most of the Karacknids could combine. As soon as they realized the danger they were in, the two thousand-plus freighters at the depot began to disengage from it and flee. Some were able to begin to move right away, others took much longer as they were in the middle of refueling.

“Launch all fighters,” Jonathan ordered. “Dispatch half forward to begin striking the fleeing freighters. Keep the other half with the squadron.”

“Aye, Commodore,” Iso replied.

“No sign of their fighters combining yet?” Jonathan asked as he turned to Harte.

The tactical Lieutenant shook his head. “We estimate they have eighty fighters amongst three carriers, but they are spread out. So far, none have launched yet either.”

Jonathan nodded. “Keep an eye on them.” The Karacknids could either dispatch the fighters to try and defend their freighters from his fighters, or they could use them to try and attack his ships, but they couldn’t do both.

Half an hour later, the Karacknids made their decision. A group of seventy warships had formed up ahead of Hammerclaw. It was as many ships as the Karacknids could gather to confront him with before he reached the depot. Seventy-five fighters took off from their three carriers and moved to join the warships. As the half of his fighters he had sent forward tore into the enemy freighters, Jonathan prepared his squadron to fight their way through the enemy warships and fighters.

The battle was short-lived. Of the one hundred fighters he still had with Hammerclaw, Jonathan sent half with his first missile salvo. The rest hung back and engaged the Karacknid fighters as they tried to hit his ships alongside the Karacknids' first missile salvo. With his missile salvos being more than three times the size of the Karacknids', the Karacknids quickly began to suffer badly under the constant barrages. The combination of his missiles and fighters destroyed twenty-seven enemy ships in the first salvo. In contrast, Jonathan lost just six, all but one of those to the few enemy fighters that had fought their way past his own.

The second salvo destroyed seventeen enemy ships compared to just two losses for Jonathan. By the third salvo, the Karacknids' losses had reduced the strength of their fire by one quarter, whereas Jonathan’s ships were close enough to fire mark VIII warheads. Their bomb-pumped lasers decimated the Karacknids, destroying half of the ships they had left. It took just one final salvo to finish them off.

After seeing to his few damaged ships, Jonathan then reassessed the situation. The fighters he had sent forward had destroyed two hundred and three enemy freighters and were already on their way back to refuel and rearm. His force would soon come into missile range of the depot. Eight additional Karacknid warships were protecting it, and it appeared to have some defenses of its own. There were also seventy freighters still docked with it. Either they were unable to disengage, or they had so little fuel that they couldn’t escape without taking on more.

“We’ll give the depot a half salvo as we pass,” Jonathan ordered. “Then we'll split up into flotillas. I want to hunt down every freighter we can before the rest of the Karacknid warships can form up to oppose us.” As he spoke, Jonathan began splitting the fleeing Karacknid freighters into various sectors and then worked with Iso to assign flotillas from his own squadron to give chase to the freighters in each sector.

“We will start launching fighter squadrons again as soon as each one is refueled and rearmed,” Iso informed him. “I’ll send them after the freighters that are furthest away.”

Jonathan nodded his approval. Then he studied the Karacknid depot and its meager defenses. The recon drones he had pushed right up to the depot weren't detecting any missile tubes built into the large structure. Instead, all it had were point defenses. Firing half a salvo at the station was probably overkill. But he wanted to make sure.

“Firing,” Harte announced fifteen minutes later.

The Karacknid warships and freighters in the vicinity of the depot did their best to defend themselves. As Jonathan suspected, the depot put out a good deal of fire as well. It was nowhere near enough, however. All eight warships, every freighter, and the depot disappeared as they were encircled in antimatter.

“Split the squadron,” Jonathan ordered, glee in his voice. “Let’s hunt some freighters!”

“With pleasure, Commodore,” Iso responded.

“Harte, I want you to focus on watching the Karacknid warships. Start pulling our flotillas back once they begin to approach us.” Harte nodded vigorously, a serious look crossing his face.

“Hold those orders!” Lieutenant Rossi said, her voice squeaking as she spoke.

Everyone turned to her in surprise, not least Jonathan. “Why?” he asked her, working hard not to sound aghast at her going over his head.

“I’m sorry, Commodore,” Rossi said, her eyes locked on the floor and her cheeks coloring as he stared at her. “We just received a priority message from one of our scouts. I thought you would want to know before splitting the squadron. Shadow squadron has been sighted.”

Instantly, all Jonathan’s shock at Rossi evaporated. “Show me,” he demanded. A moment later, a star map of local space appeared on the main display. The system just two days' travel from where Hammerclaw sat was flashing.

“Shadow squadron entered the system just over three days ago,” Rossi said, her voice rising a little. “The frigate Constrictor raced here as soon as she saw them. Shadow squadron wasn’t heading straight for the shift passage that would take them here, they were spreading out, looking for something…”

“But that could have changed,” Jonathan said. “They could already be on their way here. Either way, something tipped them off that we were in the vicinity. They are still hunting for us!”

With a tap on his own command chair, Jonathan brought back the real-time images of the system. He immediately checked the positions of the Karacknid forces in the system relative to the shift passage Shadow squadron could emerge from. Jonathan groaned to himself. If he stayed in the system, he had a good chance of being able to catch and destroy upwards of a thousand freighters. Yet if Shadow squadron jumped in, they could pin him between themselves and the Karacknid ships that were even now trying to rally together to face his squadron.

When are you going to get a chance to hit a thousand freighters again? Jonathan asked himself. He shook his head at the thought. He didn’t know. Maybe never? Yet was it worth taking such a serious risk? Was it worth potentially throwing away his entire squadron to destroy a thousand enemy freighters? No, not even close, he quickly concluded.

“We can’t risk it,” he said to his officers. “Keep the squadron together, lay in a course for the southeastern shift passage. Signal O’Kane and the ships with him, order them to meet us there. We need to get out of here and open up some distance between us and Shadow squadron if we’re going to stand any chance of giving them the slip again.”

Iso nodded several times. “Understood, Commodore. We’ll get another chance like this again, I’m sure we will.”

Jonathan smiled, appreciating her words. He hoped she was right. He then turned to Rossi. “Good work, Lieutenant,” he said as he gave her a smile as well. He then winked at her. “Just don’t get too comfortable overriding my orders.”

“Yes, Commodore, of course, Commodore,” Rossi said, her eyes just flicking up to meet his for a brief second.

Turning back to the main display, Jonathan quickly forgot about Rossi’s nervousness as his mind turned back to Shadow squadron. He would have to be content with the destruction they had wrought on the depot. Nearly a hundred warships were gone, along with the depot itself and over one hundred and fifty freighters. But how had they followed us? He asked himself. He had taken his fleet on a three-week round-trip northeast, then north, and then northwest to get back into Battlefleet Four’s rear supply lines. How did they know this is where we would attack? As his ships raced away from the fleeing Karacknid freighters, no answer came to Jonathan.

On his command chair’s holo display, he pulled up a map of the local systems. Quickly he plotted out a route that he thought Shadow squadron couldn’t follow him on. It took his squadron to a hidden shift passage. We’ll use it to give them the slip, then we’ll get back to raiding… Until they find us again, a voice in his head thought. They can’t perform miracles, another voice countered. Given how close they had already come to finding him again, Jonathan wasn’t so sure.

Forty-nine minutes later, alarms blared around the bridge to announce new contacts being detected. Jonathan shared a look with Iso and then another one with Rossi. It was Shadow squadron entering the system. “Good work indeed, Lieutenant,” he said to Rossi, suddenly even more glad she had spoken up. For several minutes he watched as Shadow squadron formed up and then set off in pursuit of Hammerclaw. Another hour passed as they doggedly gave chase, then Hammerclaw crossed the system’s mass shadow and jumped out. “Let’s hope we don’t see them again anytime soon,” Jonathan said to his officers. By the time Shadow squadron reached the next system Hammerclaw was heading towards, Jonathan intended to be long gone. We can’t leave them any breadcrumbs to follow, not even one! Jonathan said to himself, still amazed that they had managed to find him at all.

Chapter 30

The enemy of my enemy is my friend. This is true enough and has often allowed our Empire to fight alongside those who might otherwise have seen us as competitors. Yet one cannot always help those who stand against your enemy, such are the realities of war.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Beartooth, 23rd April 2513 AD, (two days later).

James felt a stab of guilt as he watched events transpire within the Kamesh system. As he had hoped, he had found a way to pin Battlefleet Two in place and force them to fight. Yet, it left a bitter taste in his mouth. The Kameshions were species who had once been enslaved by the Karacknids. When they had retreated and abandoned The Wilds after the First Karacknid War, the Kameshions had risen up and killed the few Karacknid warriors based on their home planet and won their freedom. Since then, the Kameshions had worked hard, with Humanity's help, to build a fledgling space civilization.

From the very first interaction James had had with the Kameshions, he had warned them that the more they built up their civilization, the bigger target they would become to the Karacknids. He also made it clear he could not protect them in the event of a second war. The fact was Kamesh was too far from the Empire's borders, and too isolated. Fully aware of the situation, the Kameshions had forged ahead anyway.

In the two and a half decades since they gained their freedom, they had built a number of orbital stations around their homeworld, as well as setting up fledgling colonies on two other worlds within the system. More than a century ago, the Karacknid had conquered the system because of its gas giant rich in He3, and the dense rare metal deposits in a couple of the system's asteroid fields. The Kameshions had used both to trade with the Empire and the Mindus and build up enough of an economy to support a small fleet of warships and orbital battlestations. Built around Mindus designs, as they fit the Kameshions' anatomy the best, four hundred and eighty warships and ninety battlestations defended their homeworld and system.

At least, they had several hours ago. Beartooth had arrived just in time to see a powerful detachment of two thousand warships from Battlefleet Two descend upon the system. They had quickly conquered both fledgling colonies and the outer system asteroid mining operations, destroying over a hundred Kameshion warships with ease. Now, slightly more cautiously, they were moving in to surround Kameshion.

Hanging back slightly from the main body of warships, a freighter fleet of several hundred vessels and about a hundred warships waited. James was certain they contained ground troops to secure the Kameshion's homeworld and the necessary technicians and equipment to turn the system into a supply hub for Battlefleet Two.

James glanced over to Scott who had rejoined him on Beartooth as his Chief of Staff once again. Her face had the same look as he imagined his had. This was how they had decided to pin the Karacknid in place and force them to fight. Once they had committed to attacking Kamesh's defenses, they wouldn't be able to run. Yet it felt wrong to watch a species that was, though not technically an ally, a close friend of the Empire's, come under attack. James felt like his body kept wanting to twitch at the anxious energy that ran through him. Yes, he knew the Kameshions would be conquered, whether he was here or not. But he was here, and he was doing nothing to intervene and help them.

“Emperor,” Scott said gently, knowing that he was deep in thought.

“Yes, Admiral?” James said as he slowly turned to her.

“Have you considered the squadron of freighters and their escorts? If we are spotted trying to sneak up on the Karacknid fleet, they may turn and run. Those freighters won’t be able to flee just as quickly. Maybe we should try and hit them at the same time. Then at least if we fail, we can destroy the freighters and the equipment needed to turn the system into a supply hub.”

James shifted his focus as he studied the squadron of freighters and their escorts with more interest. Not for the first time, he rued losing so many fighters in the battle he had fought against Tanaka-lan. With Admiral Scott, Admiral Ivanov, and Rear Admiral Jiminez ships joined to his, he had eighteen hundred Hellcats and Devastators under his command. But he should have had double that number. If he had, it would have been easy to dispatch a thousand after the freighter squadron. “How would you do it?” he asked Scott.

“We need almost all our fighters to hit the Karacknid warships hard,” Scott responded. “But I reckon we could spare four hundred. If we detach a squadron of light cruisers along with enough destroyers and frigates, they can hit the freighter squadron together. And, if the freighters tried to run, they should be more than fast enough to catch them and bring them to battle.”

James inhaled deeply through his nose as he thought through Scott’s proposal. It came with a reasonable amount of risk. Taking four hundred fighters out of the strike they planned to hit the main Karacknid fleet with would significantly impact the damage they were doing in the opening moments of the coming battle. Yet there were ways to compensate for that. And it gives us some flexibility. If the Karacknid warships try to flee, or if we decide to fall back, we can still hurt them. “Okay,” he said with a nod. “Make the arrangements.”

Scott nodded seriously, then she began to issue orders to the officers seated around her. Five minutes later, three hundred ships and six hundred fighters stealthily moved away from Beartooth as they began to skirt around the edge of the system.

Another hour passed slowly as the Karacknid fleet gradually closed with Kameth. As they did, a battle of surveillance drones developed. Hundreds of Karacknid and Kameshion drones attempted to penetrate each other’s formation, while frigates and fighters moved to intercept them.

“They are moving into range now,” Hemingway reported when the Karacknids had finally gathered enough intelligence to plan their assault.

Just a minute later, thousands of new contacts filled the holo display as the Karacknids opened fire. The Kameshions followed suit just a few seconds later. The contrast between both missile salvos could hardly have been greater. The Karacknids had fired thirty-nine thousand, the Kameshions just twelve.

“No sign of any fighter launches?” James asked when he couldn’t see any Karacknid fighters rushing to join the first attack.

Hemmingway shook his head. “There’s definitely carriers among that fleet, but they haven’t launched any fighters yet.”

James felt a shiver of something run down his spine. He tried to analyze it but wasn’t sure what it was. He was already well aware of the fear and nerves he felt, the same as he always did on the cusp of going into battle. That the Karacknids weren’t launching fighters was strange, but not unheard of. The Karacknids had always been more cautious with their fighters and given their superiority in missile numbers, it was understandable. Still, his eyes narrowed as he studied the Karacknid fleet, wondering if there was something he was missing. Nothing jumped out at him, however.

“Take us in,” James ordered eleven minutes later when the first missiles began to detonate, providing plenty of cover for his fleet to sneak into the system. As his ships cautiously moved forward, James joined the rest of his officers as they analyzed the Karacknid fleet and the Kameshions’ capabilities.

The first thing that became apparent was that the battle wasn’t quite as one-sided as it looked. Just three lucky Kameshion missiles punched through the Karacknid’s defensive fire, destroying a couple of ships. Yet hardly many more Karacknid missiles struck their targets. Beartooth’s sensors detected just thirty-two antimatter detonations around Kameth’s orbitals. The reason was readily apparent; whilst the Kameshions hadn’t been able to build any additional larger warships or battlestations, they had built thousands of small defense satellites. Each satellite appeared to house just two or three defensive laser cannons, but Kameth’s orbitals were thick with them.

“We may be getting a lot closer than we initially hoped for,” James said as he shared a smile with Scott. “It seems the Kameshions really don’t want to be conquered for a second time.”

Scott nodded, excitement on her face. “I can’t say I blame them. They may even hold out long enough for us to relieve them.”

James wasn’t so sure of that, but it was an encouraging thought. Of course, long-term he couldn’t do anything for the Kameshions. But he suspected that if they were to play a key part in allowing him to destroy the Karacknid fleet assaulting their world, they would take great pleasure in that, even if thousands more Karacknid warships would inevitably pour into their system in the weeks ahead.

*

Slayer

Tanaka-lan grunted when he saw the majority of the missiles fired from the fleet he had attacking the Kameshions’ homeworld taken out. He had underestimated the slave species. All the more reason to ensure they are permanently enslaved, he thought. Evidently, if the Kameshions were left to their own devices, they had the potential to become a real thorn in his side. “Move us closer,” he ordered. If the battle was going to last longer, it would give his opponents more time to get into position. He wanted to be ready to strike when they did. If they are there, a voice in his head said. Tanaka-lan easily dismissed it, however. He was certain Somerville was already in this system getting ready to strike; there was no way he could resist the target Tanaka-lan had offered to him.

*

IS Beartooth

For fifty minutes, James watched the Kameshions’ defenses absorb a great deal of fire as guilt swirled within him. Each Karacknid salvo destroyed more Kameshion ships and stations, and more than a few missiles were hitting civilian ships and stations too. He had to think about the bigger picture though, and that meant dealing the Karacknids as much damage as possible without his own fleet suffering in return. The closer he got to them and the longer he allowed the Kameshions to pick away at the Karacknid strength, the more effective his own attack would become.

“What do you think?” James asked as he turned to Scott. “If we wait much longer, there won’t be many Kameshions left.” On a secondary display, Lieutenant Hemmingway was running a simulation that predicted the Kameshions' losses would mount up to fifty percent of the original force in just three more Karacknid salvos. From there, they would rapidly be overwhelmed and wiped out.

Scott nodded. “It is time then,” she said. James gestured to her with a wave of the hand. “Take the fleet out of stealth,” Scott ordered. “Maximum acceleration. Get us into missile range. Hemmingway, coordinate the first salvo with our fighters.” Her commands were met with a chorus of acknowledgments.

Seconds later, the Imperial Fleet surged forward as they sought to rapidly close the remaining distance to the Karacknids. The Karacknids' response was swift. Almost immediately, they began to pull up and away from Kameth to turn to face James’ fleet. Again, James felt a stirring of something. Understandably, the Karacknids didn’t want to fight two different forces at the same time. Even so, their reactions had been fast, very fast. “Launch a fresh spread of recon drones across the system,” James requested. No additional enemy warships had been detected, but he felt the sudden need to make doubly sure.

“Preparing the drones now, Emperor,” Lieutenant Pele responded.

When James glanced at Scott, she nodded to him. She felt something too.

“The freighter squadron is backing away from Kameth,” Hemmingway pointed out. Moments later, a group of new contacts appeared on the holo display. “There go our light cruisers and fighters after them,” Hemmingway added.

James nodded; Commodore Zidane wanted to bring his targets to battle as soon as possible. It was good, it would give the commander of the fleet he was about to strike something to think about. And the more he has to think about, the better, James thought. “Open a COM channel to Kameth,” James requested as he turned to any other way to distract his enemy.

“Aye, Emperor, it’s open now,” Becker informed him.

James smiled at the holo recorders. “Kameshion forces, I’m not surprised to find you standing up so fiercely to your former oppressors. I’m sorry I have not been able to do more to assist you. Honesty compels me to inform you that neither am I here to defend your world now, at least not in the long run. I am here to strike at the Karacknids and delay their advance on my own worlds. However, this is as great an opportunity as you will get to hurt Tanaka-lan’s forces. So if you are willing, I would urge your ships to join us in our assault on this fleet. The more Karacknid ships we can destroy now, the less they will have to assault my worlds and garrison your system. Hopefully then, one day I may be able to return to permanently drive the Karacknids from this system.

“I understand protecting your homeworld is your priority, however, and so if you choose to remain in your orbitals to face whatever other Karacknid forces come your way in the future, I will understand. Each must fight this war to the best of our abilities for our species.” With a glance at Becker, James let him know he was finished.

It didn’t take long for Hemmingway to look up from his tactical console. He was smiling as he spoke. “I think they got the message, Emperor. Three hundred and twenty Kameshion warships are moving to attack the Karacknids from the rear.”

James briefly returned Hemmingway’s smile. His force already had the numerical advantage. The Kameshions would make the opening salvos of the coming battle even more deadly for the Karacknids. Why then do I still feel so nervous? James asked himself. Everything was going according to plan. Almost perfectly so, a voice said in his head. James froze, the voice was right. Since he had last fought Tanaka-lan, every Karacknid force he had encountered had retreated before him, whether it was a small flotilla or an entire battlefleet. Yet here, in front of him was what he so desperately wanted: a Karacknid force willing to fight. Even moving to meet him! Tanaka-lan is here! James' instincts screamed at him. The Karacknid Admiral had ordered all his forces to retreat in the face of James’ ships. But they weren’t now, for the Karacknid Imperator had come to lead his forces!

“Emperor, what’s wrong?” Scott asked as she stared at James, seeing concern building on his face.

James opened his mouth to explain, but the blaring of alarms beat him to it. Suddenly a host of new contacts appeared on the holo display, thousands of them.

*

Slayer

When several hundred new contacts appeared on Slayer’s holo display that weren’t his, Tanaka-lan’s eyes widened slightly. Somerville was going for his freighters as well as the fleet he had attacking the Kameshions. He is nothing if not ambitious! Quickly Tanaka-lan assessed the situation. The freighters were only there for show, their job was to make Humans think the attack on Kameth was real. Yet they were filled with valuable supplies his battlefleet needed. And they would all be destroyed, Tanaka-lan was sure when Slayer’s sensors began to make out enemy fighters accompanying the squadron that was charging the freighters and their escorts. There was only one thing Tanaka-lan could do to save the freighters, but it would give away his presence. As he was still weighing up what to do, other contacts on the display began to move. The Kameshion warships were breaking orbit. That decided it for Tanaka-lan. “Take us out of stealth, move to intercept the Human fleet. Launch all our fighters and hit the Human squadron pursuing our freighters with half of them, send the rest after the Human fleet. I want as many of their capital ships crippled as possible. Then we will finish them.”

“At once, Imperator,” Tanaka-lan’s Chief of Staff responded.

Perhaps you are out there yourself, Tanaka-lan thought towards Somerville as his claws extended from his knuckles and dug into the padding in his command chair. Let us see.

Chapter 31

The Antarians produced few if any outstanding commanders. Their way of warfare is not one of flair or style, rather they simply aim to grind down an opponent until they are no more. The Karacknids are more similar to us, in that while they have always relied on superior warships and numbers, they still seek to win by subtlety and subterfuge. Even so, none of their commanders have ever come close to matching the skill Tanaka-lan had.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Beartooth

“Pull us up and away from Kameth,” James ordered immediately as he stared in horror at the three thousand additional Karacknid warships that were charging towards Beartooth. “Plot a course back to the shift passage, maximum possible speed. Turn us onto it as soon as you have it calculated.”

“It’s Tanaka-lan,” Scott said as she highlighted a massive ship at the heart of the host of new contacts that had appeared. Her voice was cold.

“Detecting fighter launches,” Hemmingway announced moments later. “From both Karacknid fleets.”

“Order Commodore Zidane to get out of there,” James said, though in his heart he knew it was already too late. Even as he gave the order, Zidane’s squadron of light ships began to turn away from the charging second Karacknid fleet, now designated Beta fleet on the display. The warships of Beta fleet were ignoring Zidane’s ships as they raced to close with James’ fleet, but as the fighters they were launching formed up into squadrons, a host of fighters set off to engage Zidane’s ships.

“Alpha Karacknid fleet is maneuvering; they are turning to match our course,” Scott reported as she projected her analysis of the various fleets’ headings. “They’re going to bring us into range. Just for seventeen minutes, then our momentum will take us past them. It’ll be a stern chase after that.”

“Tanaka-lan won’t be able to bring us into range himself,” James said as he interpreted what the display was showing. “Although he won’t have to, those fighters will catch us.” His eyes were fixed on three thousand fighters that had been launched from Beta fleet. They wouldn’t catch up to his fleet until after he had engaged the Alpha fleet, but they would be able to strike before his ships could jump out. Three thousand was more than enough to cripple half of his fleet, more depending on how much damage Alpha fleet did to James’ ships.

“Should we recall our fighters?” Hemmingway asked, his voice full of concern.

James sought out where his own fighters were. They had already launched and were closing with the Alpha fleet, getting into position to strike alongside James’ first salvo. “We need them to hit Alpha fleet hard, or else they will be able to do us a great deal of harm in the coming stern chase,” James responded. “Send our new firing plans to Wing Commander Sato, but make sure he knows his fighters need to get back to their carriers immediately to refuel and get ready to defend us from the enemy fighter strike.”

“It's going to be really touch and go,” Scott said. “There will be hardly any time for them to get back here.”

“I know,” James acknowledged. Yet he had no other choice. If he didn’t hurt Alpha fleet badly, then they would be peppering him with missiles all the way back to the system’s mass shadow. “They will have to do their best.”

“At least the Kameshions are staying in the fight,” Hemmingway commented.

James nodded, his respect for the alien species growing. Having seen Tanaka-lan's fleet of three thousand additional warships, they had to know their system was lost. Yet they were still choosing to fight and aid James’ fleet. They know they can do more damage this way, he was sure. They’re making sure their deaths are as costly to the Karacknids as possible.

“Commodore Zidane’s squadron is about to come under attack,” Lieutenant Becker said quietly.

As everyone turned to the holo display, silence descended on the bridge as they watched their comrades die. The four hundred fighters that Scott had suggested accompany Commodore Zidane put up a brave fight, but they were quickly overwhelmed and destroyed by seven times the number of Karacknid fighters. Then the Karacknids tore into Zidane’s warships. With her squadron consisting only of light cruisers, destroyers, and frigates, they were perfect ships to engage enemy fighters. Even so, the Karacknid numbers proved too much. Beams from mass particle cannons tore the warships apart.

For a handful of seconds after the last of Zidane’s ships was destroyed, everyone still stared at the spot on the holo display where they had been. Then James spoke with a growl. “Prepare every one of our remaining Whirlwind and Shadow missiles, we fire them all in our first salvo. I want to crush Alpha fleet.”

James' words broke the spell on his officers. “Yes, sir!” Scott replied forcefully as everyone turned back to their consoles.

Twenty more minutes passed as James’ fleet continued to pull up and away from Kameth, reversing the momentum they had built up and turning in a large loop back towards the shift passage they had entered the system from. Then they came into range of Alpha fleet. Electromagnetic tubes flung thousands of missiles into space. The Karacknid warships did likewise. Then both sides fired again, and then a third time, before both fleets’ momentum took them out of range of one another.

As the first salvos charged to attack their targets, thousands of Karacknid fighters broke away from Alpha fleet and attempted to intercept James’ fighters. A vicious engagement lasting just fifty seconds ensued. Anti-fighter missiles were fired by both sides, telling James the Karacknid fighters were their newest design. Hundreds of Hellcats and Karacknids were shot down. Laser beams and plasma bolts struck out at their targets. More explosions followed. Then Imperial fighters blasted past the Karacknids and continued on to join the attack on the Karacknid warships. James felt a moment of relief when he counted nine hundred and eighty Hellcats and Devastators still moving to attack Alpha fleet. They were going to add to the carnage Alpha fleet was about to suffer.

At almost the same moment, both fleets opened up on the incoming missiles with their defensive fire. An array of kinetic and energy weapons sought to deal out death to the missiles. They, in turn, twisted and weaved and used intricate ECM to fool the defensive gunners. Missiles on both sides made it through to strike their targets. Antimatter bloomed amidst each fleet.

Alongside the antimatter detonations that erupted within the heart of the Karacknids formation, gravimetric warheads detonated, their momentary miniature black holes violently shaking ships in their immediate vicinity. Then millions of bomblets ejected by Whirlwind missiles caused even more destruction. Not giving the Karacknids a second to recover, Devastators and Hellcats fired a follow-up volley of their own larger antimatter missiles. Many of them also raced to strike targets, causing a second wave of antimatter blooms to blossom within Alpha fleet’s formation.

Alarms blared on Beartooth as three missiles targeted the battlecruiser. James felt the ship begin to twist as its pilot carried out a hasty evasive maneuver. Defensive fire shot down one of the missiles. A second was tricked by a combination of ECM and Beartooth’s twisting. The third was not so easily shaken. It passed as close to Beartooth as it was able, then it detonated. Antimatter smashed into James’ flagship’s shield, battered it down, and then erupted as antimatter particles annihilated valstronium armor sections.

Vibrations from several shockwaves passed through the bridge, shaking James’ command chair. James’ concern dropped as he felt them though. He had been in enough ships hit by enemy weapons to know the damage couldn’t have been too serious.

“We got hit amidships, starboard side,” an officer called out almost. “Our armor held, though external sensors and weapons will have taken damage.”

“They weren’t so lucky,” Scott said as the holo display zoomed in on Alpha fleet.

The Karacknids’ formation was a wreck. Damaged ships out of control were streaming out of their positions in every direction. Massive holes in the formation highlighted where other groups of warships had been annihilated. James surveyed the damage for several seconds as Beartooth’s computer estimated over four hundred enemy ships had been destroyed or crippled. Then he returned his focus to his fleet. There were still two enemy salvos coming in and they needed to prepare!

Working with Scott and his officers, James quickly moved his damaged ships back to the rear of his formation, including Beartooth. At the same time, they launched search and rescue shuttles to the crippled ships that were already being left behind as his fleet continued to race to the shift passage. Then he assessed the losses he had taken. Immediately, he grimaced at what he saw. Only sixty-seven ships had been destroyed or crippled, yet a disproportionately high number of them were carriers. Tanaka-lan wants them taken out so his fighters can slash into us unopposed, James knew. At once he set about moving the rest of his carriers to the rear of his formation as well. He then doubled the number of light ships protecting each one. He needed them to survive.

Even as the carriers were still moving, the second Karacknid salvo entered the range of James’ ships' point defenses. Then more antimatter missiles began to detonate among his ships. When they ceased, once again James assessed the Karacknid fleet, saw they had destroyed another one hundred and twenty of their ships, then readied his fleet for the final salvo.

For the third time, both fleets fought to defend themselves, as more missiles rained down death upon them. Hundreds of ships were damaged or destroyed, adding to the losses both fleets had already suffered. Then the momentum and course of each group of warships took them away from one another. For twenty minutes, James worked furiously to rescue as many of his people from the ships he was forced to leave behind and scuttle, as well as assess the damage to his other ships and work out the best defensive strategies they could employ against the threat still approaching them. Though he wanted to mourn the hundreds of ships and thousands of crew already dead, he couldn’t allow himself to dwell on them – he had to focus on the living.

The reprieve was short-lived, however, for as James' ships looped back towards the shift passage, Alpha fleet was already heading straight for it. Thanks to their higher initial momentum, James’ fleet was able to stay ahead of the Karacknids, but as they completed their long looping turn, they slotted in just in front of Alpha fleet. With Alpha fleet having been accelerating on the same course for longer, gradually, they gained on James’ fleet. However, in order to keep James’ ships in range, Alpha fleet couldn’t slow their acceleration, not even for the minute or so it would take to turn ships and line up a full salvo.

Instead, then, a stern chase developed as the Karacknids fired a salvo from their forward-facing tubes. James’ ships answered back with their own missiles fired from stern tubes, but with several massive impulse engines dominating the rear of every Imperial warship, each individual ship was unable to fire as many as the Karacknids. James’ superior ship numbers made up the difference, however, and so two small, but roughly equal salvos raced towards each fleet. Four minutes and fifty seconds later, James’ ships fired again. The Karacknids took just ten seconds longer to fire as well.

“One hour and twenty minutes until we reach the shift passage,” Hemmingway reported, letting everyone know just how many missile salvos they would have to endure.

“Tanaka-lan’s fighters will be on us in forty-five minutes,” Scott added. “I’m sure they will coordinate their fire with one of Alpha fleet’s salvos.”

“What is the status of our fighters?” James asked.

Scott zoomed out on the holo display to show the survivors of the fighters that had struck Alpha fleet. The trace of their flight path showed that after arresting their momentum into the system, they had been forced out on a wide arc back around Alpha fleet as they raced to rejoin James’ fleet. “The first squadrons will be landing in five minutes,” Scott said. “We only have enough carriers to land three-quarters of the fighters coming back. But the rest will be landing in our capital ships' hangars. We won’t be able to rearm them with anti-fighter missiles, but we’ll get them refueled and back out as quickly as we can.”

“How many will we have when Tanaka-lan’s fighters reach us?” James followed up, fearing he wasn’t going to like the answer.

“Six hundred and twenty,” Scott said. “More if I can speed things up further, but our people will be pushing it as it is.”

“Do whatever it takes,” James said as he shared a serious look with Scott. Both of them knew just how much damage three thousand Karacknid fighters could do to their ships if they got close enough to fire their particle beam cannons.

“Enemy missiles approaching,” Hemmingway reported. “Preparing to engage them.”

With his ships accelerating as hard as they could towards the shift passage before them, James’ fleet could only defend themselves with their rear-facing point defense weapons. Thankfully, the drone cruisers James still had were able to take up positions at the rear of the fleet and then deploy their drones further back to significantly increase the fleet’s defensive fire. As a result, just one missile burst through the waves of destructive force that took out the rest of the small Karacknid salvo. It failed to score a direct hit and detonated close to a heavy cruiser. The cruiser’s shield was battered down, but it suffered little damage. The Karacknid warships, with fewer numbers, failed to shoot down three Imperial missiles. Two enemy ships were crippled as they were enveloped by deadly antimatter.

Over the next thirty-five minutes, seven more salvos crisscrossed space as Alpha fleet continued to chase James' fleet. Five of James’ ships were destroyed or so badly damaged they had to be abandoned, bringing the total number of ships James had lost to one hundred and sixty-seven. The Karacknids lost a further nineteen ships. James spent most of the time fighting to keep his anger in check. As well as seeing more of his ships be destroyed, James also had to helplessly watch as the pursuing Karacknid warships also dealt out death to all the crippled or damaged ships he had left behind earlier. As soon as the Karacknids came into range, they mercilessly destroyed the ships they had damaged with their first three full salvos.

“Scott?” James asked as Tanaka-lan’s fighters drew ever closer. Worry and anger edged his voice.

“Launching the first squadrons now,” Scott said as she looked up from her console. “We’ll be launching every thirty seconds from here on in.”

James gripped his command chair and all but ignored the next missile salvo as he watched fighters begin to launch from his carriers and his capital ships. Over the next four minutes, their numbers quickly rose. “We’ve got more coming,” Scott reported. “But they’ll have to attack on their own, Sato says they need to move to intercept the Karacknids now.”

James nodded. It’s not going to be enough, he feared. More than that, he was now certain. With three thousand fighters accelerating as hard as they could to strike at his ships, it would take more than a miracle for the six hundred Hellcats moving to intercept them to kill enough. “We need to do more,” James said as he began to think out loud. “Deploy all frigates and destroyers to our rear, create an initial wall of ships they have to get through if they want to hit our larger vessels.” He then remembered the shuttle that he had seen take out an enemy fighter weeks ago. “And launch all our shuttles, send them after the enemy fighters too. Then prepare to turn the fleet; we’ll give them a full salvo of antimatter missiles just as they come into defensive weapons range.”

As his officers began carrying out his orders, James found himself gripping his command chair even tighter. There was nothing more he could do now; he was little more than a passenger as his people fought for their survival. First, Sato’s fighters moved out to meet the Karacknids. Over a thousand anti-fighter missiles raced out to strike the enemy fighters. Just over a third scored hits. Then the Karacknids closed with Sato’s decelerating fighters. Both sides hammered at each other with laser beams and plasma cannons. As soon as the Karacknids zipped past them, Sato’s fighters flipped over and tore into the Karacknid fighters’ rear with more plasma bolts. Then they charged back after the Karacknids.

Though almost nine hundred enemy fighters had been destroyed, James' body only tensed further. More than two thousand fighters were about to hit his fleet! Moments later, he felt the small shudders that ran through Beartooth as her missile tubes fired. Just thirty seconds after being released, thirty-four thousand antimatter missiles detonated right in front of the Karacknid fighters. The Karacknids frantically tried to avoid the detonations. Most were successful, less than fifty were destroyed. Yet the attack had staggered the Karacknids' formation.

As soon as the first Karacknid fighters came into range, every Imperial defensive weapon fired on them. Scott even coordinated every ship to fire its heavy energy weapons, saturating a small area with gigajoules of energy. Eleven enemy fighters were vaporized by the fire.

With the Karacknids now approaching in smaller formations, the Imperial ships were able to focus so much fire on the lead enemy squadrons that hundreds were destroyed before they could get close enough to attack. Yet eventually, the Karacknids' numbers swelled. Imperial defensive fire was dispersed. Then Karacknid fighters began to twist and weave through everything fired at them. A third of the Karacknid fighters were of their newest design. Many of their shields flared as they were hit with energy beams, yet they continued charging in towards their targets. Some were struck again and blown apart, but others got close enough to open fire.

Particle beams began to smash into Imperial ships, causing them to blow apart in massive detonations. Even as their sister ships were being savaged around them, the rest of the Imperial fleet continued to pour as much fire into the Karacknid fighters as possible. In turn, even after they had fired a deadly beam, the Karacknid fighters continued to push through the Imperial formation, charging their capacitors and firing again.

Into the maze of fireballs, crippled ships and defensive fire, Sato’s fighters charged, their own plasma cannons blazing as they sought to take out enemy fighters before they could fire for a second time.

Beartooth’s holo display showed nothing but carnage around the flagship as explosions from the destruction of warships and tens of thousands of laser beams and plasma bolts made it almost impossible to see what was happening. James braced himself, expecting a beam to come slicing into Beartooth at any second. Yet it never came. The Karacknid attack lasted less than twenty seconds. No fighters made it close enough to the flagship to fire upon her. A combination of defensive fire and Sato’s fighters hunted down every Karacknid fighter, taking most of them out before they could fire for a second or third time.

As quickly as the carnage had begun, it then ended, and space around the Imperial fleet fell silent once again. As Beartooth’s sensors started to make sense of everything around the flagship, hundreds of ships could be seen falling out of formation and almost as many were simply gone. James’ heart sank at the destruction. One hundred and ninety-four ships were coming up as missing. Another two hundred and forty-two were flashing red to show they had suffered critical damage. Many more were orange or yellow, indicating they were reporting lighter damage. Each ship flashing signaled the death of more of his people.

As James and his officers set about reorganizing their fleet and doing what they could for their crippled ships, they also had to contend with more small salvos from Alpha fleet. Here and there missiles slipped through, causing more death and loss.

When James’ ships reached and passed the system’s mass shadow, they didn’t jump out immediately. So many ships were damaged that they spent another twenty minutes carrying out repairs, even though it allowed Alpha fleet to keep firing their own forward missile tubes at them. Five more ships were destroyed, but more than thirty of James’ ships were able to get their shift drives functional again to jump out with the fleet. In anger, James waited another five minutes for the Alpha fleet to cross the system’s mass shadow. Then he fired a half salvo containing all the remaining Shift missiles he had at Alpha fleet. A second later, his ships jumped into shift space.

As Beartooth jumped to safety, James found himself staring at the massive warship in the heart of the Karacknid fleet that had launched their fighters at him. He knew Tanaka-lan was on board. On top of the anguish he felt at all the loss he had just witnessed, guilt welled up within him. It was the second time he had faced Tanaka-lan, and it was the second time he had been bested. Hundreds of his ships and hundreds of thousands of his people were now dead, and the Kameth system had fallen to the Karacknids. Fear joined his guilt as his mind turned to his border forts and then Earth. Can I stop him, or will he conquer us as well? James found himself asking as his ship slipped into shift space and sped away from the scene of their defeat.

*

Slayer

Tanaka-lan watched with a grin on his lips as the Human fleet finally jumped into shift space. Though it had escaped, he had still mauled it. They won’t be harassing this battlefleet again any time soon. “Send word back to the battlefleet,” he said as he waved a clawed hand at his Chief of Staff. “They are to resume their advance south.”

“Yes, Imperator,” his officer responded.

And now, where will you go next? Tanaka-lan wondered as he pulled up a star map and tried to put himself in Somerville’s shoes. Given how well the Imperial fleet had extracted itself from his trap, he was sure he had once again fought the Human Emperor. Perhaps here, he decided as he focused on an area of space one of his other battlefleets was about to pass through. His smile widened. As long as Somerville was willing to let him pick away at Somerville’s fleets piece by piece, Tanaka-lan wasn’t going to complain.

Chapter 32

Though Somerville had no choice but to fall back and prepare for the inevitable, there is much for a student of military tactics to learn from the many battles that constitute the latter stages of The Battle of The Wilds.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Beartooth

Despite the guilt James still felt at what he could only think of as the defeat they had faced, he tried to coldly assess the battle his ships had fought less than twenty-four hours ago. His fleet had given as good as it had got, despite being ambushed by Tanaka-lan. Nine hundred enemy ships were destroyed and three and a half thousand fighters. His losses had been seven hundred warships and nine hundred fighters. It could have been much worse. Still, it was far from good enough. The Wilds were meant to be where he had a home advantage. Where he could use speed and maneuverability to inflict disproportionate casualties on the Karacknids. He needed to be destroying their ships at a rate of at least three to one. Anything less than that, and he was only weakening his position relative to Tanaka-lan’s.

Scott, Ivanov, and Jiminez silently sat around him in his office. He had gathered them to decide what to do next. James had been staring at his hands clasped together on the table in front of him. He looked up and met his friends' eyes. “I think it is obvious what Tanaka-lan is doing at this point,” he said, unable to hide the sense of resignation from his voice. “He has lost too many ships to our surprise attacks and ambushes. Now, when we confront them, his battlefleets fall back unless he is personally there to command. Twice now we’ve seen what happens when he is. We simply don’t have the numbers to face him head-on.”

Scott looked at Ivanov and Jiminez. “So what are you saying? That we should abandon The Wilds?” she asked slowly?

“We still have several traps we could try to use,” Jiminez said quickly. “And other friendly systems that will surely come under attack.”

James nodded. “The traps that don’t require our fleet to fight in conjunction with them can still be used. But we cannot risk our fleet again. We still have fifteen hundred battle ready warships with us. Stationed at one of our forts, we could hold off a force three or four times our size. If we waste our ships here, then we will only be weakening our defenses further south.”

“It sounds like you have already made up your mind, Emperor,” Ivanov said quietly. “You think we have lost The Wilds?”

James took a moment to respond, choosing his words carefully. “I think we have lost the ability to hurt these battlefleets enough to risk engaging them. Tanaka-lan changes the equation. He has shown us that already.”

“So we fall back?” Scott asked, her voice was level, too level, telling James she wasn’t keen on the idea at all.

“No, not entirely,” James responded. “But I see little of significance I can accomplish here anymore. I am of a mind to split what is left of our forces between the three of you. I will take our damaged ships back to New Shanghai where they will need repairs. Our allies' fleets should be gathering there. They will need a strong commander to take charge and make the final preparations for the defense of our forts.”

“You three can keep in contact with Battlefleets Two, Three, and Four. If they or their screening squadrons retreat before you, you will know Tanaka-lan is not there. If they do not, then he will be nearby and you should make a hasty retreat. At least in this way we can keep delaying them as much as possible.” James looked back and forth between his friends. “If it sounds like I am giving up, I am most certainly not. But I must make the most use of the little time we have left before the battlefleets reach our forts. What do you think?”

None spoke for several seconds. Then Scott smiled at James. “None of us would ever think you are giving up, Emperor. I just hope our two most recent run-ins with Tanaka-lan haven't made you forget the times we have defeated him in the past. He is not all-knowing or all-powerful.”

“He is not,” James said with a sharp nod. “But with upwards of twenty thousand warships at his command every time we face him, we are taking great risks when we try to do so.”

“I’d much rather fight him with ten thousand warships and one of our forts at our backs,” Ivanov agreed. “But we know he will be as wily there as he is here in The Wilds.”

“There will be no easy battles ahead of us,” James responded. “But we have learned much in these last few months, about our own ships' abilities and the Karacknids' new weapons systems. Our fleets at our forts and at New Shanghai need to be briefed on them and prepared for the battles to come.”

“Then I understand the wisdom in your wishes,” Scott said as she gave James a smile. “It would give me comfort to know our greatest commander is facing Tanaka-lan. But we will stand against him in your stead. You are our Emperor first, and I know there is more you must consider than just the next battle or tactic.”

James returned Scott's smile, her words telling him she understood his dilemma. Both Ivanov and Jiminez nodded as Scott spoke. “We will still kill as many of them as we can,” Jiminez said confidently.

“As long as you understand, if even the smallest Karacknid flotilla attempts to stand up against your forces, you fall back immediately,” James cautioned. He took a moment to hold each commander's eye. “We are going to have many forts we need to defend, and they are going to need each one of you when the real engagements begin. All of this has just been the prelude to the real war.”

“We understand, Emperor,” Ivanov assured James. “We will stand against these battlefleets, but we will not take any unnecessary risks.” Ivanov flashed him a similar smile to Scott’s. “After all, they clearly believe they are facing the mighty Emperor of the Human Empire and so keep running before us every time Tanaka-lan is not there. All we have to do is keep up the pretense you are still in command, and they will run from us as well.”

“Then it is settled,” James said with a nod of finality. “Keep me informed of your movements and if I feel our defenses are ready, “I will recall you, if you have not been forced back to the fort already.”

Each commander nodded solemnly, all aware the battle for The Wilds was entering its final stage, and that far deadlier battles were fast approaching.

*

IS Hammerclaw, 30th April 2513 AD, (seven days later).

The first three days Jonathan had spent running from Shadow squadron had been touch and go. They had hounded him mercilessly, never slowing nor being fooled by several feints he had orchestrated to lure them in the wrong direction. But then he had just made it to the hidden shift passage before they caught him. He had been able to slip his squadron into it and escape. Jonathan was sure the wily commander of Shadow squadron knew what he had done. But knowing there was a hidden shift passage and finding it were two different things.

Since then, almost a week had passed and Jonathan’s ships had carefully resumed their hunt for targets of opportunity. Twice they had encountered small Karacknid flotillas. Both had been easily dispatched. O’Kane and his two stealth cruisers had proven their worth once again. Two days ago, Jonathan had received word from O'Kane. He had discovered a large convoy heading north and was tracking it from behind. O’Kane had sent a fast courier to Jonathan with the news and a good estimation of the route the convoy was taking north.

Hammerclaw and Jonathan’s squadron now sat in an unnamed system, waiting for the convoy to arrive. Doubtless, the three thousand freighters in the convoy would be empty of supplies. Yet they would be on their way to Karacknid supply depots back within their borders to refill their cargo holds and bring additional supplies to Battlefleet Four. Jonathan much preferred hitting freighters full of war materials, but he wasn’t going to complain at this stage in his campaign. Especially as the convoy seemed to be less guarded than those that headed south. O’Kane reported just a hundred and fifty warships accompanied the freighters. Outnumbering them in both warships and fighters, Jonathan was confident he could defeat them if it came to a straight-up fight. Of course, he and O’Kane didn’t intend to make it that easy.

Six hours passed as Jonathan and his officers took turns waiting and watching for the convoy to appear. Jonathan doubted it had taken another route, but as the hours dragged on, he began to wonder. Then the waiting ended. Without warning, hundreds of contacts began to move into the system from its southern shift passage. Frigates, destroyers, and recon drones fanned out in a wide arc. Soon they were followed by thousands of freighters.

“Is it them?” Jonathan asked as he returned to the bridge from his quarters, alerted to the new arrivals by Iso.

“Exactly as O’Kane described,” Iso said.

“Any sign they are concerned about pursuit?” Jonathan followed up as he moved to his command chair.

Iso shook her head. “It looks like they have set a standard rearguard.” At the touch of a button, Iso zoomed in the holo display to show the warships and drones spread out behind the mass of freighters.

“And their heading?”

Iso zoomed out again. “Just as O’Kane predicted.” The image showed the convoy’s route through the system towards one of the system's two northerly heading shift passages. The route bisected the current projection of Jonathan’s squadron’s course. “At our current speed, we’ll reach missile range in three hours.”

Jonathan nodded. If everything went to plan, he’d be bringing his ships out of stealth and reducing that time considerably. He couldn’t do that yet, however, for he needed to wait for O’Kane. Though they hadn’t spoken in person as there hadn't been enough time for Jonathan to send a frigate back to O’Kane, he had come to trust O’Kane deeply. The young Captain had excellent instincts. Even though Jonathan hadn’t heard back from the stealth cruiser, he was certain O’Kane would do his part. Even if he hadn’t received Jonathan’s message, Jonathan suspected O’Kane would figure out what was happening and react accordingly.

When an hour had passed and the convoy had moved into the system enough, Jonathan turned to Rossi and gave her a nod. His COMs officer activated Hammerclaw’s laser COM array. The message took nine minutes to cross the system. Set to maximum dispersion, it flashed back and forth across a large area of space. It took six seconds before the message flashed across the antenna of the frigate Augustus. As soon as the frigate received the message though, it began to accelerate into the system from the edge of the shift passage it had been waiting beside. It only accelerated for three minutes before it suddenly came to a halt. Then it flipped end over end and accelerated back towards the system’s mass shadow. As soon as it crossed the mass shadow, it ceased accelerating. To every gravimetric sensor that had picked up the frigate, it looked like it had jumped back into shift space at the first sign of the Karacknid convoy.

Understandably, the convoy reacted with caution. Six frigates were dispatched towards the northeastern shift passage the frigate had just disappeared down, presumably to check and see if there was an Imperial raiding fleet coming their way. In precaution, the convoy also altered its heading away from that shift passage to another that would put it on a longer route north, but one that was likely to be much safer. More importantly, however, Nautilus and Icarus’s gravimetric sensors also detected the frigate and interpreted it for what it was; a signal for them to attack.

Fifteen minutes later, four torpedoes suddenly started accelerating, two each attacking a frigate from the convoy's rearguard. Before the torpedoes released their missiles, both Nautilus and Icarus momentarily appeared one after the other. They fired their laser and plasma cannons, blowing up several sensor drones. Then as quickly as they appeared, they disappeared, returning to stealth, and altering course. One of the frigates they targeted with torpedoes somehow managed to shoot down all the missiles that were fired at it. The other wasn’t so lucky and was blown apart when a densely packed antimatter missile penetrated through armor and hull plating to detonate.

The convoy reacted the only way it could, many of its warships turned to quickly strengthen the rearguard while frigates and recon drones swarmed the area. Nautilus and Icarus weren’t done yet, however. They both targeted and destroyed a light cruiser with six more torpedoes. Then they appeared several times at different locations as they popped out of stealth, destroyed more sensor drones, and then disappeared again. O’Kane’s final move was to release a wave of mimic drones that filled space all around where the two stealth cruisers were with false contacts.

Jonathan shared a look with Iso and they both grinned. “They can sure put on a good show when they want to,” he said, genuinely impressed both with the stealth cruisers and how O’Kane handled them. “Now it’s our turn. Take us in.”

Jonathan’s squadron leapt forward in response to his command. They also angled their noses more towards the convoy to close the time it would take to intercept the Karacknids. At the same time, all but one of the Hellcat squadrons launched from their carriers. None were full strength, and many of the pilots and fighters were drawn from the reserves the carriers had begun the campaign with. Yet compared to their enemy, they were a formidable force. Especially when over sixty of the convoy’s escorts were far too its rear searching for Nautilus and Icarus and so well out of position.

