Exodus: Empires at War: Book 11: Day of Infamy (Exodus: Empires at War.)
Read Exodus: Empires at War: Book 11: Day of Infamy (Exodus: Empires at War.) Online
Authors: Doug Dandridge
Exodus: Empires at War
Book Eleven
Day of Infamy
by
Doug Dandridge
Dedication
This novel is dedicated to my loyal fans and
friends who stood by me, encouraged me, and showered me with good wishes while
I struggled with health problems. This book, produced during a trying
time, is for you. Thanks to all of you.
Contact me at
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more information on the Exodus Universe, visit
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for maps, sketches and other details of this work.
The
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many fans.
Books by Doug Dandridge
Doug Dandridge’s Author Page at Amazon
Science Fiction
The Exodus Series
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 1
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 2
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 3: The Rising Storm
.
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 4: the Long Fall.
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 5: Ranger
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 6: The Day of Battle
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 7: Counter Strike
:
Exodus: Empires at War Book 8: Soldiers
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 9: Second Front.
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 10: Search & Destroy.
Exodus: Tales of the Empire: Exploration Command
:
Exodus: Tales of the Empire: Beast of the Frontier.
Exodus: Machine Wars: Book 1: Supernova
.
Exodus: Machine Wars: Book 2: Bolthole.
The Deep Dark Well Series
Others
Fantasy
The Refuge Series
Doppelganger: A Novel of Refuge
Others
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Cast of Characters
The Capital
Emperor Sean Ogden Lee Romanov
: Emperor of New
Terran Empire.
Empress Jennifer Conway Romanov:
Sean’s Wife and
Physician.
Grand High Admiral Sondra McCullom: C
hief of Naval Operations.
Captain Xiun:
Sondra's aide.
Admiral Ekaterina Sergiov:
Chief of Imperial
Combined Intelligence Service.
Countess Esmeralda Zhee
: Member of the Lords’
Opposition Party.
Angel Sergio Martinez:
Former Naval Commando,
and now assassin known as The Angel of Death.
Tomas Gijardo:
Business Analyst and citizen living in
Capitulum.
Chief Warrant Officer Debra Wasserman:
Imperial Army fighter
pilot.
Nick Stumpfield:
Leader of the Temporal
Realignment Faction.
Admiral Hoshi Nakama:
Commander, Central
Docks.
Captain Victoria Crenshaw:
Duty Officer, Central
Docks.
The Fleet
Grand Fleet Admiral Duke Taelis Mgonda
: Admiral in
command of Hyper VII battle force.
Grand Fleet Admiral Gabriel Len Lenkowski:
Commander: Battle Fleet.
Commander Xavier Jackson:
Captive of the Ancients.
Admiral Mikas Silveski
: Imperial
Commander Second Front.
Vice Admiral Mashara Ignoa
: Gryphon Commander on
Second Front.
Admiral Mikal Kalashnikov:
Military Commander of the
Donut.
Captain Javier Chavez:
Imperial Fleet
Inertialess Fighter Wing Commander.
Vice Admiral Mei Lei:
Scout Force Commander.
Captain the Duke Maurice von Rittersdorf:
Commander, Scout Force
Destroyer Squadron.
Imperial Army
Cornelius Walborski
: The Count.
Ranger Lt. Colonel and three time holder of the Imperial Medal of Heroism.
Klavarta
President Manstara:
President, Nation of New
Earth.
Thallia Thrann:
Klavarta Underdirector of
Interspecies Relations.
Admiral Regis Larista
: Commander,
Klavarta Fleet.
Ngerita Olsaf
: Larista’s Chief of Staff.
Ca’cadasans
Jresstratta IV:
Supreme Emperor of the Ca’cadasan
Empire
Great Admiral Ljarritta’ran:
Ca’cadasan Admiral in
charge of New Terran Front.
Great Admiral Mgananawan K’lantariana
: Commander: Second Front
Doctor Ivan Smirnov
: New Moscow
Scientist, working on wormholes for the Ca’cadasans.
Tom Jasper:
Captain of the Ca’cadasan Infiltration
Ship
Laughing Troll.
Others
Devera Walborski:
Warrant Officer Medic and
the wife of Cornelius.
Rebecca Walborski:
Sean and Devera’s adopted
daughter.
Dr. Kenji Guatarrez:
Time Travel
Researcher.
Klorasof:
Ancient.
Prologue
“Everything is almost in
place, Supreme Lord,” reported the Supreme Admiral, the overall commander of
the Ca’cadasan fleet.
The Supreme Emperor of
the Ca’cadasan Empire Jresstratta IV looked at the trio of males on the holo,
trying to determine how they really felt about this plan through the normal
wooden expression of their kind. The Supreme Admiral seemed to be showing a
little excitement, while the other two were stone-faced. No, that wasn’t quite
true. The Great Admiral who had come up with the plan, the Chief of
Operations, appeared to be slightly nervous. Not surprising, since failure
would fall upon his head.