For twenty minutes, Hammerclaw and her consorts charged towards the convoy. Understandably, the Karacknid freighters quickly began to decelerate and turn away from both Nautilus and Icarus, and Jonathan’s squadron. Most of the Karacknid ships at the rear of the convoy desperately tried to catch up with those at the front, but Jonathan’s ships were too close and moving too fast. The Karacknid ships at the front of the convoy had no choice but to stand and face the coming onslaught if they wanted to prevent Jonathan from simply pouring salvos of missiles into the fleeing freighters.

“Firing now!” Harte called out.

From Jonathan’s two hundred and thirty-two warships, three thousand two hundred missiles were flung out of their tubes towards the convoy escorts. Ahead of them, one hundred and six Hellcats were already racing forward to strike just as the first missiles attacked the Karacknids. The Karacknid escorts responded with less than half the missile numbers Jonathan’s ships had fired.

“Three salvos and we’ll blow right through them,” Jonathan said confidently. “Then we pick off the others as they rush to confront us, then the convoy is ours.” He couldn’t hide the excitement from his voice. For once they were going to get to completely crush a convoy.

Fresh contact alarms ended his growing anticipation in an instant. Jonathan froze. Instinctively he knew what the alarms meant. Yet he didn’t want to turn towards the secondary holo display to see. There was no way it could be them. But deep in his gut, he knew. Grimacing and grinding his teeth together, he slowly turned. As his eyes settled on a host of new contacts entering the system, his hands tightened into fists. It was them. Right away he began to recognize some of their ships. Having seen them so many times now, he didn’t need Hammerclaw’s computer to identify them.

“It’s Shadow squadron!” Harte said in shock. “They are entering the system. They’re already turning to intercept us!”

“How?” Iso asked, her voice barely above a whisper, her hands also clenched tightly.

Jonathan shook his head. There was no way Shadow squadron could have followed them. Not after the hidden shift passage he had used. How? He asked himself, repeating Iso’s question. He wracked his brains trying to think. Weeks ago, Harte had suggested they had somehow got a tracking device attached to one of his ships' hulls. But every ship had been thoroughly checked. And even a tracking device wouldn’t allow them to follow him across multiple systems. There was simply no way they could have followed him. Which means they didn’t, Jonathan concluded as another thought came to him. They know their own convoy schedules. They know our MO by now. Shadow squadron’s commander is guessing where we will be next. Anticipating which convoys we will find and where we will try to intercept them.

Though it was hard to imagine an enemy commander being so competent, Jonathan could think of no other explanation. And he is highly motivated, Jonathan remembered. He had humiliated Shadow squadron when they had been escorting one of the first convoys he had attacked. They’ve been hunting us ever since, right on our heels. They are motivated and highly skilled!

“Commodore… Commodore,” Jonathan heard a voice saying loudly. Blinking rapidly, Jonathan gave himself a shake and turned to Iso. Relief flashed across her face. “Commodore, what orders do you have?”

Jonathan’s eyes flicked between the main holo display and the secondary one that showed Shadow squadron. The newcomers were several hours away from being able to bring his forces to battle. But he knew right away that if he lingered and allowed them to close, they would hound him all the way through the system and into the next. Sooner or later, they would get a lucky break and be able to close the gap, or worse, he would run into another Karacknid force and be trapped between them both. And if we stay and fight here, this convoy’s escorts will do whatever they can to draw things out, he was sure.

“We’re getting out of here,” Jonathan said, working hard to hide his disappointment and sense of failure. “We have no choice. We can’t let Shadow squadron near us, they will sacrifice themselves to get revenge. Pull the fleet back from the convoy at once. Head to the southwesterly shift passage. Signal O'Kane to join us.” Jonathan then stared at the convoy for a couple of seconds, assessing things. “And order our fighters to strike at the nearest freighters with their missiles. Forget about those warships.”

“At once, Commodore,” Iso said, her voice level and professional.

Jonathan knew well enough by now, though, to see the disappointment in her eyes. There was something more there as well. When he grasped what it was, Jonathan realized he felt it too; it was fear. Shadow squadron was good. And they were hell-bent on destroying his squadron. They will drive us into one of Battlefleet Four’s screening squadrons and get us slaughtered, a voice said in his head. Jonathan intended to do everything he could to prevent something like that from happening. But he could feel doubt building within him.

Enough! He said to himself in anger. You have a squadron to get out of here first, then you can feel sorry for yourself!

“Enemy missiles incoming,” Harte updated. “Ours are attacking too.”

Jonathan only half-watched the brief battle play out. His mind was still focused on Shadow squadron and, with a great deal of effort, he shifted his energies towards planning his escape, rather than ruing their sudden appearance. Only six enemy missiles from their first salvo, and four from their second, punched through his defensive fire. He lost three ships destroyed, and another was badly crippled. It had to be immediately abandoned, for there was not a second to spare assessing its damage to see if it could be salvaged.

The two salvos of Imperial missiles Harte fired at the convoy’s defenders destroyed twenty-seven of their ships, taking out nearly a third of their force. Jonathan knew if his fighters had joined the first salvo, that number might have been doubled. Instead, however, his Hellcats happily raced through the convoy's freighters. Two hundred and six were destroyed. A small percentage of the total Jonathan could have taken out, but it was better than nothing.

As the convoy’s escorts fell back to regroup with the rest of their warships, Jonathan’s squadron had already turned and was racing away towards the shift passage the convoy had entered the system from.

“Commodore,” Iso said, her voice full of concern. And as Jonathan turned to her, she gestured towards a secondary display. “Nautilus and Icarus are in trouble. I’m not sure they can make the rendezvous. Not before Shadow squadron will get there.”

Jonathan grimaced when he saw the situation. Both stealth cruisers were out of stealth and racing as fast as they could away from a handful of frigates and destroyers that were chasing them. The problem was, to stay out of missile range, O’Kane couldn’t turn towards the rendezvous point. Leave him, a voice in Jonathan’s mind said. He knew that’s what O’Kane would want. The stealth cruisers were used to operating on their own. If he ordered them to abandon making for the rendezvous point, there was a decent chance they could go into stealth and avoid their pursuers. But only a small chance, Jonathan admitted. Especially if Shadow squadron dispatched elements of its force to help hunt them down. Given how much damage he now knew O’Kane and the other stealth cruiser captains had caused over the last months, Jonathan understood the vigor with which the Karacknid escorts were pursuing the two stealth cruisers.

“I’m not going to leave him,” Jonathan said as he activated the holo display in his command chair. Quickly he began to trace out several course changes the two stealth cruisers needed to make. “Launch our reserve fighter squadron,” he ordered. “Send them against these three frigates. Then send these new headings to O’Kane. Instruct him to follow them. He’ll have to take on the nearest destroyer, but I’m sure he’s up to the task.”

“Aye, Commodore,” Rossi responded at once.

“But Commodore, what about our fighters, after the attack it will take some time for them to arrest their momentum and return to us.”

“It will,” Jonathan said solemnly. “We’re going to wait for them too. I’ll not send them out to their deaths. Not yet anyway. We still have some time on our side, we’re going to use it,” he said as his eyes flicked to the main display showing Shadow squadron. Helping O’Kane was going to delay his jump to shift space by about forty-five minutes. Shadow squadron still wouldn’t be able to bring him to battle, but it would be a close-run thing. And they’ll be right on our heels when we reach the next system, Jonathan knew, but could do nothing about. He wasn’t going to abandon Nautilus and Icarus.

Over the next hour, Jonathan’s orders worked exactly how he had imagined. Before his fighter squadron raced in to help the two stealth cruisers, O’Kane surprised his pursuers by turning and firing a salvo of torpedoes at one destroyer, taking it out. Doing so isolated the three frigates Jonathan had selected as targets for his fighters. Four attacked each frigate. Though only two were destroyed, it opened up enough of a gap for Nautilus and Icarus to turn towards the rendezvous point. They had to fight their way past the third frigate, and another destroyer that bravely tried to stop them, but both were taken out by more torpedoes.

Long before the stealth cruisers reached Hammerclaw, their pursuers turned back, not wanting to race into range of Jonathan’s squadron. Then as Jonathan’s fingers impatiently tapped on his command chair, everyone waited for the ten Hellcat fighters that had survived the attack on the frigates to return. The moment they landed, the squadron winked out of normal space as they ripped holes into shift space and disappeared. Just two hours behind them, Shadow squadron continued to accelerate as hard as it could, racing towards the revenge it sought. As soon as it could, it jumped into shift space too.

Chapter 33

I have it on good authority one should never underestimate a scorned woman. I cannot speak to the truth of this proverb, but military history teaches us never to underestimate a scorned enemy as well.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Hammerclaw, 1st May 2513 AD, (two days later).

Just an hour and a half after Hammerclaw exited shift space and rushed into the next system, Shadow squadron began to appear.

“They’ve made up half an hour on us in shift space,” Montgomery observed.

Jonathan nodded in concern. Shadow squadron numbered two hundred and thirty-six warships. They had no heavy cruisers, which made them slightly faster than his force in normal space. Somehow, they had found a way to best him in the race through shift space as well. What they lacked in heavy cruisers, they also made up for with a myriad of medium cruisers. “They are too close then. We can’t outrun them. We must try a different approach.”

For the two-day journey through shift space, Jonathan had been pouring over the sensor data of the unnamed system his squadron was now in. The only option he had been able to come up with was an old trick. But it was one he hoped would buy them enough breathing room to run to the next system.

“It’s a good thing we are already heading towards the gas giant then,” Iso said confidently. “You haven’t let us down yet, Commodore.”

Jonathan gave Iso a brief smile to show his thanks. Everyone’s mood had been down after having to abandon their attack on the convoy and flee before Shadow squadron. Yet Iso had worked hard to raise the rest of Jonathan’s officers' spirits. In truth, even his own. She was right though; they were far from beaten yet.

At present, he had his two hundred and twelve warships accelerating towards the system’s only gas giant. In addition to the shift passage he had entered the system from, three others led away from it. On his current heading, Jonathan could swing his squadron around the gas giant and come out on a trajectory towards any one of the three shift passages. Shadow squadron, therefore, had to follow him, for if it tried to head him off and rush to whichever shift passage it thought Jonathan might wish to go towards, he would simply boost around the gas giant and head towards a different one. This was the one advantage Jonathan had, and he had to use it.

For an hour and a half then, his squadron continued to accelerate as hard as it could into the system towards the gas giant. Shadow squadron followed closely behind, slowly gaining ground on Hammerclaw. As his squadron was grabbed by the gas giant’s gravity and they swung around it, Jonathan dove in closer to the gas giant, picked up more speed, and then broke away on a new heading. To the surprise of Shadow squadron’s commander, Hammerclaw wasn’t heading for any of the system’s shift passages.

Instead, her nose pointed towards a rocky world deeper within the system. Two small moons accompanied the planet’s rotation around the system's star. In low orbits, they crisscrossed back and forth with one another. One was covered in thick crusts of ice, while the other was a barren rocky.

Shadow squadron’s commander guessed what Jonathan had in mind immediately. It was a trick both Tanaka-lan and Jonathan’s father had used in the past. Detonate the ice moon, fill the rocky world’s orbit with shards of ice, and block a pursuer from following. In response, Shadow squadron altered its heading slightly, aiming to stay in a higher orbit around the rocky planet. It would lose them some time as they sought to follow Jonathan's slingshot maneuver around the planet, but within a couple of hours, their acceleration advantage meant they would be back on his tail.

That wasn’t Jonathan’s plan, however. As they neared the rocky planet, Hammerclaw’s laser COM array was flashed. “It’s from Nautilus,” Rossi informed them. “O’Kane reports everything is in place.”

“Then let’s begin,” Jonathan said. “Take us in closer, Harte, fire when ready.”

“Aye, Commodore,” Harte and Hammerclaw’s navigation officer said one after the other.

Led by Hammerclaw, Jonathan’s squadron angled to pass even closer to the rocky planet. Then Harte fired a half salvo of thermonuclear warheads at the ice moon. They detonated just as the Imperial warships flashed past the moon and began to curve around the rocky planet. The shards were hurled out behind Hammerclaw, yet Shadow’s squadron’s orbit meant they would be no threat to the Karacknid ships. Seconds later however, fresh explosions lit up the main holo display. These came from the planet's second moon. Deep within the moon, two hundred thermonuclear warheads detonated, shattering large sections of its surface, and flinging them out towards the approaching Karacknid warships.

Jonathan smiled at the sight. O’Kane had timed the explosion and the moon’s rotation perfectly. As soon as his squadron had entered the system, he had dispatched the two stealth cruisers to the rocky moon to make the preparations. While he had led Shadow squadron on a merry chase around the gas giant, as quickly as they could, they had drilled deep holes into the moon and placed their thermonuclear warheads.

Shadow squadron, not overly concerned by the trillions of ice shards, suddenly did have something to worry about. Scrambling, they flipped end over end and all began to decelerate. Then, as they analyzed the waves of incoming rock, they began to fire antimatter missiles to try and clear a path. At the same time, they angled up and over the rock chunks, seeking to break past them.

“Take us out on heading seven, four, three point one!” Jonathan called out the moment he saw what course the Karacknids had chosen.

Hammerclaw and the rest of his ships carried out another three-quarter rotation around the planet and then their maneuvering thrusters and engines began to boost them back up out of orbit. They settled on a course towards the system’s westerly most shift passage, almost in the exact opposite direction Shadow squadron was now heading. Jonathan shared a grin with Montgomery, Iso, and Harte. “That should buy some time.”

“At least three hours,” Harte said as he projected both squadrons' headings and estimated how long it would take Shadow squadron to reverse their momentum and head after Hammerclaw again.

“Send my thanks to O’Kane and tell him to catch us as quickly as he can,” Jonathan ordered next. O’Kane had almost certainly taken his two stealth cruisers away from the rocky planet to avoid getting hit by any debris. Yet no one could have predicted exactly where Jonathan would have taken his ships, and so O’Kane would inevitably be left behind. But Jonathan was confident he could catch up before Shadow squadron did.

“We’re being flashed by a laser COM again,” Rossi informed him. A moment later two dots appeared on the holo display moving in the direction of the system’s easternmost shift passage. “Captain O’Kane has acknowledged your orders, Commodore. He says he will meet us in the next system.”

“Very well,” Jonathan said with a nod. “To the next system we go, let’s see if we can’t find a way to give these guys the slip permanently this time.”

*

IS Hammerclaw, 2nd May 2513 AD, (one day later).

By the time they reached the next system a day later, Jonathan had settled on a simple strategy. The system had one of the smallest stars in The Wilds, and so it had a correspondingly small mass shadow. Throwing caution to the wind, Jonathan's ships jumped into the system and accelerated hard for the nearest shift passage. Luckily, there were no Karacknid patrols nearby and so they were able to run straight across it and hopefully jump right into shift space before Shadow squadron arrived. Shadow squadron’s commander would likely guess which shift passage they had gone to in order to disappear so quickly, but he wouldn’t be sure and would possibly even have to split his forces to keep up the pursuit.

One hour into the system, Jonathan was feeling confident. O’Kane had just jumped out of shift space and was quickly gaining on them. The several hundred recon drones they had sent out still hadn’t detected any sign of other Karacknid forces and his squadron was making good time. With little to do, he pulled up a map of the next system they were headed towards and began to think about how he could lose Shadow squadron once and for all.

He hadn’t looked at the map for more than five minutes when alarms blared. Instantly Jonathan forgot all about the next system. Hundreds of contacts were filling the main holo display.

“They’re coming from the northern shift passage,” Harte announced. “Four hundred and rising, they’re all angling to intercept us!”

“They’re five hours away from intercepting us,” Iso added a moment later. By the time she had finished speaking, the number had already grown to five hundred.

“It must be some kind of powerful patrolling squadron,” Jonathan said as his mind quickly tried to analyze the situation. With their momentum advantage, his squadron would still reach the nearest shift passage just before the Karacknids. They would be right behind him though. If they followed him into shift space, the chances were low he could get away. “What is the makeup of their force?”

“It looks like destroyers and frigates,” Harte responded.

“Still?” Jonathan asked in surprise. The number had now risen to eight hundred. Harte nodded his head, causing Jonathan to shake his. If they were just destroyers and frigates, they would have an even greater acceleration advantage over his squadron. They would almost certainly be able to catch him in the next system. But such a force was strange. He had never seen such a large force made up of just light ships. The only way the Karacknids would typically gather such a force would be if it was the screening elements of a much larger force. But all the Karacknid battlefleets were much further south than his squadron’s position. So what was going on?

Jonathan got his answer over the next thirty seconds as more and more Karacknid ships poured into the system. When the number rose above fifteen hundred, Harte said what Jonathan already feared was the case. “Starting to detect light and medium cruisers now,” Jonathan’s tactical Lieutenant reported. “They’re not moving to intercept us. They're heading towards the same shift passage.”

For another minute, Jonathan watched, his mouth opening wider and wider as the number of larger Karacknid ships rose. It passed ten thousand in those sixty seconds and didn’t appear to be slowing.

“What is going on?” Iso asked, echoing the confusion every officer felt.

Jonathan didn’t answer right away. His heart had sunk to the bottom of his command chair. He knew what he was looking at; the end of his father’s Empire, worse, the end of his species. “It is one final battlefleet,” he said in a whisper. “Tanaka-lan’s reserves. His best ships and commanders.”

“But the battlefleets, I thought they were his attack force?” Rossi asked, her head shaking as she and many others struggled to believe what their eyes were seeing.

Jonathan could easily picture Tanaka-lan’s plan in his mind. “The battlefleets will advance south and make contact with our forts. They will threaten as many of them as they can and force our fleet to spread our ships out to meet them all. Then, without warning, this fleet will arrive at the front line. They will strike at one of our forts, overwhelm the defenders and drive through our borders towards Earth. Tanaka-lan means to win this war with one deadly thrust against our capital.”

No one responded to Jonathan’s words. They were all still staring at the massive fleet that was appearing before them. Already its numbers had passed twenty thousand, matching the strength of the five battlefleets already heading south. “What can we do against such strength?” Harte asked in despair.

Though Jonathan was tempted to share Harte’s pessimism, his Lieutenant's question stirred something else within him. He knew exactly what needed to be done. For his species to have any hope, his father needed to be warned. Hammerclaw’s position so far north, close to the Karacknids' borders, meant it would take at least a couple of months for the fleet in front of him to reach his species’ forts. Probably more like three, Jonathan guessed, for they would have to stop to refuel several times, and probably would be more cautious the further south they went. That is Tanaka-lan’s plan, he expects his battlefleets to reach our forts in eight or nine weeks, they’ll then pin our forces in place, then this battlefleet will come and hit us where we are weakest.

And that is why their frigates are chasing us now. They don’t want any word of them getting back to our senior commanders. Taking a deep breath, Jonathan fought to steady his nerves and project as much calm and authority into his voice as possible. “We cannot outrun those frigates and destroyers moving to pursue us. Not south or west. Yet we must get news of this battlefleet back to the fleet. It is all that matters now. It is far more important than raiding a convoy or two. We must get to the nearest border fort with a FTL COM, which means we must head east. We are going to give Shadow squadron what they have been craving after all these weeks. Turn the fleet. I want maximum acceleration back towards the shift passage we just entered the system from.”

For a second, every officer stared at Jonathan, a mixture of emotions across their faces. Some were aghast. Some were still in shock at the ever-growing size of the Karacknid battlefleet. Fear began to set in on others, as they realized what Jonathan was asking of them. Taking his time, Jonathan looked around the bridge, meeting all their eyes, holding their gaze for several seconds. From the moment he had set out on his mission to raid Karacknid supply lines, one thing had been burning in the back of his mind: the desire for revenge for the capture and torture of his cousin. Now, something else pushed that aside. It filled his eyes; he had to get word to his father. He had to. There was no other choice. Everyone he loved would be killed otherwise. “We must do this,” he said to his officers, giving voice to what they already saw on his face.

Iso was the first to nod in understanding, then Montgomery. Harte and Rossi nodded a moment later, then all the bridge officers did as well. “Turning the fleet,” Iso responded. “Sounding the call for battle stations.” Her voice grew in ferocity as she continued. “We are going to tear Shadow squadron apart. They wanted to catch us, well they are going to get us, aren’t they!” she said as she turned to her subordinates. Clenched fists and stern nods met her words.

“Let’s get to it,” Jonathan said, adding urgency to his voice. “We need a battle plan, and quick!”

“What if they don’t reach the system before we jump out?” Harte asked as Iso began to turn the squadron around.

“They will,” Jonathan was sure. “But if they don’t, they’ll immediately jump after us and catch us at the next system. Either way, we need a plan to destroy them. We have to get past them, whatever it takes.”

Harte nodded. “Then we need our first salvo to be as deadly as possible. But we know they have some fighters; can we risk sending all of ours?”

Jonathan thought for a moment. “We send them all,” he decided. “Prepare our drone cruisers and frigates to move forward though. If they send their fighters after us, they will have to push ahead to confront them.”

“We’re going to have a pretty good idea where they’re going to come out of shift space,” Iso pointed out.

“What are you thinking?” Jonathan asked.

“We still have some Whirlwind mines and missiles. We could deploy them near the shift passage, then use them as a distraction. They wouldn’t have to be too accurate that way.”

Jonathan nodded, liking the idea. “See to it.”

“What about O’Kane, he is requesting orders?” Rossi asked from her COMs console.

Jonathan’s eyes widened. He had forgotten about the two stealth cruisers. A glance at the holo display told him they were slowing but were still about halfway between the shift passage and his squadron. Right away he knew what he needed them to do. If it wasn’t for the new Karacknid battlefleet, he would never ask it of him, but in the face of the threat the battlefleet posed, none of their lives mattered. “Patch me through to O’Kane,” he requested in a somber tone. Quickly he then explained to the stealth cruiser Captain what he needed from him.

“I understand, Commodore. We will do what must be done,” O’Kane replied. He gave Jonathan a sharp nod. “We will make sure you get word back to where it needs to go.”

“Thank you, and good luck, Captain,” Jonathan said. “Give them hell.”

O’Kane flashed Jonathan a brief grin. “That’s our specialty,” he said and then saluted.

Jonathan returned the salute and then the COM channel ended. He turned to Iso and Harte. “Well, what other ideas do you have?”

An hour later and they were ready. With the destroyers and frigates from the new Karacknid battlefleet still racing across the system after them, there was no time to spare. Jonathan knew he had to punch his way through Shadow squadron quickly and decisively. He had no doubt that the destroyers and frigates would continue to chase him, for the Karacknids would not want news of their strength reaching his father. He therefore had to win fast and keep moving to stay ahead of the battlefleets forces that were racing across the system after him.

The final number of Karacknid warships also gave fresh impetus to the burden Jonathan felt. The number of contacts hadn’t stopped rising until it reached forty-four thousand. On their own, they would perhaps be enough to punch through one of the border forts and strike deeper into Imperial space. Combined with one or two other battlefleets, and they would be an almost impossible to stop force. Especially if they take my father by surprise, Jonathan thought, not for the first time.

“We’re just ten minutes away from missile range of the system’s mass shadow,” Harte reported.

“Maybe we’ll be able to jump out without facing them,” Iso said. “Though then we’d have to take them on in the next system.”

“We shall soon see,” Jonathan replied. His gut told him Shadow squadron was about to appear any minute. The longer they took, however, the more surprised they were going to be.

Two minutes later, contact alarms began to go off. Shadow squadron had arrived! In just ten seconds, all two hundred and thirty-eight of their ships exited shift space. They then sat stationary for another half a minute, no doubt assessing the situation. Then they moved forward, accepting the battle Jonathan was offering them. Jonathan nodded even as his body tensed. With both of their squadrons charging right for one another, it was to be a duel to the death.

“Fighters moving forward,” Harte announced as all of Jonathan’s fighters boosted their engines to full and shot ahead of the squadron.

“Detecting fighter launches from Shadow squadron,” Iso reported moments later. She shared a glance with Jonathan. The Karacknid fighters were moving away from Shadow squadron, answering one question they had been wondering about. Shadow squadron's commander had no intention of using his fighters to try and fend off Jonathan’s. Instead, he was going to try and cause as much destruction with his first salvo as Jonathan hoped to do with his.

“Deploy our screening ships forward,” Jonathan ordered. He then glanced at Harte. “Fire when ready,” he said to his tactical officer.

As soon as both squadrons came into range, they rippled off salvos at one another. While Shadow squadron had the advantage in numbers, Jonathan had heavier warships amongst his squadron, meaning both salvos were similar in size. Five minutes after the first missiles were fired, both squadrons fired again. They would each get a third and final salvo before they slammed into energy weapon range and entered the final stage of the battle from which only one side would emerge the victor.

Before the third salvos were fired, however, the first salvos came into attack range. As his missiles began evasive maneuvers, the first of Jonathan's surprises began. Whirlwind missiles and mines, stationed to the left and right of where Shadow squadron emerged from shift space, exploded. They released tens of thousands of bomblets that were flung towards the Karacknid warships. Taken by surprise, the Karacknid gunners had to quickly shift their defensive fire to take out the stealth bomblets. Thousands were blasted apart. Thousands more sailed past Shadow squadron harmlessly. Even many of those that had been aimed at the squadron’s location flew through the Karacknid squadron’s formation without hitting anything. Some did, however, and just as Jonathan’s missile salvo entered range of the Karacknids' point defenses, small explosions peppered a handful of Karacknid ships, throwing off their aim and distracting others.

Just as the Karacknids desperately switched their fire back towards Jonathan’s missiles, the next surprise struck. Twelve torpedoes appeared and began to accelerate towards targets. Seconds later, four more were released. Then Nautilus and Icarus came out of stealth right in the heart of the Karacknid squadron’s formation. Plasma and laser cannons, and mass drivers slammed fire into nearby ships. Two medium cruisers were broken apart by tungsten spears while several other destroyers and light cruisers were badly damaged. Before the Karacknids could bring their energy weapons to bear, both stealth cruisers disappeared and released as many mimic drones as they had left.

Confusion reigned in the midst of the Karacknid squadron. Into it, Jonathan’s three thousand missiles raced. To their credit, Shadow squadron shot down many of them. But not all. Forty-seven raced through to strike at their targets. About half scored direct hits, causing catastrophic damage to the ships they hit. The rest scored proximity hits, some just burnt off armor and defensive weapons, others blasted into their targets, causing serious harm.

Shadow squadron’s formation finally fell completely apart under the onslaught as damaged and crippled ships spun away in many directions. Into the fray flew the Imperial Hellcat fighters. Nearly a third were shot down by defensive fire, but the rest got close enough to release their missiles. As another hundred and forty antimatter missiles raced in towards Karacknid warships, Nautilus and Icarus appeared again, blasting more Karacknid warships. Then, the Hellcats' missiles began to hit home. Thirty-nine scored direct or proximity hits. In just one attack, Shadow squadron lost nearly a third of its strength.

Jonathan’s squadron got off lightly in comparison, but was still badly savaged. First, the drone cruisers and Lancer frigates he had deployed forward engaged the enemy missiles, then they engaged the fighters Shadow squadron had launched. They scored many hits, but both waves of attackers pushed on to hit the bulk of Jonathan’s ships. Eighteen missiles punched through Jonathan’s ships' defensive fire, killing twelve of his ships. Then the real threat attacked. Seventy-two Karacknid fighters followed the missiles in, firing their particle cannons as fast as they could. All around Hammerclaw, explosions erupted as the super-accelerated particles slammed into shields, then armor, and then burst their way through the innards of the ships they hit.

Expecting at least one enemy fighter to target his heavy cruiser, Jonathan forced his body to relax, knowing it was better if he was about to be thrown around in his restraints. Though he expected it, when a particle beam did burst through Hammerclaw’s shield and smash against her valstronium armor, Jonathan was still taken by surprise. His restraints tightened around him even as he was flung forward and then backwards. Alarms blared. Power flickered off on the bridge, then back on again. Everyone looked around at each other, startled, checking to see if anyone was injured. Then voices joined the alarms as officers called to one another, working to assess the damage and get Hammerclaw back under control.

Within a minute, Jonathan knew the damage wasn’t critical. A single missile tube and several defensive weapons had been lost, but the beam had just scored a glancing blow, not penetrating deep into Hammerclaw’s internal structures. Other ships in his squadron hadn’t been so lucky, however. Thirty-seven ships had been destroyed or crippled by the Karacknid fighters before they had all been taken out. Jonathan just managed to get his ships back into a defensive formation and fired their third salvo when the Karacknids' second salvo reached them.

Once again missiles penetrated the Imperial ships’ defensive fire. This time twenty-one ships were destroyed or badly crippled. Jonathan’s second salvo took out thirty-nine enemy ships in return. Then both squadrons faced off against the final salvos fired by the ships that had survived the initial attacks. Antimatter explosions blossomed within Jonathan's squadron while bomb-pumped warheads fired deadly laser beams at the Karacknids. Both sides took more losses. Then the final duel began.

Before either squadron could reform, they crashed into one another. The Karacknid warships fired their laser cannons, while Imperial ships fired laser beams, plasma bolts, and tungsten spears. Hundreds of explosions erupted on both sides. Those that could, fired again as soon as their weapons reloaded. Then both squadrons were passing one another. Under Montgomery’s command, Hammerclaw spun around and fired what working weapons she had left at the rear of the Karacknids. Other Imperial ships did the same. Explosions marked the death of more enemy ships.

When the shooting stopped, Jonathan let out a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding. The squadrons had been in range of one another for just twenty seconds, yet it had been devastating for both sides. He had felt Hammerclaw be hit at least one more time. “Status report?” he requested as he swiveled his chair to face Iso, relieved to see that she looked unhurt and was tapping on her console. He had to repeat himself twice before she heard him over the alarms and voices of other officers.

“I’m not sure yet, Commodore,” Iso answered. “Some ships are reporting in, others aren’t responding.” She winced and gestured towards the main holo display as it came back on and showed Jonathan his squadron. “Your guess is as good as mine at the moment.”

Jonathan nodded, not wanting to press for information she didn’t have. Instead, he looked at the holo display and swallowed hard. His squadron had been ravaged. Wrecks of ships were floating dead in space. Many were being carried away from Hammerclaw by their momentum. Here and there, a few ships looked intact, but it was a rare sight. Almost all of those that were still working to keep in formation with the flagship showed signs of damage. Armor had been burnt off some, others had deep gashes along their flanks, a few even had deep holes gouged into them, debris and atmosphere still billowing from them out into space. Jonathan counted less than a hundred of them.

His heart ached at the death and destruction he saw before him. Yet as he turned his gaze to Shadow squadron, it was immediately clear they had fared far worse. Not a single Karacknid ship appeared intact. There were at least eighty contacts Hammerclaw was picking up, but hardly any of them appeared to be under power. Most were just wrecks. Something else caught his eye, however. It was another contact, but one that wasn’t a Karacknid ship. Nautilus! He realized as he struggled to recognize the stealth cruiser. She had lost her nose and had several deep rents ripped into her. She was not under power and was just drifting with the Karacknid wrecks. We would never have survived this without him! Jonathan was sure. “Iso, add another ship to your search and rescue operations,” he ordered as he reached out and highlighted the image of Nautilus. “Get shuttles to O’Kane’s cruiser and see if there are any survivors.”

Iso looked up from her console, confusion on her face. She glanced at the holo display and then back at Jonathan. “Right away, Commodore,” she responded.

It took half an hour for the four shuttles Iso dispatched to Nautilus to reach the stealth cruiser and return. Jonathan had so much else to focus on that he forgot about them. Though his ships passed the system’s mass shadow twenty-five minutes after the final energy weapon engagement, none jumped out. So many had to carry out repairs to their shift drives and shore up their structural integrity that Jonathan held off making the jump. Though the destroyers and frigates from the Karacknid battlefleet were still charging at him, he refused to leave any ship behind that could be repaired quickly. In the end, they had to abandon and scuttle twelve more ships, leaving him with just eighty-four left in his squadron. More than half his force had been destroyed in the battle, and hardly any that were left were fully battle-ready. But they would be able to make it into shift space, and that meant there was still a chance they could get their news back to Imperial space.

“I’ve just got word,” Iso said as she caught Jonathan’s eye, for the first time since the battle had begun, she had a small smile on her face. “The shuttles from Nautilus have returned. O’Kane was among the survivors.”

Jonathan nodded and smiled; it was a small relief, but a welcome one, nonetheless. On top of everything he was personally feeling, his heart went out to O’Kane. Jonathan could easily remember how he had felt when he had lost his first command; Achilles. O’Kane would be suffering in the same way. “What about Icarus?” He asked, promising himself he would speak to O’Kane later, right now he had to worry about his entire squadron.

Iso shook her head. “There has been no sign of her.”

“Very well,” Jonathan replied. “Are we ready?” Iso nodded. Jonathan’s eyes flicked to the Karacknid warships racing towards his position. “Jump us out,” he ordered. A moment later, Hammerclaw and what was left of Jonathan's squadron disappeared into shift space. Seconds after they did, Jonathan was already pulling up a star map of The Wilds. There was no way his force could face another battle, not without weeks to repair themselves. The only hope he had of getting his news to his father was to head east beyond Battlefleet five’s line of advance. Then he could turn south and race towards Omicron fort and its FTL COM array. I just hope we make it in time, he thought as he mentally pictured the course he would have to take his squadron upon. We must, he said to himself forcefully. We must!

Chapter 34

The Eaglaton species so often remind me of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Dealing with them is like stepping back into a myth. It makes them ferocious foes but also faithful friends.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Rattlesnake, Farvul’vian system, 16th May 2513 AD, (two weeks later).

“It’s hard to imagine we conquered this system once, even if only for a few weeks,” Captain Jones, Rattlesnake’s Captain, said as she puffed out her cheeks. “It looks impenetrable now.”

“It sure does,” Georgia said as she studied the defenses of the Farvul’vian system. The fleet base in orbit looked like it had been rebuilt to twice its original size. Several hundred large battleships orbited the world the fleet base was built around, and already Rattlesnake's sensors were detecting over two thousand warships.

The system had been the staging base for the Rasmorse’s attack on the Imperial fleet base of Bastion and the Gift. In her counterattack, Admiral Becket had attacked and taken the system, only to be pushed back by an Eaglaton fleet under the command of Vice Admiral Reverus. That had been just before her father had arrived with reinforcements and managed to initiate a ceasefire. It was strange to think all that had happened just four years ago. It felt to Georgia like a lifetime had passed since. As she recalled the ceasefire discussions, Georgia subconsciously rolled her shoulders and flexed her back muscles, her body remembering the explosion set off by the Silizzarus agent.

“I think they’ve seen us,” Rattlesnake’s tactical officer said. The holo display showed more than a hundred frigates, destroyers, and light cruisers racing towards Rattlesnake’s position.

Mere minutes ago, Rattlesnake had jumped out of shift space, moved a little way into the system, and then came to a complete stop. Though it was the least threatening way they could have entered the system, the nearby Rasmorse and Eaglaton ships were clearly not taking any chances. It was understandable. According to the ceasefire her father had worked out with Vice Admiral Reverus, all contact between their two species was to be undertaken by the two garrison squadrons each civilization had stationed at the two systems of Dudllias and Ulan’nagn. Technically, Rattlesnake’s unannounced incursion into one of the Rasmorse’s most important fleet bases could be interpreted as an act of war. That was a risk both Georgia and Jones had accepted when they had agreed to Admiral Becket’s orders that had sent them rushing here.

“Keep all weapons and targeting sensors powered down, no matter what they do,” Jones cautioned her officers. “COMs, transmit our recorded message.”

“Transmitting now, Captain,” the COMs officer responded as she began to send out the message Georgia had recorded, informing the Eaglaton forces that they came in peace, and requesting that she be allowed to speak to Vice Admiral Reverus or the senior Eaglaton commander in the system.

As Jones and the rest of Rattlesnake’s officers eyed the approaching Eaglaton and Rasmorse warships with unease, Georgia focused her attention further in system. She carefully scanned through the impressively long row of Eaglaton battleships. She smiled when she recognized one of them. Though they all looked very similar, she could tell the difference. Having been captured by Reverus and spent over a month on board his flagship, she could easily pick it out. Her shoulders dropped a little at the sight as some tension left her. The communications Reverus and her father had been exchanging over the last few years had indicated that Reverus often based himself in the Farvul’vian system, but she hadn’t been certain he would be here. One of her biggest worries during the journey from the Karacknid border system Becket had dispatched her from had been having to explain herself to another Eaglaton commander, or worse, a Rasmorse fleet officer.

But he is here, Georgia thought in relief. Now all we have to do is not get blown up before he learns I am on board Rattlesnake. Though Georgia had no idea how Reverus was going to respond to the news she brought, she was at least confident he wouldn’t execute her on sight. But do his subordinates know that? She asked herself as her eyes flicked back to the nearest ships rushing towards Rattlesnake. Their active sensors were bathing the frigate in targeting emissions and a host of recon drones were circling the frigate, fixing her location, and making sure she didn’t have any hidden reinforcements nearby.

“We’re being hailed,” Rattlesnake’s COMs officer announced. “It’s coming from this light cruiser here,” he added as he pointed to one of the larger ships closing with Rattlesnake. The light cruiser wasn't in missile range yet, but it wasn’t too far away. It already had its missile ports open and was clearly lining up a volley.

Jones turned to Georgia, “I think you should do the talking, Wing Commander. I’m happy to sit this one out.”

Georgia shook her head at the Captain she had come to know well over the last few weeks. Of course, he was happy to let her do the talking; that way, if they caused a diplomatic incident, she would get the blame. “Ever the optimist,” she said to him, then she nodded at Rattlesnake’s COM officer. A moment later, an image of a regal-looking avian alien appeared on the main holo display. Plush white, golden-tipped feathers lined the Eaglaton’s arms, neck, and head. The rest of its body was covered in a formal blue and gold uniform that reminded Georgia of the kind of grandiose uniforms worn by Human naval officers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. She had to suppress a smile at the image, for the Eaglaton’s appearance perfectly matched their demeanor.

Standing, Georgia bowed deeply to the Captain. “Please allow me to introduce myself and apologize for our uninvited intrusion into your space,” she said quickly. “I am Wing Commander Somerville, daughter to Emperor Somerville. I bring important news for Vice Admiral Reverus. I hope you can forgive our sudden appearance here, but I could not spare the time it would have taken to present myself to your forces at Dudllias and request permission to come and speak to Reverus.”

To Georgia’s relief, the Eaglaton Captain stood and at least gave her a nod of respect. Then it sat down again and considered her for several seconds before speaking. “You have violated the terms of our two species’ ceasefire, Wing Commander. I am well within my rights to destroy your ship.”

Georgia nodded. “I accept that, Captain. If you open fire on us, we will not return fire nor seek to defend ourselves. We have come here to throw ourselves upon your mercy.”

The Eaglaton’s beak parted slightly in what Georgia recognized as a smile. “It is clear you have spent some time with my people. We are known for our mercy.” The Captain then nodded decisively. “Very well. I am Captain Gesorntas, my ship is Swooping Death. We will not destroy you. Not yet at least. I will let Vice Admiral Reverus decide your fate. You may power your reactors back up and follow us into the inner system. Be warned, however, if there is any sign that you are activating your weapons or targeting sensors, we will destroy you without hesitation.”

Georgia bowed again to Gesorntas. “Your terms are more than fair, Captain. We accept.”

Without another word, Gesorntas cut the COM channel. His light cruiser then began to decelerate and turn back towards the fleet base. “We’re getting a heading to follow,” Rattlesnake’s COM officer reported.

“I suggest you follow it,” Georgia said as she smiled at Jones.

“Follow the instructions precisely,” Jones said to his navigation officer. “Let’s not give them any reason to open fire on us.” He turned back to Georgia and smiled. “It seems being the daughter of an Emperor has its perks after all.”

Georgia rolled her eyes and then joined Jones as they watched twelve other Eaglaton and Rasmorse warships begin to encircle Rattlesnake. As the frigate followed Swooping Death into the system, they formed an escort, or rather a guard, as every one of them had their active sensors and energy weapons trained on Rattlesnake.

Well, there’s no turning back now, Georgia said to herself as the warships closed in around their frigate.

*

Justice

The moment Rattlesnake entered into high orbit around Farvul’vian, an Eaglaton shuttle came to take Georgia to Justice, Reverus' flagship. Jones had tried to insist some of his officers, or better yet, marines, accompany her, but Georgia had declined. She had been a prisoner of Reverus for several months when the two civilizations had been at war. If he had treated her with the utmost respect and care then, she had no fears he would do anything less now.

As she had during her captivity, Georgia was once again impressed by everything she saw on Justice as the shuttle landed and she was escorted by a Flag Lieutenant through the warship to Reverus’ office. If anything, the warship’s systems and crew seemed even better maintained than those on an Imperial warship. They take great pride in their military prowess, no matter how much they speak of being a peace-loving species.

When the Flag Lieutenant stopped outside a large, ornately decorated hatch, Georgia knew they had reached Reverus' office. This was one area the Eaglatons differed from Humanity. Where an Imperial ship’s design and construction focused entirely on functionality, the Eaglatons saw their warships as works of art as much as they did machines of war. Reaching forward with a feathered hand, the Lieutenant lightly tapped the hatch’s control panel. It flashed green a second later. “The Vice Admiral will see you now, Wing Commander,” the Lieutenant said as she gave Georgia a half bow.

“Thank you for your kind welcome,” Georgia replied as she bowed as well, already feeling like she was overdoing it, yet also aware she needed to bend over backwards to win the Eaglatons over to her.

As she stepped into Reverus’ office, she couldn’t help but smile as she saw his familiar face. She then hastily bowed as low as she could. “Admiral Reverus,” she said formally. “Thank you for permitting my ship to enter your system and for allowing me to meet with you. You bestow a great honor.”

Reverus had already been standing, and to her surprise, he gave her as deep a bow. “It is you who honors me with this visit,” he said, his words just as surprising. “It is not often I get to meet the daughter of an Emperor, and to welcome one who saved my life aboard my flagship. Please, let me extend my gratitude to you once more.” Stepping around his desk, Reverus held out a taloned hand to her, offering her a handshake.

Georgia eagerly took it, her hopes for the meeting rising significantly. “Your warm welcome honors me.”

Reverus smiled. “It brings me joy to see you again, Wing Commander.” He gestured towards one of the seats in front of his desk. “Please, take a seat, I hope it is to your liking.”

Georgia sat down and had to wiggle a little to get comfortable, but then she looked up at Reverus and nodded. Reverus smiled again. “So, how are you? You look well. Have you fully recovered from your injuries? I haven’t seen you since I visited you in your father’s ship’s sick bay after the bombing.”

“I am fully recovered, thank you.”

“It is me who should be thanking you once again. I would be dead but for your swift actions,” Reverus said.

“Think nothing of it,” Georgia replied. “We have become friends. Friends protect one another.”

Reverus nodded slowly, his eyes telling Georgia he was assessing her words carefully. Then his expression changed again. “Tell me, how is your father and your family? I have enjoyed my correspondence with him over these last years. It is a pity we have not been able to meet in person again.”

“They are well, or at least they were the last time I spoke with them,” Georgia said, starting to realize she was entering a game of words with the Eaglaton. How much does he know about what is going on? She didn’t know, but she had a plan and tried to stick with it. “They are all busy, as I am sure you have heard by now, the Karacknid civil war ended nearly a year and a half ago now. I haven’t been on Earth for over a year myself, but when I left, every preparation was being made for war.”

“I had heard, from your father, and from my own scouts, though we have not detected any military buildup along Conclave space. It seems the Karacknids have no interest in attacking your allies.”

Now Georgia really started to wonder. If Reverus had scouts watching space between the Karacknid Empire and the Conclave space, did he know about Admiral Becket’s pre-emptive attack on the Karacknids? “At present, they do not appear to be planning such an invasion. However, it means they are likely amassing all their fleets along our border. The last I heard, over one hundred thousand warships were gathering opposite our planets. And at least another sixty thousand were preparing to attack the Mindus and Varanni Alliance.”

Reverus’ feathered eyebrows rose at Georgia’s words. “As many as that?” He asked but then nodded to himself. “Yes, I suppose it makes sense. Tanaka-lan has been keeping his full strength hidden. But to have that many ships he has probably forced the clans to all commit their fleets.”

He knows more than he’s letting on, Georgia was now sure. “In any case, there is perhaps even more important news that I came here to bring you first,” Georgia said, trying to redirect the conversation to where she wished to go.

“Indeed?” Reverus asked, “I would have thought such an invasion force amassing on your species' borders would have been your priority.”

“It rarely leaves my mind,” Georgia replied. “But I bring other information for you from my father. Information that could not have been transmitted via the normal lines of communication.”

Reverus leaned forward. “Now you have my attention, Wing Commander.”

“Only a few high-ranking fleet commanders and some of my father’s senior advisers know the full extent of what I have come to share with you,” Georgia explained. “Given the threat to both our civilizations, however, it was deemed you should be fully informed as well.”

“It was deemed?” Reverus repeated. “Does your father not know that you are here?”

Georgia’s lips pressed together, it seemed nothing was going to get by Reverus. “He does not,” she answered truthfully. “But I’m sure he would approve. Admiral Becket dispatched me here on her authority to tell you these things.”

“Very well, very well,” Reverus said more gently. “Then please tell me, I am eager to hear.”

Georgia smiled and then launched into sharing everything she knew. “It concerns the snake-like aliens, or the Silizzarus, as we have come to learn they are called. We know this because we have captured one of their ships and one of their agents.” Reverus’ eyebrows rose far higher than Georgia knew they could. She nodded, confirming what she said was true. “It was my brother actually who managed the deed. One of their ships entered one of our systems and then the Silizzarus agent infiltrated our colony. My brother intercepted the agent as it was on its way back to its ship and then with the help of our Kulrean friends, we captured its ship as well. I have with me a full breakdown of everything we have learned from interrogating the prisoner, examining its anatomy, and investigating the captured ship. To be honest, much of what I bring is just initial data, but you deserve to have access to it as much as we do.”

Pulling out her datapad, Georgia activated its holo display. She showed three images to Reverus; the alien ship, the alien itself, and an image of several vats with bodies floating in them. “As you can see, the alien ship had several fake humanoid bodies, including two of your own species. So, it seems all but certain that they have infiltrated your civilization as they have ours. My father is now certain that it is these clandestine aliens who are responsible for the false information that led to the war between our two civilizations.”

Reverus leaned in and studied the image of the bodies in vats closely. Georgia enlarged the image for him. His beak parted and a low growl rumbled from his throat. “It is as I feared then. Our investigations have not been conclusive, but they strongly pointed in this direction.” He shook his head as he sat back in his chair. “This brings great shame upon all my species’ leadership. We have caused much death and destruction needlessly.”

“We have both been fooled,” Georgia responded. “Blame lies with both of us. But that is in the past. It is the future that matters.”

Reverus nodded vigorously. “Indeed it does. So, tell me all that you have discovered.”

Georgia did. As much as she understood at least. During the journey from the Karacknid border, she had poured over all the biological and technical data Becket had given her. As best as she could, she explained what had been discovered and then shared the data directly with Reverus for his own analysts to go through.

“Well, I must say,” Reverus responded when he was finally done asking questions. “These are some significant revelations. And I’m sure there will be even more to come once your Kulrean friends decrypt some of the data cores they retrieved. I will personally make sure all this information is passed on to my senior commanders and my species’ leaders. I cannot make any promises, but I believe these will go a long way towards fully convincing them that our war was orchestrated by these Silizzarus.”

Georgia smiled as she was filled with relief. “I am glad to hear that.”

Reverus' expression then grew more serious as he leaned forward once again. “Now, as much as I appreciate all this, tell me the real reason why you are here?”

Instantly Georgia tensed. She didn’t speak for several long seconds. In a very human-like gesture, Reverus raised a single eyebrow at her. He then fixed her with a level gaze and waited. Georgia saw no other option but to dive in. She took a deep breath and came straight to it.

“I’ve come to ask for help. I didn’t tell you everything before. The most recent information I have from Earth is that the Karacknids were expected to have begun their advance towards our borders several months ago. It’s quite possible that they have already passed through an unclaimed area of space we call The Wilds and are assaulting the border forts we have constructed to defend our colonies. The truth is their numbers are even greater than we anticipated. We may not have the strength to stop them. I know our species have no formal defense agreements. Yet we face a common foe. You know that once they have conquered us and the Conclave species, the Karacknids will focus their full strength on you. For my species' sake, and our allies, and the fledgling friendship you have developed with my father and I, I ask you for help.”

Reverus clucked his beak together repeatedly for several seconds as he shook his head. “Of all the things I expected you to ask for, this was not one of them. But, you have already spoken of over one hundred and sixty thousand warships. In the face of such might, I can certainly understand your fear. The question is, what am I to do?” Sensing he was speaking to himself as much as to her, Georgia waited. After a few seconds, Reverus closed his eyes and tilted his head back. The feathers on both his hands ruffled several times.

Nearly a minute passed. Then his eyes suddenly shot open and fixed upon her once more. “My scouts and intelligence agents estimate your fleet's strength to be about forty thousand warships, is that correct?” Surprised at his accuracy, Georgia could only nod. “And with your various allies, that might rise up to one hundred thousand.” Georgia nodded again. “The problem is, you and your allies will be on the defensive. You have many systems on this side of your wormhole to defend, and all your worlds on the other. So the chances are very high that Tanaka-lan will be able to bring far superior numbers against a handful of targets. It seems he has chosen your species' worlds to be where he will strike the hardest.”

Reaching forward, Reverus tapped a few buttons on his desk’s console. An image appeared that Georgia quickly recognized as a star map showing the Farvul’vian system and several other nearby systems. “I have two thousand eight hundred warships here, along with another couple of thousand based at two smaller fleet bases nearby. If we pick up the garrison at Dudllias, that would give us another four hundred ships. It is hardly an armada. But it would be a vanguard. If I lose the entire force, it would only dent my combined strength in Rasmorse and Tolodon space. I could delay and gather more, but I imagine time is of the essence.” Again Reverus fixed Georgia with a piercing stare.

It took Georgia a moment to realize he was speaking to her again. She was still trying to comprehend what he had been saying. Was he actually contemplating saying yes? Giving herself a shake, she quickly nodded. “It may be that our forts have already come under attack, perhaps have even been breached. My information is over two months out of date.”

“Then time is of the essence,” Reverus said with a nod.

“So, you will help?” Georgia asked, her voice rising far higher than she intended.

Reverus smiled. “You’re offering me the opportunity to bring a fleet through your wormhole and through all your most highly protected systems, where I can get a good look at your fleets, your fortifications, and your industrial base. Then you give me a chance to fight the Karacknids and see their military capabilities with my own eyes. How can I say no to that? I imagine my superiors would happily trade five thousand ships for such intel.”

Georgia frowned and Reverus laughed. “Changing your mind, Wing Commander? Do you wish to rescind your request?”

Georgia shook her head vigorously. “Certainly not, Vice Admiral. I will accept whatever help you can give us. It will be most welcome. Even if you have ulterior motives.”

Reverus laughed again. “Do not worry, Georgia, I was only teasing you. Of course, I will help, for the sake of our friendship, for no other reason. I will not lie, those other reasons I just mentioned would be good enough motivation as well. More than any of those, however, is this; I hope helping you will go some way in making restitution for the war our civilizations fought. The Karacknids are a grave threat, of that there is no doubt. Though I am confident if, or when, the time comes that the full might of the Eaglaton Protectorate must face them we will be victorious. Nevertheless, I would much rather fight them now than see your civilization conquered and then have to confront them.”

Georgia smiled. “I do not know how to thank you, Vice Admiral. My species will be forever in your debt.”

“Let us see if my few thousand ships can make any difference first, Wing Commander,” Reverus responded. “He then tapped the data chip Georgia had given him earlier. “And if, as it seems very likely, the Silizzarus turn out to be an even greater enemy, then it is still my species who will owe yours a great debt.”

Georgia nodded, only half listening. She knew in the grand scheme of things, another four or five thousand ships was not a massive force, but it was more than Becket was bringing back to Earth. And if we can pull the Eaglatons into this war, then tens of thousands more could follow. Suddenly Georgia’s fear for her family lessened. We may not be defeated yet. But only if we arrive in time. “How soon do you think your ships can depart?” She asked without thinking.

“Your species is certainly forward,” Reverus said with a smile.

“I’m sorry,” Georgia said as her cheeks reddened. “I meant no offense.”

“You fear for your father and your loved ones,” Reverus said as he nodded. “I understand. I would too if I was in your situation.” He paused for a moment as he tapped on his desk’s console again. “It will take two weeks for the squadrons I have stationed nearby to join us. In that time, we should be able to load up the freighters we have here with as much supplies as they can carry.” He looked back up at Georgia. “I presume your people will be able to provide all the He3 fuel we will need?”

Georgia nodded. “We have large stockpiles that we’ve been building for many years. I’m sure we will be able to meet your needs easily.”

Reverus nodded. “Then that will make things simpler. So, say two weeks for my new squadrons to join us. Then we can head to Dudllias. We’ll probably have to pause there for a few days to make our final preparations, but then we can proceed on to your wormhole. I presume you will accompany us to ensure safe travel past your wormhole forts?”

Georgia was caught off guard by Reverus’ question. Of course, it made sense when he said it. Yet all along she had been thinking she would take Rattlesnake and head straight back to Earth and the frontline as soon as she was done speaking with Reverus. She desperately wanted to get back in a Hellcat and join in the fighting. But if he was going to be departing in two or three weeks, there was no time for her to send word to Bastion and have other ships or officers sent out to go with him. “I will accompany you,” she said with a nod. “Though when we get to the frontlines, I would very much like to find myself a Hellcat to take the fight to the Karacknids in.”

Reverus brought a feathered hand up and stroked his beak. “I seem to recall you did quite well in the simulators of our fighters when we allowed you to train with my pilots. Perhaps we could adapt a fighter to meet your needs. I know my Wing Commanders will certainly benefit from your experience fighting the Karacknids. You have just returned from an incursion into their space, have you not?”

Georgia shook her head at Reverus’ knowledge. It seemed he was much better informed than she had believed. “I will do everything I can to prepare your forces to face the Karacknids in the short time we have,” she promised. And if it means I have to fly an Eaglaton fighter into battle, then I’ll even do that, she begrudgingly accepted. As long as we are in time to actually play a part in the war!

Chapter 35

The system of border forts the Empire built in the interwar era was a colossal undertaking. The Empire’s planners rightly understood that in any future war, they would be on the defensive. Further, the forts did go a long way in negating the disadvantages a defender usually has in an intergalactic war. Yet they had one fatal weakness, a weakness that could see them become tombs rather than a bulwark against the enemy.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Victory, New Shanghai, 24th May 2513 AD, (eight days later).

James paused as he came to the end of his briefing. Before him were gathered over three hundred Admirals, Commodores, and senior Captains. All were crammed into Victory's largest briefing room. Alongside all those who were here in person, his words were also being transmitted to tens of thousands of officers across the New Shanghai system. He and several of his staff officers had given briefings on all that they had learned fighting the Karacknids in The Wilds over the last several months. “And so now you all know exactly what we face,” James said as he brought his address to a close. “Five battle fleets, over one hundred thousand warships. Soon they will reach our forts. They will probe our defenses and then strike with strength. Those who man our forts already are our first line of defense, but they cannot hold without us. We will move where we are needed and join those who face the fiercest fighting. Together then, we will either stand or fail. We will hold, or our defenses will be breached. Either we can beat back this tide that threatens to sweep over all of our colonies, or we will die in the trying.

“In this room and in this system, seventeen species are represented. All of our people face the same doom. From here on in, we cannot be separate fleets or squadrons. We must become more than allies. We must become one fighting unit, brothers and sisters who stand together, who will fight and die together. From this moment on then, we prepare for the greatest battles of our time. We will train like we have never trained before. We will become like the razor-sharp tip of a spear, ready to be thrust into the heart of Tanaka-lan’s battlefleets.

Pausing, James’ eyes swept over the officers gathered before him. Many he knew. Many he had trained personally over the previous decades. They all returned his gaze, jaws clenched and heads held high. Everyone knew what was at stake. Slowly James nodded. “A finer fleet has never been assembled. Those already at our forts and we here are the best of our species. We know our duty; duty to honor, duty to our people, and duty to ourselves. We have bloodied the Karacknids in The Wilds. Let us now prepare to finish them amidst our forts! I say, Death to our Enemies!” James bellowed. “What say you all?”

With one voice, James' officers repeated his cry. He added his own voice to theirs. “Death to our Enemies.” Then he repeated his words, joining in as the cry was taken up again. “Death to our Enemies!”

James looked out at his subordinates again, a smile on his face. Then he slowly nodded. “Let us be about it then! Dismissed.”

An explosion of noise and movement followed James’ final words as many started talking excitedly with one another and others stood to prepare to leave. James glanced at his Chief of Staff, Hawkins, and gestured for him to take over and organize everyone’s departure back to their ships, then he left the briefing room and retired to his office.

He smiled when he sat at his desk and found Fox already had a neat whiskey waiting for him. After taking a sip, he activated the desk's holo display. It projected an image of the fleet gathered around Victory. For several minutes, James lost himself as he took in the mass of ships. Twenty thousand four hundred and sixteen in total, the display told him. Some had been stationed at New Shanghai waiting for orders for over a month, many though had arrived in just the last couple of weeks. They represented the warships of every one of Humanity's allies. There were Kulrean worldships, Kalassai city ships, and fleets from the Varanni Alliance, Vestarians, Conclave species, and Mindus. All had come to New Shanghai in answer to his call for aid in response to Tanaka-lan's massive fleet build-up. Now they were here, ready to stand up to the Karacknids' attempts to conquer his worlds.

Over the last twenty years, every Navy represented in the image before him had adapted their organizational structure and command and control systems so they could all work together as one when necessary. Even so, many of the junior commanders had not fought with each other before, and so it was vital that James now forge them into one cohesive whole. He had little time to do it in, but if the response to his speech showed him the measure of his officers, they would be up to the task.

When the hatch into his office opened, James smiled at the first officer to step in. Once upon a time, Rear Admiral Anderson had been James' tactical officer during the Gayla campaign in the last months of the First Karacknid War. Now he was one of James' most accomplished fleet commanders. As other officers filtered in, their previous connection to James and the First Karacknid War became a theme. Rear Admiral Jourm, son of High Admiral Jourm who had fought alongside James in the first war, commanded half of the Varanni Alliance ships in formation around Victory. Admiral Maleck led the other half. He had been Ya'sia's Flag Captain in the first war and was now one of the Varanni Alliance's most senior commanders.

Fug-sal had been a Captain in the first war too. He, alongside James' niece Emilie, had been instrumental in bringing the Kalassai into the war. Just looking at Fug-sal hurt. James couldn't help thinking of Emilie. He didn't know whether she was dead or imprisoned in some Karacknid cell. One way or another though, he was certain she would have been tortured before the end if she wasn't still being tormented by her captors. The very thought of it made James' hands tighten into fists. With a great deal of effort, he tried to push his rage down and instead focus on Fug-sal. Now he was a full Admiral and had led fifty city-ships and four thousand other warships to New Shanghai.

Rear Admiral Tak’ar, son of the Vestarian president, entered next, and he was followed by Wing Commander Sato. Next to his daughter, Sato was James' most accomplished pilot and Wing Commander. Both brought more memories back for James.

Vice Admiral Galica gave James a serious nod when he entered. At the start of the last war, he had led the Mindus resistance against the Karacknids. Then he had been elected President after the liberation of their worlds. More recently, he had stepped aside to take up his military rank again as the Karacknid forces had begun to build up along the border. Galica’s daughter had been a talented astrophysicist who had worked closely with Scott to make several breakthroughs in the first war. Yet sadly, she had been killed. James could still see the loss on Galica's face and the desire for vengeance.

Next to enter was Vice Admiral Taladan, commander of the Conclave species fleet. A Gramrian like Admiral Shraw, he came highly recommended by Shraw, and so James had no doubts about his capabilities. He was speaking with Captain Farsa, the senior Kulrean Captain. In mindset, the two species couldn't have been further apart. The Gramrians were the apex predators of their world, and it showed both in their raptor-like physique and in their aggressiveness on the battlefield. In contrast, though he was one of the most open of his people, Farsa was still an ardent pacifist at heart. Despite their differences, though, they were both smiling as they spoke.

The last two to enter were Vice Admiral Fang and General Johnston. Both brought even more memories swirling up in James’ mind. He had first met Fang when he had been a Lieutenant in Georgia Gupta’s command staff. James couldn’t stop the sorrow Fang’s face conjured as he thought of his friend, now long gone, but far from forgotten.

A moment later, though, Johnston made him smile as the marine winked at him. “A fine gathering we have here,” he said. “If Tanaka-lan could see us now, our array of uniforms alone would blind him. That would make the next few months go a lot easier.”

James rolled his eyes. “Just because you marines don’t get any fancy dress uniforms. Now, come and sit beside me and behave.”

“Yes sir, Emperor sir,” Johnston said with a grin.

Ignoring him, James looked around at his senior commanders as they continued their conversations. Hope and sorrow filled him. These were among the greatest commanders he had. Once Scott, Ivanov, and Jimenez joined them, only Becket would be missing. Yet each face conjured so many memories and reminded him of the many losses he had suffered facing the Karacknids. And there will be so many more, so many of us here now will soon be added to that list, James couldn’t help thinking.

He let them all continue to talk for several minutes as Fox brought each a drink. Then he cleared his throat loudly. “Thank you all for coming,” he said as he stood. “Along with the commanders already at our forts, you are the ones who will be leading us into battle. I thought it best we get to spend a little time together before we depart for Pattel. Plus, I have just heard from Ivanov, Scott, and Jimenez.” With a tap on his desk, a map of The Wilds appeared. Three dots represented the fleets each commander led. “All three are in full retreat. The Karacknids are now pressing them with overwhelming forces. I doubt they’ll have a chance to counterattack or slip past the forces moving on them to strike elsewhere. I estimate the battlefleets will reach our forts sometime in the next two weeks. After that, it may only be a matter of days before the fighting begins.”

“Surely they will have to pause and take stock of their supply situation,” Farsa said. “By then their supply lines will be long indeed. And they will likely want to coordinate their attacks.”

“I imagine they will,” James replied. “But probing attacks could begin right away. And if they sense weakness, then one battlefleet may move against one of our forts. Especially if Tanaka-lan is there to command it. We must be ready to face them immediately if that occurs. That is why we will be moving out to Pattel in two days. We will have everything we need there to keep our fleet in supply and continue training together.”

Heads around James nodded. Pattel had an artificial shift passage that led to six of Humanity’s fourteen border forts. From those six, it was a short jump to most of the others. “If possible, I hope to counter every probing attack with a sizeable response. Tanaka-lan cannot know how powerful our reserve fleets are. If we can lead him to believe we are still holding back some considerable strength, he may delay his main push. The longer we can convince him to hold off, the better it is for us. We still have several squadrons that will be filtering in over the next couple of weeks and Admiral Becket cannot be more than six weeks away from returning to us. The longer we hold, the better it is for us. So, hold we must…

“Now, if any of you have any additional ideas about how we might accomplish this, I am all ears. This is meant to be an informal meeting, so let us get to know one another more and discuss how we envisage the next weeks playing out.”

Sitting back in his chair, James took another sip of his whiskey and let the conversation begin to flow around him. For the most part, he kept quiet, content to listen and watch his subordinates interact. Only Johnston said less than him. As head of the Marines stationed throughout Humanity’s frontier colonies, he was responsible for fending off any ground invasions the Karacknids might try. Taking a sip of his own whiskey, Johnston also sat back and winked at James, eliciting a smile. Though he had nothing to contribute to the discussion of the coming battles for the border forts, James was still reassured to have one of his oldest friends with him. Hopefully, he will not be needed in this war at all, James thought.

For a couple of hours, James let his friends talk among each other, and by the end of their time, they had developed several plans they wanted to try running their fleet through in the simulators. As they left, James shook each of their hands and was reminded once again of all the memories that each face represented.

By the end, only Johnston was left. “So, you will be shipping out in a couple of days then? At least I’ll finally be able to get back to some real work and go back to training my marines.”

“You mean you’re not going to miss having so many esteemed officers to mingle with on a daily basis?” James asked with a wry smile.

“Maybe one or two,” Johnston replied. “Or maybe just one. At least, I'm looking forward to seeing Becket when she passes through. Though I doubt she’ll have time to stop. It sounds like things will be pretty tense by the time she gets here.”

James nodded. “If only she was here already.”

“Aye, it would be good to know she was out there commanding one of your fleets. But I am sure she has a story to tell herself. I imagine she has set half the Karacknids' eastern colonies ablaze,” Johnston said. His face then changed. “That was a hard meeting. So many faces, so many memories.”

“And so many faces not there that should be,” James added. Johnston nodded slowly. A thought occurred to James. It wasn’t strictly professional, but at this point, do I care? He asked himself. “How about dinner tonight, before the fleet gets ready to leave? I can invite Rachel, Sofia, and Becca to join us. The five of us can have a final meal before I depart.”

Johnston smiled. “That sounds like a plan, Emperor.” Then he shook his head. “But the chances all three of them are free at the same time are likely zero.”

James was sure Johnston was right. His youngest daughter and Johnston’s oldest were both marines, as was Jonathan's girlfriend Becca. By chance, all were based in the New Shanghai system. He clapped his friend on the shoulder. “That’s the privilege of being Emperor. I was thinking I’d request their presence for a briefing. Their commanders would have to find someone else to cover their shifts.”

Johnston's smile turned into a grin. “I have no problem with a little nepotism.”

James nodded and turned towards an open hatch that led into his personal quarters. “Fox,” he called out loudly. A moment later, his steward’s face appeared. “You may make plans for an informal dinner tonight. Johnston and the girls will be joining us. Set a plate for yourself as well. This is a family get-together.”

Fox hesitated, but then broke into a smile. “Aye, Emperor, I’ll get right on it.”

“See you later then,” James said to Johnston as he shook his hand. As always, Johnston squeezed a little too tightly to remind James which one of them was a marine. Then he was left all by himself again. As he sat to finish his whiskey, James allowed memories to swirl around him once more.

*

IS Victory, Pattel system, 8th June 2513 AD, (fifteen days later).

“Welcome, Admiral,” James said as he moved towards the hatch into his office, his hand held out to the surprise visitor. Just three hours ago, two thousand warships of a strange design had entered the system. Though James had been warned of their approach a couple of weeks ago, he was still amazed that they had come.

“It is a pleasure to be here, Emperor Somerville, I presume?” The commander of the unexpected reinforcements said as he naturally took James’ hand.

“It is, and you are Admiral Dravans, whom Admiral Alvarez told me so much about?” James asked.

Dravans bowed low to James. “I am, and it is an honor to be here.”

“Well, you are most welcome, but I must say, we were shocked by your presence.” James quickly introduced Scott and Jimenez to Dravans. Four days ago, Ivanov had returned to Zeta Fort to resume her command of the system. Over the last couple of days, both Scott and Jimenez had also made it to Pattel. The three of them had been discussing strategy when Dravans' fleet had jumped into the system. “What on earth brings you here?” James asked when Dravans had shaken both commanders' hands.

Dravans smiled. “Admiral Alvarez, of course. She and your people saved my civilization from certain extinction. I told her then that we owed her, and that we would aid you in any way we could if it were ever needed. I received word from her several months ago that you expected the Karacknids full strength to come against you soon. So, here we are. I brought with me our latest and best ships, built using the designs and technologies she shared with us. I doubt they will match any of the impressive ships you have gathered here, but we will do our part.”

James shook his head in disbelief. Several years ago, Emilie had led a fleet far south of Humanity's colonies as she sought to hunt down the Flex-aor. In doing so, she had encountered the Camogodas, whom the Flex-aor were poised to cleanse. Displaying great strategic capability, Emilie had defeated the Flex-aor and killed their High Queen, hopefully putting a permanent end to that threat.

James had never expected anything more to come of it, however. Several trade fleets and diplomatic envoys had made their way south to establish some ties with the Camogodas. Christine had taken the lead on these endeavors, and from what James understood, they had gone very well. According to Emilie and the envoys, the Camogodas were a very social species who were as honorable as the Varanni but far more friendly. Yet being so far south, they had never factored into his strategic thinking when it came to facing the Karacknids.

“Well,” he said, genuine joy on his face and in his voice. “It is a pleasure to have you with us. If you wish to fight, then we certainly won’t stand in your way. To be honest, we need every ship we can get.”

Dravans nodded. “From what Emilie told me about your enemy, that is what I expected. Is she here by the way? I’d very much like to see her.”

James’ face darkened. Dravans' face changed as well. “She has perished in the fighting already?”

“We believe she was captured,” James said slowly, as fresh waves of pain washed over him. “She may have perished by now or may be being held as a prisoner. However, the Karacknids do not exchange prisoners. Usually, they execute their enemies on sight.”

Dravans hung his head for several seconds. Then he looked up and held James’ eyes. “I’m truly sorry to hear that, Emperor. She is highly treasured among my people. Now, we will fight to avenge her loss as much as we fight to return the aid your civilization has given us.”

“Then together, I’m sure we will make the Karacknids rue the day they took her from us,” James said fiercely. He then gestured towards a seat he had ordered brought in that he hoped would suit the alien. “Come and sit, and let me update you on the strategic situation. Then we can discuss how best to use you and your fleet.”

After Dravans got himself comfortable, James projected a map of The Wilds before his visitor. “As you can see, we have constructed fourteen fortified systems along our border facing the Karacknids. Spread across them, we have forty thousand warships adding strength to the orbital stations and fighters we have based in each fort. Each fort is connected to at least two others by artificial shift passages, and many of them also have artificial shift passages that lead back here. We also have two linchpin forts as we call them, Beta and Zeta Forts. They are further out from our borders but have artificial shift passages connecting them to four and five other forts respectively. We have large fleets stationed at both.

All these artificial passages, in conjunction with our shift gates and FTL COM arrays, mean we can rapidly move fleets from one fort to another or reinforce them from here. Though we are still at a disadvantage being on the defensive, this negates much of the attacker's advantage that usually comes with invading enemy systems.”

“I am well aware of the disadvantages of being on the defensive,” Dravans said as he nodded vigorously. “It was one of the problems we faced when the Flex-aor were approaching our borders. Too few ships to defend too many systems. This looks like a good plan, however.”

“It is the best we have been able to come up with in two and a half decades,” James replied. “But it is far from foolproof. Especially when our enemy comes at us with the numbers they have.” With a tap, James highlighted five systems north of the forts and seven dotted lines connecting the systems to nearby forts. “The Karacknids have moved five battlefleets through the open space between our territories. Currently, they have halted their advance in these five systems. From there, they can easily threaten seven of our forts. We have already begun to move squadrons from outlying forts to reinforce these, but if one of their battlefleets makes a move, it is we here who must go to confront them and turn them back.”

“And the symbols beside each battlefleet?” Dravans asked.

“Enemy fleet numbers and estimates of their strength,” James explained. “Each battlefleet has at least twenty thousand warships in it. We did what we could to reduce the enemy’s numbers as they advanced south, but they have many more ships than us.”

Dravans made a strange whistling noise. “Over a hundred thousand warships, against your sixty. Those are not good odds. If all five battlefleets attack at once, what would you do?”

“We would have to split our forces and defend each fort as best we could,” Scott answered. “I doubt we could hold all five, but we would give the Karacknids a very bloody nose. None of their fleets would be intact after such a battle.”

Dravans nodded. “And in a way, doing so would be foolish for the Karacknids. All they have to do is threaten some of your forts and then make one concentrated attack where you least expect it.”

“Which is the real challenge before us,” James agreed. “We cannot let the Karacknids pull our forces out of position. We must be ready to meet their main thrust when it comes. Yet if it comes and we do not recognize it for what it is, we may not have enough ships in the theatre to prevent a fort from being lost.”

Dravans made the same whistling noise, only a little quieter this time. “I do not envy your position, Emperor. Making such decisions when the fate of your civilization depends on them.”

James nodded but stopped himself from replying when he noticed Jimenez half turn away and pull out his COM unit. He quickly spun around and met Scott's gaze, then looked to James. “News, Admiral?” James asked.

“It’s your Chief of Staff,” Jimenez said. “He didn’t want to interrupt you, but we just got a message from Gamma Fort's FTL COM. They are under attack. Five thousand warships have entered the system and are engaging some of the fort's outer defenses.” Setting his COM unit onto James’ desk, Jimenez shared the data with the holo display. A moment later, Gamma Fort began to flash red. The image then zoomed in to show the Karacknid fleet.

As James studied the enemy, Jimenez's COM unit vibrated several times. He leaned forward, tapped on it, and then two more forts began to flash. “Epsilon and Theta Forts are coming under attack as well. Nearly five thousand ships in each enemy fleet too.”

James studied each enemy fleet for several seconds and then turned to Scott. “Well?”

“It is no coincidence they are happening at the same time. Tanaka-lan is testing us,” she responded. “Probing attacks designed to examine each fort's outer defenses and gauge our response.”

James nodded in agreement. “Fifteen hundred ships to each fort?”

“That should do it,” Scott said. “If they begin rapidly bringing in more squadrons, we can dispatch additional ships as needed.”

“Okay, see to it, Admiral,” James said. He then turned to Dravans, surprised that he could read the concern evident on the alien's face. “It has begun,” he said with as much confidence as he could muster. “Now we shall see if we are up to the task before us.”

Chapter 36

A naval officer must always be ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of the Empire. That is why we take the oaths we do when we enter the service of the Emperor. History teaches us our freedoms can only be preserved through the blood of those who will face our foes' wrath without flinching back.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Hammerclaw, Valhalla system, 13th June 2513 AD, (five days later).

When Hammerclaw jumped out of shift space into the Valhalla system, just forty-seven other ships arrived with her. Warily, Jonathan waited as his heavy cruiser’s passive sensors peered into the system. In the last few weeks, he had skirmished with three Karacknid patrol squadrons, losing nearly half his force in the process. All but three of his surviving warships had also suffered battle damage of one kind or another. He had no choice but to be cautious now. He was so close to reaching Omicron fort, but he couldn’t afford to fail at the last hurdle.

Despite the professionalism of his officers, groans filled the bridge seconds later when fifty-two contacts appeared on the holo display. Why? Jonathan asked himself as he fought back a groan of his own. They were just two systems away from Omicron fort. Why did another Karacknid squadron have to be in their way! And they're not going anywhere, Jonathan realized as he stared at the Karacknids’ heading. They were clearly patrolling the inner system, making sure nothing passed through without their knowledge.

From their course, Jonathan didn’t think the squadron was looking for his ships. It seemed their focus was on the system's southern shift passage. That told Jonathan the squadron was from the fifth Karacknid battlefleet. They were here to make sure no Allied fleets flanked Fifth Fleet from Omicron fort. Which means Fifth Fleet is probably already closing in on one of the forts to the west. Fear tingled down Jonathan's spine. It had already taken him much longer to get to where he was than he had anticipated. He had been forced to go days out of his way to avoid Karacknid squadrons, and the battles he had fought and the damage his ships had taken had slowed him down even further. What if we’re too late? He couldn’t help asking.

Then we are too late, he answered himself, accepting the fate before him. Too late or not, his duty was clear. He had to get to Omicron as fast as he could. The squadron in front of him was in his way. It would cost another two weeks at least if he reversed course and tried to go around them. And in all probability, the forts don’t have another week, let alone two.

“Prepare the squadron to enter the system,” Jonathan ordered calmly. When every officer on the bridge looked at him, he stared unblinkingly at the display. They all knew what his orders meant. More death was coming to their squadron, perhaps even to Hammerclaw. Yet there was no choice. After a few seconds, Jonathan looked down at Iso. “We will form a protective ring around our two fastest frigates, Argyll and Forrest. We’ll fight our way through this squadron and release both frigates to make a dash to the shift passage when we get close enough.”

Iso nodded, her face telling Jonathan she understood. The squadron's survival didn’t matter now, only getting their news to Omicron fort. Jonathan had hoped he could have done both. Perhaps some of their ships would make it with Argyll and Forrest. It was unlikely Hammerclaw would be one of them, however, for she would be one of the first targets the Karacknids would focus on. “I will inform the squadron,” Iso said solemnly.

Jonathan held her gaze for a second and then looked down at his command chair's console and began to work out a heading for the squadron to take into the system. The one advantage he had was that the Karacknids weren’t looking his way. With luck, he’d be able to sneak his way into the system a good bit before they spotted him. If his ships had been fresh out of a construction yard, he might even have been able to sneak past them entirely. However, with the damage they had taken, none of his ships' stealth capabilities were anything like they had been on the day his squadron had left the Zeta Fort to begin their raiding campaign.

“Let’s try this,” Jonathan said to Iso after sending her the course.

He then turned to O’Kane. Jonathan had given the stealth cruiser Captain a command chair on Hammerclaw’s bridge. Though O’Kane sat stiffly on it, clearly uncomfortable on the bridge of a ship he didn't command. The fact that he was missing an arm, having had it amputated after being rescued from Nautilus’s wreck, didn’t help either. Whether from lingering pain, or just subconsciously, he leaned over towards his injured side. Even so, O’Kane had proved his worth more than once, giving good tactical advice in the several battles Jonathan had fought since Nautilus' loss.

“I’m sorry it’s come to this,” he said quietly to the Captain he had quickly come to view as a kindred spirit. “I was hoping we'd get you back to Omicron for some proper medical attention, and then find you another ship.”

O’Kane smiled weakly. “Don’t worry about me, as long as we get these frigates through, I’ll be a happy man.”

Jonathan nodded, feeling much the same. Though his mind did turn to Becca as it had done often over their mad dash south. Though they both knew the chances of surviving the war were slim, he hated the idea of causing her the pain he knew she would feel when she learnt of his death. Yet he also knew that if he failed to get his warning to his father, the chances were very high New Shanghai would be conquered soon after the forts were breached. Either I grieve you or I lose you, Jonathan thought towards her, hoping she would understand.

With an effort, Jonathan dismissed thoughts of Becca and anything else that might distract him. Instead, he focused on getting past the Karacknid forces in front of him. For two hours he worked his way into the system, changing course slightly here and there as he responded to the patrol pattern the Karacknid squadron was on. He also instructed Iso to deploy the last of the active sensor drones they had left. In the end, though, the inevitable came. The first sign they got that they were detected was when an enemy recon drone suddenly went active. Its engines blazed and its active sensors began to fill space around three light cruisers with electromagnetic energy. Within seconds, two others joined it and moments later, one of the light cruisers signaled to say its limited stealth capabilities were very likely breached.

“Take us out of stealth, maximum acceleration,” Jonathan ordered before the Karacknid warships could react. “Activate the drones as well.”

Suddenly two squadrons appeared on the Karacknids’ gravimetric sensors. Hammerclaw and Jonathan’s ships on one side of the system, and another fifty-seven contacts on the other. Both went to full acceleration and set course for the system’s southern shift passage. The Karacknids couldn’t hope to catch both and had to choose. Though it wasn’t the hardest decision, their drones having got a hard return off Jonathan’s light cruisers, the Karacknid commander still delayed. Twenty stealth drones went active and raced towards Jonathan's drones to try and figure out if they were real too. Five minutes later, the Karacknid squadron turned onto an intercept course with Hammerclaw, they had got their answer.

“Well, five minutes is better than nothing,” Montgomery commented. “How does it look?” He asked as he turned to Harte.

Harte projected forward both squadrons' courses. “They’ll get four missile salvos. Then we can jump out.”

Jonathan kept his face expressionless. As he glanced at Montgomery, Iso, and O’Kane, they were doing the same, telling him they all knew it. Four was simply asking too much of his damaged ships. They couldn’t take that many; some might make it through, but not many were going to survive. Sensing what was coming next, Jonathan held up a hand as he fixed Iso with a level stare. “I have led us throughout this campaign, it is my decisions that have brought us here. We will all face this threat together; the only ships being given extra protection are Argyll and Forrest. I will not risk them to try and protect myself, no matter whose son I am.” Jonathan held Iso’s stare. Then he raised his eyebrows when she didn’t respond. Slowly, she nodded. “Good,” Jonathan said. letting her know he didn’t want it discussed further. “Then let’s prepare to fight.”

It took another hour and a half to move into missile range with the Karacknids. Jonathan was tempted to try a couple of maneuvers to outfox the enemy commander. Yet, it was too risky. If he tried something and the Karacknids didn’t fall for it, all he would end up doing was lengthening the time the Karacknids would have to fire salvos at his ships. All he could do, therefore, was launch the twenty-seven fighters he had left and push his last drone cruisers and Lancer frigates towards the enemy.

“Missiles away,” Harte announced the second they came into range. Alerts blared seconds later to show the Karacknids had opened fire too.

James swallowed when he saw the two missile salvos. Many of his ships, like Hammerclaw, had lost missile tubes in previous battles. Together, his squadron had fired just five hundred and forty missiles. The Karacknids were able to put out six hundred and twenty-two. Two more salvos were fired by both sides and then the first salvos approached their targets.

Thankfully, the Karacknids didn’t seem to have any fighters. If they did, Jonathan wasn’t sure any of his squadron would have survived the first salvo. Without having to engage any enemy fighters, Jonathan’s were free to tear into the Karacknid missiles. They shot down forty-three missiles. Then the screening ships Jonathan had pushed towards the enemy squadron engaged the missiles too. Though he felt horrible for wishing it, Jonathan willed the enemy missiles to take out his screening ships. They didn’t, however, ignoring them, they raced through the screening ships' fire and closed with Jonathan’s main formation.

Both sets of missiles struck their targets at almost the same time. Jonathan couldn’t fight back the fear that welled up within him as his gunners fired and missed so many of the enemy’s missiles. Then, antimatter blooms began to erupt amongst his ships. Hammerclaw was buffeted as antimatter from a proximity hit battered down her shield. Alarms blared as armor and sensors were burnt away. Many other ships fared far worse. A total of thirty-two missiles punched through the Imperial squadron’s defenses. Eighteen scored direct hits. All but two Imperial ships struck were blasted into wrecks by the antimatter. Seven missiles missed their targets altogether while the remaining seven scored proximity hits, badly damaging two ships and causing more superficial damage on five more.

Ignoring the enemy fleet, Jonathan’s eyes peered at the main display in dismay as he watched the explosions erupt amongst his ships. His first concern was Argyll and Forrest. He felt a sliver of relief when he saw they were both intact. Yet as Hammerclaw’s sensors detected and displayed the ships that had been hit, his heart clenched up. Nearly a third of his force was gone or crippled and falling out of formation. Thousands more people had just died under his command. In fear, Jonathan sought out the two full-strength Karacknid salvos that were still on their way towards his ships. Even if the Karacknids didn’t fire a fourth, he knew it was over. His squadron was done for.

In resignation, Jonathan finally turned to the Karacknid squadron. It looked like he had taken out nine or ten of their ships. Yet it was nowhere near enough. His body deflated in defeat as he waited for them to fire their final salvo. Time seemed to slow as he waited the final launches that would seal the death of his squadron.

Yet, the missiles didn’t come. Instead, twin explosions erupted at the heart of the Karacknid squadron. Startled, Jonathan sat up in his command chair. Right in front of his eyes, the two Karacknid heavy cruisers at the center of their formation ignited into giant fireballs. The Karacknid formation was instantly disrupted as every nearby ship dived away from the destruction. Wide-eyed, Jonathan looked down from the display to Iso and Harte. Had his eyes deceived him? He fought down the hope that was threatening to soar within him. What had happened?

He didn’t need to voice his question; it was written across his face. Iso and Harte were asking the same thing. “New contacts!” Harte shouted out when he finally spotted what was happening. “Right on the system’s mass shadow. They just jumped in. Look!” He said as he turned the view of the holo display. “They’re ours!” He said in shock.

If Jonathan’s eyes could have widened further, they would have. Right in front of his squadron, right at the point he was racing towards, two hundred and forty ships were moving into the system. Even as Hammerclaw’s sensors started to identify them, two hundred smaller contacts raced ahead of the larger ships. Fighters, Jonathan instantly knew. They were racing towards his ships. They are going to intercept the Karacknids’ missiles! A moment later, Jonathan’s eyes were drawn to the two largest ships in the Imperial squadron as they flashed, Hammerclaw’s sensors detecting energy spikes. Instantly, two more Karacknid ships detonated. “Striker dreadnoughts,” Jonathan said. “Striker dreadnoughts with phase cannons!” He repeated, breaking into a grin.

Then the newcomers released their own salvo. Four thousand two hundred missiles were accelerated out of their tubes and then their engines kicked in pushing them towards the Karacknids. With the Karacknid squadron already damaged from Jonathan’s salvo and the dreadnoughts' phase cannons, and their formation in tatters, Jonathan knew the new salvo would finish them.

“Forget about firing again, we need to focus on ourselves now,” Jonathan ordered as his eyes were drawn back to the two enemy salvos that were still closing with Hammerclaw. His squadron was still in serious danger. “I want as many ships to make it through this as possible,” he said fiercely. As the missiles raced in, however, it was quickly apparent Jonathan wasn’t going to get his way.

Only the two hundred fighters from the newcomers were able to assist Jonathan’s ships fend off the second Karacknid salvo. They reached the Karacknid missiles in time to engage them with their anti-fighter missiles and plasma cannons. Three hundred and ninety-six missiles were destroyed. Then, Jonathan’s fighters and screening ships took their turn to whittle down the incoming salvo’s strength. Still, over two hundred missiles rushed to assault Hammerclaw and her consorts. As they did, many ships moved in close to Jonathan’s flagship, forming a wall of valstronium-clad warships around Hammerclaw.

When Jonathan saw Argyll and Forrest amongst the ships, he swung around to Iso, about to demand to know what she was doing. She was ready for him, a stern expression on her face. “I’ve already transmitted all the data we have on the new Karacknid battlefleet to those two dreadnoughts,” she said forcefully. “If we all die here, they can bring the news back to your father. Our mission is complete, now my priority is to get you to safety.” From the look in her eyes and the tone of her voice, Jonathan knew she had no intention of debating her decision.

In exasperation, Jonathan breathed out heavily. It came out more like a grunt. He wanted to order Iso to return the squadron to its previous formation. He didn’t want other ships dying in his place. Yet he knew she would refuse. If he gave the order, it would only end up with her being court-martialed. If they even survived. And then my father would intervene and insist she had done the right thing anyway! With another grunt, Jonathan turned back to the holo display, his fists clenched. Knowing he was about to see others die so he could live.

Unblinkingly, he forced himself to watch as nine missiles penetrated his squadron’s defensive fire. Six scored proximity hits, damaging several ships, including Hammerclaw. With her shields already gone antimatter smashed into the heavy cruiser. Valstronium armor was burnt away. Enough antimatter remained to slam into internal bulkheads and decks, vaporizing them in deadly explosions.

Even as he was thrown around in his command chair, Jonathan saw two other ships disappear as they were struck as well. A medium cruiser vanished in an antimatter bloom while a frigate was also consumed. Jonathan shook his head in dismay when he saw it was Argyll. She had placed herself right between Hammerclaw and the incoming missiles. "That would have been us," he hissed even as alarms blared all around him. Rationally, he knew one more missile would have probably finished off Hammerclaw. The loss of a heavy cruiser and her crew was far more significant than a frigate. Yet he couldn’t help feeling it should have been him, not Argyll’s crew!

It may still be us soon enough, he thought as his anger began to turn to despair. Another two salvos were still coming his squadron’s way, the beleaguered Karacknids having managed to fire for a fourth time. He could see less than twenty of his ships left on the holo display now. And from the alarm in the voices shouting all around him, he sensed Hammerclaw had been badly wounded. But at least we got word of the new battlefleet out!

“They are engaging the next enemy salvo!” Harte called out loudly. Jonathan only heard a few words over the din that had consumed the bridge. “The Imperial squadron, it’s close enough to engage the next salvo!” Harte repeated as he waved towards Jonathan and Iso, trying to get their attention.

Only by changing the view on the main display to show the next Karacknid salvo did Harte let Jonathan know what was happening. All the destroyers and frigates from the new Imperial squadron had raced ahead and were now taking out the Karacknids third salvo. The fighters then joined the fray and every single missile was shot down. Jonathan was filled with relief. “Forget about reorganizing the squadron,” he immediately said to Iso. “Focus on rescuing as many of our people as we can.”

“Aye, Commodore,” Iso said. Her face was covered in sweat, but a fresh determination filled her.

We have lost so many, Jonathan thought as he looked to a secondary display that was still showing his squadron. He grimaced when he saw Hammerclaw through the eyes of a nearby frigate's sensors. A massive hole had been blown into her starboard side. At least four missile tubes were gone, and he could see internal decks wide open to space. It’s a wonder we have held together.

Jonathan turned to Montgomery, wanting to say something to his Flag Captain, but he was so engrossed in commanding his own officers that Jonathan held his tongue. There was nothing he could do to help, and so he left Montgomery to it. Instead, he joined Iso as they coordinated all the rescue shuttles. He only paused a few times to watch his third salvo strike the Karacknids and then the new Imperial squadron’s first salvo finish them off. He nodded in approval as every single Karacknid ship was blown apart, but then dismissed them and returned to saving as many of his people as he could.

Shuttles from the newcomers' frigates and destroyers eventually joined them as well, and every ship crippled by the Karacknids' two salvos was searched, with survivors taken off. Only when the last shuttle disengaged from the last crippled ship to be searched did Jonathan sit back in his command chair. He closed his eyes for several seconds, rubbing them, and then took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Thousands more of his people were dead, almost as many were still unaccounted for, but they had done what they could to rescue the living. The crippled ships that weren't complete wrecks could be towed back to Omicron fort, the rest would have to be destroyed. But at least no more of his people were going to die.

When he opened his eyes, he found Rossi staring at him. “Sorry to intrude, Commodore, but Commodore Matthews is waiting to speak to you. I’ve been holding him off while you oversaw the rescue operations, but he is keen to speak with you.”

Jonathan took another breath to collect his thoughts and then nodded. “Put him through then.”

Compared to Jonathan and his haggard officers, the image that appeared of a Commodore in a finely pressed uniform surrounded by a pristine and well-organized bridge couldn’t have been a starker contrast. The concern and respect in the Commodore’s eyes stopped Jonathan from feeling too embarrassed. “Commodore Somerville, I’m glad we were in the vicinity and able to come to your aid. When my scouts came back and reported your squadron was trying to race across the system, I thought you were trying to commit suicide. But given the news of this new battlefleet, I understand your urgency.”

Jonathan nodded. “We have been doing our best to get past the many screening squadrons the Karacknids have spread out across The Wilds. I thought we were about to fail at the last hurdle until you arrived. We owe you a great deal of thanks, Commodore Matthews.”

“And I'm just happy we were able to come to your aid in time,” Matthews responded. “The other five Karacknid battlefleets have already reached our forts. I am tasked with patrolling the approaches to Omicron fort in case a powerful force tries to surprise us.”

Jonathan’s concern grew at Matthews’ words. “If the battlefleets are already attacking our forts, then the sixth battlefleet may be close to joining them. We must get word back to my father as soon as possible.”

“Just what I was thinking,” Matthews responded. “Which is why I would like you to join me on Constantinople. We can then head back to Omicron immediately.”

“Leave Hammerclaw?” Jonathan said, his eyebrows furrowing.

Matthews nodded. “I know it wouldn’t be your first choice, but from what I can see, Hammerclaw won’t be making the jump to shift space anytime soon. Nor will many of your other ships. I’m going to detach a powerful squadron to continue to aid them and escort them back to Omicron. But I need to leave now with your report. I also don’t want to leave you here in case another Karacknid force does arrive…” Matthews hesitated for a second and then shrugged. “You are the Imperial heir after all. I doubt your parents would forgive me if I left you here and something happened to you. You should come with me and deliver your news to your father yourself.”

Jonathan shook his head. He wasn’t going to leave his squadron now. His eyes flicked to Iso when she cleared her throat loudly. The look on her face told him what she thought. “You need to go,” another voice said. Montgomery was also staring at Jonathan. “You can’t help us with our repairs, and we can’t protect you if we come under attack again. Someone who has seen the battlefleet needs to go to Omicron. Your father may have questions. It needs to be you.”

Jonathan wanted to argue. So many had lost their lives trying to get to Omicron fort. Less than ten percent of the squadron he had started his raiding campaign with were left. The last thing he wanted to do was leave the few survivors he had left behind. Another voice spoke up and forced his hand. “This war is far from over, Commodore. There is much more you will be called upon to do. We cannot live in the past,” O’Kane said, almost repeating verbatim what Jonathan had said to him after the loss of Nautilus.

Reluctantly, Jonathan nodded. “Very well, I will accompany you to Omicron.” But if Hammerclaw and my ships aren’t close behind me, I’m coming back for them, he promised himself. And I hope we get this intel to you in time, father, he thought as he imagined the horror his father would feel when he learned just how many additional warships Tanaka-lan had.

Chapter 37

History teaches us that numbers do not win a war, at least not always, but often, they do.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Victory, Pattel system, 14th June 2513 AD, (one day later).

“Emperor, we’re getting a priority one FTL communication from Omicron fort. It’s still coming through, but it’s from Jonathan,” Hawkins' voice informed James over his COM unit.

James jumped to his feet. “I’ll come to the bridge,” he said, his voice far calmer than he felt. Inside, a whirlwind of emotions assaulted him. It had been months since he had last heard from his son. Every day since James had thought of him, and every day he had to fight back the worry that gnawed away at his insides. But he is alive, James thought in hope. He must be if the message is from him. Yet, he couldn’t quite bring himself to believe it. There was every chance the message was from his son, yes, but it may have been carried to Omicron fort by another ship. One that had been given the message before his son had been killed.

There was only one way to find out, and so James strode quickly from his quarters onto the bridge. “Send it to my command chair,” he requested as he met Hawkins' eyes and then moved to sit.

James scanned the first few lines and then paused. He brought a hand up and rubbed his temple. Jonathan was alive! The message was from Jonathan who was at Omicron fort. Then why is it priority one? James wondered as his joy ebbed. Priority one was only meant for emergency communications of the utmost importance. He doubted Omicron fort had come under attack itself, for it was far from the forts Tanaka-lan was engaging with his probing forces. More curious than concerned, James looked back down at the report and began to scan through it. His concern quickly grew.

When he was just halfway done, he stopped and looked up at Hawkins. His Chief of Staff had a haunted expression on his face. James felt something closer to horror. How? He asked himself. Everything they had done had just been wiped out in a matter of seconds. With the time he had bought by confronting the Karacknids in The Wild, his allies had managed to gather a powerful fleet to face Tanaka-lan’s battlefleet. James had been far from confident of victory, but he had felt they had a chance to hold the Karacknids at the border forts. But now, that chance was gone, along with all of James’ hopes. Forty-five thousand warships, two more battlefleet's worth! What hope do we have against such numbers, against such brutality?

James’ mind was filled with a vision of hordes of Karacknid warships bursting through his forts and overwhelming every colony of his Empire. Once Humanity had been conquered, then Tanaka-lan would turn his sights on the Mindus and then the species of the Varanni Alliance. His forces would spill over like a river bursting its banks and cover everywhere until there was no opposition left to his rule. He will have complete dominion. James’ horror turned to despair. He had thought their chances all but gone when he had learned about Tanaka-lan’s five battlefleets numbering one hundred thousand warships. But then his success in The Wilds had allowed his hope to grow again. In the blink of an eye it was gone once more. How could he compete when his enemy’s forces had increased by another fifty percent?

We will die, James thought as he looked around at the officers manning Victory’s bridge. We will all die. Then his eyes caught sight of a secondary display that was showing the latest intel from the forts. Six were flashing, showing that they had Karacknid forces in the fortified systems, probing their outer defenses. Looking northwards, James could picture where the system his son had encountered the new Karacknid battlefleet in was. It wasn’t hard for him to draw out the most likely path the battlefleet had taken south. His eyes followed the path until it rested at Zeta Fort. That is where he will strike us, James was suddenly sure.

Zeta Fort was one of the line of border forts’ two linchpin forts. Two Karacknid battlefleets were near it, threatening three other forts. He is trying to draw forces away from Zeta Fort to those three other forts, then when his new battlefleet gets here, he will draw in the Third and Fourth Battlefleets to join his new battlefleet and attack with over eighty thousand warships! Despite his hopelessness, James felt a measure of respect grow for Tanaka-lan. Once he has Zeta Fort, he can concentrate all his battlefleets in one system. Then, from there, he can threaten five other forts at once. If James spread out his forces across the five forts, Tanaka-lan could jump his entire fleet into one system, destroy the forces there, and then jump out. All he would have to do is repeat the same tactic several times and James’ fleet would be wiped out. Then Earth will be open to him.

Anger swirled up within James at the thought of his homeworld and his wife coming under attack. Memories flooded his mind of the last time Karacknid ships had reached Earth. He didn’t need to close his eyes to picture the nuclear warheads raining down through Earth’s atmosphere, obliterating many of Earth’s largest cities. Tens of millions had died. Never again, James and Christine had sworn after the Karacknids had burst through their two fleets to launch the attack. “Never again,” James growled as his anger dispelled his despair.

As his mind cleared, a plan quickly began to form. He couldn’t split up his fleet into five smaller forces, but what if he could get to Zeta Fort before Tanaka-lan? There was no way he could defeat eighty thousand warships. But we can make them pay a bloody price for the system. “If Tanaka-lan wants it, he’s going to have to take it from us!” James growled.

Bringing his eyes away from the secondary holo display, he found every bridge officer staring at him. Most looked confused, only Hawkins, who had read the report, still looked scared. “Send my son’s report to our senior commanders,” James said as he felt a familiar eagerness for battle start to fill him. “Inform them we must depart as quickly as we can. Let Rear Admiral Jimenez know I want his fleet moving at once. He is to be the vanguard. I will send him additional instructions as we get moving. We also need to pull in all our other fleets from our forts. We need to concentrate every ship we can get to join us in time.”

“Yes, Emperor, right away,” Hawkins said as his fear was banished by the confidence of his Emperor’s voice. He paused, then asked, “Where are we going?” as he realized he needed to pass that information on to Jimenez.

“To Zeta Fort, and the battle of our time,” James said, his eyes fierce as he began to imagine what was to come. “We are going to face Tanaka-lan head-on.”

*

IS Victory, Zeta Fort, 16th June 2513 AD, (two days later).

James gripped his command chair's armrests as Victory exited shift space. Unblinkingly, he stared at the holo display, waiting for it to update. In his mind, he pictured Zeta Fort, intact and surrounded by warships, just as he had last seen it, willing the same image to appear. He sighed and slumped back when Victory's sensors detected the fort on full alert, ready to fend off any attack made against it. As the holo image widened to show the rest of the system, James was even able to smile. There was no sign of Tanaka-lan's fleet. James held no doubts; however, he was certain it would soon come.

“Detach Rear Admiral Jimenez’s force,” he ordered. “Then send a frigate into the system and let Vice Admiral Ivanov know we are here.”

“Aye, Emperor,” Hawkins responded.

James nodded to his Chief of Staff and then watched in silence as the rest of his force entered the system and then Jiminez’ fifteen hundred ships moved forward. Around Victory, fourteen thousand warships were arrayed in a multitude of flotillas, squadrons, and fleets. Ahead of them, six thousand stood in formation around Zeta Fort’s main fleet base, while another four thousand guarded the many smaller fortifications that dotted the system. There were another two thousand or so moving into the system from other shift passages, they were squadrons and flotillas that had responded to James' call to gather at Zeta Fort. While they moved to rendezvous with Ivanov’s fleet, Victory remained stationary, waiting as James intended.

Several hours passed as everyone waited and watched. Initially, James remained silent in his command chair, content to survey Zeta Fort’s defenses and watch as more squadrons jumped into the system. Yet Tanaka-lan didn’t come. Eventually, James opened a COM channel to Scott’s flagship and spoke with her, then he drew in many of his other senior commanders. They discussed in detail the many scenarios James saw playing out as they prepared to handle them. When he could wait no longer, James retired to his quarters, added a few paragraphs to his latest letter for Christine, and went to bed. As he closed his eyes, still he harbored no doubts, certain Tanaka-lan would come.

Six hours later, James awoke with a start. His COM unit was beeping insistently. Instinctively he knew what was coming. “Go ahead,” he said after tapping it.

“You better come to the bridge, Emperor, Karacknid ships are entering the system,” Hawkins informed him.