The Emperor looked at the
holo plot hanging in the air to his front. The locations of the two
infiltration ships were just within the space of the human Empire, transmitted
to the capital by the wormholes they carried. The other groups, many of them,
were still positioned on the Ca’cadasan side of the frontier, except for the
forces that had already snuck across.
“What of our human
pawns?” asked the Emperor.
“They know what they need
to know,” answered the Great Admiral who had formulated the plan. “They think
there is a chance that they might return from their mission, the fools. And
once they aid us in destroying the Empire of their own people? Then what need
for them?”
Then they will follow
their people into oblivion
, thought the Emperor. Not a just reward for the service
they would perform, but what had been decreed by the last Emperor, the current
Monarch’s father. And as unjust as he felt it to be, he saw no reason to
reverse it. His people believed without reservation that the human species
needed to be exterminated, and he felt no need to steal their well-deserved
revenge from them. It would be hard on the human species, but they had brought
it on themselves. The Emperor dismissed thoughts of justice and again focused
on the plot hanging in the air.
It’s a complicated plan
, thought the Emperor
with some trepidation. If it succeeded, the human Empire was sure to collapse,
and his fleet would roll over them. If it didn’t? Then he could lose a fleet,
but then again, he had plenty of ships to form other fleets.
It was an audacious plan,
something the Ca’cadasans didn’t excel at. The plan for the main battle was
something that most commanders of the past would recognize. With the exception
of the wormholes those forces would be carrying. Not enough for what the
Emperor wanted to do, but all he had at the moment. They couldn’t do what the
humans did with their thousands of portals. They didn’t have the weapons that
the humans fired through their wormholes, weapons that gave the enemy a great
advantage. But if used wisely they could still serve as a force multiplier,
and catch the humans off guard. And that was the audacious part of the plan,
not simply depending on the firepower of the massive fleet.
If the second part of the
plan worked they would take the advantages away from the humans. They would no
longer have their wonderful and terrible wormhole weapons, nor would they have
the ability to shift forces across their Empire like they had in the past.
That they would still have some wormhole gates was a given, but they would not
have the network they had built up over the war. They would find themselves
scrambling to work around the collapse of that network.
If the second part of the
plan worked, it really didn’t matter if the fleet won its battle. It would
probably be the last victory of the human fleet in this war. If it didn’t
work, it also might not matter if the fleet won its battle, but it would hasten
the end of the humans if it did.
“Proceed,” ordered the
Emperor, his teeth showing in a predatory smile. “Cut the head off the beast,
and give my people a victory. Give me a victory.”
* * *
“We still advise that we
wait until the Cacas launch another offensive, your Majesty,” said Grand High
Admiral Sondra McCullom, Chief of Naval Operations for the Imperial Fleet.
“I was always taught that
the offensive was the only way to win a war, Admiral,” replied the Emperor of
the New Terran Empire, Sean Ogden Lee Romanov, the first of his name.
“The defense still has
its advantages, your Majesty,” said the senior officer of the Fleet. “It’s
true that we will eventually have to take it to the enemy, but I would rather
wait until we have more of the technological advantages we are developing
before we start pushing our fleet into their space. If we can engage them in
some battles that play to our defensive advantages, we can whittle them down a
bit. But don’t worry. I think that in another year we can go on an offensive
that will eventually take us to their home world.”
“And then we can beat
them in what? A year? Five?”
Sondra smiled at the
naiveté of the Monarch, who, though extremely intelligent, was still very
young. He was a budding military genius, well read on all of the aspects of
warfare. But all of the wars that he had studied had been relatively short
lived affairs, from one to six years. An artifact of fighting either on the
surface of a planet, or across a relatively reasonable distance through space.
This would not be such a war.
“At least a decade, your
Majesty,” said the CNO.
“But, it’s only six
months travel time from our frontier to their capital.”
“And if there was no
resistance, we could go from our frontier to their capital in that time. Just
a nice hyper VII cruise. Unfortunately, we will have to fight our way through
an enormous fleet and hundreds of well-fortified systems. Sure, we can bypass
some of them, and the wormholes will take some of the pressure off of our
supply lines. But it would be foolhardy to thinks these beings are just going
to roll over and die once we start penetrating their space. And if we take
their capital? We still could have an enormous empire to conquer if they don’t
decide to surrender.”
“And I doubt they would,”
said Sean. “After all, there are a lot of species in this Galaxy that are
looking for payback. And they will try to avoid that at all costs.”
Sondra nodded. Something
she liked about this Emperor was the way he tried to look at the facts before
making his decisions.
“We have a long hard road
ahead of us. Thank God we have the tech advantages we have, and we will only
increase our lead. If we don’t jump into any frivolous offensives and waste
our forces, and if we hit them where they are weak, we will win this war. But
against an opponent so large, nothing is a given, and I advise caution.”
“Then that is what we
will do,” said Sean, nodding. “We will do as you and your planning staff think
best.”
As long as we are correct
, thought the CNO.
As
soon as we make a mistake, we’re fired, and someone else will take charge.