Having fallen asleep in his uniform, James was stepping onto the bridge thirty seconds later. The image that greeted him stopped him cold. Thousands of ships were pouring into the system. The number was rising so rapidly that the counter on the holo display couldn’t keep up. He has come with all his strength then, James thought. A show of force. The scene in front of James didn’t show a screening squadron or even a probing attack. Tanaka-lan had brought the entire might of the Third and Fourth battlefleets along with his additional battlefleet. Already the number had surpassed forty thousand and James didn’t expect it to stop until it reached at least eighty. But size can be a weakness of its own, he thought towards Tanaka-lan.

Quickly, James moved to his command chair. “Take us in,” he ordered as soon as he sat.

Moments later, Victory and the now sixteen thousand warships with James surged into the system, moving straight to confront the enemy fleet. Victory's acceleration was a signal to the rest of the Allied forces in the system. Ivanov broke orbit with her ten thousand warships and the various garrisons also left their forts. All moved to combine with one another to stand together against the invaders.

*

Slayer

Tanaka-lan’s teeth rubbed together as the Allied ships were detected by Slayer’s gravimetric sensors. So, you are here, he thought towards Somerville. Somehow his enemy had figured out where he planned to deliver his killing blow. Thirty thousand, Tanaka-lan considered. It was an impressive force, the most powerful force a Karacknid fleet had ever faced. So be it, we will crush you all here and be done with it.

Accepting the enemy’s numbers, Tanaka-lan turned to consider what they were doing. He knew right away the charge towards his ships was a feint. If the Humans fought out in the open, his numbers would envelop and overwhelm them. At least, we will once we get our whole force into the system, he thought as he considered things more carefully. At present, his massive battlefleet was still jumping out of shift space in squadrons and fleets while the first to arrive moved into the system to make space for those yet to jump in. If they combine while we are still spread out, they may be able to destroy our vanguard before we could bring forward sufficient reinforcements.

“Signal Admirals Vicar’ak and Kas’tan to slow their advance, they are not to move forward with more than fifty percent thrust,” Tanaka-lan ordered. “Once Draz’ton and Sasa’ti have their fleets formed up and can move to support our vanguard’s flanks, then they can resume full advance.”

“At once, Imperator,” Tanaka-lan’s Chief of Staff replied. “But the delay will cause some problems for our rearmost squadrons. It’s already getting very cramped along the system’s shift passage. We’ve never tried to move so many warships into a system at once before.”

Tanaka-lan’s eyes narrowed when he saw his rearmost squadrons were already backing up. Is this what you wanted? He wondered. “Instruct our squadrons on the flanks to spread out more and leave more room in the middle of our formation,” Tanaka-lan ordered. “Push the newcomers into the gaps, don’t worry about getting everyone in the right positions, just get them across the mass shadow. And instruct Counterslash squadron to get ready.” Tanaka-lan was not sure if Somerville would try it, but he knew that if he had the weaponry, he would. And he is setting it up perfectly. Let us see.

*

IS Rapier, 16th June 2513 AD.

Rear Admiral Jason Jimenez tapped on his command chair impatiently as he watched the massive Karacknid battlefleet begin to bunch up. Just a little more, he thought to himself. Just a little more. “There!” he said out loud. “They are backing up beyond the mass shadow. This is it, jump us in on my command!.. Jump!” he ordered after waiting another forty seconds. Two successive tremors ran through Rapier's deck in quick succession, then Jimenez’s flagship was out of shift space again. “Fire!” Jimenez ordered immediately.

From the five hundred warships and one thousand converted freighters under his command, twenty thousand two hundred shift missiles were flung out of their tubes. At the same time, Jimenez’s ships fired up their engines and began to surge forward.

The missile salvo accelerated away from their tubes for just forty-five seconds. Then they reached the ten portable shift gates that had already been put in place. Entering shift space, in just half a second they crossed the distance to the Karacknid squadrons that were unable to cross the system’s mass shadow. They reappeared in normal space right in the midst of the Karacknid ships. In a fraction of a second, their seeker heads detected targets and detonated. Antimatter missile blooms blossomed amongst the Karacknids.

As soon as they could, Jimenez’s ships fired again. Their preplanned course had brought them right to another set of ten portable shift gates. Once again, twenty thousand missiles appeared in the midst of the now fleeing Karacknid squadrons. Those that managed to cross the system’s mass shadow where the shift missiles couldn’t get them were safe. Many hadn’t made it yet and were savaged by another attack. Still, Jimenez's squadron surged on, moving towards another set of portable shift gates. Already they had killed twice their number in enemy ships, but Jimenez was far from satisfied. He knew he would never get another chance to catch the Karacknids out in the open like this.

Suddenly, ships began to appear right in the midst of Jimenez's fleet. A fraction of a second later they all turned red on the holo display, marking them as hostile. For another few milliseconds that felt like minutes, both groups of ships stared at one another. Then energy weapons began to blaze. As his ships died around him, Jimenez swore profusely. The Karacknids weren’t meant to have just jumped out of shift space, they shouldn’t have been able to recharge their shift drive’s capacitors so quickly! Yet there was nothing he could do; his ships hadn’t recharged their capacitors yet and so couldn’t jump away.

Converted freighters died in their hundreds. With little armor and no large energy weapons, they were all but helpless against the onslaught. Rapier and Jimenez’s warships were another matter. Though taken by surprise, they were all veterans of Jimenez and James’ campaign in The Wilds. Knowing escape was impossible and so death inevitable, they fought viciously seeking to take as many of their hated enemy with them as they could.

Rapier was hit twice in the space of a couple of seconds. Alarms blared all around Jimenez, yet still his officers and Flag Captain fought on. He watched as tungsten spears slammed into a Karacknid heavy cruiser, turning it into one giant fireball. Plasma bolts then burnt through three frigates that were charging Rapier, sending them all tumbling away. More vibrations rumbled under his feet as his battlecruiser suffered again and again. Reactors started to fail and energy transfer conduits were destroyed. Yet still Rapier’s tactical officer managed to divert enough energy to her two forward heavy laser cannons for them to fire again. They barked out in anger one more time at an enemy battlecruiser. Three beams struck the warship, burning through its armor and causing massive damage to its port missile batteries. Then the end came.

Six laser beams blasted at Rapier in the space of just three seconds. The second one burnt through an already wide gash in the battlecruiser. It burnt through several internal bulkheads and struck the bridge. In an instant, Jimenez and all his officers died before they realized what had happened. The fourth beam struck one of Rapier's still active reactors. A massive wave of energy was released that split the warship in two and flung both parts twisting away from one another.

Other Imperial ships fought on but within the space of ten more seconds, they were all silenced. Counterslash fleet had done its work.

*

IS Victory

“All ships are to reverse course,” James ordered, filled with horror at what he had just witnessed. In less than thirty seconds, Jimenez’s force had been completely wiped out. They’d gone from striking at the enemy with impunity to being taken by surprise and eviscerated. Tanaka-lan guessed what we might try, James realized. He was ready for us. James felt his resolve waver. He had hurt his enemy. Exchanging a thousand freighters that could never stand in the line of battle for two thousand enemy warships was a good trade. Yet he had been outplayed again. Can I beat him? A voice in his head asked.

Though he didn’t know the answer, James was not ready to give up yet. “Set course for the fort's main fleet base,” he ordered. Tanaka-lan had taken the system’s mass shadow, he could not contest the battlefleet's entrance into the system any longer, but the battle was far from over.

*

Slayer

Tanaka-lan nodded at Counterslash fleet’s success. The enemy’s shift missiles had hurt his fleet. He had lost nearly three thousand warships, and perhaps as many as another thousand were so badly damaged that they would have to begin the long journey back to his fleet bases north of The Wilds. But we have gained the system and wiped out their first attempt to confront us. Tanaka-lan’s lips peeled back in a smile that showed his long black razor-sharp teeth. It has begun, Somerville. Now we will see if you are ready.

Turning his head, Tanaka-lan glanced at the prisoner he had brought onto Slayer’s bridge. With her uniform in taters, blood encrusted across her face and both her hands missing, she was a pitiful sight. Her body was bent over, and her breathing came in ragged breadths, telling Tanaka-lan she was still feeling the effects of her most recent interrogation. Yet her head was still held high. She still believes, he thought with a snarl. Well, not for long!

Chapter 38

Even the best fortifications cannot withstand the mind of an astute tactician.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

Slayer

“Let us begin,” Tanaka-lan ordered an hour later once his entire battlefleet of eighty-eight thousand warships had safely entered the system, “Bring up the assault freighters and the siege cannons. We shall see what the Humans make of them.”

“Understood, Imperator, which fortification are we to engage?”

Tanaka-lan gestured towards one of the forts built in an asteroid field in the outer system. It turned green on the holo display. “We will begin here.” As his Chief of Staff nodded, Tanaka-lan considered the system of forts in front of him. Over the last several years, he had managed to sneak a handful of spy drones into the system to get a good look at what the Humans had built. It was impressive. Over thirty different fortified points had been built throughout the outer and inner system. Simulations Tanaka-lan had run told him that if he simply tried to accelerate his fleet towards the Humans' main base and engage their fleet, he would have to undergo a three-hour barrage of long-range missiles from the fortifications. Doing so could lose upwards of twenty thousand warships.

Though Tanaka-lan was confident he could still win such an engagement, the cost would be too high. Instead, then, he would have to reduce enough of the forts to open up an attack vector on the main enemy base. If he took too long, he knew the Humans would be able to bring up even more ships, yet he had come prepared. Whilst Somerville’s attacks in The Wilds had caught him off guard, he had known for years now that he would eventually come to face the fortifications in front of him, and so he had put plans into place long ago to deal with them.

And with my other three battlefleets moving in on three other forts, the Humans' fleet will be stretched to the breaking point, Tanaka-lan thought as he watched his fleet of assault freighters begin to move forward. Behind them, surrounded in a thick shell of light cruisers, destroyers, and frigates, followed the siege cannons. In total, thirty of them had been constructed, and they had been built for the sole purpose of cracking the Humans’ fortifications.

“Siege cannons are in place, Imperator,” Tanaka-lan was informed just five minutes later. “Assault freighters will come into range in thirty minutes.”

“Begin firing with the siege cannons now,” Tanaka-lan instructed. “Let us get the measure of their defenses.”

Moments later, the long cylinder-shaped ships turned their noses to face the asteroid fort. Then they began to flash on the holo display as Slayer detected a massive energy buildup from each. Thirty seconds later, they fired. Each siege cannon was, in essence, a massive electromagnetic tube with impulse engines and a shift drive. They accelerated a fifty-thousand-ton nano carbon-hardened steel projectile to 0.35C. Like the smaller Human bomblets Tanaka-lan’s forces had been surprised by, the projectile was coated in the Karacknids' best stealth tech. Though its size made it much harder to hide, it also gave it a different advantage. In testing, even multiple direct hits by antimatter warheads weren’t enough to throw off the projectile’s aim. Not that that mattered, for Tanaka-lan knew that the Humans' mark X missiles used laser warheads, which would be completely ineffective against the mass of the steel projectiles.

Each projectile also had one additional feature. Twenty-five minutes after firing, before they entered standard missile range, small micro-detonations split apart each projectile from within. One projectile suddenly became one thousand long thin shards of nano carbon-hardened steel. Though each shard only had a limited coating of stealth tech, it still made them hard to detect. The real strength was in their number, however.

As soon as they could, the Fort’s defenses opened up on the shards. Thousands of small missiles, plasma bolts, and laser beams shot out from weapon platforms built into the asteroids. Shards were deflected by explosions or melted to slag in their thousands. Yet the defenders couldn’t hit them all. Without seeker warheads or maneuvering thrusters, the shards were purely ballistic weapons. Even so, they struck the asteroid field and caused a fair amount of damage. Any asteroid that was struck was shattered by the force of the collision. Many strikes caused chain reactions as wrecked asteroids crashed into others.

The Human designers of the Fort had anticipated this, however, and its offensive and defensive weapon systems were well spread out. The fort lost less than one percent of its combat effectiveness in the attack. The problem was, five minutes behind the first wave of steel projectiles, another was already on its way, and more behind it. As long as they received a constant supply of hardened steel projectiles, the siege cannons could bombard the fort indefinitely.

Tanaka-lan nodded in satisfaction when the second wave of projectiles closed with the fort and Slayer’s computer analyzed the defense fire that reached out towards them. It had decreased from the first attack. Though only slightly, it told him all he needed to know. The fort would fall sooner or later unless the Humans sent reinforcements. So far, the warships and fighters stationed at the nearest forts to the one under attack hadn’t moved yet. Tanaka-lan guessed Somerville was waiting to see just what his assault freighters could do before he committed himself. We are both testing the other, getting the measure of what we can do before the real fighting begins.

Seconds later, alarms blared around Tanaka-lan and the holo display updated to show hundreds of new contacts had appeared from many different angles. All the Human forts in range of his assault freighters had opened fire. Tanaka-lan studied the enemy salvo. Five forts had fired their long-range missiles. Each fort had fired between fifty and seventy of their multistage missiles. They would attack his assault freighters from several different angles, complicating the coordination of defensive fire. Right away, Tanaka-lan knew his ships were going to get hurt. But that was what they were designed for. They were expendable.

“Detecting enemy fighters launching from the asteroid fort, Imperator,” a sensor officer reported. “They’re moving to coordinate with the incoming salvo.”

“Stop them,” Tanaka-lan ordered, all too aware of how deadly Human fighters could be if they got amongst his ships.

Once again, he studied the fresh wave of contacts that appeared as the Human fighters began to accelerate hard. Three hundred of them had launched from the fort. And if they have thirty forts, plus a fleet full of carriers, how many fighters is that? Tanaka-lan asked himself. The answer wasn’t a pleasant one, but it wasn’t entirely unexpected. Warships were hard to construct, in particular their armor and shift drives needed a lot of rare and exotic materials. Fighters were far easier to mass-produce, and so he had known the Humans would have myriads of them.

In response to Tanaka-lan’s order, from just behind the assault freighters, five hundred Karacknid fighters burst off as they lit off their engines. Boosting ahead of the freighters, they moved to intercept the Human fighter force. To Tanaka-lan’s surprise, the Human fighters began to decelerate, offering battle to his fighters. They are happy to fight fighter to fighter, Tanaka-lan concluded. That told him Somerville was confident in his fighter numbers. The Human pilots were happy to get a chance to shoot down as many of Tanaka-lan’s fighters as they could.

As the fighters tore into each other, both groups fired missiles at each other and then the battle broke into a deadly melee of individual dogfights. The Humans fought to the last, knowing their fort was about to come under attack anyway. All three hundred were eventually shot down and destroyed, yet they took two hundred and seventy-six Karacknid fighters with them. Tanaka-lan grunted at the final count. Half of his fighters had been the newest Talon variant with shields and missiles, and still the Humans had almost killed as many as they had lost. Tanaka-lan knew he had to decisively deal with the enemy's fighters or they could catch him out when he wasn’t prepared and wreck a good proportion of his fleet. That is for another time, however, he told himself as the first wave of human mark X missiles closed with his assault freighters.

Three hundred and twenty of the large Human missiles were bearing down on his fleet of four thousand freighters. Before they came into a defensive fire range, the final stage of the missiles broke apart and each released eight mark VIII bomb-pumped laser warheads and, unbeknownst to Tanaka-lan, two Whirlwind missiles and two Shadow Missiles. Each began to twist and weave wildly to throw off the aim of Tanaka-lan’s gunners. Then the assault freighters opened up with their defensive weapons.

Tanaka-lan's lips peeled back at the weight of fire that rose up to meet the enemy missiles. Not one of the assault freighters was equipped with a single missile tube. Instead, their hulls were covered in defensive weapons. A tidal wave of laser beams reached out to smash the incoming missiles. Almost all of them were blown apart. Just twenty-two got close enough to detonate. First the bomb-pumped warheads fired forty-six laser beams into the assault freighters. Twenty-six scored direct hits. The assault freighters, not equipped with the armor or internal support structures of a standard warship, were badly mauled by the beams. Most beams destroyed or crippled the ships they hit. Then the two remaining Shadow missiles charged through the confusion and detonated, creating two momentary miniature black holes. They warped or tore apart five more freighters. Behind them, the Whirlwind missiles had already detonated; hundreds of their stealth bomblets took the freighters by surprise, destroying twelve more.

Tanaka-lan was not happy with what he saw. The enemy's long-range missiles were clearly more effective than he had imagined. It meant he was going to take more losses assaulting their forts. With a grunt, he pushed it from his mind; it was a problem for later. Losing thirty-nine freighters out of a force of four thousand was a more than acceptable loss for the time being.

Before the next wave of mark X missiles reached the freighters, they came into range with their own weapons. The assault freighters were approaching the asteroid fort on a course that would only keep them in missile range long enough to fire two salvos, yet that would allow them to completely deplete their magazines. Immediately after the first Human missile attack, every freighter opened one of the two massive hatches that had been built into their bellies. Then they began to release long lines of missile pods. They were a copy of the same kind of weapon the Humans had used against Tanaka-lan in his first war with them, now he had just taken it to another level.

Each assault freighter unloaded fifty missile pods and each pod consisted of three pre-loaded missile tubes. As soon as they were in range, every missile pod fired. Six hundred thousand missiles suddenly filled Slayer’s main holo display as a tsunami wave of destruction was unleashed onto the asteroid fort. The freighters then had to defend themselves from another Human salvo which destroyed thirty-seven of their number. Then, the second hatch in each of their underbellies opened and fifty more missile pods were deployed. When they fired, a second wave of six hundred thousand missiles began to accelerate towards the enemy fort. Then the freighters were turning and boosting away from the fort. Three more salvos of the Human’s long-range missiles followed them, destroying a further one hundred and forty-three of the freighters. The vast majority, however, made it to safety and set course for the tens of thousands of supply freighters Tanaka-lan had brought with him where they could be reloaded and prepared to assault the next fort.

The asteroid fort didn’t have the luxury of running away, and so it was in serious trouble. First, it had to endure two more siege cannon salvos. Then an overwhelming number of missiles raced in to attack it. With so many missiles approaching such a small area, the defense gunners were able to score hit after hit. Flak cannon bursts and electrostatic pulses from arc emitters were especially deadly. They destroyed tens of thousands of missiles with ease. It didn’t matter, however. For the fort and its garrison of warships simply couldn’t put out enough defensive fire to protect themselves. Tens of thousands of antimatter missiles raced in to strike at their targets.

More than half the asteroids with point defenses or missile tubes built into them were destroyed in the ensuing detonations. Over two-thirds of the two hundred warships that had been stationed at the fort were also taken out. The explosions caused so much confusion and disruption that the surviving defenders were still struggling to reorganize themselves by the time the second salvo of missiles reached them. Another siege cannon salvo struck just before the missiles, undoing much of the Human’s regained organization. The result was the complete destruction of the fort. Far too many missiles reached attack range and detonated to count. No survivors were left.

Saliva dripped from Tanaka-lan’s lip down his chin. One fort was down, soon he would finish off another and another. No doubt Somerville would have some kind of response, but he could only delay the inevitable, he couldn’t stop it. Soon we will destroy enough forts to clear a path straight for your main fleet, and then I will come for you, he thought as he turned his gaze to the twenty-six thousand warships that were still sitting stationary within the inner system.

*

IS Victory

James did not enjoy sitting by and watching the destruction of one of his forts. Yet, it was necessary. He had to see what Tanaka-lan had to throw against his defenses. He had expected the Karacknid Imperator to bring several surprises with him to the battle, and he hadn’t been disappointed. Despite the wealth of information he had learned, James still felt guilty for the asteroid fort’s crew. They had fought and died unsupported. As the Karacknid freighters pulled back, James rewatched the encounter twice to make sure he hadn’t missed anything. Then he opened a COM channel to Scott, Ivanov, and Anderson. “Well, what did you make of it?” he asked them.

“The freighters are a powerful weapon,” Scott said. “But on their own, we could handle them. Already their strength has been whittled away and if they keep attacking our forts, we could eventually reduce their number to where their attacks would be ineffective. But a better tactic would be to deploy some of our own missile pods to the next fort we think they will attack. Then we could reply in kind. The problem is those cannons. If they detected us deploying missile pods, they could just sit back and blast the pods with the cannons. Eventually, they would take enough pods out to allow their freighters to move in safely.”

Jonathan nodded, that had been his assessment too. He had hundreds of freighters stuffed full of missile pods ready to deploy, but he was holding them in reserve for when the main Karacknid fleet came at him. It was too risky to move them out to one of his outer forts. “So, how do we deal with them?” he asked.

Each officer glanced back and forth between themselves for a couple of seconds, and then they all began to speak at once. James smiled and held up a hand. “One at a time, let’s see what we can come up with.”

After a short discussion, James felt he had a couple of good plans that might work. Assigning Scott and Anderson to fully plan out and prepare to implement each, he then returned to watching the Karacknids. Four hours after returning to the main Karacknid fleet, the group of missile pod freighters once again began to move into the system.

“It looks like they’re lining up another attack run,” James’ tactical officer suggested. “Either Asteroid Fort Seven or Capricorn Fort look to be their target.”

“They have an impressive turnaround time,” James said. Glancing at a secondary display, he saw the elements needed to attempt either Scott or Anderson’s plans were not in place yet. Another fort is going to have to face those freighters' onslaught. He grimaced at the thought. Which means you need to come up with something else, he told himself. James knew he couldn’t save whatever fort Tanaka-lan chose to attack. If he rushed out with his entire fleet to assist it, he would only guarantee his ships’ destruction as Tanaka-lan would move up and cut him off. Yet he was still determined he had to try something this time.

When the fleet of freighters settled onto a course that would take them towards Capricorn Fort, an idea came to James. “Get me the Commanders of Coronis, Zeus, and Hades forts,” James requested. “Quickly.”

“Right away,” Hawkins responded.

Ten minutes later, and James had done what he could. He couldn’t save Capricorn Fort, but he could make their deaths costly to the Karacknids. And then we need to see to those cannons.

*

Slayer

Tanaka-lan sat poised in his command chair as his freighters approached the next Human fort. He knew Somerville had to respond to his freighters lest his fort system be quickly dismantled. Every muscle in his body was tense, ready to respond to whatever the Humans threw at him.

“Siege cannons in place and opening fire,” an officer reported as the weapons began their onslaught.

Five minutes later, when the assault freighters were still twenty-five minutes away from being able to attack the fort, the holo display beeped several times to show ships were moving. Fighters had launched from four of the forts that were near the one Tanaka-lan had selected to attack. Moments later, warships from three of the forts followed them. Tanaka-lan nodded in respect. None of the formations were moving to rendezvous with one another. Instead, they were angling to strike at the freighters from different angles and at different times. Somerville had guessed that he had forces hidden in reserve to protect the freighters beyond the fighters he had used to protect them during their last attack. He was seeking to lure them out.

“Those forces aren’t to approach the freighters,” Tanaka-lan said as he set about giving out orders for the various fleet elements he had hidden to respond to what was coming against the assault freighters.

Over the course of the next ten minutes, fighters came out of stealth and moved to intercept each of the four groups Somerville had sent against his freighters. Each one was turned back, though at a high price. Over six hundred Imperial fighters were shot down. Tanaka-lan lost nearly a hundred more.

Light cruisers, destroyers, and frigates that Tanaka-lan also had stealthily following the assault freighters sprang into action as well. Splitting up into three groups, they moved to position themselves between the three garrison squadrons that were trying to bring the assault freighters into missile range. Before any of the Human ships could be brought to battle, they began to angle away from Tanaka-lan’s warships. As I thought, Tanaka-lan said to himself as he nodded. Somerville didn’t want to risk any more of his precious ships just yet. Is that all you’ve got? he asked, almost disappointed that his enemy was giving up so easily.

However, as the assault freighters continued to close with the fort that had been built around a small rocky world, no additional Human forces attempted to aid the fort. Instead, the fort fought alone as it faced barrage after barrage from the siege cannons. Then, it launched its own fighters and tried to strike at the assault freighters before they could fire, but Tanaka-lan had kept enough of his own fighters back to see them off.

The assault freighters then had to weather two salvos of the Humans' long-range missiles fired from four nearby forts. They lost fifty-eight ships, but then they came into range themselves, deployed their missile pods, and fired. Five hundred and ninety-six thousand missiles descended on the fort. Though it was slightly larger than the asteroid fort and so had more defenses, Tanaka-lan had no fears that it too would be reduced to debris by the two salvos his freighters would release.

But then something happened that Tanaka-lan did not expect. Rather than remain with the fort and add their defensive fire to its, the Human warships keeping station with the fort suddenly began to accelerate. Breaking orbit, they arced away from the fort and onto an intercept course for the freighters. They wouldn’t be able to bring them into missile range before the freighters fired their second salvo, but they would be able to chase them as the freighters returned to his fleet to reload their cargo holds.

“Deploy our last fighters against those ships,” Tanaka-lan snarled. “Take them out!”

Moments later, the final three hundred fighters he had been holding in reserve moved to intercept the warships. In response, two hundred additional Human fighters launched from the fort and moved to intercept his. Tanaka-lan growled. Somerville had been holding fighters in reserve too! He was forcing him to choose. He could redirect the first salvo of missiles the assault freighters had fired to take out the two hundred warships, but then he would only have one salvo to attack the fort with. In all probability, a sizeable portion of the fort’s strength would remain.

His other option was to let the warships attack his freighters. Tanaka-lan growled again. He didn’t want to have to come back and attack the fort again, it would be a waste of time. Yet he couldn’t leave it intact in his rear. The freighters have their own defenses, he thought, they will have to defend themselves. Swinging his eyes back to look at his own battlefleet, he selected a powerful squadron. “Order Commodore Gas’tark to chase those ships away from our freighters!” he demanded. “He is to launch all his fighters and get his ships moving as well.”

“Dispatching him now!” Tanaka-lan’s Chief of Staff said hastily.

Tanaka-lan then watched, feeling a sense of inevitability as his three hundred fighters set upon the Human's two hundred. As he expected, despite the numerical advantage, his fighters' victory was hard fought. Just eighty survived the encounter to race on to attack the Human warships. The enemy ships were ready for them when they tried to strike at them. Almost all the fighters were shot down. A handful got close enough to fire their particle cannons though. Thirty-six Human ships were destroyed, but the rest continued moving to intercept the freighters.

Before the assault freighters' missile salvo struck the fort, the freighters deployed their second wave of missile pods and released another salvo at the fort. Both salvos raced past the Human warships, then they struck the fort in succession. The fort was slightly more impressive than the asteroid fort Tanaka-lan had already destroyed, but it made little difference. The fort was obliterated. Not a single orbital construction remained intact around the small rocky world.

With both the momentum and acceleration advantage, the Human warships then closed with and began to engage the freighters as they fled. The Humans unleashed salvo after salvo at the freighters. The first two salvos were coordinated with long-range fire from three nearby forts. They proved the deadliest. Seventy-four and then sixty-eight freighters were destroyed in the first salvos. With no missile tubes of their own, the assault freighters couldn’t fire back, and so they had to endure the continued fire of the Humans. Five more salvos slammed into them, slowly whittling down their number. Then Gas’tark’s fighters began to approach. Tanaka-lan’s claws extended when the Human ships didn’t turn! He snarled. “They are going to fight to the death! I want them taken out; none are to get into energy weapon range of my freighters!” he ordered viciously.

Tanaka-lan’s Chief of Staff communicated his Imperator’s anger to the charging fighters and after the Human squadron had fired three more salvos, the Karacknid fighters attacked them with vigor. Many fighters died to the Human point defenses, yet as fighters broke through, Human ships began to detonate in quick succession, one after the other. Even so, four frigates managed to avoid the fighters' fire as the fighters zipped past them. As the fighters desperately decelerated in an attempt to turn and catch them, the frigates took the safeties off their engines and charged the assault freighters. One detonated from an engine overload, but as soon as the others got into energy weapon range, laser beams, plasma bolts, and tungsten spears began to obliterate freighters. It took just one shot to cripple a freighter, and the small frigates had several of each close-in weapon. They fired them rapidly and without mercy as they sought to avenge the deaths of their comrades.

Tanaka-lan’s fist clenched ever tighter as for over three minutes he could do nothing but watch as the frigates tore into his freighters. Then the first of Gas’tark’s ships arrived. In one missile salvo, they overwhelmed the frigates and blew them apart. Only when the frigates were destroyed did Tanaka-lan release his fist. He immediately felt a stab of pain and looked down to see blood running along his palm. He snarled again. The Human squadron had destroyed over three hundred of his freighters. Though he still had almost three and a half thousand left, he was losing them at a far quicker pace than he had imagined.

“Get them reloaded as soon as they are back,” he ordered in a menacing tone. “I want another fort destroyed before the end of the day.”

Chapter 39

I often wonder what it must have felt like during those few fateful days. Everyone involved knew billions of lives hung in the balance. They also must have known how slim their chances of beating such a force really were. Yet they fought on, never baulking, or turning back from what duty demanded of them.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Victory

“Send out replacement fighters to those forts,” James ordered Hawkins after he watched the last brave frigates die. He hoped the captains and crews of the ships he had just ordered to their deaths understood the significance of what they had done. Taking out a few hundred freighters might not seem like much to some, but if they were going to attack five or even ten more forts, then every freighter destroyed now meant they would not be able to fight in many of the battles that were still to come.

Already James could see what Tanaka-lan was trying to do. On a secondary display in front of him, he had every fortification highlighted and the overlapping fields of fire they provided one another were shown. With two forts now gone, a small gap was already starting to open up. As soon as he has cleared a path, he will advance on us here, James was sure.

“Fighters dispatched, Emperor,” Hawkins informed him. “Scott and Anderson report they are ready to depart as well.”

James nodded, then studied the secondary display for a moment longer. To open up his path, Tanaka-lan would have to take out at least ten more forts. But James could see three that were most likely to be his next targets. “Ok, instruct them to move out,” he ordered. “Send Scott here and move Anderson along this heading,” he added as he gestured at the display to make it show Hawkins what he meant.

And now we see if we can stop this, James thought to himself, unable to completely hide his fear. By following the plan Scott and Anderson had come up with earlier, he was committing a sizeable portion of his strength to stopping the missile pod freighters and cannons. If he failed, he would not be able to contest any more of the outer system forts.

Within minutes, both Scott and Anderson’s forces began to move. Anderson’s fleet of seven thousand ships headed towards the three forts James expected to be Tanaka-lan’s next targets. Along the way, another nine hundred ships joined Anderson as he picked up several squadrons from other forts he passed. When the Karacknid freighters began to move forward after taking on fresh missile pods, Anderson’s fleet maneuvered to intercept them. In response, Tanaka-lan began deploying thousands of additional warships forward, ready to confront Anderson. However, unbeknownst to the Karacknids, Anderson had already slow-launched all his fighters. To open a path for their assault, he then began maneuvering his fleet to draw the Karacknid ships after him while he made it look like he was trying to get around them to hit the assault freighters.

Meanwhile, Scott had led five thousand warships out of the inner system towards one of the two gas giants that orbited the system’s star. The gas giant had a sizeable fortification protecting the gas mining facilities that orbited it. Yet that wasn’t Scott’s final destination. An hour later, when she reached it, her ships slingshot around the massive planetary body and settled onto a direct course for the Karacknid cannons. The fifteen hundred warships that were protecting the cannons immediately moved to interpose themselves between Scott's ships and their charges. At the same time, thousands more Karacknid warships sprang away from Tanaka-lan’s main fleet to reinforce them.

*

Slayer

Tanaka-lan watched the two powerful Allied forces maneuver against his assault freighters and siege cannons. He was all but certain they were feints. There was no way Somerville would commit so many ships so early in the battle. Not to save a couple of his outer forts. Which meant, there was something else going on. It wasn’t hard to imagine what. “Start moving all Wingclipper forces into position to protect the freighters and siege cannons,” he ordered. This is it, he thought to himself. Time to see if they pay off. Though he had already shown his hand to Somerville in The Wilds, he doubted his opponent was ready for the scale of what he had prepared for the Allied fighters.

*

IS Victory

“I think Anderson’s attack will begin soon,” Hawkins informed James.

James looked up at the main display. He quickly set the reports he had been reading down. Currently, three of his other fortified systems were under attack by Karacknid battlefleets. Like at Zeta, they were probing the forts' fortifications, but not with quite the same vigor that Tanaka-lan was. James was pretty sure they were all meant to be distractions, to keep him from pulling more forces to Zeta Fort. But he had to monitor them all the same in case they needed help. But right now, all the important action is here, he thought as he saw what Hawkins was getting at. Anderson had maneuvered the Karacknid fleet defending their missile pod freighters out of the way. Any moment now his fighters would reveal themselves.

As if Hawkins had summoned them, five thousand fighters suddenly appeared on the display as all of Anderson’s fighters came out of stealth. They were accelerating towards the Karacknid freighters along a line that led back to a point Anderson’s fleet had been an hour ago. Seconds later, more groups of contacts joined them. Each was smaller, ranging between two and four hundred. But there were many of them. They were all coming from different directions. None would lead back to where they had originally been launched from, for they had been careful to carry out several maneuvers to hide their home bases. In total, they numbered six and a half thousand. Each had come from one of the many stealth hangars James had ordered constructed more than a decade ago. Not orbiting any orbital body but the system’s star, the stealth hangars were all but impossible to detect unless a ship actually crashed into one of them. Just as James had imagined long ago, they allowed him to deploy overwhelming numbers of fighters anywhere in the system.

As soon as the fighters appeared, Anderson’s fleet began to back away from the Karacknid warships that had moved to intercept him. Drawn too far out of position, the Karacknid warships couldn’t close with Anderson to force a battle, nor turn to save the freighters. However, as James expected, Tanaka-lan had more forces in reserve. As new contacts began to appear on the display, he leaned forward in his command chair, desperate to see just what his fighters were going to face.

In the space of thirty seconds, four thousand light ships came out of stealth and rushed to array themselves around the Karacknid freighters. Carriers also appeared as they remained in the rear but began to launch their fighters. Around the Karacknid cannons, additional light ships and carriers also appeared as they prepared to face off any fighter strike that might come at the cannons, yet none of James’ fighters were angling in that direction.

As the Karacknid carriers finished launching their fighters and they formed up into a force of six thousand fighters, James nodded. He had the numerical advantage. His fighters could blast through the Karacknids, take on their warships and then ravage their freighters. It was going to cost a lot of fighters, but taking out the enemy’s freighters would put an end to the ease at which Tanaka-lan was destroying his forts.

Despite being so badly outnumbered, the Karacknid fighters bravely met the Allied fighters. Just before they smashed into one another, all the Human fighters in the Allied strike force fired their missiles. Almost at the same time, the Karacknid fighters did so as well. James’ eyebrows shot up at the number of missiles. It looked like every Karacknid fighter had fired two missiles. They are all of their new design!

In total, less than two thousand of the new variant had been spotted, and that included all those encountered in The Wilds and so far in the fighting along the border forts. Tanaka-lan has been holding them back, just for this. Suddenly James looked at the light warships arrayed around the freighters. His gut told him exactly what they were. Though only a handful of Tanaka-lan’s anti-fighter cruisers and large missiles had been spotted, he knew that was what his fighters were facing. “Send new orders to all fighter squadrons,” he snapped. “They are to abandon their attack on the freighters. Repeat it until every Squadron Leader acknowledges. They are to abandon their attack.”

“Understood, Emperor, right away,” Hawkin responded, his voice suggesting he didn’t understand, but he immediately set about doing what James commanded, nonetheless.

With nine light minutes separating Victory and the fighters, it would have taken too long to send the order via Victory’s normal COM unit. Instead, Hawkin used Victory’s gravimetric COM to send the order to Vice Admiral Anderson, who in turn transmitted it to the fighters. Even so, the warning came too late for many, for as soon as the Karacknid fighters engaged, their warships surged away from the freighters and into the fray.

Anti-fighter missiles from both sets of fighters destroyed thousands of targets. Then they all opened up on each other with their plasma and laser cannons as they crashed into one another head-on. The brief firefight lasted only seconds as their momentum blasted each group of fighters past one another. As the Karacknid fighters decelerated and turned to pursue the Allied fighters, the Allied fighters charged the Karacknids ships. Though they had been briefed on the possibility, many squadron leaders and pilots were taken by surprise when every single Karacknid warship opened their anti-ship missiles tubes and fired a full salvo of missiles. Those who realized what was happening called warnings to their compatriots, yet there was little any of them could do. The missiles, designed by Tanaka-lan for this very purpose, split open as they approached the fighters, each releasing four anti-fighter missiles. In total, over fifty thousand anti-fighter missiles closed with them.

Just as they did, James' orders began to reach the Squadron Leaders. Yet it was too late, there was no way they could pull back with so many missiles closing in on them, and so they didn’t. Instead, every Allied pilot fired their own anti-ship missiles, then they tried to evade or shoot down the missiles coming against them. Many were successful, yet still several thousand Allied fighters were hit and the fighter force was gutted of most of its remaining strength.

As soon as they got through the missiles, the surviving Squadron Leaders then began to veer away from the charging Karacknid ships. Many were successful, but not all. Leading the Karacknid charge were several hundred point defense cruisers. All of their anti-ship weapons had been replaced for fast tracking and firing anti-fighter laser cannons. They hurled tens of thousands of beams at every Allied fighter they could get into range with. Hundreds of beams tore down shields and blasted fighters into debris. At the same time, the Allied anti-ship missiles began to strike at the Karacknid ships. Many of the ships were destroyed as the fighters almost gave as good as they got.

Then, to the dismay of the broken squadrons that did manage to pull up away from the Karacknid warships, or fight their way past them, the Karacknid fighters that had decelerated and turned sought to waylay them a second time. Many Allied fighters were drawn into a more prolonged dogfight as they had to fight their way to safety.

In total, the succession of engagements lasted less than five minutes, yet they felt like an eternity for James as he watched a significant portion of his fighter force be decimated. Thousands were destroyed when the fighters had exchanged missiles with each other. Then the ship-fired anti-fighter missiles had cut an even deeper swath into the Allied fighter force. The broken engagements that followed only added to the losses. By the time the Allied fighters were pulling away from the Karacknid forces, barely five thousand were left. More than half of James’ force was gone. They had taken out nearly as many enemy fighters and hundreds of Karacknid warships, yet still the loss was massive.

“Mark and track every one of those Karacknid warships involved in that fight,” James said in a harsh voice. “I want to know where every one of them is at all times. We are not going to be caught out like that again!.. Recall Anderson’s fleet,” he added after taking a moment to calm himself. “Have all our remaining fighters land on his carriers. I don’t want to give Tanaka-lan a chance to find any of our stealth hangars. We’ll have to sneak replacement fighters to the ones we’ve depleted slowly over the next few days.”

James then turned his attention to Scott’s fleet. He couldn’t help but feel fear for his friend. Does Tanaka-lan know what we are planning there too? He asked in fear.

*

Slayer

Tanaka-lan was grinning. Saliva from his battle lust ran down his teeth and over his lower lip. At first, he had been shocked by just how many fighters the Humans had managed to gather against his freighters. His analysis of the Human fleet and the many active and stealth drones he had watching them had suggested five, maybe six thousand fighters would have come against him. Yet nearly double that had attacked and still his surprises had held them off. We could have killed them all if they hadn’t run! He was sure. But even so, it was a significant victory. No doubt the Humans had many more fighters, but now they would have to think long and hard before committing them to battle. And if I figure out where you plan to use them, I will be ready for you again, Tanaka-lan thought towards Somerville.

With one threat dealt with, he turned his full attention to the second Human fleet. Just as he expected, long before the enemy warships came into range of the fleet he had dispatched to see them off, they began to turn away from the siege cannons. After five minutes of maneuvering, they settled onto a new heading that took them towards the system's eleventh planet. Though it had a fort built in its orbit, Tanaka-lan decided that wasn’t the Allied fleet's final destination either. They’ll slingshot around it and head back into the inner system, he was certain. They’ve had enough fighting for today.

Alarms and a sudden flashing on the holo display dragged his attention away from the enemy fleet. His mouth dried instantly. Three new contacts had been detected behind his ships that were facing off with the second Allied Fleet. To Tanaka-lan’s horror, they were right in the midst of his siege cannons! “Find them this instant!” He roared, knowing exactly what the contacts were before Slayer’s computer figured it out. “Launch every active recon drone we have near the siege cannons. Get every fighter and frigate into the area now! Order the siege cannons to stop firing, they are to pull back, full speed.”

As the three contacts altered slightly to show that they were enemy torpedoes, Tanaka-lan roared again. It was already too late! In all the confusion and fighting, Somerville had snuck some of his stealth warships behind his lines. More torpedoes appeared. Then the stealth ships themselves began to fire their energy weapons. The few warships that were still keeping station with the siege cannons tried to shoot down the torpedoes and engage the enemy cruisers, yet the cruisers ignored them. Plasma bolts and laser cannons shredded siege cannons. Then torpedoes began to hit. As recon drones and frigates started to get returns on the enemy stealth ships, a host of decoys appeared adding to the confusion of the battle.

For four minutes Tanaka-lan could do nothing but watch helplessly as his ships desperately tried to hunt down the enemy cruisers. It was quickly apparent there were only three of them. Yet they did far more damage than they should have. In the end, they destroyed or badly damaged eleven of Tanaka-lan’s thirty siege cannons before they themselves were taken out.

When the area was finally declared secure, Tanaka-lan shook his head. Anger coursed through his veins. Mainly directed at himself. He had turned back Somerville’s fighters, yet he had been so focused on their threat that he had forgotten about the Humans’ stealth cruisers. No more can be allowed to approach the cannons, or their supplies! He resolved as his gaze flicked to the massive supply fleet at the back of his battlefleet. If any of the enemy cruisers got amongst them, it would cause mayhem.

Very well, he thought towards Somerville as he calmed himself and surveyed the system's fortifications once again. One to you, and one to me. Let us continue this duel and see who the real master tactician is.

*

With so much action happening all around them, the Karacknid assault freighters’ attack on the fort they had targeted almost went unnoticed. On their own, they had to fend off three long-range mark X missile salvos from several nearby forts as they got into position. Then they released their two missile salvos and pulled back. After three more mark X salvos assaulted them, their two salvos then rained down on the fort, completely destroying it. In total, they lost another two hundred and forty-seven ships for the price of one more Human fort.

Chapter 40

Sometimes a commander has no choice but to accept he has been bested. It is never easy, but throwing away good ships and their crews in futile engagements will quickly strip a commander of the respect and trust of his people.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Victory

Though his stealth cruiser attack had cut the strength of the Karacknid siege cannons' barrages by a third, James' failure to deal with the Karacknid missile pod freighters left him no other choice. Reluctantly, he pulled back the warships and fighters that were garrisoned at the seven remaining outer system forts. He also evacuated as many of the forts' crews as he could. The rest he gave strict orders to fight to the last. Though it pained him deeply to do so, it had to be done. A great deal of time, energy, and credits had gone into building the forts. They had to be fought to the last.

With a sense of helplessness enveloping Victory’s bridge, everyone on James’ flagship could do nothing but watch as, over a twelve-hour period, the Karacknid freighters attacked three more forts, one after the other. Each fort, and those nearby that could add their own long-range missiles to the battle, defended themselves. Yet they were overwhelmed by the sheer number of missile pods the Karacknids could bring into the battle. Each time the freighters returned to the Karacknid battlefleet, James hoped that they would remain with the other freighters, signaling that they had used up all the missile pods Tanaka-lan had brought with him. But each time they took on new pods and then ventured into the system to attack another fort.

Between attacks, James spent a great deal of time in discussion with Scott, Ivanov, Anderson, and his other senior commanders. Slowly but surely, Tanaka-lan was opening a wider and wider corridor into the inner system as he took out fort after fort. Eventually, they were going to have to face Tanaka-lan, either at one of the inner system forts, or at Zeta itself. Given that they were likely to be facing upwards of seventy thousand warships, there were many strategies being thrown around as to how they could come out victorious. Or rather, how they could at least inflict enough casualties on Tanaka-lan to cause him to pull his battlefleet back out of the system.

It was as James was reading through another idea put forward by Anderson that Hawkin drew his attention back to the outer forts. “Emperor, the freighters are on the move again. It looks like they are going for Asteroid Fort Two.”

James' head shot up, and a small measure of hope stirred within him. “Is everything in place?”

Hawkin nodded and then smiled. “They are ready for them.”

James’ shoulders relaxed, albeit only slightly. “Then let’s pray this works,” he replied. Since before Scott and Anderson had taken their fleets out to try and take out the Karacknid siege cannons and missile pod freighters, Hawkin had also been enacting another plan Scott had suggested. If the Karacknids figured out what Hawkin had been doing, they would likely veer off, but that’s why the asteroid fort had been chosen. With so many asteroids about to be destroyed by siege cannon rounds, it would be far harder to spot. And as it was the specifically designed stealth freighters that were doing the heavy lifting, there was every chance the buildup had gone unnoticed.

After their battles with Zeta Fort’s fortifications, the Karacknid missile pod freighters' numbers had been reduced down to three thousand. To compensate for the loss, Tanaka-lan had mixed in two thousand freighters and destroyers to their formation, bolstering their point defenses. As the combined fleet approached Asteroid Fort Two, it opened fire along with the other forts. Three salvos of two hundred and thirty mark X missiles assaulted the Karacknids. Seventy-three ships were destroyed. Then Asteroid Fort Two’s fighters launched. Instead of running as the fighters from the other forts had, they began to move towards the Karacknid freighters. Karacknid fighters appeared and angled to intercept them.

Throughout the Karacknid freighters' approach, Asteroid Fort Two had been coming under constant barrage from the Karacknids' long-range cannons. Hundreds of asteroids had been split apart and a number of the fort's missile tubes and defensive emplacements destroyed. Several other smaller explosions had occurred as well in the open gaps between the asteroids where nothing should have been exploding. Yet none of the Karacknid freighter Captains, or Tanaka-lan’s staff officers, took notice of them. When the freighters got close enough to begin to deploy their missile pods, it was already too late.

Suddenly eight thousand Human missile pods powered up their targeting sensors. They quickly locked onto the Karacknid freighters and then fired all five of their missiles in conjunction with the fort's own standard missile tubes. Forty-six thousand missiles began accelerating towards the Karacknid freighters.

With no way to avoid the incoming fire, the Karacknids did the only thing they could. They unloaded their first wave of missile pods, fired them, then unloaded their second wave, and fired them as well. Both groups of combatants, the Karacknid freighters and the Human crew of Asteroid Fort Two, then prepared for the massive waves of destruction heading their way.

In conjunction, both Karacknid salvos completely overwhelmed Asteroid Fort Two’s defenses and destroyed everything with an energy signature. So many asteroids were struck that a large scar was slashed into the asteroid field itself.

Facing less than a tenth of the number of missiles they had unleashed, the Karacknid freighters stood more of a chance of surviving. Yet they had to fend off salvos coming from multiple angles as other forts had timed their attacks to perfectly match Asteroid Fort Two’s. They also had nearly a hundred human fighters to worry about who had blasted through the Karacknids fighters sent to intercept them. Though the massive wave of Human missiles was met with a withering amount of fire, hundreds of missiles wove and twisted through it. As they began to detonate amongst the freighters, they threw the freighters' gunners' fire off, allowing more to penetrate.

Victory’s sensors detected over two thousand detonations. Then more followed as the fighters released their missiles. All too aware that Karacknid fighters were quickly closing with them, the Human pilots knew escape was impossible. Instead of running, they tore into the vulnerable freighters with their plasma cannons. Each pilot shot down two or three freighters before defensive fire or Karacknid fighters finally caught up with them.

When the fighting ended, the holo display in front of James showed Asteroid Fort Two was no more. Yet the Karacknid missile pod fighters were a spent force as well. Just twelve hundred of them were retreating towards the Karacknid battlefleet that was still keeping station right on the edge of the outer system.

“Excellent work,” James said as he shared a nod of satisfaction with Hawkin. “Now Tanaka-lan will have to assume we can deploy missile pods to any of our forts. He’s going to have to take a few more risks if he wants to fight his way through the system.”

“So you think he will begin to move in with his main fleet now?” Hawkin asked, his voice a mix of fear and anticipation.

James nodded again. “He will. Which means the real fighting is about to begin. You may alert the fleet and make sure every ship is ready to break orbit at a moment’s notice.”

“Understood, Emperor. And what about our stealth freighters? Will we begin shuttling missile pods to any other forts?”

“Not yet,” James instructed. “Let’s see what Tanaka-lan decides his next steps are first.” And then let’s hope we are capable of meeting the challenge, James couldn’t help thinking.

*

Slayer

Tanaka-lan had his teeth clamped tightly together. He had expected to lose his assault freighters sooner or later. Yet in the end, it had been too easy for the Humans. Missile pods! He swore. They had helped him destroy seven forts with ease. But now they had hurt him almost as badly. And they will have more of them, I am sure! This will require a delicate touch, he decided as he surveyed the remaining Human forts.

“Prepare the fleet to move in,” he ordered. “We will advance in formation Sabre Three.”

“Aye, Imperator,” Tanaka-lan’s Chief of Staff responded. “Which fort will we be assaulting?” he asked after a moment.

“All of them, and none of them,” Tanaka-lan answered as he pictured in his mind how he intended to overcome the remaining forts’ overlapping fields of fire. But not too quickly, he reminded himself. We don’t want to reach their main base too early.

Ten minutes later, sixty thousand of Tanaka-lan’s warships, split up into twenty-five fleets ranging in number from two to five thousand strong, moved forward. The rest of his force, twenty thousand additional warships, remained in their rear, guarding the large supply fleet Tanaka-lan had brought and making sure no Allied fleets jumped in behind his force from The Wilds.

As they advanced, the fleets began to fan out into a triangular formation. Slowly but surely, they spread out further and further as they approached the six forts Tanaka-lan had chosen. Tanaka-lan’s most powerful fleets faced off against the forts and their garrisons, while other fleets supported their flanks or moved to flank the forts. Ahead of each fleet, screening squadrons, groups of fighters, and recon drones roved back and forth on the lookout for hidden surprises.

Somerville was not idle as Tanaka-lan advanced. As soon as Tanaka-lan’s forces began to move, his fleet broke orbit. Twenty-eight thousand ships moved out from the inner system and split up into a number of forces as they prepared to aid whichever fort came under attack. As both groups of fleets began to close with one another, forts opened fire with their long-range missiles. Then screening squadrons and fighters began to duel with one another.

On Slayer’s bridge, Tanaka-lan controlled his fleets with hand gestures as he moved holo images around on the main display in front of him. In one location, he used a screening squadron to draw in an Allied fleet, then he maneuvered one of his own fleets around its flank and forced the Allies to fall back whilst taking some losses. At another location, he ambushed and overwhelmed a couple of hundred Allied ships that had pushed too far forward with a sudden fighter strike. For nearly two hours he pitted his wits against Somerville as both fleets tussled with one another. Where Tanaka-lan kept maneuvering his fleets in an effort to isolate one of the forts, Somerville pushed his formations back and forth across the wide battlefield as he met Tanaka-lan move for move. Hundreds of ships and fighters fought and died on their own or in small groups.

Then, Tanaka-lan saw the kind of opening he had been waiting for. With a command, he sent two of his fleets forward. Four thousand ships moved to assault one fort, while five and a half thousand approached another fort adjacent to it. The first had orders to exchange two salvos with its target and then fall back, the second three salvos before retreating. As he had to, Somerville reacted by moving sufficient forces to confront both assaults and drive them back. That left one of the Allied fleets slightly isolated. Before the danger became apparent, Tanaka-lan already had two more fleets on the move. One threatened the flank of the isolated fleet, forcing it to fall back, while the other charged the fort Tanaka-lan really wanted to hit.

Unsurprisingly, as soon as the real direction of his thrust became apparent, waves of Human fighters appeared to try and prevent Tanaka-lan’s assault fleet from closing with the fort. Fighters Tanaka-lan had already dispatched whittled down their numbers. So too did the point defense cruisers he had sent with the fleet. Even so, over a thousand fighters charged his fleet in coordination with a missile salvo from the fort and its garrison of three hundred warships. Six hundred ships were lost. But then the fighters were fleeing back to their hangars to refuel and rearm. The rest of Tanaka-lan’s fleet, still three and a half thousand warships strong, set about engaging the fort.

With the nearest Allied fleet driven off, and the adjacent forts fighting their own battles, the fort was isolated and alone. In the space of forty-five minutes, Tanaka-lan’s fleet and the fort exchanged nine salvos with one another. Tanaka-lan lost another five hundred ships but in return, the fort was reduced to rubble.

“All fleets still engaged are to pull back out of missile range of their opponents,” Tanaka-lan ordered when he was satisfied the fort was destroyed.

As his ships pulled back, he assessed the four-hour-long engagement. Across the many engagements, he had lost seventeen hundred ships and a couple of thousand fighters. The Allies had lost almost a thousand of their own warships and just as many fighters as he had. And one more fort is no more, he reminded himself.

For an hour he reviewed the success of his various maneuvers and brief engagements. He also replaced two fleet commanders, one for an unforgivable mistake that had lost his fleet fifty warships. The second was to make way for a more junior commander who had outsmarted and defeated a larger Allied screening squadron. As he worked on strategy, his staff officers sent damaged ships back to his supply fleet and brought up fuel and weapons freighters to top off the ships that needed resupplied.

“We move forward again,” Tanaka-lan ordered once he and his battlefleet was ready to pit his wits against Somerville once again. And let’s see which fort we can take next.

Chapter 41

An enemy battlefleet can be like an immovable force; fixed in place, nothing can turn or sway it. Or it can be like a coiled spring, just waiting for the slightest nudge to set it off. The key is determining which you face.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Sparrowhawk

As Jonathan looked around at the bridge that surrounded him and the officers who were busy at work, he felt out of place. More than that, it felt wrong. In so many ways, Sparrowhawk was not Hammerclaw. After months spent behind enemy lines in almost constant danger, Hammerclaw’s bridge had taken on a rough but functional look. Sparrowhawk’s deck, command consoles, and screens had a pristine shine to them that felt out of place given all the battles Jonathan had seen. The bridge itself was also significantly larger and was home to far more officers. Sparrowhawk was a battleship, easily six times the size Hammerclaw was, and it showed on her bridge. Sparrowhawk’s Captain appeared to be every bit as competent as Montgomery was, as did his officers, yet their faces were still all unfamiliar to Jonathan. More than once, he had looked up to speak to Montgomery or someone else, only to find a strange face peering back at him.

At least I have Iso, and Harte, Jonathan thought, not for the first time. Both had accompanied him when Matthews had taken him to Omicron fort. Once there, despite Jonathan’s objections, Rear Admiral Farfan had immediately given Jonathan command of Sparrowhawk and dispatched him with the other ships that had been ordered to Zeta Fort. Jonathan had been torn, he had wanted to wait and make sure Hammerclaw and all his friends made it safely to Omicron fort. But then the news had come that the Karacknid battlefleet had reached Zeta Fort. Jonathan’s objections had died in an instant.

And now we find out if we are not too late, Jonathan said to himself as he glanced at a timer on the holo display. On the way to Zeta Fort, he had stopped at two other eastern border forts, picking up additional ships. Sparrowhawk and the four hundred warships now under his command were just twenty minutes from reaching Zeta Fort. Jonathan feared what he was going to find. His father was already at Zeta Fort, as was Tanaka-lan. He had every confidence in his father’s skills as a fleet commander. Yet if a battle had already been fought, it was almost impossible to believe that his father could have won. Eighty thousand warships was simply a number no commander could overcome. But more reinforcements are on their way, Jonathan told himself as he fought to keep his spirits up. His force was just one of many that were trying to get to Zeta Fort as the other nearby forts were emptied of their fleets.

During the final twenty minutes of the journey, Jonathan went over all the details of his squadron once again. He felt he needed to know every ship and every Captain under his command. How else could he command and fight them effectively? Yet he was still far from being intimately familiar with them all. At the very least, he made sure he understood the capabilities of each of the seven flotillas that made up his squadron.

A beep alerted everyone on the bridge that they were just sixty seconds from reaching the end of the shift passage. Jonathan’s body tensed as a tremor ran through Sparrowhawk, signaling she had reverted to real space. Though he had ordered his squadron to jump out ten light seconds before the system’s mass shadow in case the Karacknid battlefleet had taken control of the shift passage’s entrance, he was still nervous. When no contact alarms sounded nor additional tremors vibrated under his feet signaling Sparrowhawk was under attack, he relaxed slightly. It lasted only a couple of seconds, then the battleship’s passive sensors began to make sense of all the electromagnetic energy washing over them and the holo display filled with contacts.

Jonathan’s mouth fell open. Horror filled him. A massive battle was being played out within the system. For several long seconds, Jonathan’s mind struggled to comprehend just what he was seeing. Then patterns began to emerge as he distinguished Karacknid fleets from Allied ones. Quickly he understood what was happening. Tanaka-lan’s massive battlefleet was advancing on many of Zeta Fort’s fortifications at once. His father had deployed his fleet to meet the threat. All across the system ships flotillas were engaging one another while behind them much larger fleets jockeyed with one another for position.

Instinctively Jonathan turned to his new COMs officer, about to order her to contact his father with Sparrowhawk’s gravimetric COM to let him know they were here. He cut himself off before he spoke. If he signaled his father, the gravimetric pulses would alert every Karacknid ship in the system that additional forces were nearby. I have four hundred ships, Jonathan said to himself. What impact will they have on all that? The answer was obvious. There were over ninety thousand warships either maneuvering into position or already engaged with one another. If Jonathan raced his squadron in and assumed a position in the line of battle, his additional warship would become lost in the noise of battle. And that assumed his father would put him in the front, more likely, he would assign Jonathan’s squadron to the reserves.

But what if we show up somewhere unexpected? Jonathan wondered. “We’ll hold here for now,” he said as he spared a glance towards Iso. She barely nodded, and her eyes didn’t leave the holo display. With fresh eyes, Jonathan turned back to it and studied the emerging battlefield. Though he didn’t count himself a tactician on the level of his father or Becket, it didn’t take him long to see some of the patterns that were developing. Like an intricate painting being brought to life, one brush stroke at a time before him, he could see Tanaka-lan’s plan unfolding in his mind’s eye. The Karacknid Imperator was maneuvering several powerful fleets to bring them to a point where they could isolate and overwhelm two of the system’s forts. Jonathan could clearly see how events would unfold. Tanaka-lan had the numbers to turn the flank of several of Jonathan’s father’s fleets. He would force them back, then move in and take at least one of the forts.

This one here is in the most trouble, he told himself as he leant forward in his command chair to study one fort more closely. A plan quickly formed in his mind. “Take us into the system, twelve percent thrust,” he ordered immediately.

“Aye, Commodore,” Iso replied.

For forty-five minutes, Jonathan had to fight to keep from biting his fingernails or tapping on his command chair as his ships slowly moved into the system. Ahead of Sparrowhawk, the battle continued to play out. Thousands of fighters smashed into each other. Screening squadrons exchanged salvos here and there as their larger fleets briefly moved in to cross swords before pulling back. The only thing that kept Jonathan from coming out of stealth and charging in was that things were generally playing out as he had foreseen. The fortification he was seeking to aid was slowly becoming more and more isolated.

“We can’t wait any longer,” he decided, not realizing he had spoken out loud.

“What do you want to do, Commodore?” Iso asked.

Jonathan was already answering before she had finished her question. “Put us onto a heading of seven, four, one point three. Maximum acceleration. Launch all fighters. We’re going to smash our way through this screening force.” With a hand gesture, he selected a group of one hundred and eighty Karacknid light ships that were protecting the flank of a larger fleet. Already the Karacknids were lightly engaged with eighty Allied ships.

“Open a COM channel with the commander of the Allied flotilla fighting them,” Jonathan requested as his squadron announced themselves to the system by going to max acceleration.

“I have her,” Jonathan’s new COM officer informed him a moment later.

“Captain,” Jonathan said as he gave the Vestarian a quick salute. “I need you to pin the group you are fighting in place. Don’t let them pull back. I need to take them out as quickly as possible. My fighters will be accompanying my first salvo. Just hold them long enough for us to finish them.”

The Vestarian was halfway towards returning Jonathan’s salute when she froze. “Commodore Somerville?” She asked.

Jonathan flashed her a smile. “In the flesh. Now are you with me? We need to hit the flank of the Karacknid fleet this screening squadron is protecting.”

“Yes, Commodore, of course,” the Captain said.

Though she sounded like she didn’t understand what Jonathan was talking about, her tone was genuine. It was all Jonathan needed. “Thank you, Captain, I hope we will speak on the other side of this.” Without waiting for another reply, he ended the COM channel with a gesture towards his COM officer. He needed the captain to get back to fighting her ship. True to her word, moments later her eighty ships stopped trying to dance around the Karacknid squadron and dove in closer, firing another salvo as they did.

Recognizing the danger they were in, the Karacknids tried to pull back. Yet they couldn’t just turn tail and run, for presenting their rear to the incoming salvo would have been deadly in and of itself. Instead then, they tried to maneuver back towards the larger Karacknid fleet they were accompanying.

“Fire as soon as we’re in range,” Jonathan said to Harte. “Strike them with our fighters as well. I don’t want a single ship to survive.” He then turned to Iso. “Incorporate that Captain’s ships into our formation as we pass her.”

“Aye, sir,” Harte said, and then Iso repeated his words.

Jonathan nodded to both of them, trusting they would see it done. He then caught his COM officer’s eye again. “Now I need to speak to Rear Admiral Jourm, at once please,” he requested.

Seconds later, Jonathan was saluting the Varanni Admiral. “I’m sorry to disturb you Rear Admiral, and I know you are my senior, but I need your help,” he said, deciding to come right to it. “The Karacknid fleet adjacent to the screening squadron I’m about to engage. I believe it will soon advance on Commodore Farnsworth’s fleet. When it does, he will be forced back and it will in turn threaten your flank. Chameleon Fort will come under threat then. But we have a chance now to avert that. Will you join me in striking the Karacknid fleet once I destroy its screening squadron? We don’t need to destroy it, just force it back towards the other nearby Karacknid fleets.”

Jourm raised an eyebrow in a very human-like gesture. “That is quite the ask, even from the Emperor’s son. Wait one moment,” the alien said as it held up a short, thick arm. Jourm then looked away for several seconds. Jonathan knew he was checking the dispositions of the Karacknid fleets to see if what he said was right. “What you say is possible, but not yet certain. What makes you so sure?”

Jonathan went to answer but was then caught short. He didn’t know. He just felt it. “I can’t explain it, Rear Admiral. I can just see it. It is what Tanaka-lan is planning. But we can thwart it now without taking too much of a risk.”

Jourm nodded. “I see. Well, as it already seems you have committed your forces, I can hardly leave you unaided, can I? Very well, let us drive this fleet back. Then we will see if you’re right or not, Commodore. Once you destroy this screening force, you will come under my command. My officers will send you firing patterns.”

Jonathan bowed low to Jourm. “Of course, Rear Admiral. As you command.” Jonathan couldn’t help smiling. “And thank you.”

Jourm waved a hand as if swatting away Jonathan’s thanks. “If you have your father’s instincts, then I will be thanking you soon enough. If not, I suspect it will be me you have to worry about, not your father.” Jourm then dipped his head to Jonathan and disappeared.

Jonathan swallowed at that thought. Suddenly it occurred to him that maybe his father had a plan of his own to respond to the threat. Maybe one Jonathan was compromising? He will order us back if we are disrupting a bigger plan, Jonathan told himself, hoping he was right.

“Firing,” Harte announced calmly, bringing Jonathan’s mind back to the battle in front of him.

From Jonathan’s new squadron, seven thousand five hundred missiles were released towards the Karacknids. Though he expected the number, Jonathan was still impressed. With battleships and battlecruisers amongst his force, his new squadron was far more powerful than the one he had set out into The Wilds with. When he focused on the Karacknid screening squadron, he saw it was already defending itself against the Vestarian Captain’s attack. Three missiles punched through their defenses and destroyed two Karacknid ships. At the same time, the Allied flotilla also came under attack. Jonathan winced when nine ships were taken out. Yet it was the price that had to be paid to keep the screening squadron from falling back.

Both forces exchanged two more salvos, the Allies coming off worse each time. Then Jonathan’s salvo reached the Karacknid screening squadron. Several hundred fighters from the nearby Karacknid fleet tried to aid the squadron, but they had little effect. Jonathan’s fighters largely ignored them and swooped in with his large salvo. Hundreds of missiles breached the Karacknids’ defensive fire and decimated the squadron. His fighters rushed into the confusion and rammed more missiles into the ships that had survived the attack. With nothing left to defend, the Karacknid fighters quickly retreated.

Jonathan's ships were soon surging through the debris left by the Karacknid screening squadron. They picked up the Allied flotilla, bolstering their numbers, and then altered their heading to close with the nearest Karacknid fleet. Numbering three and a half thousand warships, they dwarfed Jonathan’s force. While trying not to think about what would happen if his ships ventured close enough to catch a full salvo from such a force, Jonathan kept his ships heading pointed straight at the heart of the Karacknid fleet. For fifteen minutes they charged their foe.

To the relief of everyone on Sparrowhawk’s bridge, Rear Admiral Jourm’s fleet of four and a half thousand warships then came surging into the picture. With a greater momentum than Jonathan’s ships, they closed the distance to the Karacknids quickly. Both sides then exchanged a couple of salvos at one another. When ten Kulrean worldships moved out ahead of Jourm’s ships and prepared to engage the mass of incoming Karacknid missiles, the enemy commander thought better of the engagement. With Jonathan’s ships also about to close and attack his flank, he turned his ships and began to fall back. Jourm slowed his advance but did not immediately turn. Instead, he pursued the Karacknid fleet, forcing them back further even as he was struck by their missiles.

A mixture of relief and regret jostled within Jonathan. As the Karacknid fleet fell back, he could see the domino effect he had anticipated play out. Two other Karacknid fleets had to alter their positions for fear of also being flanked by a combination of Jourm’s fleet and the other Allied fleets they were facing. The knock-on effect meant the fortification Jonathan had feared would be isolated was now safe, for the fleet meant to strike at it couldn’t advance without having to face two Allied fleets simultaneously. At the same time, as the two Karacknid salvos struck Jourm’s ships, Jonathan saw many ships die that were only there because of his say-so.

Over seventy thousand missiles had been launched by the Karacknid fleet. As the Kulrean worldships began to tear into them, many tried to avoid the giant ships. Yet over ten thousand attempted something different. All of them targeted just one worldship. Its comrades recognized what was happening just a handful of seconds too late. Desperately they rushed to come to its aid, but it was futile. All by itself, the worldship shot down over six thousand missiles. It couldn’t get them all, however. Hundreds dove in towards the Kulrean vessel. Antimatter blasts began to hit its shield. It held against at least twenty, then it failed.

Next, the worldship’s armor withstood hit after hit. However, with hundreds of missiles raining down on the giant ship, it could only last so long. Eventually, three antimatter warheads struck almost the same spot. The third finally breached the worldship's thick armor and blasted destructive energies into the heart of the behemoth. Soon, other parts of the ship’s armor were breached and then missiles were penetrating through internal decks and bulkheads before detonating. One took out a key power relay, silencing half of the worldship's defensive cannons. That spelled the end of the vessel’s resistance. So many missiles struck it that the worldship disappeared from Sparrowhawk’s sensors as it was completely enveloped in antimatter. When the antimatter finally dissipated, it was simply gone.

There was no time for Jonathan to dwell on his grief at the loss of the mighty ship, for the rest of the Karacknid missiles were already striking Jourm’s fleet. Nearly a hundred got through to blow up or cripple nearly as many Allied ships. Wisely, Jourm then pulled back the remaining nine worldships, and together his fleet faced the second Karacknid salvo. Nearly two dozen more ships were taken out by the Karacknids’ fire.

Jourm just lost nearly as much firepower as my entire squadron, Jonathan thought as his stomach churned within him. And this entire fight is just one portion of what is going on out there! As his eyes roamed over the many other engagements that were being fought across the system, Jonathan felt sick. Hundreds were likely dying every minute. Probably tens of thousands every hour. His eyes then found Tanaka-lan’s distinctive super dreadnought, holding position right at the rear of his battlefleet. Jonathan’s horror turned to anger. All because he wishes to destroy us.

When Jonathan looked down from the holo display, he found Iso and his COM officer looking at him. “Go ahead,” he said.

“Rear Admiral Jourm has sent us a new heading to follow to join up with his fleet,” Iso said first.

“Follow his instructions,” Jonathan replied, then turned to his COM officer.

“Your father has been in contact; he wishes to speak to you as soon as you’re in two-way communication.”

Jonathan nodded, hiding a smile as he thought of speaking to his father. Despite all the death and destruction around him, he was eager to see him.

*

Slayer

Tanaka-lan marked the group of new Allied ships that had turned the flank of one of his fleets, throwing his carefully laid plan into confusion. He didn’t know if Somerville had kept the squadron hidden to strike at him at just the right moment, or if the squadron commander had acted on his own initiative. If he had, Tanaka-lan wanted to follow the ships, to see if an opportunity for some quick revenge presented itself in the fighting that was to follow. Then, he reset his emotions and his plans, and began to order his fleets forward once again. If he couldn’t strike at the fort he had in mind, then he just had to find another one to outmaneuver and destroy.

Chapter 42

Like father, like son has not always been the case with our Emperors, but we are lucky that it has more often than not.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Victory

James felt a fresh flood of relief as his son’s face appeared in front of him. He frowned at the innocent expression on Jonathan’s face. Feelings that had been swirling through him just minutes before returned. “You have no idea how many times I almost ordered you back! You gave me a fright jumping into the system and charging that massive Karacknid fleet.” James paused as his son returned his stern words with a smile. He couldn’t stay mad, not when it had worked out so well. He decided to tell Jonathan that instead. “Yet you did well, very well. Did you know what impact your attack would have?”

Jonathan shrugged. “I hoped. It looked like one of the forts was going to get into trouble.”

“Well, it seems you have a knack for strategy, my son,” James said as he too smiled. “As much as I hate to admit it, I guess that means I’m going to have to put you to use. Though first, if you don’t mind, I’d like to indulge myself a little. So tell me, how are you? How have these months been?”

Right away, James could see the losses Jonathan had suffered as his son’s facial expression darkened. “It’s been tough. Very tough. We barely managed to get to Omicron Fort. I had to leave Hammerclaw and most of what was left of my squadron behind. We left with three hundred ships, and less than thirty will make it to Omicron.”

James nodded. He had lost more ships than Jonathan had in his entire raiding campaign in the last half hour, yet he understood his son’s grief. Losing a ship and its crew that was under your command was always personal. It was always your responsibility. “But I am sure you led them well, and their deaths were not in vain. I have no doubt there are many hundreds if not thousands of Karacknid warships that are in The Wilds patrolling their supply lines rather than here fighting against us, all because of you and your squadron’s actions.”

Jonathan surprised James by nodding. A small hint of a smile even touched his lips. “You are right there. It was touch and go at times, but we caused our fair share of mayhem. I bet there’s one or two Karacknid commanders out there who would love to get their hands on me.”

“That’s what I like to hear,” James said, pleased by his son’s maturity. He remembered the melancholy he had often suffered during his early years of flag rank. And he had never lost ninety percent of a squadron under his command!

“How is mother, and everyone else?” Jonathan asked, concern suddenly filling his eyes.

“They are all okay,” James said quickly. “At least, the last I heard. Rachel and Becca are both stationed at New Shanghai. Your mother is well, as is Edward. He is hunting for Silizzarus ships along our southern border.”

“And Georgia?”

“I sent orders for Admiral Becket to pull back from her raiding campaign several months ago. They should have reached her by now, and she should be well on her way back to the Gift. But we have heard nothing yet. I’m not expecting any news for another month at least. But I’m sure Georgia is fine. From everything I hear about her piloting skills, she’s all but impossible to shoot down.”

Jonathan nodded and smiled again. “That’s what I hear too.” He paused for a second and then asked another question. “How are things going here then, and where do you need me?”

James felt the joy he had been experiencing at seeing his son in the flesh fade from his face. “We are fighting a losing battle, I’m afraid. We cannot turn back Tanaka-lan’s numbers. But we are making him bleed for every fortification he destroys. He is slowly opening up a corridor through which he can advance into the inner system to strike at our fleet base though. Once he takes it, we’ll have to retreat, then the line of border forts will be broken.” James paused, feeling the weight of his own words. “Our only hope is that by then we will have bled him so badly that he cannot advance further. At least until he reorganizes and repairs his fleet. By which time we will have to have gathered enough additional forces to stop his advance on Earth.”

Jonathan took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “There’s no hope of stopping him here?”

James shook his head. “Not with the numbers he has. And not with the attacks happening elsewhere. Beta, Gamma, and Theta forts are all under attack too. They are holding, but a determined push might see one of them fall. Over ninety thousand ships are also probing the Mindus and Varanni forts as well. So they cannot send us much more aid for fear their forts will be breached. The reality is, at the rate Tanaka-lan is taking out our fortifications, in two or three days he will have opened up his path through our outer forts. Then we will have to fight him head on or fall back.”

James smiled at the concerned look on his son’s face. “But cheer up, it could have been a lot worse. If we hadn’t got your warning about Tanaka-lan’s additional battlefleet, Zeta Fort would have already fallen, and we’d be falling back to New Shanghai or even Earth at this very moment.” Raising his hand, James gestured towards Victory’s holo display and the battle that was still raging behind him. “This is because you managed to warn us. You’ve given us this chance to bleed Tanaka-lan. And we’re far from defeated here yet.”

As Jonathan nodded, a flashing light distracted James. He knew it meant Zeta Fort’s FTL COM was sending a transmission to Victory. James didn’t hear Jonathan’s reply as he watched the COM officer read the message and spin around towards Victory’s Captain. “What is it, Lieutenant?” He asked, cutting Jonathan off. An emergency FTL message almost never brought good news.

“A message from New Shanghai, Emperor,” the Lieutenant said hesitantly. “It’s from Admiral Becket, for you.”

“Admiral Becket?” James repeated, his eyes lighting up. He had no idea how she had reached New Shanghai so quickly. But if she had, it could change everything. “Send it to me immediately, please.”

“Admiral Becket is at New Shanghai?” Jonathan asked, surprise filling his voice.

James held up a hand to get Jonathan to give him a second. It took just thirty seconds to scan through the initial paragraphs of Becket’s report. He read enough to confirm she was indeed at New Shanghai, with her ships, and that, at least as far as Becket knew, Georgia was alive and well. With a grin, he then looked up at Jonathan. “Becket is at New Shanghai. And with four thousand warships. She abandoned her raiding campaign before my recall orders reached her. She already guessed Tanaka-lan wasn’t sending a fleet to confront her. Now she’s just two days away!”

As he spoke, an idea quickly began to form in his mind. Jonathan's sudden arrival had been enough to upset the delicate balance of the intricate duel he and Tanaka-lan were fighting. With Becket’s force, he could cause an even bigger disruption. Especially if we can sneak more missile pods forward, James thought as he smiled.

“You have an idea, don’t you, Father?” Jonathan asked, recognizing the look on James’ face.

James nodded, then turned to his COM officer. “I want all my senior commanders linked into this COM channel. I need to speak to them at once.”

“Right away, Emperor,” the Lieutenant responded.

James then gave his son a conciliatory grimace. “I’m sorry, we’ll have to catch up more later, if we get the chance,” he added as he glanced at the holo display to see Tanaka-lan had his fleet on the move once again. This will have to be quick, he told himself.

Within a couple of minutes, all of James’ senior commanders had joined them. After most had shared a couple of words of welcome with Jonathan, James began. Briefly he outlined the news Becket had shared with them, and his plan. “So, we need to hold on for two more days. That’s it. Two days and we will have a chance to really hurt them. If we can achieve this, then we’ll tip the balance of forces closer to being in our favor. I doubt we will still be able to hold the system long term, but it could buy us a week or two or even three, instead of having to fall back within the next three or four days.”

As James looked around at the faces of his officers, they were all nodding seriously or showing some other kind of positive response. “Two days,” Scott said solemnly, speaking for them all. “We can do that. It will be tough. It will cost us many ships and lives. But we can withstand this another two days.”

“Then let us get back to it,” James said, another glance at the main holo display telling him he needed to begin responding to Tanaka-lan’s latest moves before it was too late.

*

Slayer, 20th June 2513 AD, (one day later).

Tanaka-lan let out a low, satisfied growl as another Human fort disintegrated under heavy fire from one of his fleets. Its destruction marked the fourteenth that he had destroyed. His battlefleet was taking losses, of course, but it was far less than he would suffer if he tried a frontal assault. Just as importantly, he was also whittling away the Allies' numbers. Even more so in the last day, he realized as he reviewed the most recent engagements he had instigated. Something had changed with the Allies. They were still falling back slowly, and refused to commit to a serious engagement unless they could outmaneuver his fleets to get a momentary advantage, something Tanaka-lan was quick to bring to an end when he saw it developing. Yet even so, their resistance had stiffened. They weren’t abandoning forts just so easily. It meant both his forces and theirs were taking more losses.

Which is fine by me, Tanaka-lan thought. Whether he killed the Allied ships now, or when he struck their main base, or as they advanced on Earth, he didn’t really care. One way or another, he was going to destroy them all. And as long as he was keeping to his schedule, he was confident most of the forces the holo display showed arrayed against his battlefleet would soon meet their end.

As he considered his next move, Tanaka-lan’s eyes fell on one of the largest Human forts on the edge of the inner system. It could fire four hundred of their long-range missiles, which meant it could deliver four thousand warheads to his fleets. The Fort was in range of eight others, meaning every time Tanaka-lan attacked a nearby fort, his ships came under multiple powerful salvos of enemy missiles. Tanaka-lan especially hated the bomblets and gravity warheads the Humans' multistage missiles released. They meant that no matter how strong his force was, if it came under fire from the multistage missiles, they would take some losses.

Tanaka-lan’s claws extended as he considered the fort. He wanted it gone. Yet the time hadn’t come quite, yet. It was still too risky to try a direct attack. He needed to take out two other forts first, then he could push back the nearest Allied Fleet, and then the door would be open to take the fort out. But the Humans don’t know that yet, Tanaka-lan thought as an idea came to him. If the Humans were putting up a stronger defense, then they would know the importance of the fort. They wouldn’t want to see it fall, for it would uncover so many of their other forts. And that is something I can use, he thought as his lips peeled back.

Chapter 43

The list of extremely competent fleet commanders the Allies enjoyed during the First and Second Karacknid Wars is long and distinguished. Sadly, that list was far shorter by the time the fighting finally stopped.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Repulse

Ivanov repeated James' words as she sought to encourage herself. Just two more days… No, just one more now! She added as her eyes glanced at the nearest chronometer. The first day since James’ news had now finally passed. Weariness was her constant companion. She had long since lost track of how many skirmishes she had led her fleet into over the last two and a half days. Was it twelve, or thirteen? It could have been as many as fifteen or sixteen for all she knew. Yet it didn’t matter how she felt. The Karacknids just kept on coming, and so she had to keep on fighting.

When the Karacknids had lost their missile pod freighters and began their general assault, she had left Zeta Fort's main base with five thousand warships split between her main fleet and three screening squadrons. Now she was down to four thousand three hundred. She knew she had destroyed at least twelve hundred enemy warships. Yet the fleets she was facing now were just as strong as they had been at the start. Instead of it getting easier as they were driven into the inner system, it was just getting harder. And all the while she had to watch her beloved Zeta Fort be dismantled piece by piece.

Seven years ago, Emperor Somerville had assigned her to the fort and tasked her with building an impenetrable base upon which a Karacknid fleet would break itself. If the Karacknids had come with twenty thousand warships, or even thirty, Ivanov was sure she could have held them off all by herself. But the battlefleet in front of her was something she had never imagined, even in her worst nightmares. But I’m not alone, she thought as she fought to lift her spirits. Thousands of ships and millions of others were fighting at her side. And though they were being pushed back, they were hurting the Karacknids. Every fortification lost was a blow, but it also signaled another thousand dead Karacknid warships. And sooner or later they have to start feeling their losses, don’t they? she asked, more out of hope than certainty.

As a wave of Karacknid fighters suddenly appeared and tried to rush one of her screening squadrons, Ivanov pushed her concerns aside. With a few short commands, she pulled the screening squadron back, while she dispatched fighters and a strong flotilla to reinforce them. The result was a short but savage engagement where she lost thirty fighters and twelve ships. A week ago, she would have felt the losses. Now it was just another hour’s worth of losses in a battle that had already spanned more than thirty hours.

With her staff officers, Ivanov reworked her fleet’s position as they tried to fulfil Emperor Somerville's orders to be ready to assist three different forts. Then she sent out her screening squadrons again to get a feel for the Karacknid fleets nearest her. With all the engagements, jamming and incomplete sensor drone data coming in, at times it was impossible to be sure just what was going on without pushing her ships right up against the Karacknids. Even so, as she assessed the Karacknid positions, one of the Karacknid reserve fleets made her eyes narrow. It was repositioning. Actually, being a bit behind where most of the fighting was occurring made it easier to see. Probably, it was moving to support a fleet that had been damaged or was under threat. Yet its heading made the hairs on the back of Ivanov's neck stand up. With just a small course change, it could come at us. If it was assisted by Foxtrot fleet, we’d be driven back. Then Freya Fort could be attacked!

As she eyed Freya Fort, Ivanov’s concern grew. Freya was one of the largest forts in the system. It acted like a linchpin, securing many of the other forts. Having designed the interlocking fortification system herself, she knew all too well how important it was. Already Freya had racked up over five hundred kills, and as yet it hadn’t been directly assaulted. Tanaka-lan wants it destroyed, Ivanov was suddenly sure.

“Get me a COM channel connected to Emperor Somerville,” she demanded.

“What is it, Vice Admiral?” James asked moments later.

“Tango fleet, it has me concerned,” she responded. “Look at its heading, I think it is really coming for me, at least it is going to feint at me. With Foxtrot fleet, they could drive my ships back and uncover Freya. Then Foxtrot fleet could turn and destroy it.”

James nodded as he studied the Karacknid positions. “What do you want to do about it?”

“If Anderson and I coordinate, we could drive Foxtrot fleet back now, before Tango fleet gets into position. Then they couldn’t advance on us,” Ivanov recommended. She watched as James pressed his lips together, clearly thinking.

“Alright, but be careful, if you have to abandon Freya, then you have to,” James said. “I’ll inform Anderson. You will take the lead.”

“Understood,” Ivanov said as she nodded. She saluted James and then cut the COM channel. “Work up two new headings for our fleet and Anderson’s,” she said as she turned to her staff officers. “We’re going to advance on Foxtrot now. We need to act fast.”

For the next ten minutes, Ivanov expertly wielded her and Anderson's screening squadrons in a way that hid the intention of both fleets’ movements. Then they pounced. All four Allied screening squadrons moved to engage the three that were out ahead of Foxtrot fleet, while she and Anderson’s warships began to advance on the Karacknid fleet’s two flanks. Almost immediately, the Karacknid fleet had to begin to fall back. At the same time, they dispatched several powerful flotillas forward to aid their screening squadrons. Ivanov matched the move and as the three large fleets maneuvered against one another, a sizeable battle developed in between them as screening squadrons clashed with one another. Soon fighters were involved and as the engagement stretched to half an hour and then an hour, the losses began to mount. Ivanov mentally registered them, yet her energy was all focused on fighting the engagement in front of her and making sure she continued to force Foxtrot fleet back. A smile began to develop on her lips as Foxtrot moved so far back that it could no longer support an attack on Freya’s fortifications.

However, it lasted only seconds before it turned into a frown. Now that she did not need to keep pushing Foxtrot fleet back, her mind turned to extricating her screening squadrons from the back-and-forth battle they were in. Right away it was obvious it wasn’t going to be an easy task. Though the Karacknids fleet was still falling back, its screening squadrons were still pressing her ships hard. If she tried to pull her screening squadrons back too quickly, the Karacknids could push in and focus on one of them and destroy it. I need to send more ships forward to help get them out, she decided and gave orders to that effect. Yet almost immediately, more Karacknid ships detached from Foxtrot and moved to join the melee.

“Vice Admiral, we may have a problem,” Ivanov’s tactical officer said, pulling her away from the difficulties her screening squadrons were having.

“What is it?” Ivanov asked in frustration. As she looked over to the officer though, she could see he already had a secondary display showing his concern. She saw what he was talking about immediately. Though it could no longer attack Freya, Tango fleet had altered its heading nonetheless. Now it was coming straight for her, and at a high acceleration rate! Ivanov didn’t hear her officer's explanation. Her eyes and her mind were already searching the main holo display that showed all the nearby Allied fleets, looking for help. She cursed when she couldn’t see anyone close enough. Then Foxtrot fleet stopped its advance. Turning, it settled onto a course that would take it right between her and Anderson's fleets and began to accelerate hard.

Ivanov groaned as she realized the full extent of Tanaka-lan’s plan. He had never been targeting Freya, he had been targeting her! She could see it clearly now. Foxtrot fleet would push forward to place itself between Anderson's and her fleet so Anderson couldn't assist her, while Tango fleet would move up and engage her ships. With her fleet’s momentum still taking her towards the outer system, and roughly in the direction of Tango fleet, there was nothing she could do to avoid a battle now.

Ivanov cursed again. This time it was aimed at herself. She had been tricked! But she hadn’t lost her cool yet. You can’t avoid a battle, but you can still shorten it, she told herself. “Full reverse, get the fleet moving back towards our battle line,” she all but growled as faces turned to her.

“Anderson is hailing you, Vice Admiral,” a voice called out after Ivanov’s Chief of Staff acknowledged her order.

“You’re in trouble,” Anderson said seconds later. “I can fight my way through Foxtrot fleet to you, but Tango fleet will reach you before I can get there.”

Ivanov shook her head. “You will do no such thing. If you try to fight your way through, they'll cut you to pieces. Even if you defeat them, you’d not be in any position to aid me. No, there’s no way out of this. We are going to get hit hard, but we’ll hit back just as strong. If Foxtrot fleet wants to get in between us, well we shall let them. We can strike them from two sides and take as many ships with us as we can.”

“But what about Tango fleet?” Anderson said, “They’ll be able to hit you freely.”

“As you’ll be able to hit Foxtrot freely. I led us into this trap, and now there's nothing we can do but fight our way out and accept the losses about to come. So, your task is simple, Rear Admiral. Hit Foxtrot fleet as much as you can and make up for the losses we are about to incur. Is that clear?”

Anderson held Ivanov’s gaze for several seconds. His expression changed from determination, to acceptance, to sadness. Then he slowly nodded. “I understand, Vice Admiral. If this is how it must be, then we will do all that we can.”

“Good, we will speak again later then,” Ivanov said, trying to sound like she believed her words.

Anderson’s face didn’t change. “Later,” he agreed, speaking for sake of their officers who were listening in.

Ivanov nodded, then ended the COM channel. When the COM channel ended, Ivanov took a deep breath, then turned to face the new fleet charging her retreating ships. Okay then, let’s be having you, she thought towards the hundreds of thousands of Karacknid warriors coming to kill her.

*

IS Victory

Sweat ran down James’ brow as he controlled three fleets and seven screening squadrons. Tanaka-lan was coming at him with twenty thousand warships, trying to attack one of two forts. James knew that if his forces were drawn out of position even just a little, then Tanaka-lan would strike and destroy another fort. Then suddenly, without warning, all across the front line the Karacknid fleets stopped advancing. For a couple of seconds James just stared in confusion. Then he felt a sudden panic. Something was up. The entire attack had been a diversion, which meant somewhere else Tanaka-lan had just achieved what he had set out to do. As a deep sense of unease settled upon him, James began to check the rest of the battlefield. It took just seconds to spot the two Karacknid fleets that were still advancing. James swore when he saw what was happening to Ivanov’s ships. Spinning to his COM officer, he started to order her to recall Ivanov. Before he could though, Ivanov’s ships started turning and decelerating themselves. She had seen it too.

As the holo display updated to show the new courses of Ivanov’s and Anderson’s fleets, as well as Foxtrot and Tango fleets, James swore again. They had been outmaneuvered, and they were going to take losses. James turned and sought out Tanaka-lan’s superdreadnought. Anger flooded through him. But she’s not dead yet, James told himself, as he fought to calm himself. Quickly he began to give out new orders as he directed every ship and fighter nearby to rush to Ivanov’s aid. Then, there was nothing he could do but watch as his friend and nearly half a million of his people fought for their lives.

As Foxtrot fleet rushed into the gap between Anderson and Ivanov’s fleets, it began to take a pounding from two sides. Yet as it engaged, it quickly became apparent that the Karacknid fleet had quite a number of their point defense cruisers. Many fighters also swarmed from the fleet to engage the fighters Anderson and Ivanov sent against them. With a thousand more ships than either Anderson or Ivanov had, they also began to release powerful salvos towards Ivanov.

Tango fleet soon moved into range as well and coordinated its fire with Foxtrot. As it didn’t have to worry about defending itself, it sent a wave of two thousand fighters against Ivanov’s fleet with its first salvo. A thousand Allied fighters raced out to meet them and made a brave attempt at stalling the Karacknid fighters' attack, but many zipped passed them. Then, one hundred and forty-seven thousand missiles from both Karacknid fleets smashed into Ivanov’s ships. Thousands got through the Allied defensive fire. Then the fighters came charging in. Particle cannons fired and hundreds of ships exploded. The Allied warships then desperately filled space with laser beams and plasma bolts as they tried to shoot down the fighters that were swarming all over them. Many were hit, yet many more remained. They fired for a second time once their weapons were recharged, and more Allied ships died. Only then did the remaining Karacknid fighters pull away and seek to escape.

James shook his head as his hands tightened into fists at the destruction taking place before his eyes. Over five hundred of Ivanov's ships were simply gone. Nearly as many again looked to be crippled or very badly damaged. Her fleet had lost almost a fifth of its strength in just one enemy attack.

However, despite the slaughter they had just suffered, Ivanov’s fleet demonstrated the quality of its commander and training as it quickly reformed. They then ignored the fleet that had just savaged them and fired another salvo towards Foxtrot fleet. A glance at the Karacknids told James they were suffering too. With Ivanov and Anderson’s missiles coming from two directions, and Allied fighters still pestering them, hundreds of contacts were missing from Foxtrot fleet. Hundreds more were also falling out of formation, too damaged to continue the fight.

But the losses would mean nothing to Tanaka-lan, James knew. The Karacknids were killing as many as they lost, and that was a winning strategy for them. Come on, James thought towards the squadrons of warships and fighters he had racing to Ivanov’s aid. Faster!

No matter how fast they went, however, they were simply too far away. Helplessly, James watched as three more salvos crashed into Ivanov’s fleet in the space of fifteen minutes. Each time Ivanov’s ships resolutely reformed and continued the fight. Yet their strength was being whittled away. Hundreds of ships died in each salvo and it quickly became apparent that the Karacknids were focusing their fire on Ivanov’s dreadnoughts, battleships, and battlecruisers. As soon as he learned that, James' fear for his friend spiked. He couldn’t stop his mind from going back to the first time he had met her. Admiral Korolyov, one of the greatest commanders James had ever fought with, who had then become a friend, had transferred Ivanov from his command staff to James'. Initially, she had seemed cold and distant, but as James won her trust, they had quickly warmed to one another.

And now she stands alone, James thought, full of worry as another salvo crashed into her ships. Miraculously, Repulse seemed to miss out on being targeted as tens of capital ships were blasted apart and over a hundred smaller ships were destroyed too. Then James’ reinforcements began to arrive. First, several hundred fighters passed Repulse and moved to engage the next salvo of missiles coming from Tango fleet. Then a squadron of eighty light ships bolstered Ivanov’s fleet’s defenses. Yet neither Tango nor Foxtrot fleets began to decelerate or veer away. Even as Anderson received reinforcements as well, and so the strength of missile salvos coming against Foxtrot fleet increased, both Karacknid forces continued to pursue and pound Ivanov’s ships.

Two more salvos savaged Ivanov’s fleet. Hundreds more ships were destroyed. Then Jonathan’s squadron came swooping in to join Ivanov. James had reinforced his son's command up to a force of eight hundred warships. Another two hundred ships also added strength to Anderson’s fleet. Only then did Tango fleet finally begin to turn. Even as it did, however, it fired one last salvo in coordination with Foxtrot fleet. With the losses Foxtrot fleet had suffered, just one hundred and six thousand missiles attacked Ivanov’s fleet. Yet Ivanov’s force had already lost nearly half of its strength. James’ fear spiked as his son was now in the firing line as well.

With the reinforcements Ivanov’s fleet had received though, they did a far better job of dealing with the incoming missiles. Fighters shot down thousands of them before they reached the fleet, then the strengthened wall of defensive fire engaged the rest. A number of missiles did target Sparrowhawk, however, a combination of the battleship’s defensive fire and the quick actions of the four frigates and two light cruisers that were tasked with aiding the battleship shot them all down. James’ hope for Jonathan and Ivanov surged.

Unbeknownst to him, however, Repulse had already suffered three proximity hits from earlier salvos, and her defenses and maneuvering thrusters were already badly compromised. Three missiles from the final salvo burst through the fleet's defensive fire and targeted her. Her pitiful evasive maneuvers failed to throw off the aim of any of them. Defensive fire from a nearby frigate destroyed one missile while a second was eventually taken out by Repulse’s own guns. The third, however, could not be hit. Instead, it plunged in towards Repulse. The dreadnought’s shield had long since been depleted and so the missile struck her hull. Its reinforced nose easily burst through an area of weakened valstronium armor and penetrated deep into the heart of the dreadnought. A fraction of a second later, it detonated. The antimatter it released began to explode as it came into contact with Repulse’s decking, bulkheads, and systems.

On Victory’s holo display, Repulse shuddered, appeared to remain stationary for a second, and then a massive fireball split her in two, flinging both sections away from the other. A second later, both detonated, one just after the other, completely destroying the dreadnought. James groaned as grief washed over him. Ivanov was one of his best commanders. She had already proved it several times over the last two days, and her fleet had just proven it again as they had fought resolutely. She also knew Zeta Fort’s defenses better than anyone. Her advice had been invaluable as they had faced down Tanaka-lan’s battlefleet. Far more importantly than either, however, she had been his friend. Now she was gone. Another one killed by Tanaka-lan and his Karacknids.

James smashed a fist into his command chair. He welcomed the physical pain that momentarily competed with his grief. As he looked back up at the display though, his physical pain diminished and was replaced with dismay. Ivanov was far from the only loss. Her fleet had been decimated. She had advanced on Foxtrot fleet with forty-three hundred ships. Just nineteen hundred were falling back now, and many of them were flashing different colors on the display, signaling they were seriously damaged. It looked like less than five hundred were still battle ready. The rest would have to fall back to the main fleet base or even be evacuated to New Shanghai.

Yet, as James took a moment to survey Foxtrot fleet, the Karacknids had suffered roughly similar losses. But they can absorb such losses easily. And their Tango fleet was still fully intact, James thought as his eyes turned to it. If Freya Fort hadn’t really been in trouble before, now it was. If he didn’t rush fresh units into the sector soon, it could be overwhelmed. And then Ivanov’s death will have been for nothing. But where was he to get them from? Wherever he moved squadrons from would weaken and compromise that area's defense.

Are we even going to last another day? James asked himself as grief and despair assaulted him. Though he could feel them wrestling with his other emotions, wanting to take over and throw him into a fit of melancholy, James fought back. He owed it to Ivanov, and Jimenez, and everyone else who had already died, and even more, to those who were still fighting. He had to keep himself under control and resist Tanaka-lan with every ounce of energy he had.

Doing his best to keep his feelings from his face and voice, James started moving squadrons and fleets around. Though he hated himself even as he did it, he forced himself to decide which forts and fleets he would weaken and so risk losing, and which ones he needed to strengthen. If he was to have any chance of holding until Becket arrived, they could not let Tanaka-lan roll over Freya Fort and push deeper into the system.

Chapter 44

My father taught me that sometimes, live bait is the only way to catch the animal you are hunting. The lesson has proved useful to me more than once on the battlefield.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Sparrowhawk

The day and a half that had passed since he entered the Zeta Fort system was the most intense of Jonathan’s life. By now, Sparrowhawk’s bridge had lost its strangeness and felt more like an extension of his own body. Twenty-two hours ago, his father had given him command of what had been left of Ivanov’s fleet. Doing so had filled Jonathan with guilt. Ivanov had died because he had failed her. Yet there hadn’t been any time to dwell on that feeling either. Since then, he’d fought in almost as many battles as he had during the entire three months he had spent behind enemy lines raiding the Karacknids’ supply lines. By his count, he had lost two hundred and fifteen ships. He expected the number to keep rising faster and faster.

As he sat behind his desk in his personal office, taking his first break in what felt like weeks, he found himself feeling out of place, again. This time it was caused by the company he was in. In front of him, holo images of all of his father's senior commanders were listening as his father spoke. It felt wrong for his father to count him among the esteemed commanders. All of them had proven themselves multiple times over. But Jonathan could hardly say no to his father. He was listening too, though weariness made his mind wander. Everything in his office felt new. He wasn’t even sure he had sat in the seat before. None of it reminded him of Hammerclaw. At least she and her crew are being spared this, Jonathan thought. That was the one benefit Sparrowhawk brought, he wasn’t nearly so emotionally attached to her and her crew. At least if he made a mistake and got her destroyed, his last moments wouldn’t be filled with the knowledge he had killed many of his friends as well.

Realizing he had missed a couple of sentences his father had said, Jonathan gave himself a shake and tried to refocus. As his gaze settled back onto his father’s face, Jonathan was once again surprised by the sheer determination that flowed from his father’s eyes. Ever since Ivanov’s loss, a constant stream of orders had been flowing from Victory. Every advance Tanaka-lan made was met by a countermove from his father. Jonathan knew his father hadn’t given an inch without the Karacknids suffering heavy losses. Amazingly, despite the loss of Ivanov’s ships, the Karacknids' advance had actually been slowed. Seeing the look in his father’s eyes and knowing him well enough to also sense the exhaustion hidden just beneath the surface, Jonathan knew it was only by sheer willpower that his father was holding the Allied fleet’s defenses together.

We cannot hold for much longer; either he will collapse from total exhaustion, or Tanaka-lan will outwit another one of our commanders. Then the fleet will break. Jonathan could see it on the other faces in the conference call. They were all weary. They could all read the tactical situation as well as he. But father can see it too, Jonathan realized as he listened to his father again. That is why he has us here.

“Four more hours,” James said earnestly. “Four more hours and Becket will be here. We have almost done it. Now we just need to dig in, hold on and our chance will soon come.”

Jonathan could see his father’s words making everyone sit up straighter. Though as James began to outline his plan, Jonathan’s confidence still felt like it was on a knife-edge. If his was, then so too was everyone else’s. None of them could deny the losses they had suffered. Jonathan knew the Allied fleet had numbered just over thirty thousand ships when Tanaka-lan’s force had jumped into the system. Several thousand more had come since then. Yet they were now down to twenty-two thousand, and they had lost all but twelve of the system’s fortifications. Meanwhile, Tanaka-lan was still advancing with forty-five thousand ships, and he had another twenty in reserve defending his supply freighters.

We need something more; something to assure us Tanaka-lan will take the bait. We’ve all seen how good he is now. If he doesn’t attack Freya Fort just when we need him to, even Becket’s ships won’t make the difference. Then Zeta Fort will fall, no matter what else we do. An idea came to Jonathan then. He suddenly knew just how they could guarantee Tanaka-lan would strike at Freya if his father opened the door for him.

“What if we let Tanaka-lan know I am at Freya Fort?” he blurted out, interrupting his father. He felt his cheeks redden when everyone turned to him.

For a second his father scowled at him, deepening the color on Jonathan’s cheeks. Then it passed. “What do you mean?” James asked, a hint of both curiosity and concern coming into his voice.

“Remember, I have fought Tanaka-lan before,” Jonathan said, feeling a little shame that it came out like a boast, but it was true. “Both times I defeated him, or at least I escaped. Of course, it wasn’t really down to me, but he knew I commanded the forces he faced both times. What if we let him know I’m at Freya Fort? If you then uncover it, he’ll have to attack, to restore his honor, if nothing else. We know the Karacknid hierarchy is based on their combat prowess. Me besting him has put a smear on his reputation. If we give him the opportunity to destroy Freya Fort and wipe that smear away, how can he refuse?”

James nodded, a little too vigorously for Jonathan’s liking. “Yes, I think you’re onto something. Though if we are going to bait the trap, then why not me? He'd come for me even quicker than he'd come for you.”

Jonathan shook his head, but he didn’t need to rebut his father, Scott did it for him. “That wouldn’t work, I'm afraid, Emperor,” she said, her voice unable to hide her own tiredness. “He would see through it in a second. You’d be putting yourself too much in harm’s way. It would be an obvious trap.”

James frowned at Scott’s words, though he didn’t argue with her. Everyone knew she was right. When he looked back towards Jonathan, he didn’t look happy. “So I have to put my son in harm’s way instead?”

“We are all in harm’s way already,” Jonathan said earnestly. “Have you been holding my fleet back these last hours?” Jonathan shook his head. “No, we’ve all been risking much and suffering much loss. Let me do this because it’s what needs to be done. I am your son, that also means I am your heir, which means I have almost as much responsibility for our people as you.”

James was silent for several seconds, very clearly upset with how things had developed. “How would we even let him know you’re there anyway?” He asked. “If we made that too obvious, Tanaka-lan would figure it out too.”

Everyone was silent for a second. Jonathan feared his father had thwarted his idea. Then Anderson came to his aid. “A waggle,” the Rear Admiral said. “Just from some of the Imperial warships defending Freya. They can give Jonathan’s flagship a waggle as his ships join them. Tanaka-lan will be watching Freya like a hawk. He will not miss it.”

Jonathan gave Anderson a thankful smile. Then he turned back to his father expectantly. He could see his father felt cornered. Jonathan felt bad for him, but only a little. Making the plan work mattered more. James held Jonathan’s eyes for a second, and then he nodded. As he did, his shoulders slumped, and he appeared to age a decade in a few seconds. “All right, we shall try it. You’re right, we need to do whatever it takes. You may transfer over to Freya as soon as we organize another commander to take over your fleet. Just remember your role in all this. Freya is bait; you're not going to win this battle by taking any unnecessary risks.”

Jonathan nodded. “Of course, father, I understand.” Excitement flowed through him as he saw other officers nod and facial expressions take on a little more hope. His plan had helped. Now he just hoped it would work.

*

Slayer

“Imperator, that enemy battleship you wanted us to watch, it is on the move, leaving its squadron behind,” a tactical officer informed Tanaka-lan.

Tanaka-lan had to think for a moment before he remembered what the officer was referring to. He was currently maneuvering six different fleets as he attempted to take out two forts at once. “Yes, yes, I see it now,” he said when he glanced at the secondary display the officer was referring to and recognized the warship. It was the one that had led the small force to strike at the flank of one of his fleets. Since then, he knew it had joined up with a larger fleet and was likely acting as its flagship. An opportunity hadn’t yet come along for him to strike at the ship yet, but he was waiting patiently. “Where is it going?” he asked.

A line moved out from the front of the enemy ship and the two hundred other warships keeping station with it. As the battleship continued to change its course, the line snaked forward and jumped from position to position as Slayer’s computer tried to anticipate its final destination. Tanaka-lan looked back to the main battle for thirty seconds and then glanced back to the secondary display. That fort! He thought when he saw the battleship had finally settled on a course. Perfect, I can kill two parstins with one swipe.

As he continued to maneuver his forces over the next hour, Tanaka-lan spared the odd glance at the enemy warship, checking on its progress. Before it reached the fort, he growled in frustration. Somerville's forces had driven back one of his fleets, thwarting his assault on one of the small forts he wanted to take out. The second was successfully destroyed, and so he wasn’t too displeased, yet he never liked being bested, even if it was just temporary. After sending orders to pull his fleets back to be resupplied and prepare for his next assault, he focused his full attention onto the enemy battleship and the large fort. Clearly, the warship’s commander was being sent to assume command of the fort. They know I will be coming for it soon; they are sending one of their better commanders to take charge, Tanaka-lan guessed.

Interesting, he thought a moment later when he saw something strange. As the Human ship had slotted into formation with the squadron of warships garrisoning the fort, a handful of Human dreadnoughts had carried out a strange maneuver. They had tilted their sides up and then down several times as the battleship had passed them. Tanaka-lan felt like he should recognize it, like he had seen it before, but he couldn’t place it. “Send a recording of what just happened there to our analysts,” he instructed the officer who had first alerted him to the battleship’s movements. “I want to know what that means.”

Several minutes later he got his answer. Or at least he was sent several similar recordings from Slayer’s archives. They were all from the first war his species had fought with the Humans. "It’s a sign of respect," Tanaka-lan quickly concluded as he watched other groups of ships, and even a couple of times, entire fleets, repeat the maneuver. For a revered commander? He wondered. No, he thought as his eyes widened and his lips peeled back. Suddenly saliva was running down between his teeth. For someone more! He hadn’t seen it at first, and he wasn’t sure it was true for all the images he had just watched, but he guessed it was. At least in each image where he recognized the ship receiving the honor, it had been one of Somerville’s flagships!

Tanaka-lan was all but sure Somerville was commanding the battle from one of the reserve fleets still holding position at the rear of the Allied battle line. But Somerville’s son was another matter. Tanaka-lan had fought him twice before. The memory of both battles made him growl. In an audacious move, Somerville’s son had taken a small force into Karacknid space. He had even had the nerve to defy Tanaka-lan to his face. The latest intel he had on Somerville’s son was that he had been commanding one of the raiding squadrons behind the frontlines. He had been causing enough damage that he was almost becoming as irritating as his father. Tanaka-lan had ordered him hunted down and destroyed. Yet it had been weeks since any news had come back from the squadrons he had hunting him. He is here, Tanaka-lan was sure. And he is about to come under my guns.

*

IS Victory

As soon as the timer on the main holo display reached zero, James sat up straighter in his command chair. Becket’s fleet should be arriving into the system at that very moment. It was now time to begin. Already, Tanaka-lan’s massive fleet was marching forward once again as it spread out to threaten many forts at once. James began to respond, deploying his weaker fleets as best he could to make it too costly for his enemy to just charge in and assault any one position without taking serious losses.

For about forty-five minutes, seventy-five thousand Karacknid and Allied ships advanced, retreated, and tried to maneuver around one another, constantly looking for an advantage or an opening. At first, James couldn’t tell exactly where Tanaka-lan was planning to strike. He was used to that by now, however, for the Karacknid was easily his match in the giant game of chess the battle had become. Only at the last minute would Tanaka-lan’s forces coalesce into an attack pattern that lined up against one fort or another. James’ responsibility was to have his fleets spread out in such a way that he would still be capable of responding to the final threat when it came.

Despite Tanaka-lan's skills, as James studied the display, he started to get a growing suspicion he could see what was about to come. “He’s going for Freya Fort,” he said over the open COM channel he had with Scott and Anderson. Each of their three fleets formed the Allied fleet’s reserve forces. Given how critical the coming battle was going to be, James had wanted his three best commanders leading them. “Look at Charlie and Endo fleets. They are slightly larger than we’re used to seeing. He is wary of Freya Fort’s defenses. They are both going to move on it if he can get an opening.”

“I see it, I think you’re right, Emperor,” Scott responded. “He’s playing right into our hand then.”

“At least, that’s what it looks like right now,” Anderson cautioned.

James understood his concern; he felt it too. Tanaka-lan had outsmarted them one too many times already. If it seemed like he was doing what they wanted, it was almost certainly because that’s how he wanted them to see it. Yet he has to take Freya Fort soon. And if he doesn’t know, then it will only become more and more obvious that the fort will be his next target. If he doesn’t attack now, he will lose any chance of catching us by surprise, James thought as he argued with his own caution. “Whether he’s playing into our hand or not yet, it's time to give him a target he can’t refuse. Even if he is just playing us, he will have to attack soon,” James said, hoping he was right.

He then turned to Hawkins. “It is time. Instruct Rear Admiral Jourm’s fleet to move onto a heading of four, one, nine point seven.”

Outwardly, the move made it look like Jourm was trying to lend aid to a fleet on his left flank. At the same time, though, it moved Jourm’s ships further away from Freya. It also opened up an angle that one of Tanaka-lan’s fleets could push forward and threaten Jourm in a way that would force the Varanni commander further from Freya. James found himself sitting perfectly still, waiting to see if Tanaka-lan would take the opening he was giving him. Neither Scott nor Anderson spoke as they all held their breaths.

Five minutes passed and nothing happened. James began to doubt whether or not it looked like Tanaka-lan was shaping up to hit Freya. He found himself scanning the rest of the battlefield, wondering if something else was afoot that he was missing. Tanaka-lan was no fool. He had to see the opening. If he wasn’t taking it, it was because he had other plans. But then Hawkins suddenly stiffened. James’ eyes swung back towards Jourm’s fleet. Charlie fleet, one of Tanaka-lan’s two most powerful forces, was changing course to confront the Varanni fleet.

“He’s taking the bait!” Scott said excitedly. “He wants Freya!”

“Shall I send in Tak’ar’s fleet?” Hawkins asked, his voice also full of emotion.

James shook his head. “Not yet, let’s not seem too eager.” He needed Tanaka-lan to think they had been caught off guard. Reacting immediately might give the game away.

For several minutes, James watched as the Karacknid fleet advanced. Then he gave permission for Jourm to react. Quickly, the Rear Admiral’s fleet tried to reverse its course and head back closer to Freya. But the Karacknids responded by moving to cut him off. Three powerful Karacknid screening squadrons also rushed forward into the gap, denying Jourm safe passage to Freya. “Now we better try and stop this getting out of control,” James said.

Moments later, Tak’ar’s fleet turned from the sector it was protecting and rushed to come to Jourm’s aid. Two thousand fighters also launched from nearby carriers and added their strength to the Vestarian's fleet. Tak’ar’s ships had been stationed on the right flank of the battle line, with just one other fleet operating on his right. The obvious move was for the Karacknid left flank to try and cut Tak’ar off, and so leave Jourm still isolated. Sure enough, two powerful Karacknid fleets, totaling nine thousand warships, surged forward as they sought to entangle Tak’ar in a fight he couldn’t avoid.

As Jourm and Tak’ar’s fleets found themselves embroiled in skirmishes that were quickly growing in ferocity, it became apparent they were both in trouble. Both had to abandon their initial maneuvers to avoid coming into direct confrontation with the more powerful Karacknid fleets trying to close with them. As a result, Freya and the seven hundred ships of her garrison squadron were isolated. As soon as it was clear neither Jourm nor Tak’ar could reach Freya, the second large Karacknid reserve fleet James had first spotted began to alter course. Within minutes, its target was clear. A direct path to Freya was now being held open for it by its comrades.

“Now it looks like we are in real trouble,” James said, certain his voice sounded far calmer than he felt. Though things were going just as he had planned, it was still his son’s squadron that was now being charged by six thousand Karacknid warships! “Time to commit our reserves. Get moving,” he said to Hawkins, Scott, and Anderson.

Right away, all three reserve fleets sprang into action. While the rest of the Allied battle line began to fall back to make sure they weren’t caught out without support, the three reserve forces, totaling eight thousand warships, accelerated from their different locations towards Freya. Their courses were projected on Victory’s main display. James’ fleet would reach Freya first, with Scott close behind, then Anderson would come in last. The problem was, the Karacknids were going to beat them there. Freya would have to hold out for at least an hour before James could support her. Given the size of the Karacknid force, there was a very high chance nothing of the fort would be left by then. There had been no other choice though. James needed Tanaka-lan to think he could take the fort and pull his force back to safety. Maybe James’ ships would arrive in time to help some of the garrison squadron fall back, but as things currently stood, it looked like Freya’s fall was now inevitable.

All the maneuvering had one other effect, however. On the Karacknids’ far left flank, there was now just one fleet of five thousand warships still in its original position. It was threatening two small forts, which were being supported by an Allied fleet of two and a half thousand ships. At the moment the enemy fleet was in no danger. Yet that was just how James had intended it.

For the next forty-five minutes, the strategic situation didn’t change. Jourm and Tak’ar continued to put up a pretense of trying to still reach Freya. Yet they were steadily pushed back, suffering losses as they did so. All of James’ reserve forces made for Freya as fast as they could. But they couldn’t stop the inevitable, and so the large Karacknid fleet designated Endo fleet began to close with Freya.

As it did, Freya and three other nearby forts hit Endo with three salvos, destroying sixty-five Karacknid ships. But then Endo’s seven thousand warships settled into a high orbit around the gas giant Freya had been built around and their assault began. Their opening salvo acted as the signal, however, and as Endo fleet’s ships opened fire, both of James’ surprises sprang into action.

Chapter 45

Even the greatest of commanders can be beaten once. The best never let it happen again.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

Slayer

Tanaka-lan felt like he was a youngling back on Gayla with his father, about to make his first Doshi kill. He could feel the anticipation flowing through his veins. His body quivered with a suppressed urge to spring into action. The large Human fort was finally under his guns! Within minutes it would be destroyed, Somerville’s son would be dead, and a corridor would be open for him to combine all his fleets into one and advance on the main Human base.

Then, in an instant, the feeling vanished. All around him, alarms blared. On the main display, thousands of new contacts appeared. The strategic situation changed in one blink.

Tanaka-lan wanted to howl. He wanted to slam his claws into his command chair again and again. He felt an overwhelming urge to race his superdreadnought forward and confront Somerville personally, ship to ship, face to face. For then he would rip the Humans’ throat out and stamp on his neck as he writhed and bled to death before him. Yet he did none of those things, for his body suddenly felt weak. He felt like he was shrinking into his command chair. There was no one to blame but himself. Somerville had tricked him. Tanaka-lan grasped right away what had happened. The Allied fleets hadn’t gotten themselves out of position. He hadn’t outsmarted Somerville by driving the two Allied fleets back. He had been suckered in. And now his ships were going to pay dearly for it.

Filled with a sense of helplessness he had never experienced before, Tanaka-lan stared blankly at the forces on the holo display. Somehow, Somerville had snuck tens of thousands of missile pods to the fort, despite Tanaka-lan giving specific orders to his officers to watch the fort closely. Just as his fleet had opened fire on the fort, the fort and its garrison had returned fire. Though Tanaka-lan’s fleet numbered seven thousand warships, the Allied missile salvo matched his fleet's. Much worse than that, however, were the myriad of fighters that had appeared to join the battle. Slayer’s sensors were tracking ten thousand of them! Somerville had to have committed most of his reserve fighters. Even as he watched, the fighters he had sent forward to aid his fleet came out of stealth and moved to intercept the massive Human force, but Tanaka-lan’s fighters numbered just three and a half thousand. There was nothing they could do to stop the deadly attack that was going to strike his fleet.

As bad as his attack on the Human fort was about to go, Tanaka-lan knew that wasn’t even the worst of it. In order to drive back the Allied fleets from the fort, he had diverted much of the strength from his left flank. Now one of his leftmost fleets was about to be destroyed. Four thousand new Allied warships had appeared from shift space, and they were moving to attack the last fleet of Tanaka-lan’s left flank in conjunction with another smaller Allied fleet. There were no other Karacknid fleets anywhere near the isolated force. They will be destroyed, Tanaka-lan’s tactical prowess told him. There was nothing he could do to aid them.

For nearly a minute, Tanaka-lan stared dumbfounded at the developing situation before him. Slayer’s bridge was equally as quiet. Every officer could see what was happening. None wanted to catch Tanaka-lan’s eye or draw his attention. Tanaka-lan cursed himself. Never before had he been outmaneuvered so completely. What made it worse was that he knew exactly what had happened. Somerville had not just anticipated where he would attack next, he had also foreseen just how eager he would be to take the fort and Somerville’s son. He didn’t just outmaneuver me, he played me, Tanaka-lan thought in disgust.

For the first time in his life, Tanaka-lan felt doubt. His mind took him back more than two decades, to the fateful day that had set him onto the path that had made him Imperator. His people’s previous Imperator, Taranaki, had stood on the field of battle facing Somerville. Tanaka-lan’s fleet had been in the outer system, ready to assault the Allied fleet that had taken Gayla’s orbitals. Yet as the duel had been fought, all other fighting had stopped. Tanaka-lan remembered watching, his eyes full of devotion for the Imperator who had been his god and his mentor. But then, to the shock and horror of every Karacknid warrior, Somerville had won. He had killed the one who had been the center of their affections.

Tanaka-lan had believed the revelations made that day about Taranaki and the deceptions that he had committed against his own people had been the cause of his downfall. His death at the hands of a puny Human had been evidence enough that Tanaka-lan’s devotion had been misplaced – that he had been fooled like so many others. But never had he doubted his species' place in the galaxy, nor his own warrior prowess, and his right to rule. For a few fleeting seconds though, Tanaka-lan felt doubt. If Somerville could outmaneuver him so perfectly, despite the strength advantage Tanaka-lan had, could he actually win? Was Somerville the better warrior? Is he the true Imperator, as the traitors claim? A voice whispered in Tanaka-lan’s mind.

Blind fury erupted within Tanaka-lan at the thought. In rage, he assaulted it and drove it away. No other species was the equal of his. No enemy could rival the mighty Karacknid people. No commander was capable of defeating him. He had won his species' civil war; he had overcome every false Imperator. It was his destiny to rule the galaxy! And that starts with wiping Humanity from every system and planet they have infested, he swore in his wrath.

Though he knew he wasn’t thinking clearly in his fit of anger, the thunder of rage consuming him was infinitely better than the doubt and indecision of moments before. With a snarl that made several battle-hardened officers nearby jump, Tanaka-lan reviewed the holo display afresh. A coldness settled over him as he did so. He was going to take losses, that much was inevitable now. Yet he had the numbers to absorb such losses. His fleet assaulting the Human fort was going to suffer, but it could still give as good as it got. They can still destroy the fort if they focus their fire on the battlestations, then once it is out of play, I will make Somerville and his son pay for this!

Turning his attention to his left flank, Tanaka-lan’s anger flared again. His fleet there was most certainly dead. But, he thought, as he suddenly saw the weakness in Somerville’s plan. They have committed all their reserves. Their fighters are supporting their fort, and their reserve fleets are all moving towards it too. They cannot support their right flank any further. Tanaka-lan smiled. If he was going to suffer significant losses, then so too was Somerville.

His eyes then narrowed on the newcomers. He recognized many of their ships. It was the Allied Fleet that had been raiding his systems far to the east of his empire. So, they rushed back here just in time to join the battle. A pity for them, Tanaka-lan thought. He turned to the guest he had in chains on Slayer’s bridge. Though her face was still a bloody mess, he could see the triumph in her eyes. “You think your Emperor has beaten me in this round of fighting, do you?” he asked her. In defiance, her gaze turned to him, though she didn’t speak, for of course, with her broken jaw, she couldn’t. Tanaka-lan laughed as he gestured a clawed hand towards the new Allied Fleet. “They’re commanded by your Admiral Becket, are they not? So my intelligence tells me. Well, let us see if her sacrifice is worth this short-lived victory, you and Somerville think you have won.” Tanaka-lan smiled at the sudden concern on his captive’s face, then turned to his Chief of Staff. “Begin slow launching every fighter we have in reserve, start them moving to our left flank.”

*

IS Sparrowhawk

On the holo display, Jonathan watched the large Karacknid fleet open fire. Quickly the number of enemy missiles being tracked rose to one hundred and ninety thousand. “Power up the missile pods,” he ordered calmly as he felt the officers around him grow concerned at what was coming their way.

“Aye, Commodore,” Harte responded. Suddenly twelve thousand missile pods hidden within Freya’s orbitals came online. They immediately began to link up with the fortification's battle stations. “They’re accessing our targeting data now,” Harte informed everyone moments later. Then he spun around in his command chair towards Jonathan. “They are synced with our other weapons.”

“Fire,” Jonathan commanded.

From Jonathan’s eight hundred ships, the battlestations of Freya Fort, and the missile pods, one hundred and sixty thousand missiles were released from their tubes. Their engines then kicked in as they boosted up and away from the gas giant towards the Karacknid fleet. Ahead of them, the ten thousand fighters that had launched from the remaining hidden hangars came out of stealth and raced to join the attack. Despite the even larger missile salvo coming their way, Jonathan was smiling. Let’s see how you like that! he thought towards the fleet that had come to destroy his new command.

Jonathan's smile widened when the inevitable fighters Tanaka-lan had hidden behind his fleet announced themselves. There were only thirty-five hundred of them. Two thousand Allied fighters accelerated ahead of their consorts to intercept the Karacknid fighters. A short but savage missile duel and dogfight ensued. Several hundred Karacknid fighters broke through to try and strike at the rest of the Allied fighter force. They managed to get close enough to shoot down a couple of hundred Allied fighters. However, the vast majority of the Allied fighters were able to avoid the Karacknids altogether. They then charged the Karacknid fleet in conjunction with Jonathan’s missile salvo.

“Well, they are not backing down,” Jonathan said to Iso as he shared a look with her. As the two groups of fighters had fought and died, the Karacknid fleet had held position in high orbit around the gas giant. They had fired a second salvo, and it looked like they were going to remain where they were until they were destroyed, or Freya was. “We will keep firing until this ends, one way or another.”

As soon as his ships and stations had reloaded, they fired off forty thousand missiles in their second salvo. Then they matched the Karacknids and fired a third. For both sides, it was the last full salvos they would fire, for the first two massive waves of missiles approached their targets.

The Karacknids knew they faced the deadliest attack they were going to have to fend off, and so they fought like the devil. Over a thousand frigates and destroyers pushed ahead of the fleet’s capital ships, seeking to engage the Allied missiles early or force them to target them instead of their larger and more important brethren. The Allied missiles ignored them, but as a result, tens of thousands were destroyed. Then an enormous weight of defensive fire began to reach out towards the remaining missiles as the Karacknid battleships and dreadnoughts opened up with every defensive weapon they had. The Allied missiles’ strength was quickly cut in half, then the remaining missile numbers were cut in half again.

Despite the effective defensive fire, it was still not enough. Hundreds of antimatter missiles began to detonate amongst the Karacknid fleet. Many ships suffered light or minimal damage where the Allied missiles scored proximity hits. More suffered direct hits, and in many cases, they proved devastating. The effect of a missile punching through a ship's armor and outer hull to detonate and release antimatter into its target was rarely survivable. Up and down the Karacknid fleets’ lines, ships were destroyed and formations disrupted as flotillas and squadrons had to maneuver around dead and dying wrecks.

Then the fighters charged into the battle. A thousand charged the Karacknid light ships, unleashing missiles at them. The light ships shot down as many of the fighters as they could, then they were forced to switch their fire to defend themselves. As the Karacknid light ships fought and died to the missiles, the rest of the Allied fighters flashed past them. Death came to greet them as the Karacknid capital ships dealt with the last ship-fired Allied missiles and shifted their fire onto the Allied fighters. Though hundreds and then thousands were shot down, over six thousand still made it to attack range. Hellcats released two anti-ship missiles each, Devastators fired four, and Varanni Stormbringers each fired a single high-powered laser beam. Together, the attack was crippling. First, the laser beams struck at the Karacknids. Battlecruisers, battleships, and dreadnoughts were exclusively targeted. Though a single strike was rarely enough to take out an enemy ship, it caused serious damage and threw off the defensive fire of the ship hit. As a result, many of the Hellcat and Devastator missiles raced in to add to the carnage. Hundreds scored direct hits, obliterating, or crippling the Karacknid capital ships.

Jonathan was able to see that over two thousand enemy ships had been taken out before his own force opened up with their defenses. As soon as they did, so much energy from the defensive weapons began to fill space in front of Freya that Sparrowhawk’s sensors could no longer accurately track the Karacknids. Even though Jonathan had been expecting it, he was still impressed by the weight of defensive fire Freya put out. The fort had been designed to face a giant Karacknid fleet and hold her own. While she couldn’t match the Karacknid fleet's missile numbers without the aid of missile pods, she did have thousands of point defensive laser and plasma cannon satellites in conjunction with her battlestations. The Karacknid missiles were therefore met with a withering amount of fire. The vast majority of the incoming missiles were shot down. Only three hundred reached attack range and detonated against their targets. Several battlestations were destroyed, and Jonathan lost eighty-six ships. Quite a few defensive satellites were also destroyed, but thousands remained.

Jonathan surveyed the damage and then raised his voice to his officers. “We took a beating, but we’re still standing. The Karacknids have to be shell-shocked. We know help is on the way, but it seems the Karacknids want to stick around and trade blows. I am more than happy with that. So, let’s keep hammering them and stay in this fight for as long as we can.”

As Jonathan looked around at his officers, most of them stared back at him with serious looks on their faces. At the same time, they looked scared. Jonathan knew they were right to do so. They just lost nearly eight percent of their strength, and two more full-strength enemy salvos were on their way. But we’ve hurt them and we can keep hurting them, he was sure. He couldn’t help breaking into a smile when his eyes settled on Iso and Harte. They looked far more confident, eager even. They knew they were going to hurt their enemy. Jonathan winked at Iso. “Revenge for all those we lost in The Wilds.”

“Aye, Commodore,” Iso said with a nod. “Exactly how I see it.” She then turned to the rest of Jonathan’s senior officers. “Get to it, we have a fort to fight and enemies to kill!” Harte added his own words of encouragement, and together their enthusiasm for the fight began to rub off on the other less experienced officers on Sparrowhawk’s bridge.

For the next fifty-five minutes, Jonathan, Iso, and Harte fought with all their hard-earned skill. They slammed salvo after salvo into the Karacknid fleet. Though their salvos were smaller, the mark X missiles fired from their fort and two other nearby forts made them deadly. Every salvo therefore racked up more kills amongst the Karacknids. In total, eleven salvos took out fourteen hundred more enemy ships.

The Karacknids achieved a fair exchange for their losses, however. Bit by bit Freya Fort was reduced to debris. By the time the missiles from the eleventh enemy salvo finished detonating, Jonathan had lost just over half of the eight hundred warships he had started the battle with. His squadron had gotten off lightly though, for the Karacknids had focused on Freya’s fortifications. All but two of the fort’s battlestations were destroyed, and the vast majority of its defense satellites were gone. Jonathan guessed three or perhaps four more salvos would have finished the fort and left most of his squadron in ruins.

Yet they were never fired. Instead the Karacknid fleet suddenly began to break orbit and run from Freya. Jonathan changed the view on the display to see Victory and his father’s fleet charging into the battlefield. The Karacknids had no choice but to retreat lest they be overwhelmed and destroyed. Jonthan smiled as he imagined the relief on his father’s face. I guess it pays off to have your father watching over you, he thought as looked forward to seeing his father’s face again.

“Receiving new orders from Victory,” Iso informed Jonathan moments after the Karacknid fleet began to break orbit and pull back. “We are to abandon Freya and join up with them.”

Jonathan nodded. “See to it,” he instructed her, the order feeling bittersweet. Losing Freya was a big blow. Zeta Fort’s fortifications were now seriously compromised. Yet they had made the Karacknid pay a heavy price for it. More importantly than that though, his father’s plan had worked. Now it is your turn, he thought towards Becket as he sought out his friend and mentor’s fleet. Trident had already made good progress into the system from the mass shadow and was about to engage the isolated Karacknid fleet that had been the main target of his father’s plan alone. Make our losses here count! He thought towards her, confident that if anyone could crush the fleet on the Karacknids left flank, Becket was the one to do it.

Chapter 46

The Becket Lunar Naval Academy is the most prestigious of all the Fleet’s academies and rightly so. If every officer to graduate from its halls sought to live up to her memory, the Empire would never need fear its enemies again.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Trident

For months, Becket had felt like a caged animal. Her mad dash from the far side of the Karacknid Empire through Conclave space back to the border forts had buried her under a mountain of paperwork. Never before had an Allied force covered so much distance so quickly. It had been no easy task. All along her path, she had needed to send word forward to make sure the necessary supplies were waiting for her. At the same time, she needed to constantly monitor her fleet’s, and manage the hundred and one problems that arose from her pushing her fleet so hard. Then, as she had begun to add ships to her fleet as she picked up all the stragglers she could, things had only become more complicated.

The paperwork had only been one wall of her cage, however, what had really held her down had been her own fears. From the moment she had realized her raiding campaign had failed to draw any of Tanaka-lan’s forces away from his Empire’s border with her species' worlds, she had feared she would be too late. She had been scared she would return home to find everything in ruins. That every battle would have been fought and either won or lost without her. But she had been wrong. Now she was here.

As Trident surged into the system, she finally felt free. Despite the risks she was about to face, Becket was smiling. She hadn’t been too late. Before her were over fifty thousand Karacknid warships arrayed against the fleets of her friends and allies. She had made it to the greatest battle of her lifetime! More than that, it was the most important battle of her species’ history. Literally millions of her fellow citizens manned the warships and battlestations that were standing against Tanaka-lan. Hundreds of thousands had already given their lives in the fighting. And now it is your turn to play your part, Becket told herself as her fleet hunted down the Karacknids that were trying to retreat back from the left flank of the Karacknid battle line.

Her target was desperately trying to fall back towards two smaller Karacknid formations that were rushing to its aid. Yet her ships had a significant momentum advantage, and she was just minutes away from bringing the Karacknids to battle. “Everything set?” she asked Albright as she turned to her Chief of Staff.

“Aye, Admiral. Vice Admiral Taladan’s fleet will fire on our command,” Albright responded. “They have already launched their fighters and they’re getting into position.”

Becket nodded. “Target their capital ships,” she then ordered Farnsworth, her tactical officer. “If any of this force survives, it is only going to be frigates and destroyers.”

“I will make sure of it,” Farnsworth assured her.

Becket took a deep breath as she mentally prepared herself. Then she took a moment to consider the wider strategic situation. James had expertly drawn in the nearest Karacknid fleets towards Freya, giving her the opening she was about to exploit. At least two of the Karacknid fleets that should have been in position to aid her target were instead engaging other Allied fleets. The fleet that had attacked Freya was in retreat and so it couldn’t assist Becket’s target either. But they did do a number on Freya, she noticed as she looked at what was left of the fort. Which means we need to make our attack count.

And then we’re still going to have our work cut out for us, she had to admit as she eyed the rest of the Karacknid positions and the nearly twenty thousand warships they had at the far side of the system with their supply freighters. Seeing so many ships arrayed in so many fleets made Becket feel small for the first time since she had been a lowly lieutenant. All throughout her campaign against the eastern colonies of the Karacknid Empire, her fleet had felt large and powerful. She had destroyed several Karacknid fleets and conquered or at least raided tens of Karacknid systems. Her force had been all but unstoppable. Yet now it was but a small portion of the Allied Fleet arrayed against Tanaka-lan. And in comparison, the Karacknid fleet was far larger and more impressive than the Allied one.

But we will cut them down to size, piece by piece, Becket assured herself. She knew James had already been doing that for months now. Now that she was here, she could finally take some of the responsibility from his shoulders.

“We will enter range in sixty seconds,” Farnsworth updated.

“Fire at will,” Becket responded as she drew her eyes back to the Karacknid fleet. Quickly she scanned the area around it, looking for any hidden enemy forces. The whole area was saturated with Allied active sensor drones. As yet nothing had been detected. Becket knew she couldn’t be too careful though. The Karacknid fleet appeared to be falling back as quickly as it could. With the momentum Becket’s fleet had and the position Rear Admiral Taladan’s forces had started from, the Karacknids couldn’t outmaneuver either of them. Yet with Tanaka-lan involved, Becket knew not to take anything for granted. She was expecting some kind of additional Karacknid forces to make an appearance. It was just going to be a matter of how many ships and from what angle they would attack.

“Firing,” Farnsworth announced as all four thousand four hundred warships of Becket’s fleet fired a salvo in anger against their enemy for the first time in many months. Vice Admiral Taladan’s force of two and a half thousand ships fired at the same time, Farnsworth perfectly matching their missiles’ attack timing to Becket’s.

Becket held her breath as she waited to see what the Karacknids would do next. They could either target Taladan’s force or hers. Logically, the clear target was Taladan’s ships. With only two and a half thousand ships, the Karacknids would have a much easier time overwhelming his defensive fire. Yet James had anticipated that. Nearly a quarter of Taladan’s force consisted of lancer frigates and drone cruisers. There were also three thousand fighters being held in reserve around the Gramrian’s fleet to aid its defenses. Even so, despite the risk to herself, Becket still wanted the Karacknid to target her. She knew she could handle their fire far better than Taladan’s fleet.

Seconds later, when the Karacknids released their salvo, Becket's eyes widened. They were indeed targeting her. Had their sensor drones been able to decipher the makeup of Taladan’s fleet? She wasn’t sure, but she wasn’t going to complain. Her eyes narrowed again as another thought came to her. If the Karacknids had another powerful force out there, one that was willing to spring a surprise attack on her fleet, then it made sense for the ships in front of her to target her force. Yet as she looked out beyond the space between her fleet and her target, there were still no signs of additional enemy forces. “I want another spread of recon drones deployed,” Becket requested, wanting to make sure. Reaching out towards the holo display, she started highlighting several areas where she would seek to strike from if she were a Karacknid fleet trying to surprise her. “Focus on these areas.”

“At once, Admiral,” Albright responded.

“Admiral Shraw is hailing us,” Rodgers informed Becket a moment later.

Becket caught Farnsworth's eye with a gesture towards him. “Keep firing,” she instructed her tactical officer. Then she nodded to Rodgers. A moment later, she smiled at Shraw.

Shraw smiled back, showing his razor-sharp teeth. Then his tongue flicked in and out of his mouth several times, a sign Becket knew showed his discomfort. “It seems my compatriot is going to get off lightly,” Shraw said. “I’m happy for him. But even if the Karacknids know about his point defense ships, it is strange they are focusing on us.”

“It is,” Becket agreed with a nod. “But I am not complaining. And we will keep a good eye out for any additional threats coming our way.”

“Aye, a wise precaution,” Shraw said. He then smiled again. “It is good to be on the hunt once more, is it not?”

Becket matched his smile. “It is, my friend. But is this why you have called to speak to me?”

“Have we not come a long way to join this fight? Am I not allowed to savor the moment with a fellow warrior?” Shraw asked.

“I suppose you are, Admiral. But let us focus on winning a victory, then we can savor a moment together.” Becket gestured towards the other fleets of the Allied battle line. “There are many commanders out there who have won a lot more battles than we have in this fight so far. What say we join their prestigious company?”

Shraw flicked his tongue out in excitement. “That is an idea I can agree with, Admiral,” he then bowed his head to Becket. “As always, it is an honor serving under you. I'm not sure I could have gotten us here in time to play such a key role. I thank you, Admiral.”

This time Becket did roll her eyes. “Neither of us are the best paper pushers, but I’m sure you could have managed. In any case, let us do what we do best, shall we?”

Shraw showed his long teeth as he gave her a predatory grin. “As you wish, Commander. We will speak once we have destroyed this enemy fleet. Then we can decide who we will take out next. I for one will be voting for Tanaka-lan’s fleet. His superdreadnought would make a perfect target for my guns.”

Becket waved away Shraw’s enthusiasm. “Let us finish this task first, then we will see, my friend. I’ll see you on the other side.”

“On the other side,” Shraw agreed.

After bowing again, Shraw disappeared from Becket’s command chair’s holo display. Becket then turned her full attention to the approaching Karacknid salvo. The five and a half thousand Karacknid warships were able to put out one hundred and thirty-two thousand missiles. For Becket, used to the smaller engagements she had fought in the Karacknid colonies, it was a colossal salvo. Yet amidst the battles she knew had been fought in the system over the last several days, it was just another one of hundreds that had been fired.

As she watched the missiles, information began to scroll alongside them. Her tactical officers were all hard at work analyzing them and going through all the latest data Victory had sent on the missiles' capabilities. As she watched, firing patterns began to be prepared and projected on the display as the fleet readied itself to engage the incoming salvo. Becket watched for several more moments and then turned her attention to the wider strategic situation again. By now, she trusted her officers implicitly. She needed to let them get on with their work while she focused on hers.

Exactly four minutes and forty-three seconds after firing their first salvo, Becket’s fleet fired its second. The Karacknids fired again just seconds later, impressing Becket. She was facing Tanaka-lan’s crack troops, not the border garrisons she had destroyed during her raiding campaign. With the Karacknid fleet running from her, Becket’s ships fired a third and then a fourth salvo, as did her opponents. Then the first missiles reached their targets, and the battle began in earnest.

The first salvo from both sides was the deadliest as both Becket and her opponent had committed their fighters against the other's ships. From Becket and Taladan’s fleets, one hundred and seventy-six thousand missiles and six thousand fighters struck at the Karacknid fleet from two different angles. Hundreds of ship-launched antimatter missiles broke through the Karacknids' defensive fire, and then almost a thousand fighters launched missiles which also raced in to strike at their targets. Over six hundred Karacknid warships were destroyed outright, or so badly damaged that they were taken out of the fight. Almost as many again suffered lighter damage in one form or another.

Becket’s fleet handled the Karacknid missiles far better. Just ninety actually detonated among her ships, and only forty of her vessels were destroyed. Yet as the fifteen hundred Karacknid fighters that had accompanied the missiles attacked, Becket knew far more damage was coming her way. The four hundred fighters she had held in reserve managed to distract some of the Karacknid fighters, but many more, over two-thirds of them, were shot down as they tried to get into attack range. Their particle beam cannons meant they had to get very close to be effective. Yet those that did get into range, were deadly.

“Evasive maneuvers!” Goodwin, Trident’s Captain, roared from beside Becket.

Instantly, Becket’s restraints tightened around her, and she felt the dreadnought’s inertial compensators fighting to protect her from the g-forces Trident’s navigation officer caused as he threw the ship through a series of twists and turns. In the display, she guessed as she saw one and then a second particle beam flash past her flagship, both narrowly missed. Then she was suddenly flung to one side by a new force. Her vision closed over, and for a couple of seconds, she was disoriented. As the inertial compensators corrected for the new force, she shook her head and realized Trident had been hit.

“It was just a glancing blow,” an officer called out. “Our armor deflected most of it.”

“Decks two and three starboard side and section five have taken damage though,” another officer reported.

Becket shared a glance with Albright as Goodwin began to bark out orders. They had been lucky. A direct hit by a particle beam, even on a dreadnought, was very often deadly. As she surveyed her fleet, Becket grimaced; many others hadn’t been quite so lucky. There were large holes in her formation where the Karacknid fighters had struck. With Albright and the rest of her command staff, she quickly set about assessing their losses and the damage her ships had taken as they prepared for the next salvo. A couple of minutes later, the final count came to five hundred ships destroyed and another two hundred that would have to fall back, unable to stay in the fight.

"The worst is behind us now though," Becket told herself as she eyed the next salvo of enemy missiles coming against her. "We still hurt them more, and now they’re going to feel our wrath."

For the next forty minutes, Becket poured all her energy into fighting her fleet as best she could. Alongside Taladan’s ships, they poured a total of eight salvos into the fleeing Karacknids. Every salvo destroyed more enemy ships than the last, further weakening the Karacknids' defense and ensuring even more would die as the next came in.

To Becket’s frustration, however, just after her ships fired their eighth salvo, another Karacknid force began to flash on the display. “Admiral, this formation here is starting to get concerning,” Farnsworth pointed out.

“I see it,” Becket acknowledged. She had already been watching it closely. It was the closest Karacknid fleet that had been rushing to aid the one she was taking apart. In truth, she had expected other hidden forces to appear sooner, yet none had. They were lucky they had been able to hit their target for as long as they had. It didn’t stop her feeling frustrated though. “Very well,” she said, forcing herself to accept they had done all they could. “Turn us around and start moving us back towards the Allied battle lines.”

As her ships slowed, the Karacknid fleet she had been pursuing quickly moved out of missile range. However, Becket’s three final salvos were still chasing after it. As each crashed into the Karacknids, they caused more and more destruction. By the time the antimatter explosions from the last missiles of the last salvo dissipated, only fifteen hundred Karacknid warships remained. True to his word, Farnsworth had ensured only frigates, destroyers, and a smattering of light and medium cruisers survived. The Karacknid fleet had been devastated. It was now a spent force, all but useless to Tanaka-lan.

As her fleet began to decelerate and turn back towards the inner system, it was clear Becket’s ships had suffered as well. Just two thousand ships were still in formation around Trident. Five hundred others were already moving towards Zeta Fort’s main base, in need of immediate repairs. In total, she had lost fourteen hundred ships. It was more than a fair trade to take out four thousand Karacknids, but still, Becket felt the losses she had suffered deeply. In over four months of campaigning deep behind enemy lines within the Karacknid empire, she hadn’t lost as many ships as she had in the last forty minutes. "Such is the scale of this war of death Tanaka-lan has forced upon us all!" Becket thought bitterly.

“Well done, everyone,” she said as she looked around at her officers, seeing the same shock and loss on their faces that she felt. “We have disrupted Tanaka-lan’s fleets and bought Emperor Somerville some more time. Hopefully, with our fleet integrated into the Allied positions, we can now hold the remaining forts, or at least bleed Tanaka-lan even further. This battle is far from won, but we have just played an important part in turning the odds more towards our favor.” She gave her officers an encouraging smile. “Let us keep fighting for the sake of those we have just lost.”

For a moment, heads around her nodded and her officers’ faces brightened. Then contact alarms began to blare. Becket’s head shot around to the main holo display. Her mouth fell open, and her heart sank at what she saw. Immediately she realized all her fears had been justified. Tanaka-lan had been planning something. It had just taken him longer than she had expected to reveal his counterstrike. Desperately, she turned her gaze towards the nearest Allied fleets, checking their status. Ever so slightly, her head shook. Almost no help would be coming their way. James had committed all of his reserve fighters to the defense of Freya Fort.

Tanaka-lan saw that and knew he could get us, Becket thought as she turned her gaze back to the massive wave of contacts coming her fleet’s way. Six thousand fighters, a force as large as the one she had struck the Karacknid fleet with, had come out of stealth. At their current acceleration rates, they were just twenty minutes away from reaching her ships. In that time, there was no hope enough Allied fighters could be refueled and launched to come to her aid. Even her own fighters, those that had survived the attack on the Karacknid fleet, had only just begun to land five minutes ago. They are going to target our capital ships and gut us just like we did to the Karacknid fleet, Becket was sure. Tanaka-lan might have lost a fleet, but he had found a way to make sure the Allies lost one as well.

Anger filled Becket. She knew the chances that her flagship would survive were extremely slim. Yet it wasn’t the prospect of death that ignited her emotions. It was the fact that Tanaka-lan was attempting to take her out of the battle. Zeta Fort was far from lost yet, and she wanted to pit her skills against the Karacknid Imperator. She wanted to best him and drive him back. But now instead, she was going to meet her end at the hands of a bunch of fighters. Becket snarled as she stared at the fighters. They have to be a significant proportion of his reserve fighters, the analytical part of her mind guessed. If he loses them, he will still have lost the fleet and then these fighters too, Becket said to herself. That is still an accomplishment worth dying to achieve!

“Those fighters are coming for us,” Becket said as she looked down at her officers again and spoke in a loud voice. “Tanaka-lan wants revenge for what we just did to his fleet. However, he has committed all his fighters. We have a chance then to turn this battle further in our favor.” Reaching out, she pointed at the massive wave of enemy craft. “If we destroy them, then Emperor Somerville will have the advantage in fighters. He’ll be able to strike at Tanaka-lan with impunity. Those ships are meant to bring our deaths, and maybe they will. But we can be their deaths as well. Let us prepare to receive them then,” Becket said as she did her best to mimic one of Shraw’s predatory grins. “I know I for one am not going to go down without a fight, are you?” She asked as she moved from each officer, fixing each with a level stare. All nodded or voiced their agreement. “Well then, let’s prepare a warm welcome for these uninvited guests!”

At once, Becket got to work with her officers. Light ships were pushed out ahead of the fleet to provide an initial screen the Karacknid fighters would have to fight through. Many damaged ships that had been left behind previously were scooped back up into the fleet, adding what weapons they had left to the fleet’s defensive fire. All the fighters that hadn’t yet landed abandoned their attempts to do so and instead formed up to meet the coming threat. Those that had landed were given just enough fuel for a short dogfight and launched again. Vice Admiral Taladan managed to send out three hundred fighters to add to all those Becket was able to scrape together.

In total, twelve hundred fighters were gathered. In groups of various sizes, they moved out and formed the first line of defense. Valiantly, they waylaid as many of the Karacknids as possible, shooting down nearly nine hundred and drawing another five hundred into a skirmish that took them away from attacking Becket’s fleet. Then Becket’s light ships blasted away at the enemy fighters. The Karacknids ignored them and did their best to avoid the defensive fire. Three and a half thousand flew through the onslaught and then charged Trident and her consorts. They were met by wave after wave of flak cannon rounds, electrostatic pulses, long and then short-range anti-fighter missiles, and then close-in laser beams and plasma bolts.

Without having to worry about an initial Karacknid missile salvo coming in, the Allied gunners could focus all their fire on the fighters. Hundreds and thousands of the Karacknid craft were blown apart. Yet over a thousand made it into attack range. Becket cursed as all the fighters swarming at her fleet suddenly began to flash on the display as Trident’s sensors detected energy surges. Immediately every Allied warship threw itself into evasive maneuvers. Then explosions erupted all around Trident. Everywhere Becket looked, dreadnoughts, battleships, battlecruisers, and heavy cruisers disintegrated as they were struck by particle beams and vaporized by the energy released from the kinetic strikes.

Certain her end was seconds away; Becket tensed her body. She refused to close her eyes though; if she was going to die, she would do it facing her enemy. Yet when the Karacknid fighters stopped flashing, Trident continued on unharmed. For a second, Becket could hardly believe it. “We’re still alive!” She said out loud in surprise. Then hundreds of small twisting and weaving dots grabbed her attention. So too were many of the Karacknid fighters. “Keep firing! Keep firing!” She ordered as she reached a hand up and pointed at the Karacknid fighters. “Take them out before they can hit us again!”

For a couple of seconds, hardly any ship in the Allied formation fired, their crews all as shocked as Becket that they hadn’t been hit. The sudden firing of Trident’s guns and the explosion of three Karacknid fighters refocused everyone’s attention. Within a couple of seconds, thousands of guns began to bark once again as the Karacknid fighters came under fire. Hundreds more were shot down, yet it only took twenty-five seconds for them to recharge their particle cannons. Two hundred and thirty survived that long. Then, they targeted the remaining Allied capital ships and fired.

Three lined up their noses to face Trident. In the space of two seconds, they released their three beams. Already maneuvering wildly, one beam missed completely. The second scored a grazing hit that left a long gash down Trident’s starboard side. As it struck though, it took out several maneuvering thrusters that immediately threw off Trident’s navigation officer's maneuver. A twist designed to turn Trident facing away at an angle from the last fighter was only half completed. Its beam struck Trident right on her stern. The particles accelerated to almost the speed of light instantly vaporized one of her impulse engines. Blasting through the valstronium armor behind the engine, the beam of particles smashed its way deep into Trident's innards, eviscerating everything it touched. A massive wave of explosive energy burst into Trident’s engineering department, instantly destroying all six fusion reactors, unleashing one final blast of energy.

A fraction of a second after being hit, Trident was blown apart from the inside and shattered into a thousand burning pieces. As the cold of space extinguished the fires, they became hurtling inanimate objects. Some smashed into a nearby frigate and destroyer, badly damaging both. The rest were flung out into the wide openness of space, forever separated.

Chapter 47

The Battle of Zeta Fort was the largest battle the galaxy had yet seen. Millions fought and died on both sides. Measured by tonnage, the fleets that clashed with one another were comparable to any battle fought over the next five hundred years. Measured in lives, no other battle matches it. Yet for everyone involved, the losses weren’t just numbers, they were personal.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

Slayer

Tanaka-lan grinned in satisfaction as he glanced at his prisoner. Tears were running down her cheek out of the one eye that wasn’t swollen shut. “This is just the beginning,” he snarled at her. He then stared at her, almost goading her to give him a defiant look, but she didn’t even turn his way. Nodding, he turned to the holo display again. He was content with what he saw. Somerville had outmaneuvered him, but he had salvaged things. The Human fort was all but destroyed, and Becket’s fleet had been gutted in return for the fleet of his she had decimated. More than half of the Allied fleet’s ships were still racing back to their comrades, but Becket’s capital ships were all but gone, including Becket’s flagship.

“I think it is time,” Tanaka-lan said as he turned to his Chief of Staff. “Call up Admiral Hig-san’s fleet to our left flank to replace Admiral Fas’ar. Then we will form up into one battlefleet and advance. We have played with these vermin long enough.”

“Aye, Admiral,” Tanaka-lan’s Chief of Staff replied with a grin. Across Slayer’s bridge, many other grins appeared as excitement at Tanaka-lan’s order spread.

*

IS Victory

Tears were also running down James’ cheeks. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from the point in the holo display where Trident had been just moments ago. How could this have happened? he asked himself. His plan had been working so well. How? He knew the answer even as he asked the question. Tanaka-lan had wanted to teach him a lesson. The Karacknid Imperator had been caught out by being lured into attacking Freya. He had wanted revenge, and he had got it.

Sending so many fighters to attack Becket’s fleet unsupported had been suicidal. Barely a sixth of them had made it through the attack. Currently, they were all racing back towards their carriers. None were going to make it, however; James had already made sure of that. He had sent four thousand fighters racing to assist Becket. They hadn’t arrived in time to save her, but they would avenge her. Tanaka-lan had therefore sacrificed six thousand fighters to take out less than a thousand capital ships. In terms of manpower and construction time, the exchange was easily worth it. But if one only considered firepower, it was a waste. Tanaka-lan couldn’t magically produce six thousand more fighters, and if he had used them elsewhere in the battle, in conjunction with his fleets, he could have done far more damage.

It was personal, James told himself as rage began to build up within him. Tanaka-lan knew who he was targeting, and what she meant to James. Memories flooded through his mind of Becket as a Sub Lieutenant on his first command, the exploration frigate Drake. Then she had served as a Lieutenant under him on Endeavour. Then as his Flag Captain and Chief of Staff. Thereafter, she had proven herself one of his greatest fleet commanders. Above all, though, she was his friend. Alongside Scott, his closest since Gupta’s death in the last war. Now Tanaka-lan had taken her too!

Tears of fury mingled with those his grief had produced. Eventually, he turned away from the expanding ball of debris that had been his friend’s flagship. His eyes sought out Tanaka-lan’s superdreadnought. An involuntary roar of frustration rumbled up his throat. He wanted to reach out and grab Tanaka-lan and plant his nano carbon knife into the Imperator’s throat just as he had done to Taranaki. James could still remember the cold fury that had been pumping through his veins as he had fought the last Karacknid Imperator. By comparison, that was nothing compared to what he felt for Tanaka-lan. Pure hatred flowed. He roared again in frustration and anguish.

Yet Tanaka-lan was too far away, and he was hiding behind too many ships. There was nothing he could do to avenge Becket now. Then he closed his eyes and bowed his head. She wouldn’t want me to, he knew. Becket had died exactly how she had always wanted, standing against her species' greatest enemy. But now she is gone, James thought as he shook his head. Her name was now added to the list. He began to repeat it in his mind. Gupta, Romanov, Fisher, Jil’lal, Ya’sia... and on and on it went. All his friends, "we happy few," he had once called them, referencing another British Admiral from long ago. Now only Scott and Johnston remained from those days. "And who knows how long she or I have left now?" James feared.

He knew his plan had worked well. They had badly hurt the fleet that had attacked Freya, and completely destroyed another Karacknid fleet. Even with the loss of Becket’s capital ships, the balance of force had shifted slightly towards the Allied fleet’s favor. If he tries to continue his attacks, we will be better placed to hurt him even more, the rational part of James’ mind told him. But it is only a matter of time now. Against Tanaka-lan’s numbers, who can win? he asked in anguish.

Becket’s voice answered him. James could picture her face as she said it months ago. Before she had departed to raid the eastern Karacknid Empire, she had only left after making James give her a promise. "If he comes against us here before I return, you will stand against him with every ounce of your strength, won’t you?"

James had nodded and promised. "He won’t advance an inch without being resisted. One way or another, between us, we will stop him."

Not one inch, James repeated to himself now. That had been his promise to his dead friend. He clung to his words and used them to pull himself out of his grief and rage. Opening his eyes, he found Hawkin and his other officers stealing glances at him, concern filling their faces. He tried to smile, to reassure them, but his lips wouldn’t obey. They trembled but wouldn’t break apart. With a cough, he cleared his throat. “You all know that she was a close friend,” he said quietly to them. “She represented the best of all of us. Yet she has died like so many others. All of them knew the risks. They were all here for one reason.” James pointed towards Tanaka-lan’s flagship. “To stop the evil that comes against our people. The battle is not over yet.” As he spoke, James’ voice began to harden. “As long as one Human ship is still battle-ready, we will stand against Tanaka-lan. So, back to work, all of you. We can mourn our dead when these invaders have been driven from the system.”

Hawkin gave James the smallest of nods and then turned to his officers, jolting them back to the tasks they were responsible for. James felt his eyes being drawn back to the point where Trident had been destroyed. He resisted the temptation. She would not want me distracted, he told himself, instead, he began to survey the Karacknid forces. Like his fleets, the Karacknid formations were all pulling back and disengaging from the various skirmishes that had developed. It took James just a few seconds to see that something was different this time, though. Before, after assaulting and destroying a fort, Tanaka-lan had always pulled his fleets back to refuel and rearm them before going again. This time, though, many of the fleets appeared to be moving closer together, and the supply freighters that were moving into the system from the Karacknid battle fleet supply chain were not splitting up. Alongside them, four thousand fresh warships were coming into the inner system as well. Now just sixteen thousand remained protecting the supply freighters on the edge of the outer system.

“The battle for the outer fortifications is over,” James said to his officers. He nodded towards Tanaka-lan’s fleets. “What do you see?”

“They’re pulling back,” Hawkin said at first. “Some of those fleets look to be preparing to combine with one another,” he added after a couple of moments.

“They will all combine into one formation,” James predicted. “And then they will push past our remaining forts and come straight for the main fleet base. Tanaka-lan is done with this back-and-forth; he believes he has opened a wide enough corridor for him to move in and finish this battle in one attack.”

Hawkin nodded. Fresh concern filled his face. “What shall we do, Emperor?”

James considered his answer for several long moments. “We can no longer support the rest of our fortifications. Leaving ships and fighters there will only see them destroyed for minimal gain. We must abandon them all and pull back to Zeta Fort’s main fleet base. There we will make our last stand. Send orders to that effect. I want all our fleets to begin pulling back. Border garrison squadrons and fighters are also to retreat to the main fleet base. We will assess our strength and prepare ourselves to face Tanaka-lan there.”

“Aye, Emperor,” Hawkin said with a nod. He then began to translate James’ directions into a series of orders for the rest of James’ staff officers to carry out.

“Emperor,” James’ COM officer said tentatively. “I have a number of Admirals requesting to speak with you. I’ve sent the list to your command chair.”

“Thank you,” James said, managing to smile to reassure her. “I’ll handle them; you see to contacting our garrison squadrons.”

“Yes sir, right away sir,” the Lieutenant responded and then quickly turned back to her console.

Glancing down at the list, James knew what they wanted to speak about. Scott, Anderson, Maleck, Jourm, and the others would all want to share their condolences with him. James felt a fresh jab of loss hit him when he saw Jonathan’s name. He knew Becket had been a mentor to his son. He would be feeling her loss almost as much as James was. Another name caught his attention next, however. In surprise and joy, he tapped on it. Instantly, a terrifying face appeared on the small holo display of James’ command chair. Long and scaly, with unblinking eyes and a thick row of razor-sharp teeth, Admiral Shraw reminded James of the raptors that he had seen in holo documentaries of Earth’s long-dead reptilian inhabitants.

James couldn’t help but grin at the predatory face that stared at him. “You’re alive!” He nearly shouted. “I can’t believe it; I thought you were gone too. I’m very happy you are not.”

Shraw bowed his head, then tilted it to one side in a sign of grief and loss. “I am sorry about Admiral Becket, Emperor. She was a fierce warrior and your friend. I am sorry that we failed to protect her. I have failed you.”

James leaned forward in his command chair. “Don’t apologize to me, Admiral. You have failed no one. You both fought a more powerful enemy and destroyed them. Tanaka-lan struck you when you were vulnerable; I was the one who put you in that position.” James then held up a hand as he sensed Shraw was about to argue the point. “That is not a debate where blame may lie. Let us instead honor Becket’s memory by continuing her fight. What is the status of your fleet? I thought your flagship was destroyed as well?”

“Continuing the fight is exactly what Becket would want,” Shraw said fiercely. “We will do just that. As for Retribution, she has been badly damaged. She took two particle beams that have all but sliced her in half. She may be salvageable, but we’ve had to abandon her for now. I’ve transferred my flag to Slasher.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear you are alive, Admiral. If you haven’t already, you’ll be getting orders to fall back to the fleet base. I believe Tanaka-lan is planning to come right at us now and finish this, one way or another. I suspect your skills are going to be greatly needed in the coming hours.”

“They are yours to command, Emperor,” Shraw said as he gave James another bow. “I will get what’s left of our fleet to the base as quickly as possible.”

“Thank you, my friend. And do not hesitate to let us know what assistance you need, for we’re going to need all your ships as battle-ready as possible very soon as well.”

“We’re still getting a handle on just how badly many of our ships are damaged, but we will do that,” Shraw promised.

“Then I will let you focus on your duties,” James said. “We will speak again soon.”

“Aye,” Shraw said with a human-like nod.

James cut the COM channel and scanned down the list of names waiting to speak with him. Knowing that Scott would understand waiting a little longer, he tapped on his son’s name. Then he prepared himself for the fresh wave of grief that was going to wash over him.

*

Five hours later, James stood in his office, a projection of the combined Karacknid battlefleet of fifty-eight thousand warships hovered behind him. Arrayed in front of him were projections of all his senior commanders. While he could only see his most senior officers, he knew every flag officer and Captain in the Allied fleet could see him. “And so, I believe it will only be an hour or two before Tanaka-lan advances,” James continued to explain. “He will push through our remaining forts, accept the losses they will inflict upon him, and come for us here. This is our last chance then. We must make a stand. If we cannot hold the Karacknids here, then we will be fighting them in New Shanghai, and the Void, and then at Earth. We have all suffered much loss already defending this system, now we must be prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice ourselves. No matter how many times Tanaka-lan sends his fleets against us, we must fight them back. There is no other choice now.

“But we can take heart. We have hurt them badly already. And the fleet base is well defended, far stronger than every other fort combined. We can hold, I know it. The Karacknids have been fighting for months, now they are months from their supply bases. They cannot fight on indefinitely. They may have fifty-eight thousand warships coming against us, but many have to be damaged, or are operating at less than peak efficiency. We know numbers are not everything. We know why we fight, for our family, friends, and people. That will give us the edge we need…”

James paused to let his words sink in as he looked around at his senior commanders. He then nodded slowly. “Never has a finer fleet been assembled by any of our species. I know we will not let our people down. I know you will not let me down. For honor and duty then, let us stand as the bulwark for our people’s sake.” James stood at attention and saluted his commanders. “To your battle stations then,” he ordered.

All the officers displayed in front of him returned his salute and then one by one their faces began to disappear. Scott, Anderson, and Shraw remained, and just before Jonathan reached forward to end his COM connection, James waved a hand at him. “Stay, son, you are a part of this now.” Jonathan’s eyes widened slightly but then he nodded. As far as James was concerned, Jonathan had already far exceeded his expectations as a fleet commander. It seemed his son was a natural. With Ivanov and now Becket gone, James wanted someone he trusted to take their place.

“So, what do you think of the plan?” He asked Scott as he turned to her first. She had remained silent as he had outlined what he expected from his fleet.

“If we are going to stand here and offer ourselves as a target for Tanaka-lan, then we have little option but to fight as you have outlined,” Scott said as she gave a shrug of her shoulders.

“You think we should fall back, accept that we have been beaten, and try to regroup?” James asked.

Scott shook her head. “The fleet base’s defenses are as strong as those of New Shanghai or Earth, and I’d much rather stand and fight here than there,” she answered. “But I do not like standing still here or anywhere.” Anderson nodded at her words.

“Neither do I,” James agreed as well. “But there’s no way to stop Tanaka-lan except by facing him head-on and destroying him once and for all.”

“Then we do as you say,” Scott responded. “Once he surrounds us, there will be no hope of escape. But if we can draw him in, then maybe we can skewer him here and now.”

James turned to Jonathan. If he was going to make a last stand and sacrifice himself to gut Tanaka-lan’s fleet of most of its offensive capabilities, then there were many freighters and badly damaged ships that needed to be evacuated from this system. Jonathan was already shaking his head as James met his eyes. “I want to stay, father,” Jonathan said, his voice full of passion. “If you’re going to stand here and fight to the death, then I will fight by your side. I won’t run back to our colonies with those not strong enough to stand and fight.”

James’ emotions fought one another as he stared at his son. Becket’s loss was still raw, and he could feel the immense grief he felt just lurking under the surface. How could he sentence his own son to death as well? His mind went to Christine; inevitably, she would get the news that he had fallen, sacrificing himself to destroy as much of Tanaka-lan’s fleet as possible. That would be bad enough, but if she learned that Jonathan had died as well - how could she handle that? James didn’t know. And yet, as he stared at his son, he also knew he couldn’t order Jonathan away. The battle before them was the very thing Jonathan had devoted his life to preparing for. Ever since he had been a little boy, James had told him stories of the heroics of Gupta and the others who had fallen in the First Karacknid War. He saw the same passion in his son’s eyes now that he had seen then. Duty, honor, and family were words that meant everything to James, as they did now to his son as well.

“Very well,” James said to his son, even as his insides churned and twisted in rebellion at his words. “We will stand and fight to the last together. Just promise me this, if I go first, you will stay the course.” James took a moment to meet Scott, Anderson, and Shraw’s eyes as well. “Whether all of us remain to strike the last blow, or just one of us, we must hold back our grief and anger until we can deliver the killing blow.”

“I will, father, and thank you,” Jonathan said solemnly, his voice and face showing that he understood exactly what James was saying was soon to happen.

“As will we,” Shraw said, speaking for the others. “We have already lost many to this monstrous enemy. While we still draw breath, we will see this through to the end.”

James looked at all their faces and smiled sadly. “There are many not here with us now who I would give more than my right hand to have by our side as we make this final stand. Their memories and their sacrifices will have to suffice. Likely, we will be joining them soon. So, let us make a grand show of this final battle.”

“And let us teach the Karacknids to never set foot in any of our systems again,” Shraw growled. Scott, Anderson, and Jonathan all voiced their heartfelt agreement. A beep from behind James made him turn. He saw right away that the Karacknid battlefleet had finally begun to advance. He turned back to his friends, a sadness in his eyes he couldn’t hide. “It has begun,” he said simply. “Let us make our final preparations.”

Chapter 48

If the Battle of Zeta Fort teaches us nothing else, it is this; the Imperial Fleet cannot allow itself to face an enemy of vastly superior numbers again. An individual fleet may be outmaneuvered or caught by surprise by an unknown enemy. Yet behind each border fleet our enemies must know that tens of thousands of superdreadnoughts stand waiting, ready to step into the breach and crush any who would seek to ravage our worlds.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Victory

James quickly left his office and returned to Victory’s bridge. His staff officers were already there waiting for him. “They have begun to advance,” Hawkin said by way of greeting.

“Thank you,” James replied as he took his seat. He then studied the holo display closely. Zeta Fort’s main fleet base had been constructed around the system’s fourth planet. It was a barren, rocky, and desert world not too unlike Mars before it had been terraformed. Orbiting the world was Humanity’s largest fleet base. The base was large enough to service the supply and maintenance needs of the garrison fleets of the four fort systems that were connected to the Zeta Fort system via artificial shift passages, as well as the garrison at the fort itself, and the thousands of ships that in peacetime had been based at Zeta Fort as they patrolled The Wilds.

In addition, there were hundreds of massive supply stations. They contained enough food, materials, fuel, and munitions to keep a fleet of ten thousand warships supplied for a year. They guaranteed that Tanaka-lan couldn’t simply surround the base and try to starve out its garrison forces. If he wanted to negate James’ fleet, he would have to assault and destroy the base’s orbital stations.

To make sure that would be a costly task, the fleet base was protected by five hundred Behemoth-class battlestations and a thousand smaller ones. There were also over a hundred orbital hangars and thousands of defense satellites. Altogether, they had the firepower equivalent to an Allied fleet of approximately six thousand warships and the defensive capabilities of a much larger fleet of around ten thousand. In combination with the fixed defenses, twenty-two thousand Allied warships were positioned between the battlestations. James knew it was a formidable force.

Yet the force that was now approaching them was far more impressive. Four months ago, fifty-eight thousand Karacknid warships was a force he would never have imagined facing all at once in one place. Even now, after he had faced off against the battlefleet when it had been at its full strength of sixty-five thousand, James still struggled to get his head around what he was looking at. When the Karacknid ships had been spread out across more than ten fleets, it had been easier. But now they were coming forward as one, all their noses aimed at Victory.

“Signal Fargo Fort,” James said after assessing the path the Karacknid battlefleet was going to take. “Instruct them to open fire as soon as the enemy comes into range. They may as well fire off as many salvos as they can; there’s no point waiting until they can coordinate with other forts. And let them know that if the Karacknids detach any smaller forces to close with them, they can focus their fire on them.”

“Aye, Emperor,” Hawkin responded.

As soon as the Karacknids came into range, Fargo Fort began to fire. The small fort was only equipped with ninety mark X missile launchers. Firing at extreme range, they released six volleys of their multistage missiles by themselves. Then the Karacknids also came into range of Idaho Fort, and it began to coordinate its one hundred and fifty missiles with Fargo. Soon other forts began to add their own fire to the barrages striking the Karacknids.

Unperturbed by the steady rhythm of missile salvos that raced to strike them, the Karacknids continued on. Fargo Fort was able to fire twelve salvos before the Karacknid battlefleet came into range with their own weapons. The Whirlwind and Gravimetric missiles released by the mark X missiles ensured that each salvo did some damage, yet often just one ship was destroyed or received some minor damage. When the other forts' fire began to attack the Karacknid battlefleet from different angles, more ships were damaged. Sometimes four or five were destroyed, on occasion as many as fifteen were taken out of commission, either destroyed or crippled.

As relentless as the attacks were, however, they were less than a flea bite to the Karacknids. By the time the battlefleet entered range of Fargo Fort, they had lost less than a fraction of a percent of their strength. And then they were finally able to return fire. The battlefleet fired a tenth of the number of missiles they could. The flight time of the missiles was nineteen minutes, and so Fargo Fort got to fire three of their own full salvos made up of mark X missiles and standard mark VIII missiles. Yet then they had to try and defend themselves. They were unsuccessful. The fort's defenses were easily overwhelmed by the Karacknid missile numbers, and the fort was taken apart by hundreds of antimatter detonations.

Without altering course, the Karacknid battlefleet continued on as it came under almost constant attack. A small but steady stream of ships began to fall behind as they were damaged or crippled. Even so, it was clear to James that the losses meant nothing to Tanaka-lan. As soon as the Karacknid battlefleet came into range of the next fort, it fired and obliterated it as well. Fifteen minutes later, a third fort was destroyed. Then, several smaller squadrons broke away from the Karacknid battlefleet. Six, each ranging in strength from two to three thousand warships, moved to engage the rest of the inner system forts that were in range of the Karacknid battlefleet. In the space of an hour, they destroyed each fort. As the forts switched their fire to the smaller Karacknid forces, their attacks met with more success. Over a thousand Karacknid ships didn't return to join the battlefleet after the forts' destruction.

Eventually, though, only one fort continued to fire. The battlestations of Zeta Fort’s fleet base could fire five hundred mark X missiles. With enough supplies of multistage missiles to last at least a day, the Fort fired salvo after salvo at the Karacknids as they closed with the system’s fourth planet.

“They’re altering course!” a sensor officer suddenly called out.

James' eyes narrowed as he assessed the Karacknids' new heading. “They’re lining up for a passing attack,” he told his officers. “They’ll come into standard missile range for just one or two salvos, and then pull back.” James' eyes shifted to the twenty purposely built battlestations that were firing the bulk of Zeta Fort's mark X missiles. “They’re going to hit us with their fighters and try to take out those stations,” he guessed. “Then they’ll be able to move their siege cannons into place and bombard us with impunity.”

“What do you want us to do?” Hawkin asked.

James thought for a moment. “We still have some mines, don’t we?”

“I believe so,” Hawkin responded.

“Well then, let’s prepare a warm welcome for whatever fighters try to come this way. Instruct our wing commanders to prepare all their fighters as well. If we can take out the bulk of their remaining fighter force now, it may give us an opening later.”

“We will inform them now, Emperor,” Hawkin said.

James turned to the holo image of Scott. “There’s no point sending our fighters out to hit their fleet with our own salvos. We would lose too many too early in this fight.”

“Agreed,” Scott said. “If they are just going to hit us with one or two salvos, we also won’t be firing any standard missiles by the time their missiles and fighters get here. We could coordinate a salvo with our mines.”

“And try sneaking some of our Lancer frigates closer to our mark X battlestations,” Anderson added over the COM channel he shared with Scott and James. “Then they can rush into position once the Karacknids commit themselves.”

“Both should work,” James said as he nodded to Hawkin to begin making the necessary arrangements. “And now we get to see just how effective all the money we have spent on Zeta Fort’s defenses has been,” he added as the Karacknids quickly approached standard missile range.

As their final approach trajectory became clear, it showed Tanaka-lan only intended to fire one missile salvo. He wanted to get in, destroy the long-range missile launchers that were slowly chipping away at his fleet, and then pull back to assess the strength of the fortifications' defenses. James played with the idea of having many of his battlestations only fire a half salvo of standard missiles. If he could make Tanaka-lan think his force wasn’t as strong as it was, then maybe he could draw the Karacknid Imperator in closer, sooner. The problem was, already hundreds of active Karacknid recon drones were trying to fly through the fortifications. Tanaka-lan probably already had a good idea of just how strong the battlestations were. Firing half salvos would just reduce the amount of damage Tanaka-lan’s forces would take.

“Fire at the optimal point,” James said as he caught Hawkin's eye. “Then we prepare to defend ourselves.”

As the Karacknid battlefleet approached Zeta Fort, salvo after salvo of mark X missiles struck out at them. Each one managed to punch a handful of missiles through the Karacknid defenses, ensuring a steady stream of destroyed and crippled ships kept leaving the battlefleet. Then the Karacknid warships came into range with their own missiles. In the blink of an eye, a myriad of new contacts appeared on the holo display. Having readied himself for them, James’ face didn’t twitch or show any emotion. Yet inside, he felt sick. Victory’s sensors were displaying one point five million missiles that had just been launched. Around him, James saw mouths fall open, officers shake their heads, and more than one turned to him, looking for some kind of reassurance.

Stoically, James watched the missiles approach. It took a few moments, but slowly and then more quickly, his officers took their cue from him and regained their composure. When he felt they were ready, James began to give orders. “Dispatch our fighters to meet theirs. The further from us they have to fight each other the better. Let’s take a page out of Tanaka-lan’s book as well. Deploy all our Lancer and drone cruisers far out ahead of the fort as well. They are to engage the missile salvo as it passes them, but the priority is the Karacknid fighters. Coordinate our second salvo to strike just after the Lancers engage.”

Hawkin and his officers acknowledged the orders and then set about implementing them. A couple of minutes later, Hawkin turned back to James. “We’re firing,” he announced.

From James’ fleet and battlestations, seven hundred and forty thousand missiles were launched into space. Their engines then kicked in and they began to accelerate after the Karacknid battlefleet.

“Detecting fighters now,” a sensor officer called out moments later.

On the display, ahead of the approaching enemy missile salvo, thousands of new contacts began to accelerate. The number quickly rose to seventeen thousand. He has to be committing almost every fighter he has left, James thought. It was more hope than certainty, but surely it had to be the case. By Hawkin’s count, they had already destroyed twenty-four thousand enemy fighters over the course of the last week. For a moment, James toyed with releasing more of his fighters that were hidden within many of the orbital supply stations. Already, he had twenty thousand fighters rising up out of orbit to meet the Karacknid ones, but he could add many more to that number.

He pressed his lips together as he tried to calculate how many Karacknid fighters were likely to get through to strike at his battlestations. ‘Too many,’ was the answer. Then the question became, what did he want to preserve: his mark X launchers or his hidden fighters? James’ mind went back to his words with Scott and the others. If Tanaka-lan turned the battle into a long drawn-out siege, they would be destroyed bit by bit, without being able to seriously hurt the Karacknid Imperator in return. He needed to draw Tanaka-lan in, where James could then charge out to meet him. James knew his only hope now was to drive his fleet into energy weapon range of the Karacknids and blast their way through to Tanaka-lan’s super dreadnought. If they could destroy it and kill Tanaka-lan, they could cut the head off his invasion. That is all that matters now, James told himself. The fighters would stay hidden then, until they could cut a path through the Karacknid battlefleet for him to unleash his revenge upon Tanaka-lan.

Ten minutes later, James’ twenty thousand fighters clashed with the Karacknids’ seventeen thousand. Both sides exchanged anti-fighter missiles, though thankfully James had far more, showing Tanaka-lan was running out of his new variant of fighters. Then they rushed towards one another at an incredibly high speed. Not a single Karacknid fighter tried to slow to prolong the engagement. Instead, they fired streams of laser beams at the Imperial fighters as they twisted and weaved. Those that survived the Imperial fighters returned fire, then accelerated on towards Zeta Fort. James’ fighters let them go and instead turned to face the colossal Karacknid missile salvo that was quickly catching up with the Karacknid fighters.

“Just over eleven and a half thousand Karacknid fighters still incoming,” a tactical officer reported.

“Thank you,” James replied, then he lapsed back into silence. He had deployed every force he had. Now he was little more than a spectator as his fleet fought for their lives.

The next fighting broke out after the missiles overtook their fighters. They then tried to charge past the Lancer frigates and drone cruisers. Thousands of missiles were shot down, but without area-of-effect weapons, the Imperial ships could do little against the sheer numbers they faced. Their next targets didn’t get off so lightly. Having moved out away from the fort and stopped, and then begun to accelerate back towards it, the Imperial warships were able to match the Karacknid fighters' course and keep them in range for over thirty seconds. None of the Karacknid fighters tried to attack them, opting to save their fire for Zeta Fort’s battlestations. It was a mistake, however, for the Imperial warships tore into the Karacknid fighters. James’ five hundred ships shot down nearly two thousand of the Karacknid fighters.

Then, the main part of the fight began. At a command from Hawkin, the Allied Fleet and defenses fired their second salvo of missiles. Spreading out, the missiles raced out to meet the Karacknid salvo and sought to detonate amongst the enemy missile formation. The Karacknid missiles sensed them coming and sought to avoid being hit. Yet one and a half million missiles closing in on a relatively small area of a planet’s orbit couldn’t avoid stacking up around one another. Some tried to evade and ended up crashing into one another. Others started evasive maneuvers, sensed the danger near them, and had to swing back into the path of the incoming Allied missiles. Then the Allied missiles detonated. Together, they formed a massive wave of antimatter particles. Though they quickly dissipated, for a couple of seconds, they were strong enough to obliterate anything that passed them. Hundreds of thousands of Karacknid missiles disappeared.

Well over a million remained, however, and in anger, they dove towards the battlestations. Allied point defenses opened up on them. Tens of millions of beams, bolts, AM missiles, and explosive rounds were hurled at the Karacknid missiles. Within a couple of seconds, the display became far too confused for James to be able to see what was happening. The sheer amount of energy being released into space distorted Victory’s visual sensors, then, as tens and then hundreds of thousands of missiles began to be shot down, all James could see was a wave of explosions racing towards him.

Though he knew his gunners were rapidly reducing the enemy missile numbers, the wave of fire didn’t appear to be diminishing as it closed with the fleet base. Then it crashed into James’ battlestations and warships. In an instant, the wave of fire ceased, immediately replaced by blooms of blue antimatter. At least several hundred erupted all around Victory as warships, battlestations, and orbital stations died to the Karacknids’ attack. As they had been trained to do, the Allied gunners paid no attention to the carnage around them, for an even bigger threat was now racing in to attack.

The surviving eleven and a half thousand Karacknid fighters charged in right behind the missiles. They were greeted by the thickest waves of defensive fire any fighter attack had faced in the history of the galaxy. Still, they charged on. Hundreds died within the first couple of seconds. Within ten, over a thousand were gone. A counter on the main display told James there were just twenty more seconds before the fighters could begin firing their beams. With all his strength, he willed his gunners to fire faster and more accurately. As the fighters got closer, the Allied fire did indeed improve. Hundreds of Karacknid fighters were being shot down every second. Then it rose to thousands just before the Karacknids could attack.

True to James’ prediction, the thickest group of fighters were racing towards the mark X battlestations. Just before they came into range with their weapons, a thousand antimatter mines detonated right in the midst of their formation. Three hundred more fighters died. Then the remaining Karacknids were firing. Particle beams smashed into warships, battlestations, defense satellites, and supply stations. Explosions erupted all around Victory for a second time. James grimaced as he watched twenty-eight of his forty mark X battlestations be sliced open. Then a firestorm ignited behind the Allied Fleet and stations as the particle beams that missed targets penetrated the planet’s atmosphere and struck its surface. The momentum of the super-accelerated particles instantly ignited the planet’s atmosphere. Those that struck the planet's surface pierced deep into its crust, setting off volcanic eruptions and massive earthquakes.

James felt a coldness settle on his heart at the sight, for he knew that if he failed to stop Tanaka-lan, New Shanghai and Earth and a hundred other Imperial colonies could suffer in the same way. And that was the best-case scenario, for if Tanaka-lan intentionally targeted his species' worlds, nothing of them would survive. Despite James’ thoughts, almost no one else in the Allied Fleet even noticed the damage to the planet below them. They were all focused on destroying as many Karacknid fighters as they could before they could fire again.

Over eight hundred of the Karacknid craft still remained. They were all still desperately twisting and turning to evade the fire directed at them while at the same time decelerating hard to stay in range of the Allied fortifications before their momentum took them slingshotting around the planet. All but a hundred and thirty of them were shot down as the bulk of the Allied defensive fire focused on them. The survivors, though, lined up shots on the largest Allied battlestations and warships. When they fired, another hundred beams struck their targets, adding more death and carnage to the battle.

More of James’ mark X battlestations died. As the explosions cleared, James could just see five of them remained intact. Many of the rest were simply gone, while others were falling out down towards the planet’s atmosphere or had been ripped into so many chunks, they were unrecognizable for what they had once been. Hundreds of other ships and stations were also badly damaged or destroyed as well. An initial count suggested four hundred and sixty warships and thirty-nine other battlestations were gone. Their losses were important, but it was the mark X battlestations that really counted. Without them, James could not strike at Tanaka-lan’s battlefleet unless the Karacknid Imperator chose to bring his ships into standard missile range. With just five left, he could only hit Tanaka-lan with about one sixtieth of the multistage missiles he had been before. The threat of the mark X missiles had been all but eliminated.

“Our missiles are attacking them now,” Hawkin reported, drawing James' eyes away from his own fleet and its losses. If his forces’ defensive fire had been impressive, the Karacknid battlefleet's was even more so. Directed against far fewer missiles, the Karacknids destroyed all but several hundred of James’ salvo. Those that punched through the defensive fire destroyed three hundred and ninety-four Karacknid warships. It made such a small dent on the Karacknid battlefleet, that if James didn’t have the total count of enemy ships being shown on Victory’s main display, he wouldn’t have been able to tell the attack had hurt his enemy at all.

“Emperor, I’m afraid we’ve lost the FTL COM as well,” one of James' COM officers informed him after the last Allied missiles detonated amidst the Karacknid fleet.

James turned back to the display showing his forces. Further back, behind the battlestations and orbital stations, another structure began to flash as it fell out of orbit. It was so damaged that it took him a moment to recognize it for what it was. The FTL COM array worked by generating pulses of tachyons that were directed towards other arrays in distant systems. It was a highly sensitive piece of equipment that only the Kulreans could build. James imagined a proximity hit from an antimatter missile would have been more than enough to disrupt and cripple the fragile array.

As he watched the array touch the planet’s orbit and begin to burn up, he berated himself for not thinking of it sooner. Of course, Tanaka-lan had ordered it attacked as well. Without it, James was now blind to what was going on outside the system. Worse than that, he realized. Now we can no longer call for additional help. His gaze flashed back towards the Karacknid battlefleet as James was suddenly filled with concern about what Tanaka-lan had in store for them next.

Chapter 49

Speak to any living Admiral or read any memoir from the prominent commanders of the Empire’s history and they will tell you the same thing; the worst thing in any battle is the waiting.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Victory

It didn’t take long for James to find out the next stage of Tanaka-lan’s plan. For even as his battlefleet began to decelerate and turn back towards Zeta Fort, another group of four thousand warships began to approach the fort. They halted well out of standard missile range and then the siege ships at the heart of the fleet’s formation began to fire. James knew what they would be targeting. First, they would start with the remaining mark X battlestations, then they would move onto the other Behemoths. The battlestations could carry out small maneuvers to adjust orbit, but they were as close to sitting ducks as any target could be for the giant cylindrical warships.

“Can we hit them with our remaining mark X missiles?” James asked his tactical officer.

The officer’s fingers danced around his console. Seconds later, he looked up to James and nodded. “It would be an extremely long shot. We’d basically have to run the first stage of the missiles until their fuel runs out, and even then, the second stage missiles may not have enough fuel for evasive maneuvers when they reach their target area.”

“But it can be done?” James pressed, and the Lieutenant nodded. “Very well, see to it immediately.” He then turned to eye the Karacknid siege cannons. “It will be a race then. If they take out our mark X launchers first, then they can continue to strike at us with impunity for as long as they like. If we can destroy those siege cannons first though, then Tanaka-lan will have to come at us again,” James said to his officers. Though James doubted Tanaka-lan would just sit back for weeks and let his siege cannons bombard James’ positions, he could do a lot of damage even in the space of a couple of days to soften up Zeta Fort’s defenses.

“In that case, we should evacuate and move as many civilian freighters as we can stand to lose and put them in front of the battlestations,” Scott suggested over the open COM channel James was on with her. “They can move out of the way when the battlestations fire, and then move back in to absorb any ordinance that targets the battlestations.”

“Good thinking,” James responded. “Can your staff officers see to it?”

“Of course, Emperor,” Scott said.

“Any other suggestions that might help us prolong the duel between our two weapon systems?” James asked his staff officers and the Admirals he had on his COM channel with Scott. Several ideas were discussed, including sending out fighters to try and shoot missiles into the large kinetic rounds the Karacknid siege cannons fired. Yet Scott assured everyone that the enemy rounds were just too massive to deflect with antimatter warheads.

James had no option but to accept the reality that a long, drawn-out contest was about to begin. Indeed, as soon as his tactical officers had the mark X missiles ready, they began launching salvos of them at the Karacknid siege cannons. Not long after, the first siege cannon rounds began to split apart and rain hundreds of deadly metallic shards through Zeta Fort. As they could only approach ballistically, many of the shards flew through James' forces to strike the planet below, adding to the destruction its surface had already suffered. James helped them on their way by spreading his force out as wide as he could. Scott also oversaw the establishment of a network of active sensor drones that did their best to spot the incoming rounds and project their trajectories. In many instances, battleships were able to move just enough to get out of the way of a shard that would have hit otherwise.

Despite all this, as the number of enemy salvos continued to mount, the shards steadily scored more and more kills. The thousands of defense satellites arrayed around James' battlestations suffered the worst. There were simply so many of them, that the shards steadily racked up a number of kills. They were not the only structures that suffered, however. After three hours of bombardment, three battlestations, five supply stations, and a hangar had all been struck and badly damaged, if not destroyed. Five ships had also been unlucky enough to be hit.

The battle wasn’t entirely one-sided, however, for the few mark X missiles Zeta Fort was still able to fire, hit back. Every five minutes ninety missiles closed with the Karacknid siege cannons, released ten smaller warheads, and then they tried to hit the cylindrical vessels. It took forty-five minutes for the first missile to score a hit, yet when it did it was catastrophic for the siege cannon. A Shadow warhead managed to get close enough to one of the siege cannons so that when it detonated its miniature black hole tore the ship apart. Thirty minutes after that, a handful of bombs from a Whirlwind warhead struck another siege cannon. It didn’t destroy it outright, but it compromised the integrity of its long electromagnetic firing tube, rendering it useless.

In response, Tanaka-lan moved his entire battlefleet to take up a defensive position around the siege cannons. The massive defensive fire from the tens of thousands of Karacknid warships blunted the mark X missiles' effectiveness, but they couldn’t negate it entirely. The two Whirlwind missiles released by each mark X missile proved the most effective. The thousands of bomblets they released could only be stopped by striking a Karacknid warship, and inevitably a few made it through to hit another siege cannon. Seeing this, James ordered all the mark X missiles in storage to be altered. Whirlwind missiles were taken out of some of the mark Xs and put into others. It took a couple of hours, but thereafter, every mark X fired released eight Whirlwind missiles and two Shadow missiles. The Shadow missiles were programmed to attack first, their miniature black holes ripped open gaps in the Karacknid battlefleet’s formation, through which the bomblets were funneled to try and hit the siege cannons.

For a total of six hours, the mark X battlestations and the siege cannons bombarded one another. Battlestations and siege cannons were lost, yet slowly but surely, the Imperial battlestations began to get the upper hand. While the siege cannons were doing more damage to James’ overall force, the battlestations were more quickly whittling away the number of siege cannons that were operational.

Tanaka-lan clearly saw that he was losing, for after six hours, the vast majority of his battlefleet started forward towards Zeta Fort once again. “He’s lining up another passing attack,” a tactical officer reported.

“Tanaka-lan wants to finish off the mark X battlestations,” Hawkin predicted.

“And he will be able to do it,” James responded. James wasn’t sure if his enemy had enough fighters to launch another fighter strike in conjunction with the salvo his battlefleet was going to fire, but even without them, he’d be able to slam enough missiles through the Allied Fleet’s defenses to take out the few mark X battlestations that were left. “All we can do is focus on hurting his fleet as it passes. But first, the priority is reducing the enemy salvo strength as much as possible. Our battlestations are not the only ones about to come under assault.”

When Tanaka-lan’s fleet fired another salvo of over one and a half million missiles as it passed, it was met with everything the Allied fleet could muster. Over ten thousand fighters and bombers fired their anti-fighter missiles at the incoming swarm, then tore into them with their plasma cannons. Two thousand light ships raced out to meet the salvo as well and tore into it as the Karacknid missiles flew past them. Another salvo of antimatter missiles from James' fleet also reduced the strength of the enemy attack. Then a wall of defensive fire blasted away at them. Nevertheless, for a second time, hundreds of Karacknid antimatter missiles detonated amongst Zeta Fort’s defenses. The detonations focused in and around the area where the mark X battlestations were. Despite James’ best efforts, he saw many of them suffer as missiles struck them and slammed antimatter into the battlestations.

Tanaka-lan lost four hundred of his own ships to James’ return fire. But he accomplished his goal. All but one of the mark X battlestations were destroyed, along with many other Imperial defense satellites, battlestations, and Allied warships.

For another twelve hours, the siege cannons kept up their fire on Zeta Fort’s stations. They were now able to attack with almost impunity. The lone mark X battlestation still kept up a steady return fire. But with the defensive might of the entire Karacknid battlefleet to get through, it struggled to hit any more siege cannons. Once, by sheer luck, a bomblet did take out one more. Yet then two hours later, two shards from a siege cannon round struck the battlestation, and it succumbed to the damage and fell out of orbit. From then on, the siege cannons could maintain a constant fire on the Allied positions without fear of any reprisals.

Individually, each siege cannon attack was almost inconsequential. Here and there a battlestation or other orbital station might be hit, or maybe even a ship. But even one of the more successful attacks destroyed only a fraction of a percent of his force. Yet over hours, the losses began to mount up. James knew his officers and indeed every officer in the fleet was looking to him. He therefore made sure he was constantly giving out orders, speaking to his senior commanders and making sure the fleet knew he was actively involved in their defense. Nevertheless, he found himself fighting back waves of frustration, despair, and grief. He did his best to keep himself busy, yet his mind kept turning to Becket’s loss, or his fears that he would fail, and Earth would fall, or he would think of the pain he was going to cause Christine and his children when he launched the attack he was planning against Tanaka-lan.

Though he didn’t need to, twice more in the space of twelve hours, Tanaka-lan brought his fleet in to launch another single salvo at the Allies' defensive positions. In both cases, both sides lost about an equal number of forces, for while the Karacknid battlefleet could put out a much more powerful missile salvo, Zeta Fort's defenses were better able to deal with the numbers, and the few Whirlwind and Shadow missiles James had were better able to penetrate the Karacknids' defensive fire.

"He is testing our defenses," James told his Admirals after the second attack. "He wants to know where we are weakest, and where he should focus his first salvos when he closes in for a prolonged engagement."

"Are we still sure he will come right at us?" Vice Admiral Maleck asked. "With his siege cannons, he can whittle away our strength for as long as he likes."

"He will come," James said confidently. If he hadn’t already suspected it, Tanaka-lan’s two latest attacks had confirmed it. "He knows we still have other fleets at nearby forts that can come to join us if he gives them enough time. And he can't have an infinite supply of rounds for those siege cannons. More importantly though, he knows he needs to push on to take Earth. The longer he spends so far from his supply bases back in his own territory, the less battle-effective his fleet is becoming. He needs to crush us, and relatively soon so that he can push on for Earth before we can form a second line of defense."

Maleck nodded. "Well, when he comes, we will be ready for him."

"Aye, we will, but we still need to keep an eye on our own defenses," James cautioned. "Every loss we take from those cannons compromises our firing patterns and overlapping fields of fire. We need to keep monitoring the situation to make sure Tanaka-lan doesn't spot a weakness he can exploit."

"And are all our forces ready for Spear Thrust?" Tak’ar asked, though his face showed no emotion, his voice wavered a little too much.

James didn’t blame the Vestarian. He had explained his plan to all his commanders and Captains a couple of hours ago. Now everyone in the fleet understood what the end goal of their defense was. "They are," James assured him. "Everyone knows what's on the line, either we kill Tanaka-lan when he gives us the chance, or this fort will fall, and then our line of border forts will be compromised. Earth will eventually be next. Then everyone else's civilizations. I am sure no one will balk when the order is given."

Tak’ar nodded. "My fleet will most certainly be at your side, Emperor. We know if Earth falls, Vestar will not be far behind it."

James nodded and smiled at his friend’s son. "We will be ready. We just need Tanaka-lan to give us the opening," he said, more than a hint of the frustration building within him leaking into his voice. "He can't bombard us forever."

"Eh, about that opening," Hawkin interjected, drawing James’ attention away from his discussion with his admirals. "There's movement out near the edge of the system. Ships are leaving the Karacknid supply convoy. Warships."

"Show me," James commanded as he turned towards the main display. Goosebumps ran down his neck at what he saw. Ten thousand warships, more than two-thirds of the force that had been guarding the Karacknid supply freighters, were moving to rendezvous with Tanaka-lan’s battlefleet. "This is it," he declared to his officers. "Tanaka-lan won't want to leave his supply so vulnerable for too long. This is it. Once those ships join him, he's going to move in and finish this fight."

"How far are they from meeting up with the main force?" Scott asked.

"Just two hours," Hawkin answered.

"Then this waiting around will finally end," James stated, feeling a mix of relief and apprehension that he would finally get to confront Tanaka-lan head-on, despite knowing the likely outcome.

"Maybe we need to reconsider our approach, Emperor," his son’s voice suggested.

James' eyes narrowed, suspecting his son was trying to find a way to avoid the sacrifice he knew was coming. Jonathan smiled tentatively at his father. “From the beginning of this, we have known the Karacknid supplies are key to the success of their invasion. Tanaka-lan has given us a window. We still have fifteen thousand fighters: plus those you're keeping in reserve. What if we launched them all at the battlefleet's supply train? While Tanaka-lan is focused on us here, the fighters could slip past his battlefleet and decimate those freighters. Then, we could pull back and regroup at Pattel or one of the other forts. Without his supplies, Tanaka-lan would not be able to advance any further. Perhaps he would even be forced to fall back. Maybe we don’t need to try and kill him if we can take out his supplies.”

James hesitated, considering the idea. Jonathan knew just how badly the Karacknid supply lines had been disrupted. It could work, he began to think. Retreating from Zeta Fort would severely compromise the system of border forts. But if Tanaka-lan couldn’t advance, then it wasn’t as big a loss. And if he still wanted to take out the fort, his battlefleet would suffer more losses, even without their fleet there. They would be losses he couldn't repair without his supply fleet.

James smiled at his son and opened his mouth to speak. He wasn’t ready to accept such a plan, but he was certainly willing for his commanders to entertain it. He didn’t get more than a single word out, for alarms suddenly announced the approach of more ships.

James froze when he saw them. His first instinct was to think they were fake. There was no way they could be there. And yet they were. “How?” he asked out loud, his composure completely gone. Then his mind found the answer. It was a simple calculation really. Tanaka-lan’s forces had first entered the system four days ago. If the contacts he was staring wide-eyed at had headed into the dark matter beyond the system’s mass shadow and began circumnavigating around the system, they would have roughly reached the position they were in now.

James’ heart sank. Every thought of hitting the Karacknids supplies or even of charging out to kill Tanaka-lan vanished. He has found the one weakness in our fort, James knew. He had never seen it before himself, not in twenty years of planning. Yet Tanaka-lan clearly had.

From Zeta Fort, James had ordered artificial shift passages constructed to four forts. The idea had been that Zeta Fort’s large garrison could jump to any one of the four forts to aid them, or as it turned out, the other four forts' garrison fleets could aid Zeta Fort. To make this more effective, James had branched the four artificial shift passages from the one original shift passage that led south from Zeta Fort towards his Empire’s territory. As a result, they all left the system from the same point. Now, Tanaka-lan’s new fleet was advancing along a trajectory that would soon cut off James’ fleet's line of retreat.

And he has had even more ships than he let on! James thought, unable to fight back his despair. He knew he shouldn’t be surprised by now, constantly the Karacknids had showed up with more warships than they should have been able to have. This last surprise was too much, however. The newcomers that were accelerating into the system to cut off his retreat numbered twenty thousand. They were almost as powerful as James’ entire fleet and in conjunction with Tanaka-lan’s battlefleet of sixty thousand ships, meant the Karacknid Imperator would be able to assault Zeta Fort’s defenses and suffer almost no losses.

In an instant, all James’ plans evaporated. There was no way Tanaka-lan would put himself in harm’s way as he was close to finishing the Allied Fleet. He had such a numerical advantage now that James would have no hope of charging into energy weapon range of his super dreadnought. Nor could he slip his fighters past the Karacknid Imperator. He was too good. He would be expecting it. He likely already had forces in place to block such an attempt. We are trapped, James realized in desperation. All this time, he has been toying with us until his final fleet got into position. Now he will destroy the only fleet that stands between him and Earth. Once he destroys us, nothing will be able to stop him. What can we do? James asked in despair. He could find no answer.

Chapter 50

Not even in the darkest of days in my fighting against the Galatar did I face the kind of odds Emperor Somerville did at the Battle of Zeta Fort.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Victory

In desperation, James looked around at the holo images of his commanders for help. No one spoke. They were all looking at their own displays in shock, or had turned to him, a mixture of fear and hope on their faces. James closed his eyes as a fresh wave of grief assaulted him. He needed Becket at his side. He knew she would already have an answer. Even as James thought of her, though, he knew what her answer would be. The situation was hopeless, there was nothing that could be gained by simply standing still and dying. That was what Tanaka-lan wanted. Yet so many have died to defend Zeta Fort, James protested, not willing to accept the inevitable. Becket had been one of them. How could he make their deaths meaningless? ‘They will be meaningless anyway if you all die here for nothing,’ Becket’s voice answered him from the grave.

James’ eyes snapped open. He knew what he needed to do. Though a part of him just wanted to face Tanaka-lan and go down fighting, and have it all be finally over, he couldn’t do that. He couldn’t mar Becket’s memory like that, nor all the other names that he kept so close to his heart. Nor could he throw away the lives of those who had sworn oaths to him and who fought for him.

When he spoke to his commanders, his voice was level and calm. There was no turning back now. “Zeta Fort is lost. There’s nothing we can do to change that now. Our priority must be to get as much of the fleet out of here as we can. If we live to fight another day, there is at least a shred of hope Tanaka-lan can be stopped. But if we all die here today, it will accomplish nothing, and Earth will most certainly fall.” James glanced at the main display to see just where Tanaka-lan’s battlefleet was. “We can’t fall back too soon, however. Otherwise Tanaka-lan will just chase us and pin us between his battlefleet and this new fleet. We need to play it cool. Let them close to missile range and slow down to enter a high orbit. Then we will make our move. We’ll have no choice then but to punch right through the newcomers.”

James paused to let his words sink in. Even if his ships still had a slight numerical advantage over the new Karacknid fleet, trying to fly past them would be devastating. Entering into energy weapon range of twenty thousand Karacknid warships was not something many fleets could survive. James could see on the faces of his officers that they understood. Slowly though, starting with Scott and then Jonathan, one by one they nodded. “Then it is agreed,” James said as a sense of finality descended upon every commander in the conference call. “We let them surround us, then we fight our way out. Those of us that survive will then do whatever it takes to continue to oppose Tanaka-lan. He will undoubtedly try to push on towards Earth, but we cannot allow that. Enough of us must get out to resist him.”

When he finished speaking, at first, no one responded. They all looked at each other and at James. Everyone could feel it. They had been defeated. The battle of Zeta Fort was lost, even if the final stages hadn’t been played out yet. It was more than that though, none of James’ commanders were fools. They could read the odds as well as him. Many of the faces on the holo conference would not be alive in just a handful of hours. Even if the fleet managed to fight its way out of Tanaka-lan’s trap, they were going to suffer terrible casualties.

To James’ surprise, it was his son who was the first to break the silence. “We might have lost this battle, but the war is far from over. And none of us are dead yet. Let us prepare to make as great a fight of this as we can. If we are going to attempt a breakout, there is much to prepare.” He then broke out into a grin. “Cheer up everyone, we all signed up to get a chance to fight some Karacknids, we can hardly complain when we get just what we wanted, can we?”

Some Admirals grinned and others shook their heads at Jonathan’s youthful enthusiasm. James even found himself smiling. “I think I told you one too many exaggerated stories of our heroism in the first war,” he said. “Though I would have thought by now you might have lost some of your idealism. It seems the eternal optimism of youth is hard to kill.”

James' words brought a few laughs from the older Admirals. Then Scott spoke. “He may still be young, but he has a wise head on his shoulders. He must take after his mother in that.” She paused and winked at James. “In any case, you are both certainly right. We cannot just sit here and let Tanaka-lan kill us. So if we have to take the fight to his battlefleet. Let us prepare!”

“Agreed,” James said. “Scott and I will draw up our plans and share them with you all for your final consideration.” Again he glanced at Tanaka-lan’s fleet. “We will have at least three hours before we need to make a move. So let’s not waste our time. We’ll speak again soon as we have a plan in place.” With a nod, James dismissed most of his officers. Then he smiled at Scott, “Well, we better figure out how we’re going to do this then.”

*

Two hours later, James and Scott had made their plans and briefed all their commanders. Many hard decisions had been made. Many damaged ships had to be left behind, as did over a thousand lend-lease freighters that simply didn’t have the capacity to keep up with the fleet as it charged. James had also decided to commit all his fighters to the breakout. He had spoken to all the pilots and explained just what he required of them. Though they all knew it meant certain death, they had received his words well.

After briefing all his commanders and dismissing them, James found himself facing the holo image of Admiral Dravans. The Camogodas Admiral’s fleet had fought as bravely as any of the Allied forces and Dravans had proven himself an astute commander in his own right as he had faced off against several Karacknid fleets during the extended battles that had been fought over the outer system fortifications. “You have something more you wish to say?” James asked. Though he had only known the alien for several weeks, their facial expressions were not hard to read. Dravans looked concerned.

The Camogodas nodded. “I do, Emperor. I fear my capital ships will not be able to join you in your race out of the system.” Dravans shook his head. “We simply don’t have the impulse engines to keep up with the pace your fleets will be setting. I had my best engineers run the simulations. If we try, most if not all of the engines on our capital ships will fail long before we reach the system’s mass shadow.”

James grimaced. He and Scott hadn’t considered Dravans’ ships in great detail as they had made their plans. “I am sorry we have overlooked you,” he said genuinely. “But do not worry, we can adapt our fleet’s course out of the system to accommodate your fleet.”

Dravans shook his head. “You cannot do that, Emperor. You will be risking your ships even more than you already are. With your permission, I’d like to detach all my cruisers and light ships to accompany you. My capital ships will remain here and join those who will make their last stand to help you escape. Perhaps, you would like me to command the fort's defense in your absence?”

“What do you mean?” James asked. “You can transfer your flag to one of your cruisers and accompany us.”

Dravans smiled a sad smile, and then shook his head again. “I can’t do that, Emperor. If my capital ships must stay behind, then I will stay with them.”

A flurry of emotions passed through James. Admiration and respect came first. Then they were followed by guilt, as a part of him felt Dravans was doing what he should be doing as well. James was his species Emperor, if hundreds of thousands of his people were remaining behind to fight and die, a part of him felt he should be too. But a bigger part of him needed to live, if only so he could die fighting Tanaka-lan in a battle that his people might win.

At the same time, James was also relieved by Dravans offer. He knew he couldn’t really slow his fleet to allow the Camogodas capital ships to keep up. Dravans was right, he couldn’t risk the rest of his fleet for Dravans’ three or four hundred extra ships. His relief only made James feel more guilt. Yet he buried most of his feelings and simply bowed. “You are a leader of valor, Admiral Dravans. I would be honored if you would take command of Zeta Fort’s defenses to enable our escape. In just a few short days you have already proven your ability as a commander. I am only sad that you will not come with us, for your skills would be of great benefit in the dark days that I fear now lie ahead of us.”

“I cannot leave my people, Emperor. If they must die, then I will die with them. Have no fear that my skills will go to waste though, I will make sure we will make as good a fight of it as we can to aid your escape. Just promise me that you will stop Tanaka-lan, for I know he will come for my species’ worlds if he conquers yours. And please, bring messages for my family with you and see that they are sent back to Camlosan.”

“I will do my best,” James promised. “You have my word I will see your messages sent to your family. And I will do everything in my power to stop Tanaka-lan, and so protect my and your people.”

Dravans nodded and smiled. James could see it was full of relief, as if a weight had left his shoulders. “Then my course is set, Emperor. If you would, I’d like to run a few ideas by you about how I could go about defending your fort.”

“Of course,” James said. “I'll give you as much time as we have left.” As they began to speak and discuss, James' respect for the Camogodas Admiral grew. At the same time, he couldn’t help the sadness that filled him as they discussed the certain death of hundreds of thousands of his and Dravans' people. There is no choice, he said to himself several times. This is what must be done.

*

Slayer

And now the final phase of this battle comes to an end, Tanaka-lan thought as his ships began their final approach to the Human fleet base. His whole body was tense, and he was leaning forward, eager to finish off Somerville and be done with the Human Emperor. In the back of his mind, he could still remember how he had felt when Somerville had tricked him and outmaneuvered his fleets. He wanted to crush Somerville once and for all and banish the memory.

Thankfully, he was about to get his wish. Just as he had envisioned months ago, the entire Allied fleet was bottled up around their orbital base. He just had to move in and hammer them with salvo after salvo until they were no more. Then nothing would stand between him and the Humans' homeworld. Despite his sense of impending triumph though, Tanaka-lan was being careful not to get too ahead of himself. He suspected Somerville had one last trick to play; almost, Tanaka-lan would be disappointed if he didn’t.

Which is why I will be staying well back, he reminded himself. He intended to keep at least ten thousand warships between his flagship and the Allied fleet base at the beginning of the battle. He didn’t want to give Somerville even the slightest chance of charging out and trying to destroy Slayer. When the time was right, and most of Somerville’s fleet was gone, then things might be different. Tanaka-lan wasn’t sure just yet which of the enemy dreadnoughts was Somerville’s, but he had narrowed it down to a handful and he had given strict orders to his commanders not to target any of them. When the battle was coming to a close, then Tanaka-lan intended to move in and personally put an end to Somerville. And he had his own trick ready to make sure Somerville came out to fight.

Glancing at his prisoner, Tanaka-lan decided she was looking even more worse for wear. The days of fighting had taken their toll on her as much as they had on the Allied fleet. Her spirit was breaking and, given that her spirit was the only thing holding her body together, he wasn’t sure she had much life left in her. But you just need to survive a few more hours, he thought as he salivated at the prospect of being able to finally kill her.

Control yourself, Tanaka-lan warned as he caught himself lusting after his prisoner’s death. He knew that his species' lust for battle was its greatest strength but also a possible weakness. Somerville had taught him that, and he had no intention of making the same mistake again. He may have other tricks other than just charging headlong into our guns. Though the prime opportunity had come and gone, it was still possible Somerville might try to flee. If he really wanted to, Tanaka-lan thought he should have broken orbit the second he had revealed his additional forces. Yet the Allied fleet had remained stationary. Tanaka-lan took that to mean they had accepted their fate. They were preparing to make a last stand in the vain hope that they could destroy so much of his strength that he couldn’t continue his invasion of Human space. Tanaka-lan doubted that even if he was commanding the Allied fleet, that such a feat was possible. But Somerville could still have kept some forces in reserve. Or he might lose his nerve and try to retreat once the fighting begins to go against him. Either way, Tanaka-lan wanted to be prepared.

“We will launch all our fighters as soon as the first salvo is fired,” he instructed his Chief of Staff. “They will be on defensive duty only, however. We have the missile numbers to defeat the Allied base without our fighters. We will hold them in reserve in case they try to strike us with more fighters than we anticipated.”

“Aye, Imperator. I will instruct our pilots of your command,” his officer replied.

Tanaka-lan watched his fighters begin to launch and then he returned to studying the Allied fleet. He’d already struck it with several full missile salvos over the last day and so his analysts knew exactly what they were about to face. With the ten thousand warships drawn in from his supply fleet and another twenty thousand now closing from the rear, he had added over half a million more missiles to the strength of his salvos. His analysts had suggested ten barrages would be enough to begin to seriously degrade the fleet base's defenses. Thereafter, just five more would likely see the destruction of the vast majority of everything the Humans had built. And then we will goad Somerville out to his death.

“We will enter missile range in two minutes, Imperator,” a tactical officer reported.

“Fire as soon as we are ready. Keep firing unless I say otherwise,” Tanaka-lan ordered. “Have we detected any fighter launches from their hangars?”

The officer shook his head. “Not yet, Imperator.”

“Then we won’t,” Tanaka-lan guessed. Somerville had already slow launched his fighters. He has them waiting somewhere, ready to pounce. A flicker of worry shot up Tanaka-lan’s spine as he glanced at his supply fleet. There was no way the allies could hit his freighters though; he had thousands of drones surrounding the fleet base. Nothing could have slipped by them.

Tanaka-lan suddenly sat up in his command chair. The Allied fleet was moving. A fraction of a second later, alarms began to announce what he was already seeing. “They are slipping around the planet,” an officer called out.

“Detecting multiple fighters now. There are thousands of them!” another officer reported.

“He is running!” Tanaka-lan hissed. And he might just make it, he thought in shock and anger. Nineteen thousand enemy fighters had just appeared, accelerating away from the fleet base towards Tanaka-lan’s fleet of twenty thousand warships. It wasn’t yet clear where Somerville was taking the bulk of his fleet, but Tanaka-lan didn’t need to see their final trajectory. As they slipped around the planet’s orbit away from Slayer, he knew they would break up and out of their orbit towards his blocking fleet. He means to run right past my ships!

Tanaka-lan fought to control his emotions. Somerville was stealing his perfect victory from him. Somehow, the Human Emperor had kept nearly ten thousand fighters in reserve throughout the entire battle. Now he was going to spend them all to get his fleet to safety. It might work, Tanaka-lan repeated as he assessed the tactical situation. But his fleet is still going to get hurt badly, very badly. Even if just ten thousand of his blocking fleet got into energy weapon range of Somerville’s fleet, the result would be massive carnage on both sides. And even if you get past them, that doesn’t mean you have made it to safety yet, he thought towards Somerville.

Tanaka-lan guessed what Somerville wanted. He would blast through Tanaka-lan’s blocking fleet and entice Tanaka-lan to charge after him with his main battlefleet. Yet to do so, he would have to fly right past the Human fort and into energy weapon range of its battlestations. Doing so could cost Tanaka-lan a third or more of his fleet. Tanaka-lan shook his head at the prospect. He was not prepared to make such a sacrifice. I will find another way to kill you, be assured of that, he thought towards the fleeing Somerville. So, make your attempt to escape. I will finish your precious fort, and then I will be right on your heels, if you survive my blocking fleet.

Just as Tanaka-lan accepted the turn of events, James’ second surprise threw him off balance once again. As soon as the Karacknid battlefleet came into missile range, the Allied fort and fleet opened fire. Moments before, thirty thousand missile pods had been deployed from where they had been hidden under the supply stations of the fleet base. They added their fire to the Allied fleet’s, boosting the Allied missile salvo by three hundred thousand missiles. To make matters worse, every single Allied missile was aimed at Tanaka-lan’s blocking fleet. Tanaka-lan snarled. He opened his mouth to hurl insults at Somerville. The coward was running away like a swamp rastok! Tanaka-lan fought to win control of his emotions, however. His subordinates had already seen him lose his cool once, he couldn’t afford them to see it a second time. It changes nothing, he told himself. We will destroy the fort and hunt down whatever forces Somerville breaks past my blocking fleet with.

“Imperator, what do you want us to target?” Tanaka-lan’s Chief of Staff asked hesitantly.

The question drew Tanaka-lan’s attention to the fact his fleet hadn’t even opened fire yet. He roared in rage at his officer. “Where do you think you fool! The battlefleet will assault the fort. We will bombard it until it is destroyed. Then we will pursue Somerville’s fleet. Our blocking fleet will focus its fire on Somerville’s ships. It is to close with them and take as many enemy ships out as possible. Is that clear?”

“Yes, Imperator, of course,” the officer said as he bowed low.

Tanaka-lan waited until his battlefleet had unleashed over two million missiles at the Allies, then he pointed a long claw at his Chief of Staff. “Yes, Imperator, what is it, my Highness?”

“Our fighters, we no longer need them to defend us,” Tanaka-lan instructed him. “Send them orders to circumnavigate the planet. They are to remain well out of missile range lest those battlestations be tempted to try and hit them with antimatter missiles. They won’t be able to catch up with the Allied Fleet in time to help our blocking fleet, but they will finish off whatever Allies survive the battle. Only instruct them not to destroy the ships we have identified as those that may be Somerville’s flagship. They are only to cripple them and leave them for us to catch.”

“Understood, Imperator,” his Chief of Staff replied.

Tanaka-lan turned and focused his attention on the Allied fort and the three thousand warships that had remained with its battlestations to face him. Fools, he thought as his lips peeled back at the thought of crushing them. But brave fools, he had to admit. We will kill you, and then your Emperor. He cast one disappointing look at his prisoner, accepting that now was not the time to use her after all. There was no way Somerville would turn back just for her. Then he concentrated on destroying the Allied fort in front of him so he could begin his pursuit of Somerville.

Chapter 51

The fall of Zeta Fort marked the worst defeat of the Fleet since its inception. We have suffered more defeats in the centuries that have followed, but none were quite like that. Its memory still haunts us to this day, for if we had been better prepared, all the horrors that followed might have been averted.

-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.

IS Victory

Farewell, James thought towards the ships and battlestations Victory was leaving behind as she accelerated up and out of Zeta Fort’s gravity well. And good luck, he added as his eyes spotted Dravan’s flagship. Then he concentrated on the enemy fleet in front of him. Twenty thousand Karacknid warships were charging in to meet his fleet. In front of the Karacknids, eight hundred thousand Allied missiles, and every last fighter James had was moving in to attack. In return, the Karacknid fleet had fired a salvo of four hundred and ten thousand missiles. They also had five thousand fighters joining them. It looked like both groups of fighters were content to ignore each other and focus on taking out enemy warships.

This is going to hurt both of us, badly! James was sure. As he directed his fleet, he was constantly having to fight down the fear he felt for his son, and his friends. He had done all he could to protect them. Now all any of them could do was fight as best they could, and hope they got lucky.

As the two salvos smashed into their targets, both fleet’s defenses were overrun. Antimatter detonations filled Victory’s holo display. The Karacknids, facing more than twice as many missiles as the Allies, suffered far worse. Thousands of antimatter missiles struck targets or scored proximity hits. Even so, James’ fleet suffered too.

As hundreds of his ships died around him, James’ hands tightened into balls. Suddenly, James felt himself being shoved back into his command chair by an immense force. The holo display disappeared at the same instant, only to reappear again a moment later. Alarms filled James’ mind. It took him a couple of seconds to realize the display hadn’t failed, but that he had blacked out. As he looked around him, he saw most of Victory’s bridge officers were struggling. His augments had likely helped him endure the sudden g-forces better. Within seconds though, officers began to sit up straighter and in alarm, they began assessing Victory’s systems.

“No hull breaches being reported,” one officer announced.

“Missile tube seventeen is inoperable, it looks like a proximity hit struck near its port. Several point defenses in the area appear to be damaged as well,” another Lieutenant reported.

James left them and Victory’s Captain to it, and instead tried to assess the damage to his fleet. As the antimatter detonations ceased and Victory’s sensors were able to make sense of what was going on around his flagship, James winced. Over nine hundred ships were gone or falling out of formation. There was no time for him to do anything for them however, for already his fleet had shifted their fire onto the Karacknid fighters. Five thousand fighters were a small force to throw against seventeen and a half thousand warships. Yet James’ fleet’s formation had been badly disrupted. It took a number of seconds for the Allies' defensive fire to ramp up to full. In that time, the fighters covered a great deal of distance. Still, thousands of them died as they tried to twist and weave their way into range with their particle cannons. Just over eight hundred made it and opened fire. Hundreds of Allied ships died. Most of the Karacknid fighters were shot down seconds after firing, but another ninety survived long enough to fire again. More allied ships succumbed to their deadly weapons.

Then the savage assault was over. James spared just a few seconds to check on the Karacknid fleet. Despite the losses he had just suffered, he smiled when he did. Between them, his overpowered salvo and his fighters had destroyed nearly seven thousand enemy ships. They have nearly lost half their force! he thought. His hope that most of his fleet would escape increased. Even as he watched, his fighters, even without any more missiles, were swarming over the Karacknid ships, blasting away at damaged Karacknid ships with their plasma cannons. Others began to smash into Karacknid ships. Moments after each hit, a larger explosion erupted as the thermonuclear warheads that had been packed into the fighters' cockpits detonated. James hated asking his pilots to carry out kamikaze attacks, but it had needed to be done. Hundreds of thousands of Imperial officers and crew were remaining behind to fight to their battlestations and warships at Zeta Fort and so sacrifice themselves. The fighter pilots were now doing the same. In the space of ten seconds, the kamikaze attacks took out nearly a thousand additional Karacknid warships.

After watching the death of his pilots, James turned back to his own fleet and began shouting out orders to his staff officers. Already, the Karacknids had another missile salvo boosting towards his fleet, and they needed to be ready to receive it as best they could. He also had to ready one final attack before the enemy got into energy weapon range. "Target these three squadrons of ships," James instructed his tactical officer as he highlighted three large groups of capital ships at the heart of the Karacknid fleet. "Wait until the last moment, then fire!"

"Yes, Emperor," the Lieutenant replied… "Firing," he shouted thirty seconds later.

At the touch of a button, the Lieutenant fired the Striker dreadnoughts' and Kalassai city ships' phase cannons. The deadly beams raced across the space between the two fleets at nearly the speed of light. Over four hundred Karacknid ships were struck. Some disintegrated under the fire instantly, others had massive holes blown into them flinging them off course. A handful even smashed into other nearby ships as they were destroyed. The attack gutted the command structure of the Karacknid fleet and fragmented their formation. As James’ second salvo came racing in, they were met with a haphazard defense. The Karacknids quickly began to regain cohesion, yet the damage had already been done. Seconds later, thousands of new antimatter detonations hammered the Karacknid fleet. Another four thousand Karacknid warships were taken out of the battle.

Even without fighters following them up, the missiles of the Karacknid second salvo scored plenty of kills themselves. Once the detonations ceased, Victory's computers estimated another six hundred Allied ships had been destroyed. Two thousand four hundred gone already, James thought as he added up the damage both Karacknid salvos had done. Then forced himself to dismiss the dead. The counter on the holo display told him there was just two minutes to go until the remaining eight thousand Karacknid warships entered energy weapon range of his fifteen and a half thousand vessels. The real carnage was about to begin! As quickly as he could, James tried to reorganize his formation to protect his capital ships and allow his fleet to deal as much damage as it could to quickly silence the Karacknids.

Without his orders though, his fleet's formation began to change. Nearly two hundred ships suddenly begun to surge ahead of the rest of the fleet. "What are they doing!" James demanded, anger rising up within him. He had already lost so many ships; he couldn't afford ill-discipline to cost him even more. But then he realized who all the ships belonged to. Every one of them was a Kulrean worldship. No other ships could pull off the acceleration rates the worldships had suddenly begun putting out. In just a matter of seconds, they rapidly pulled ahead of the rest of James' fleet. Then they began to carry out some wild evasive maneuvers. Just watching them made James feel queasy. He knew for sure if Victory tried anything like that, she would rip herself apart.

“What is going on?” Anderson asked over the commanders' COM channel.

“They are drawing the Karacknids' fire,” James said quietly, surprised by the Kulreans' selflessness. As he thought about it, he shouldn’t have been. They hated fighting, but equally, they loathed to see their friends and allies killed.

To James’ amazement, the worldships actually increased their evasive maneuvers a couple of seconds before they entered energy weapon range. Then all hell broke loose as a couple of thousand Karacknid warships opened fire on them. Even more shockingly, the worldships actually returned fire! James nearly jumped out of his seat. He hadn’t known the worldships possessed any offensive weapons. Yet before his eyes, hundreds of powerful beams, of a kind Victory’s sensors couldn’t identify, shot out from each worldship. Anything they touched immediately shattered as it appeared to explode from the inside out. Each worldship destroyed at least ten targets, cutting the Karacknid fleet’s numbers by a quarter in the space of a handful of seconds.

They didn’t get off lightly, however. Two thousand enemy warships had targeted them with their heavy laser cannons. Many beams missed, yet not all. The worldships' powerful shields absorbed or deflected many beams. When shields failed, armor four times thicker than Victory's then had to be burnt through. The worldships were massive vessels, however, and so even with their evasive maneuvers, many Karacknid warships scored multiple hits. James saw at least thirty of the giant Kulrean vessels gutted as tens of laser beams blasted their way into their innards with devastating effect.

He had no time to assess just how badly damaged the other worldships were, for just seconds later, his fleet closed with the remaining Karacknids. Tungsten spears, heavy plasma bolts, and laser beams were flung out at the Karacknids. All those who hadn’t fired on the Kulrean worldships returned the Allies' fire with more laser beams. There was a second's lull, then both waves of death reached their targets. Thousands of explosions erupted all around Victory. James had his body tensed and was gripping his command chair tightly, expecting multiple hits. When none came, he looked around him wide-eyed. He shook his head at his officers, not understanding how the Karacknids had failed to target his dreadnought.

He had no answer for how they had survived unscathed. He didn’t have time to dwell on it either, though, for though his fleet's fire had decimated what was left of the Karacknid fleet, several hundred of their ships still remained intact. “Focus everything on them!” James ordered. “Every ship is to fire as soon as it's reloaded. Take them out before they fire again!”

His fleet was only partially successful in following his orders. Over a hundred Allied ships fired first, blasting more destructive energies into what was left of the Karacknids. Yet when some of the Karacknid ships began to fire, more Allied ships died with them. In the space of just thirty seconds, it was over, however. Every single last Karacknid vessel that showed any signs of being operational was melted to slag by the Allied fleet's directed energy weapons.

James’ body sagged into his command chair after his fleet powered through the massive field of debris that had been the Karacknid fleet. They had made it. His fleet had taken massive losses. Fifteen minutes ago, he had broken orbit with eighteen thousand warships. Now he had just over twelve thousand. Probably a third of them, like Victory, had suffered damage to one degree or another. But we are clear, and we took out twenty thousand Karacknid warships in the process!.. Except, we might not be clear, James reminded himself as his body tensed again. Turning, he quickly sought out Zeta Fort. What he saw filled him with grief and hope.

At that very moment, a second massive wave of over a million Karacknid missiles was descending upon the Fort. It was putting up a brave fight, yet clearly it had already been hammered by the first salvo Tanaka-lan had fired at it. The Karacknid battlefleet was also having to defend itself, yet without James’ fleet and the missile pods he had used up, Zeta Fort's offensive capabilities were barely a threat to Tanaka-lan’s ships. But they are keeping him at bay, James told himself. They are doing their job. Every second longer Zeta Fort held out against Tanaka-lan gave James’ fleet more time to escape the system and fall back to regroup. James still had no idea how he was going to stop Tanaka-lan, but he had survived the first hurdle. For now, all he could focus on was getting as much of his fleet out to fight another day as he could.

I have survived, but how many others have? James asked himself as he summoned the strength to return his focus onto his own fleet. Glancing down at his console, he saw his staff officers were already collating a list of all the ships and commanders they had lost. James’ heart felt like it was being squeezed by a vice grip as he began to read. Blessedly, his son’s name wasn’t at the top of the list. Jonathan had survived! So too had Scott. But even so, the names were almost too much for James to read. The Karacknid fighters that had attacked with the Karacknid fleet's first salvo, and then the gunners that had fired their high-powered energy weapons had all focused on the fleet's capital ships. They had reaped a bitter harvest among James’ senior officers.

Anderson’s flagship was simply gone, no one could find any trace of it. Shraw was also presumed dead, his ship had been blasted into a wreck in the energy weapon duel. Tak’ar and Maleck were the next two senior Admirals on the list. James closed his eyes, not wanting to read anymore. A tear ran down his cheek as he thought of Tak’ar’s father who had just lost a son, and Maleck’s family. Without any effort, memories filled James’ mind of Maleck's children playing with his own in the Imperial Palace.

Though he knew if he read on, name after name would just stir up similar memories, he opened his eyes, nonetheless. He owed it to his friends and comrades to acknowledge their deaths. For nearly a minute, he read. He was aware he was barely even registering many of the names. It was going to take him a long time to comprehend just how many faces were now gone. Eventually, he shook his head and stopped. The names weren’t impacting him anymore. There will be time to mourn them all, he told himself. Now is the time to focus on the living. For a few seconds, James just listened to the commanders' COM channel. It quickly became apparent Scott and Jonathan were taking the lead in organizing the rescue efforts and trying to salvage as many ships and their crews as they could. James took a deep breath, and then dove into the conversation and took charge.

For twenty minutes, James oversaw thousands of shuttles as they raced back to many of the damaged or crippled ships that weren’t able to keep up with Victory and what was left of the Allied fleet. Tens of thousands of crew were taken off crippled ships, while a couple of hundred damaged ships were brought under control and at least able to follow the Allied Fleet as it fled. All the while, James kept an eye on Zeta Fort as it fought for its life. Mercilessly, Tanaka-lan hammered salvo after salvo into the Fort. With its thousands of defense satellites and the warships James had left with it, Zeta Fort did not go down easily.

Nor did Dravans simply sit still and let Tanaka-lan kill him with ease. After the Karacknids' sixth salvo, when they were starting to really reduce the fort’s defenses, Dravans acted. Suddenly every one of the six thousand freighters James had left behind because they were too slow to accompany his fleet broke orbit. Dravans' remaining one thousand warships were tightly tucked in behind them. The timing was perfect, for the freighters broke away from the fort just as the next Karacknid missile salvo attacked it. The missiles weren't able to redirect in time and so the warships escaped unscathed, though many battlestations succumbed to the fire. The freighters then charged up out of orbit towards Tanaka-lan’s battlefleet, giving the Karacknid Imperator a problem.

He responded by directing half of his next missile salvo's fire at the freighters. The freighters tried to defend themselves with their meager point defenses but were easily overwhelmed. All of them were obliterated in the antimatter detonations, so too were many were of Dravans' warships. Yet many more were protected by the freighters as the freighters died in their place.

Dravans' flagship was among the survivors. Without concern for his own life or those of his ships, Dravans then led the charge into energy weapon range. First, his seven hundred ships fired their missiles at one of the fleets on the flank of Tanaka-lan’s battlefleet. Then they rushed into energy weapon range and fired every weapon they had. The Karacknids’ return fire wiped them out in the space of a couple of seconds. Yet they had achieved their goal. Instead of targeting just one enemy ship, each Allied ship targeted as many Karacknid vessels as they could with their different weapons. Over three thousand Karacknid ships suffered damage. Then Dravans' missiles attacked the reeling Karacknids. Defensive fire destroyed most of them, but a couple of hundred Karacknid ships were taken out.

In total, James estimated Dravans' attack had destroyed two hundred and eighty Karacknid ships and more importantly, damaged about three and a half thousand. Every single one of which will have to be sent all the way back to Karacknid space for repairs, James knew. I will make sure your family know what you have accomplished for us, James promised Dravans, as he added the Camogodas’ name to the long list of the friends he had lost in the Zeta system. Now we have to make their sacrifice worth it, he told himself as he looked ahead of his fleet towards the shift passage that would lead him to Eta Fort and then back to his species' worlds. The losses they had suffered were immense, but he knew it would only have been worse if he had stayed and fought and died for nothing. We are still alive, and so there is still hope.

Minutes later, James' emotions rose further. “I’ve just received some news, Emperor,” Hawkins said excitedly. “It’s from one of our rescue shuttles. They found Admiral Shraw. They’re bringing him back to Victory as we speak. He is hurt but stable.”

James actually smiled, though he felt guilty as he did so, given how many hundreds of thousands of his people had died so recently. Yet getting Shraw back from the dead was great news. “Make sure his shuttle is given priority to land. And get him to sickbay immediately,” James said forcefully. He had seen enough of his friends die for one day. As far as it was in his power, he was going to make sure Shraw got the best medical attention he could.

“Right away, Emperor,” Hawkins responded.

“Emperor,” a voice whispered. The officer’s tone couldn’t have contrasted more with Hawkins if she had tried. Yet there was enough there to convey her terror.

Sensing it, James froze. Shraw fled from his mind. His body suddenly felt cold, very cold. Slowly he turned towards the officer. Her face was white. She had a hand raised towards a secondary display. As James followed her finger, groans erupted around him from officers who had already looked. James heard Jonathan utter a curse over the COM channel he didn’t think his son even knew. Then his eyes saw them. A force of fighters was coming around the planet. They were moving slowly, not wanting to build up too much momentum until they had settled onto their final course, but they were coming. Ten thousand, a voice whispered in James' mind. No! he said in anger. They can’t be there. He can’t have had that many left! Yet his anger did him no good. No matter how much he wanted, he couldn’t wish away a single enemy fighter, let alone ten thousand of them.

All hope left James. His eyes returned to his fleet. Undamaged and at full battle readiness, twelve thousand warships would be confident at seeing off a Karacknid fighter strike if they didn’t have to deal with Karacknid missiles first. They might expect to lose five hundred to a thousand ships, but they would prevail in the end.

But that was not James’ fleet. His was a mess. So many were barely holding together. Even more had suffered proximity hits from antimatter missiles that had burnt away sensors, point defense nodes and armor or had gaping wounds burnt into them from heavy laser beams. James shook his head. His fleet was going to be gutted. Whatever force survived the incoming attack would be a shadow of the one that had broken orbit from Zeta Fort. We’ve run away for nothing. We would have killed more ships by staying with Zeta Fort’s defenders, James thought in despair. He had failed his fleet. Millions had died, only for his plan to fail. We will be destroyed, and then nothing will stand between Tanaka-lan and Earth. I have failed everyone.

James looked around at his officers as his lips trembled. “I’m sorry,” he said to them and to his commanders still on the command COM channel. “I have failed you all. All this death, for nothing!” Bitterness filled his voice.

No one responded to his words. How could they? If their Emperor and greatest commander had given up, how could they hold onto any hope? Even Scott couldn’t find any words of comfort. She was thinking of Becket and Ivanov and Anderson.

Jonathan was the one to eventually break the silence. “We cannot give up yet. We cannot!” he pleaded. “While we still draw breath, we must fight on!... Father, you know this. Your entire life has been dedicated to this one goal. We have had setbacks before. This is bad, yes, but we must prepare. They cannot destroy us all. Our goal remains unchanged. We need to get as many ships out of here as possible. We can still resist Tanaka-lan’s battlefleet!”

James heard his son's words; almost they broke through his despair. Yet they weren't enough. His eyes had turned back to the Karacknid fighters. He had no idea how Victory had survived so far, but he knew they would prioritize the remaining dreadnoughts and battleships of his fleet. Jonathan's Sparrowhawk would be taken out as well, as would Scott and the others. Even if some ships survived, no one would be left to lead them.

"Emperor, you're being hailed," a junior officer said hesitantly. Several heads turned towards her, but no one responded. James didn't even hear her. "Someone is hailing us from the direction of the Eta shift passage," the officer said a little louder. Again no one responded. No one wanted to speak.

"Father, did you hear me?" Jonathan pressed. "I know we have lost so much. But you have lost much in the past, and still we prevailed. We must ready ourselves!"

"Its authentication code is several months out of date, but it checks out," the officer said, her voice rising a little. "Hold on, I've just confirmed the Wing Commander's identity." The officer then sucked in a sharp breath. "It's Wing Commander Somerville. Georgia Somerville!"

James still wasn't processing the officer's words, but Jonathan had. "What?" he shouted over the COM channel. "Put her through. We must speak to her at once."

The moment Georgia's voice was projected throughout the bridge, something in James broke. The weight of grief and hopelessness that had paralyzed him lifted. They didn't disappear, but they lost their hold on him. "Georgia, is that you?" He said in amazement, interrupting her. "Georgia? How are you here?"

"I was just explaining, father," Georgia said quickly. "I'm not far from you, Vice Admiral Reverus is behind me. We're coming to aid you. You just need to hold on and prepare to defend yourselves."

James could only stare at the COM console from which his daughter’s voice was coming from. At first, dread filled him. How is she here? He asked himself, despite the answer he had just heard. How cruel providence was turning out to be. He was about to lose his son, and now his daughter had appeared just so she could die too! But then his mind began to process what Georgia had actually said. “Reverus?” he said out loud in confusion. “The Eaglaton Admiral?”

“Yes, Father, that’s what I’m trying to explain,” Georgia answered right away. “He is here with a fleet, and I’m leading his fighters. We are about to reach your position. You are not alone! But we need to coordinate our efforts.”

Again, it took James a couple of seconds to fully grasp what was happening. The moment he did though, his despair vanished. Despite his new fear for his daughter, hope reignited. "Yes, of course!" he responded, a new strength in his voice. "Jonathan, take charge, ready the fleet," he ordered as he was suddenly filled with shame at the delay he had already caused.

"At once," Jonathan said.

"Where exactly are you?" James asked his daughter.

"I have six thousand Eaglaton fighters with me," Georgia said. "We're cruising into the system in stealth. We'll be able to reach you just before those Karacknid fighters do. I don't want to reveal ourselves until the last second, hopefully, it will throw them off a little."

James couldn't help laughing. They weren't done for yet! There was still hope. "What is it, father, what is wrong?" Georgia asked, concern in her voice.

"Nothing, my dear, nothing," James said as he smiled. "Your voice is just a welcome sound, far more than you can know. We thought we were done for there. You've given us hope again."

"Well, I hope to give you something more than that," Georgia said. "And I've got a thing or two for those Karacknids as well. A few missiles and some laser beams will do the job nicely."

"You give them everything you've got," James said as his voice strengthened even further. "I presume I can leave the fighting of your fighters to you?"

"Don't worry, we've got this," Georgia assured him. "Just make sure your ships don't shoot us by accident!"

"Yes, of course," James said as he realized that was a very real risk. "Okay, I will see to our ships. Then we can talk more after." Suddenly James was filled with a very strong desire to survive the coming attack. He wanted to see Georgia again, to hug her and feel his daughter in his arms. "All right," he said as he shared a glance with Hawkins, "Let's do this."

*

Georgia gripped the flight stick of her Talon fighter firmly. The modified control, tailored for her by Vice Admiral Reverus, at first had just felt wrong to her. Now, after weeks of training, it was like an extension of her own body. She activated the fighter's COM unit to address the six thousand Eaglaton pilots she had been training ever since their departure. Many were new to combat, the Karacknid threat having been a distant concern until now. Despite the presence of a few seasoned veterans from the brief war between the Eaglaton Protectorate and Humanity, the majority were about to face real combat for the first time.

"Pilots, in just sixty seconds we'll be coming out of stealth," she began, her voice steady and clear. "We are going to spin and begin to decelerate. Our goal is to minimize our closing rate with the Karacknid fighters. We might not be able to stop all of them from reaching the Allied fleet, but we're not going to let any fire a second volley. That's an order... I won't lie, some of us might not make it through this. But remember, our fighters are superior, and the training we've undergone these past weeks has prepared us well. You are one of the most skilled groups I've ever led into combat. Remember, as well, your species prides itself on protecting those who cannot defend themselves. That fleet of warships out there has already been through hell. Now we’re here to offer them some relief. Let's show these Karacknid invaders they can't mess with you or those you vow to protect. Watch each other's backs and think of those waiting for you at home. Do that, and we'll see each other on the other side of this. Wing Commander Somerville out."

Georgia hoped her words had their intended effect, though she didn’t know the Eaglatons as a species well enough yet to be certain. She had no time to add anything else though. Instead, she quickly input the flight path she wanted her attack force to follow, then sent it to all her ships. At the precise moment she had calculated, she tapped a button on her console and her ship flipped one hundred and eighty degrees to point its engines towards incoming Karacknid fighters. Then every Talon fighter in her force announced themselves as their engines went to full burn and they began to shed as much of their momentum as they could.

Georgia waited thirty seconds, then she activated her COM unit again. “Now!” She ordered as she pulled up on her flight stick. Once again, her fighter flipped one hundred and eighty degrees, this time her nose stopped as it pointed right at the massive wave of Karacknid fighters. With a flick on her flight stick, she activated her fighter's targeting sensors. As soon as she got a lock, she rippled off an anti-fighter missile, then she switched to another target, fired again, moved to a third, fired at it, and then released her final missile as soon as it was locked. The moment the last missile accelerated away, Georgia slipped into her hyper-focused state and began evasive maneuvers.

Space in front of her turned into a maelstrom of missiles, explosions, and wildly evading Karacknid fighters. To her shock, about five hundred of the Karacknid fighters fired their own missiles at her force. They caught many of the Eaglaton pilots by surprise and scored hits even as thousands of Karacknid fighters were taken out. Then her fighters and the Karacknids came into range with one another. Tens of thousands of laser beams were shot out of their cannons as fast as they could be as a deadly melee broke out.

Georgia sensed rather than saw someone targeting her. With a twitch on her flight stick, she jinked to her up and to her left just as a series of beams cut right through space where she had been. Even as she carried out another evasive maneuver, she traced the beams back to their source. Her next evasive maneuver brought her nose to point right at the fighter that had fired on her. Though it was only for a fraction of a second, she depressed her trigger, releasing six laser beams. Four caught the Karacknid fighter. The first three tore down its shield, its presence again surprising Georgia, and the fourth melted the fighter's wing to slag, sending it spinning off out of control.

“Some enemy fighters have shields, exercise caution," she called out to her pilots. “Make sure you confirm your kills. Repeat, make sure you confirm your kills.” Even as she spoke, Georgia lined up another shot and blasted another Karacknid fighter away. This time it didn’t have a shield.

Then, the wave of Karacknid fighters zipped past her Talon. As they did, Georgia spun her fighter around again and boosted her engines to full. In the space of six seconds, she shot down two more targets as they accelerated past her towards her father’s fleet. A momentary glance at a secondary screen told her two of her missiles had scored hits. Six, she thought to herself. It wasn’t enough. In a mixture of anger and desperation, she took the safeties off her engines and increased her acceleration rate.

In front of her, space seemed to shimmer as the Allied fleet opened up with its defensive weapons. Georgia felt her heart rate increase for the first time since the fight had started as she feared the fire was coming towards her. Yet as more Karacknid fighters started to die, no flak cannon rounds or plasma bolts threatened her. Suddenly feeling more helpless than she ever had before, Georgia could do nothing but watch as the Allied Fleet fought to defend itself. Thousands of Karacknid fighters were shot down. Despite how beat up the Allied Fleet looked; their defense was impressive. But Georgia knew some Karacknids would get through. She could feel it as she watched the battle play out in front of her.

Sure enough, after surviving ten seconds of intense defensive fire, five hundred Karacknid fighters came into range with their directed particle beams. The moment they fired, hundreds of Allied ships erupted into flames and then were shattered into thousands of chunks of debris. Not content with the destruction they had just inflicted, the Karacknid fighters immediately began to decelerate as they sought to stay in range of the Allied Fleet for as long as possible. Georgia winced as so many ships died in front of her. Desperately, she wanted to find her father’s and Jonathan’s flagships to make sure they were intact. Yet she knew she couldn’t lose her focus. Instead, as her charging ship came roaring into the rear of the slowing Karacknids, she let out a piercing battle cry and tore into her enemy.

The Karacknid fighters were so focused on dodging the fire coming from the Allied warships that they never saw Georgia and her fellow Eaglaton fighter pilots coming. Georgia lined up her first shot, released ten laser beams, then swiveled the nose of her Talon to its next target before the beams struck home, knowing she had already scored another kill. As it always did for her, time felt like it slowed down to a snail’s pace. Georgia used it without remorse. She lined up another shot, scored another kill, then another, and then another. In the space of six seconds, she shot down five Karacknid fighters. In her head, she was counting down from thirty, she knew that was how long it took the Karacknids to recharge their weapons.

As her fighter followed the Karacknids into the midst of the Allied fleet, she instinctively dodged the fire the Karacknids began to fire at her and any wayward shots that came her way as the Allied ships continued to try to defend themselves. One by one, Georgia lined up and blasted apart every fighter her Talon’s sensors could find for her. When her internal count reached fourteen, she suddenly stopped firing. Desperately she looked all around her. Yet she couldn’t find any targets. They are gone, she suddenly realized. “They are all gone!” She said out loud as she grinned. Immediately she sought out Victory. Relief flooded through her when she saw the dreadnought still intact at the heart of the Allied fleet. She then activated her COM unit. “Requesting to speak with Commodore Somerville’s flagship, repeat requesting to speak with Commodore Somerville’s flagship. I don’t know what ship you are. This is Wing Commander Somerville.”

“We hear you loud and clear, Wing Commander Somerville,” an unfamiliar voice said. “This is Commander Iso, speaking to you from Sparrowhawk. Commodore Somerville is on board and we are all in one piece over here, thanks to you. He is glad to hear you’re okay too.”

Georgia beamed and then collapsed back into her command chair, her body was drenched in sweat and she could feel every muscle protesting the strain she had been holding them under throughout the battle. Yet she was happy. Their desperate race all the way from Farvul’vian had been worth it. They had made it in time to make a difference. Moments later though, Georgia sat up. Another thought had occurred to her. Where was Trident? She couldn’t see Becket’s flagship among the Allied fleet. In fear, she activated her COM unit again.

*

IS Victory

James spared a moment to make sure his daughter had survived the short but intense firefight. He smiled when he saw her fighter was okay. A small counter beside the holo image of her strange craft suggested she had scored at least thirteen kills. He wasn’t in the least surprised, her skills were unmatched. More than happy that she and her brother had survived, he once again threw himself into organizing his fleet and overseeing the rescue operations. “Emperor,” an officer eventually called out, pulling his attention away from several damaged cruisers that he was trying to get under tow. “New contacts are appearing in front of us. They are warships. There are over five thousand.”

James nodded as he saw them; he had been expecting them. Though it was still strange to see Eaglaton warships and not feel threatened. It was even stranger to see that nearly a thousand Allied warships were in formation with them. Despite the strangeness, though, it was a pleasant sight indeed. “Hail Vice Admiral Reverus,” James requested. “We have a lot to thank him for!”

“I have him, Emperor,” Hawkins said a moment later. “And Wing Commander Somerville has been hailing you as well.”

“Link her in with us,” James requested.

When Reverus' regal, birdlike frame appeared in front of him, James bowed as low as he could while sitting in his command chair. “Vice Admiral, your timing is impeccable. We would have been all but destroyed but for your intervention. I, and my species, and our allies, owe you a great deal of thanks. You have brought help and hope when we least expected it.”

Reverus opened his beak in what James knew to be a smile, then bowed almost as deeply. “It is a great honor to meet you in person again, Emperor, after our long exchange of communications. As to our being here to aid you, you have your daughter to thank for that. She can be persuasive when she wants to be. I am only glad we were able to arrive in time.” Reverus' face then changed, and James could sense a grimness settle upon him. “What about your orbital base, Emperor? It still fights on, is there anything we can do to aid it?”

James shook his head sadly. “Those who fight there are doing so to allow us to escape. Tanaka-lan’s numbers are simply too strong. We have held him here for as long as we can. We’ve lost tens of thousands of ships and destroyed even more of his. Yet as you can see, he still wildly outnumbers us.” James shook his head again. “We could not hold him here. Now our border forts are breached. From this system, he can strike at four other forts at will. I’m afraid we can no longer concentrate our forces to stop him. We must fall back.”

“I am sad to hear this, Emperor. If this is the strategic situation now, it is a grave position your species and your allies find yourselves in. But I and my fleet are committed to fighting alongside you. We would not like to see the Karacknids conquer you. Not only because we know they would look to attack us next, but because we value your species and our fledgling friendship. I hope we can bring you some comfort despite the loss of this fort.”

“You do, Vice Admiral. I know from experience you are a very skilled commander and your fleet is powerful. It is more than a little comforting to know that you will fight by our side,” James replied. “And you have brought me much joy by bringing my daughter here safely. Even if she does insist on charging headlong into the thickest fighting, as always.”

“I am happy we managed to arrive in time,” Georgia said, “but father, I have to ask. Where is Trident? What has happened to Admiral Becket?”

James looked up at Victory's bridge ceiling for several seconds as he gathered the strength to tell her. “I’m sorry, my dear. Becket died a couple of days ago. She fell leading the charge against a Karacknid fleet. She obliterated it, but Tanaka-lan outmaneuvered us. He attacked her when she was isolated, and Trident was destroyed. I’m sorry.”

Georgia didn’t say anything in response, but James heard her sob over the COM channel. “I too am sorry to hear this news,” Reverus said. “She showed herself to be an extremely competent commander when we fought one another. I was looking forward to fighting at her side. I will mourn her loss.”

"There are many whom we have to mourn," James said, a hardness entering his voice. “Tanaka-lan has much to answer for. Too much. Your arrival here and your fleet gives me hope that there is still a chance we can make him answer for his evils. Tell me, how many other ships do you have that can help us stand against his battlefleet?”

Several emotions passed across Reverus' face. James didn’t recognize them, but he sensed the Eaglaton was trying to find the right words. “I’m sorry, Emperor, I do not wish to add to the difficulty of this day for you. But there are no additional ships. At least, not any time soon. When your daughter came to me, I left as soon as I could with the forces at my disposal. I left orders for other fleets to be assembled, but they are months away from being ready, and I do not yet know if my superiors will give permission for them to be deployed forward.”

James fought to keep his face straight for a couple of seconds. When Georgia had announced herself, and then again when Vice Admiral Reverus’ ships had come out of stealth, his optimism had soared. He knew the Eaglaton Protectorate had well over a hundred thousand warships. If they were committing them to the battle with the Karacknids, then Earth could be saved. Four and a half thousand wasn’t an insignificant force, but it couldn’t stop Tanaka-lan. He will pour across the border at a hundred different spots and overwhelm us, James thought as he pictured it in his mind.

With an effort, James regained his composure. He didn’t want to seem ungrateful, despite the hopelessness he felt growing within him. “No matter. It is good… no, very good,” he corrected himself, “to have you with us. We have lost this system, and I’m afraid our system of forts now too. But we will fight on. And with you at our side, we will be even stronger.”

Though James could feel his optimism falling further as he spoke, he kept it from his voice. He still felt shame for having momentarily given into his despair earlier, he was not going to do that again. We will fall back and fight on, all the way back to Earth if we have to. The battle for Zeta Fort was over, but he had not yet lost his Empire. The fight will not be over until the last Human has drawn breath and the last ship is destroyed, James thought as he turned to a secondary holo display that was still showing Tanaka-lan’s superdreadnought as it continued to fight to finish off what was left of Zeta Fort’s defenders. He feared that was exactly what was going to happen. Tanaka-lan would hunt down every last Human warship. But we are not going to make it easy for him! James swore.

*

Slayer

As his last salvo rushed in and detonated among the fort's defenses, Tanaka-lan grunted in satisfaction. The battle was over. He had smashed the Humans’ greatest base. He knew from this system he could strike at four other Human forts. If Somerville tried to spread his meager force between all of them, he would simply defeat them one by one. By winning here, he had undone his enemies' system of fortifications.

Tanaka-lan turned his eyes away from the wrecked fleet base and sought out Somerville’s fleet. He growled at the new fleet that had joined them. It was full of strange and exotic warships that he knew nothing about. Many of those that had fought and died defending the fleet base had also been of a new design as well. It doesn’t matter how many new friends you make, he thought towards Somerville. Nor how often you try to flee from me. Now I’m coming for your worlds, and I’ll be facing you across the battlefield again very soon, he promised. He knew it would take him some time to secure the system, and to resupply his battlefleet and get ready to advance again, but as soon as he could, Tanaka-lan intended to continue his advance. He had no intention of giving his enemies a moment’s respite.

Epilogue

IS Victory, Eta Fort, 22nd June 2513 AD, (six hours later).

As soon as Victory exited shift space into Eta Fort, it began broadcasting a series of messages to the fleet base's FTL COM array. James had prepared them during the short journey to the fort system. Though it had been short, he had had more than enough time to think.

The first message the FTL COM began to transmit as it started pulsing tachyon particles into space was a general order for all Allied forces manning the border forts to fall back to New Shanghai. Every garrison fleet was to abandon its fort and make for the former Chinese colony as fast as possible. The forts themselves would have to fight on as best they could, but James could not afford to lose even one ship defending them.

The next messages were directed more southwards, one by one the FTL COM array alerted every Human world northward of Earth that the system of border forts had been breached. James warned them all that they could start to come under attack at any moment. Though he knew it would cause pandemonium throughout the Empire, his citizens deserved to know the truth. Along with the warning, James sent orders for every world to prepare to defend its orbitals and surface with everything it could muster. Yet he also advised them that he could offer no additional help. Splitting his forces would mean certain death. It was simply something James could not do; despite the oaths he had made to protect all his Empire’s citizens.

One message was also sent to Earth. It was personally addressed to Christine. James' words to his wife were simple. She had to muster every ship that could be made to fight and send them to New Shanghai. Though there were other systems Tanaka-lan would have to advance through before reaching New Shanghai, James knew that was where Humanity would make its last stand. Everything now rested upon holding that one system. Nothing else mattered.

Finally, James sent word of the battle for Zeta Fort and its loss to the capitals of all his allies. He pleaded with them for whatever help they could send to save his worlds and his people.

Even as the FTL COM pulsed out its messages crying out for help, Victory and James' fleet bypassed Eta Fort and headed for the next shift passage south. Like the rest, Eta Fort could no longer hold back the might of Tanaka-lan’s battlefleet.

*

Pytheas, 20th May 2513 AD, (one month previous).

At almost the same moment Tanaka-lan’s battlefleet jumped into the Zeta Fort system, Pytheas stealthily exited shift space. All her passive sensors peered into the system. After nearly eight weeks of searching out and exploring new shift passages, Pytheas crew had finally found a way to one of the systems that had been gleaned from the captured Silizzarus data cores.

Edward glanced at Brooke. They both smiled. Their journey through unexplored space had seemed to drag on forever. The knowledge that millions of their people were likely fighting and dying to fend off the Karacknids made every day that they sat around Pytheas as nothing more than glorified passengers almost unbearable. But now they were here, about to be doing something valuable.

Mere seconds later, the smiles vanished from both intelligence officers’ faces. The holo display in front of them had updated to show what was in the inner system. Brooke let out a whistle. Edward’s eyebrows rose and his mouth opened. The system was ablaze with activity. Thousands of ships were moving back and forth between what looked to be at least two inhabited worlds. In all their discussion of what they might find at the first of the systems they had learned about from the Silizzarus ship’s data cores, an open and expansive civilization had been near the bottom of the list. The Silizzarus loved hiding in the shadows. Edward, Brooke, and Cortez, Pytheas Captain, had expected to have to meticulously search through every system they knew about, and likely explore many more, before they found signs of civilization.

As Edward studied the system more closely, he found another surprise. There was no sign of any military defenses or warships. A multitude of questions flowed through Edward’s mind. How could such a large civilization not have any defenses? Was this a Silizzarus system? Shouldn’t their worlds be more hidden if it was? Was this some other civilization? If so, did they even know the Silizzarus existed?

I guess there's only one way to find out, Edward said to himself. He looked over to Cortez and they both smiled at one another. “I guess there’s nothing else for it, keep us in stealth, but take us in. We better take a closer look,” Edward said.

“As you command, Commander,” Cortez said with a nod.

Edward then turned to Kantolo. “Let’s keep a keen eye out for any Silizzarus ships. I don’t want to get blindsided by one of them showing up and attacking us.”

“Of course, Commander,” the Kulrean sensor officer said, more than a little excitement filled her voice, despite how unusual it was for one of their species.

She’s exploring a system no one from her species has ever set foot in before, Edward reminded himself. She’s just as excited as the rest of us at the prospect of what we might find!

The End.

Dear Reader,

I hope you have enjoyed this continuation of the Empire Rising Series. The story of the Second Karacknid War will continue in the next book, ‘Empire’s End,’ which should be out around the 15th August 2024.

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